Enrollment jumps nearly 40% at law school with campuses in Tampa, Michigan

Cooley Law School’s incoming class grew nearly 40% this fall, marking a rebound in enrollment at the school’s Tampa and Lansing, Michigan, campuses, officials say.

The private, nonprofit law school welcomed 271 new students during orientation in August, a 38% increase from its fall 2025 class. Of those students, 120 will attend Cooley’s Tampa campus, while 151 will study in Lansing.

Classes begin Sept. 8.

The new students come from 24 states, two U.S. territories and eight foreign countries, according to the school.

The increase is a significant step in Cooley’s efforts to rebuild its student population after years of enrollment declines and campus closures. Founded in Lansing in 1972, the school once operated five campuses and enrolled thousands of students. It now operates only in the Tampa area and Lansing.

Cooley opened its Florida campus in 2012, initially operating in Riverview. The school has since relocated the campus to Temple Terrace.

The law school reported 139 first-year students in 2024, according to its American Bar Association disclosure. Cooley says its fall 2025 class was its largest since 2018 and twice the size of the previous fall’s entering class. The latest enrollment announcement indicates that growth continued into 2026.

Cooley’s expansion comes after a period of scrutiny over its graduates’ bar-exam performance. The American Bar Association requires at least 75% of a law school’s graduates who take a bar exam to pass within two years of graduation.

The ABA placed Cooley on probation in 2025 after finding that the school had not demonstrated compliance with that standard. In 2024, however, Cooley returned to compliance after 76.2% of its graduates who took a bar exam passed within two years, the law school says.

Cooley remains fully accredited by the ABA and the Higher Learning Commission, according to the school. 

The school was affiliated with Western Michigan University for a decade and previously operated as Western Michigan University Cooley Law School. That relationship ended in November 2023, with each institution saying it wanted to focus on its own mission. 

Cooley has more than 21,000 graduates and offers classes year-round, the school says. Its stated mission emphasizes expanding access to legal education to a diverse pool of students.