Dean Don LeDuc to retire from WMU-Cooley Law School

WMU-Cooley Law School announced July 31 that President and Dean Don LeDuc will  retire from that office, which he has held for 16 years.

The law school has chosen former Michigan 29th Circuit Court Judge and retired WMU-Cooley Associate Dean Jeffrey Martlew as interim president beginning in September.

LeDuc has been a WMU-Cooley professor since 1975 and served as dean 1982-1987 and 1996-present. He became the school’s president in 2002.

Martlew, a 1976 graduate of WMU-Cooley, is a former member of the WMU-Cooley board of directors. He retired as the founding associate dean of the law school’s Tampa Bay campus in 2016. He  first joined WMU-Cooley as an adjunct professor from 2005-2007, then was visiting professor until his appointment to the full-time faculty.  Beginning in 1993, he spent 14 years as judge of Michigan’s 29th Circuit Court serving Clinton and Gratiot counties. Martlew was named Chief Judge in 1994 and served in that capacity until 2007. Previously, he served as a 65th District Court judge for eight years in Clinton County. 

Martlew began his legal career in private practice, first as an associate in the Law Office of David C. Newland, P.C., in Mt. Morris, then at his own practice, Matson & Martlew, in DeWitt. While on the bench, he served as a faculty member of the Michigan Judicial Institute and was a member of the Michigan Judges Association Executive Board.

Initial planning is underway for selecting the law school’s permanent president and dean. The selection process will include an advisory committee constituted from the law school’s board, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and representatives of WMU.