Federal Court Dismisses Former Cooley Law Student's Suit Over Being Kicked Out of School
After being accused of changing an exam answer during an appeal of his grade, a student at Thomas M. Cooley Law School refused to accept a one-term suspension.
Amit Ghoshal’s internal appeal resulted in a three-member review board’s determination that he had violated the school’s honor code and a recommendation that he be dismissed, which a school appeals panel upheld. He then filed suit in federal court in Michigan, contending that the school had prevented him from transferring to another law school by falsely accused him of cheating, the National Law Journal reported.
Now that suit has been dismissed, based on a magistrate’s finding that the school had followed a multilevel review process and taken action that was neither arbitrary nor capricious, the article explains.
The school’s general counsel, James Thelen, says Cooley is pleased with the dismissal and hasn’t yet decided whether to try to pursue a counterclaim for $16,551 in unpaid tuition that was also nixed. He says the dismissal of the counterclaim was because of a lack of federal subject-matter jurisdiction, once Ghoshal’s case was dismissed, rather than on the merits.
Ghoshal could not be reached for comment.
