US law school faces defamation counter-suit

A lawyer acting in a suit against US universities over fraud allegations has countersued the country's biggest law school for defamation, it emerged over the weekend.

Lansing: home to Cooley Law School

Michigan’s Cooley Law School has been hit by a libel action brought by a lawyer who the school itself filed a defamation case against last year.

Internet posting

The National Law Journal reports that Jeff Kurzon -- an original member of the trio of lawyers behind a series of fraud class actions targeting law schools across the country – is seeking $74,000 in damages following Cooley’s claim against him and former partners Jesse Strauss and David Anziska.
Cooley claimed that the three lawyers defamed the school in Internet postings seeking plaintiffs for a class action they eventually would file against the school. Mr Kurzon's countersuit claims that public statements made by Cooley president Don LeDuc regarding the school's defamation suit in turn defamed him.
‘I feel like they damaged [the law firm’s] reputation, for sure,’ Mr Kurzon said. ‘Cooley is the largest law school in the country, and they somehow feel threatened by a few lawyers in New York. It seems strange.’

Too many lawyers

Cooley general counsel James Thelen said the school had not yet been served with the suit and could not comment on it.
The defamation suit will not be the first in which Cooley has been involved over recent months. In April the school said it had filed defamation actions against graduates who had claimed US law schools produce too many lawyers.

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