50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION | 1972-2022
Polly Brennan
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BY TERRY CARELLA
THERE’S NO POINT IN HAVING DREAMS IF YOU’RE NOT GOING TO FULFILL THEM.” Pauline (Polly) Brennan was used to her husband, Tom — the late Michigan Supreme Court Justice Thomas E. Brennan Sr. — coming up with ideas — and plenty of them. Some were good, some not so good. “But some of his ideas were visionary,” she says, “And Cooley Law School was one of those.”
“He was always a dreamer. But he would also say that there’s no point in having dreams if you’re not going to fulfill them. And the school was a dream.” Some might say that Cooley Law School may never have been more than a dream had it not been for the woman Judge Brennan referred to as his “sainted wife, Polly.” Polly describes the time when the idea of starting a law school
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first began percolating in the judge’s head. “During the 1970s, competition for law school admission was fierce, a privilege for only the highest achieving, most elite students. I believe there were typically a dozen or more applicants clamoring for each law school seat,” Polly recalls. As a member of the Michigan Supreme Court, Polly says her husband received multiple calls and letters every week from people
