Bradley J. Charles

I teach Research & Writing, Advanced Writing, and Scholarly Writing.

Prior to joining Cooley, I dabbled in labor law and condominium law. Following that, I was honored to serve as a judicial attorney for the 21st Circuit Court in Isabella County, Michigan. Since then, I’ve maintained a steady pro-bono and low-fee practice.

In 2014, I taught American jurisprudence in five different law schools in Moldova. I also met with government and legal-community leaders to discuss improving Moldova’s legal system in conjunction with the American embassy in Moldova and the Leavitt Institute for International Development.

I frequently speak on issues relating to legal analysis and legal research and have published a book on legal reasoning, Applying Law. I’m a former board member and executive director of Scribes — The American Society of Legal Writers and now actively serve on its committees.

I led the Research & Writing department in creating www.ResearchTheLaw.com, an online, interactive course that teaches students how to research the law. Along with this, I created more than 30 instructional videos and hundreds of ways for students to learn this fundamental skill.

As a law student, I served on the Law Review as the Scholarly Writing Editor, won the Krasicky Award, and published an article on development exactions.

My undergraduate degree was in International Law with an emphasis in Russian Studies.

Articles (Law Reviews and Law Journals) 

• Nelson P. Miller & Bradley J. Charles, Meeting the Carnegie Report’s Challenge to Make Legal Analysis Explicit—Subsidiary Skills to the IRAC Framework, 59 J. Legal Educ. 192 (2009).
• Bradley J. Charles, Comment, Calling for a New Analytical Framework for Monetary Development Exactions: The "Substantial Excess Test," 22 T.M. Cooley L. Rev. 1 (2005).

Books and Chapters in Books

• Bradley Charles & Erika Breitfeld, Research the Law Advanced (Thomas M. Cooley Law School 2014).
• Bradley Charles, Research the Law (Thomas M. Cooley Law School 2011).
• Bradley J. Charles, Erika Breitfeld & Toree Randall, Reasoned Legal Research: Multi-Media Workbook and Thirty Instructional Videos, (Thomas M. Cooley Law School 2012).
• Bradley J. Charles, Applying Law (Carolina Academic Press 2011).
• Bradley J. Charles, Panel of Practitioner Contributors, Black's Law Dictionary, 9th ed. (2009).

Short Works

• Bradley J. Charles, ”Because I Said So” Is a Reason - But Not a Reasoning Technique,” The Law Teacher, Fall 2013 at 20.
• Bradley J. Charles, Scribes Cosponsors a Very Successful Lincoln Symposium, The Scrivener, Winter 2008 at 4.

Presentations

• 6/8/13 Applying the Law: Examples and Exercises that Bridge Legal Writing and Doctrine, Hybrid Law Teaching, Institute for Law Teaching and Learning. Washburn University School of Law
• 8/15/10 United States Supreme Court Reasoning, American University's Conference on Rhetoric, Washington D.C.
• 6/28/10 United States Supreme Court Reasoning, Biennial Conference: The Legal Writing Institute, Marco Island, FL
• 7/14/08 Inductive Generalizations, Biennial Conference: The Legal Writing Institute, Indianapolis IN
• 5/20/08 Document Authentication, Michigan Association of Law Libraries, Lansing, MI