MILAWYERSWEEKLY.
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VOLUME 34 NUMBER 29 Part of the
A sidebar with …
Otto Stockmeyer
Otto Stockmeyer, West-
ern Michigan University
Cooley Law School distin-
guished professor emeri-
tus, received the 2020
Cohn Prize for Law and
Public Policy from the
Michigan Academy of Sci-
ence, Arts & Letters for his
work titled “Three Faces
of Restitution.” The Cohn
Prize, named after Judge
Avern Cohn for his patron-
age of legal scholarship and the academy, recognizes the
best scholarly paper on law or public policy.
Stockmeyer, a prolific writer, shared with Michigan Law-
yers Weekly his top writing tips, and how his favorite ar-
ticle tells the story behind one of Michigan’s most famous
cases involving a pregnant cow.
You received the 2020 Cohn Prize for Law and Pub-
lic Policy from the Michigan Academy of Science,
Arts & Letters for “Three Faces of Restitution.” Can
you share what the piece is about?
Restitution was once a mainstay of the first-year law
school curriculum but has become sorely neglected. Today
it makes only a brief guest appearance in Contracts and
may be folded into a Remedies course (which is usually
an elective, if offered at all). Judge Cohn shared with me
recently that Restitution was his hardest course in law
school. But that was 1949.
My goal was to explain Restitution by using leading
cases to illustrate its three major components: as an al-
ternative Tort remedy, as an alternative Contract reme-
dy, and as an independent cause of action. Shortly after I
wrote the paper, the Michigan Supreme Court released a
path-breaking new case confirming Restitution’s place as
a freestanding source of recovery for unjust enrichment —
Wright v. Genesee County (2019).
You’re an accomplished author. What’s your favor-
ite piece of writing?
My favorite is an article I wrote for the Cooley Law Re-
view in 2007 on the story behind one of Michigan’s most fa-
mous cases, Sherwood v. Walker, the “pregnant cow” case.
I used it with PowerPoint slides to address the 2009 an-
nual meeting of the Michigan Supreme Court Historical
Society. And the journal Green Bag selected the article for
Reprinted with permission from Michigan Lawyers Weekly, Inc., 900 West University Drive, Suite J, Rochester, MI 48307, (248) 865.3112 © 2020
network MAY 18, 2020
inclusion in an anthology of exemplary legal writing.
What writing tips do you have for lawyers and law
students?
First, get over your reticence and any feeling of inad-
equacy. Sure, there are people who know more about your
topic than you do or ever will. The point of the exercise is
to be a writer, not to be the foremost authority.
Second, start now! Don’t wait for inspiration to hit or
for your research to be complete. Getting your thoughts
on paper — or the screen — will generate further ideas
and research leads. Large undertakings should be outlined
first, but feel free to modify it as your work unfolds.
Third, if you are writing for publication, study back is-
sues of the periodical to get a feel for the types of articles
published — their length, depth, and so forth. Then adhere
strictly to their manuscript instructions. Make your sub-
mission “publication ready” in every respect. As a former
editor of a couple legal publications, I know that can make
the difference.
You’ve been retired from teaching for a few years
now, but you’re still involved with the law school
and its students. What are you doing to help law stu-
dents succeed?
Even before the coronavirus, my involvement has been
at a distance, through blogging. Using WMU-Cooley Law
School’s blog, and other hosts, I have been posting tips on
law school success, writing and speaking skills, the bar
exam, and more.
One current effort is encouraging adoption of the Uni-
form Bar Exam. It would be a great boon to Michigan law
students that do not have a job lined up by graduation. It
would allow them to transfer their Michigan score to their
choice of 36 UBE jurisdictions.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever got-
ten?
My mother was a disciple of William James. She drilled
into us his law of habit formation: Start now and never let
a single exception occur. It works.
Tell us something your colleagues might not know
about you.
Given my “urbane countenance,” I’m pretty sure they
don’t know that I was raised on a farm and once main-
tained one of the largest goat herds in western Wayne
County.
— Kelly Caplan