Faculty

Craig Cowie

Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Blewett Consumer Law & Protection Program

Contact

Office
Law 305
Phone
(406) 243-4416
Email
craig.cowie@mso.umt.edu

Personal Summary

Professor Cowie teaches courses in consumer law and litigation, including Consumer Law, Civil Procedure, and Pretrial Litigation. He also is the inaugural director of the Blewett Consumer Law & Protection Program. He serves on the board of the Montana Legal Services Association and acts as a faculty advisor for students in consumer law clinics.

Professor Cowie came to the faculty with almost twenty years of litigation experience. Most recently, Professor Cowie was an Assistant Litigation Deputy in the Office of Enforcement at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In that role, he supervised approximately one-eighth of the enforcement matters at the CFPB. He also led various special projects, including leading the General Counsel’s response to intense Congressional oversight. Prior to working at the CFPB, Professor Cowie was a partner in Jenner & Block’s Washington, D.C. office, where he served as lead or co-counsel in a variety of complex litigation matters in federal trial and appellate courts. He also worked for the ACLU’s National Prison Project bringing cases to protect prisoners’ rights, particularly those who had been sexually assaulted. Before entering private practice, Professor Cowie clerked for the Honorable Sidney R. Thomas of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

 

Education

Professor Cowie graduated Order of the Coif from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (BerkeleyLaw). He also received the Dragonette Award for Civil Litigation Trial Practice in addition to being the Co-Chair of the Appellate Advocacy Program, an advisor to the Moot Court Board, and the Books and Research Editor for the Ecology Law Quarterly. He earned an M.A. and was a Ph.D. candidate in cultural anthropology at the University of Michigan, and graduated summa cum laude with Honors in Mathematics and Computer Science from Bowling Green State University.

Courses Taught

Civil Procedure

Pretrial Litigation

Consumer Law

Publications and Select Presentations

Putting Money Back Into Consumers’ Pockets: An Empirical Study of the CFPB’s Civil Penalty Fund. University of Illinois Law Review (forthcoming 2021, Issue 4). Presented at the Consumer Law Scholars Conference on March 5, 2020, at BerkeleyLaw’s Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice.

Seila Law v. CFPB, No. 19-7, Brief for National Consumer Law Center et al. as amici curiae in support of amicus curiae Paul D. Clement, Esq.

Comments of Consumer Law Scholars on the CFPB’s Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Debt Collection Practices (Regulation F), Docket No. CFPB-2020-0010/RIN 3170-AA41 (Aug. 3, 2020)

Comments of Legal Academics and Former Consumer Protection Public Enforcement Attorneys, Docket No. OMB-2019-0006

Presentation of Keynote Speaker Richard Cordray, Consumer Clinic Conference, University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, MN, May 17, 2019.

“What’s Going On with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” Alexander Blewett III School of Law, Missoula, MT, Oct. 4, 2018.

“Government Regulation and the Freedom of Speech,” Montana Bar Association, Kalispell, MT, Sept. 20, 2018.

“Consumer Protection in a New Age,” Montana Trial Lawyers Association, Missoula, MT, July 19, 2018.

Courses Taught

 

 

 

 

Honors / Awards

Boone Faculty Scholarship Award, 2020