| University of Chicago Law School | |
|---|---|
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| Parent school | University of Chicago |
| Established | 1902; 123 years ago (1902) |
| School type | Privatelaw school |
| Dean | Adam Chilton |
| Location | Chicago,Illinois,United States |
| Enrollment | 626 (2021)[1] |
| Faculty | 183 (2021)[1] |
| USNWR ranking | 3rd (2025)[2] |
| Bar pass rate | 97.9% (2020)[3] |
| Website | law |
| ABA profile | Standard 509 Report |
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TheUniversity of Chicago Law School is thelaw school of theUniversity of Chicago, aprivateresearch university inChicago, Illinois. It employs more than 180 full-time and part-time faculty and hosts more than 600 students in itsJuris Doctor program, while also offering the degree programs inMaster of Laws,Master of Studies in Law, andDoctor of Juridical Science.[1]
The law school was originally housed in Stuart Hall, a Gothic-style limestone building on the campus's main quadrangles. Since 1959, it has been housed in anEero Saarinen-designed building across theMidway Plaisance from the main campus of the University of Chicago. The building was expanded in 1987 and again in 1998. It was renovated in 2008, preserving most of Saarinen's original structure.
Members of the faculty have includedCass Sunstein,Richard Posner, andRichard Epstein, three of the most-cited legal scholars of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Other notable former faculty members include U.S. presidentBarack Obama andU.S. Supreme Court justicesAntonin Scalia,John Paul Stevens, andElena Kagan.
When the University of Chicago was founded in 1892, its presidentWilliam Rainey Harper expressed a desire to establish a law school for the university that would improve democratic government.[4] At the time, Harper observed that, "[t]hus far democracy seems to have found no way of making sure that the strongest men should be placed in control of the country's business."[5] Harper took advice from a number of his contemporaries. One such adviser, a professor at theUniversity of Cambridge, suggested that the object of the new law school should be to train students to become "leaders of the bar and ornaments of the bench, inspiring teachers, scientific writers and wise reformers" and emphasising public law and comparative law.[6] Another adviser, a member of theChicago bar, suggested thatHarvard Law School, led byChristopher Columbus Langdell and influenced by thecasebook method at the time, had "lost touch with great leaders among jurists and lawyers" and that the new law school in Chicago should focus on "social economics" or "principles of statesmanship" for lawyers.[6] Noted legal scholarErnst Freund suggested that the law school promote an interdisciplinary approach to legal education, offering elective courses in subjects such as history and political science.[7] Ultimately, Harper settled with the view that the study of law should not occur in a vacuum, and that it should take into account "the whole field of man as a social being".[6]
In 1901, Harper announced that the new law school would be established the following year. He requested assistance from the faculty of Harvard Law School, whose dean at the time,James Barr Ames, granted professorJoseph Henry Beale a two-year leave of absence to serve as the first dean of the law school in Chicago. He did so on the condition that Chicago "have ideals and methods similar to [those of] the Harvard Law School".[6] However, Ames objected to the proposed curriculum, which contemplated close affiliation with social science departments in the university and subjects that were not found in a traditional first-year law curriculum. He insisted that the faculty comprise "solely of persons who teach law in the strict sense of the word" and using the casebook method.[6] Harper agreed to these terms, and together with Beale assembled the faculty and designed the curriculum. Harper departed from the understanding he had reached with Ames and hired Freund to teach property law, and the law school's curriculum was influenced by Freund's interdisciplinary approach. The founding faculty members wereBlewett Harrison Lee andJulian Mack, who had both taught at thelaw school of Northwestern University;James Parker Hall, who had taught atStanford Law School and turned down an offer to teach at Harvard Law School; Clarke Butler Whittier, who had also taught at Stanford;Harry A. Bigelow, a notable scholar atBoston University who recognized limitations in the casebook method;[8] and Freund.[4]
On October 1, 1902, the law school opened for classes in the University Press Building (currently the Bookstore Building).John D. Rockefeller paid the $250,000 construction cost, and PresidentTheodore Roosevelt laid its cornerstone.[9] At the time of its opening, the law school consisted of 78 students (76 men and two women). It offered courses in contract law, torts, criminal law, property law, agency, and pleading, with electives in administrative law, corporations law, federal jurisdiction, Roman law, international law, and legal ethics.[6] The law school invented theJ.D. degree,[4] and was just one of five law schools in the U.S. that required a college degree from its applicants as a prerequisite to admission.[10] Its library, which was established in short order, housed some 18,000 volumes of law reports. In 1903, a year after the law school opened, enrollment at the law school grew rapidly as its student body increased to 126.Floyd R. Mechem, a professor at theUniversity of Michigan Law School and pioneer in empirical legal studies at the time, joined the faculty and remained at the law school for 25 years until his death in 1928.[11][6]
The law school prospered in its early years and fostered relationships with scholars in other fields, including economics, political science, psychology, and history.[6] It also developed ties with members of the Chicago bar, who served as part-time faculty members and taught legal procedure and other practical courses. The law school's academic standards were recognized as at least equal to those of Harvard.[4] In 1904, the law school moved to Stuart Hall on the main university campus. In the same year,Sophonisba Breckinridge became the first woman to graduate from the law school––a feat that had not yet been achieved atYale Law School,Columbia Law School or Harvard. In her autobiography, Breckinridge noted that "the fact that the law school, like the rest of the University ... accepted men and women students on equal terms was publicly settled".[13] The law school also established its first alumni association in this period.[14]
The law school faced considerable change in the years leading up toWorld War I and shortly thereafter. Beale returned to Harvard after his two-year leave of absence. In 1909, the eminent juristRoscoe Pound taught at the law school for a year.[4] The law school established a chapter of theOrder of the Coif in 1911 and theEdward W. Hinton Moot Court program in 1914. During World War I, enrollment declined: in Spring 1917, 241 students were enrolled; this number dropped to 46 by Fall 1918. In 1920,Earl B. Dickerson became the first African-American to graduate from the law school. The law school's Black Law Students Association is named in his honor.[15] Following the war, in 1926, enrollment reached 500 students for the first time. In 1927, the law school began to offer its first seminars. Its longest-serving dean,James Parker Hall, who played a significant role in recruiting numerous distinguished faculty members to the law school, died in office in 1928.[16]
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In the 1930s, new deanHarry A. Bigelow built on the interdisciplinary foundations laid by Freund and introduced classes in accounting, economics, and psychology. The law school's curriculum was shaped by the emerging influence of thelaw and economics movement.Aaron Director andHenry Simons began offering economics courses in 1933.[17] Faculty memberEdward Levi also introduced economics in the antitrust course, permitting Director to teach one of every five classroom sessions.[18] The first volume of theUniversity of Chicago Law Review was also published in 1933.[19] The law school established a legal writing program in 1938 and the Law and Economics Program in 1939. The LL.M. program was established in 1942, while Harry A. Bigelow Teaching Fellowships were established in 1947. As was the case during World War I, enrollment at the law school, like at many of the other top law schools in the country, declined and its academic calendar was adjusted to meet military needs.[20]
In the 1950s and 1960s, the law school experienced a period of profound growth and expansion under the leadership ofEdward Levi, who was appointed Dean in 1950. In 1951,Karl Llewellyn andSoia Mentschikoff joined the law school, the latter being the first woman on the faculty. Other notable scholars, widely regarded as institutional figures and leading thinkers in their respective areas,[21] wereWalter J. Blum andBernard D. Meltzer, who studied and taught at the law school for their entire academic careers. Between 1953 and 1955, Supreme Court justiceJohn Paul Stevens taught antitrust at the law school. In 1958, Director founded theJournal of Law and Economics. In 1959, the law school moved to its current building on 60th Street, designed byEero Saarinen. In 1960, constitutional law scholarPhilip Kurland founded theSupreme Court Review. Levi later served as the provost (1962–1968) and the president (1968–1975) of the University of Chicago, before becoming theUnited States Attorney General under presidentGerald Ford. During his time at the law school, Levi also supported theCommittee on Social Thought graduate program.[22]
By the 1970s and 1980s, the law and economics movement had attracted a series of scholars with strong connections to the social sciences, such asNobel laureatesRonald Coase andGary Becker and scholarsRichard A. Posner andWilliam M. Landes. In 1972, Posner founded theJournal of Legal Studies. The law school also established joint degree programs with the Committee on Public Policy Studies and the Department of Economics, complementingMax Rheinstein's Foreign Law Program, which was established in the 1950s with a bequest from theFord Foundation. The Legal History Program was established in 1981.[23] In 1982, theFederalist Society was established by a group of students at the law school, together with students fromHarvard Law School andYale Law School. In 1989, the D'Angelo Law Library exceeded 500,000 volumes.[14]
In the same period, many scholars who would later become leaders in their field joined the law school faculty at an early stage in their careers.Richard A. Epstein, identified in aLegal Affairs poll as one of the most influential legal thinkers of modern times,[24] joined the faculty in 1973 and continues to serve as emeritus professor and senior lecturer.Geoffrey R. Stone, a leadingFirst Amendment scholar and alumnus and former dean of the law school, joined the faculty in the same year.Douglas G. Baird, a luminary in bankruptcy law, has been on the faculty since 1980 and served as dean between 1994 and 1999.Cass Sunstein, regarded as "the most cited legal scholar in the United States and probably the world",[25] began his teaching career at the law school in 1981 and served as a faculty member for 27 years. FormerU.S. Supreme Court justiceAntonin Scalia served as a professor between 1977 and 1982.[26] His future colleague on the Supreme Court,Elena Kagan, began her career at the law school too, as did noted legal scholarsLawrence Lessig andAdrian Vermeule. The 44th President of the U.S.Barack Obama taught at the law school between 1992 and 2004 in the areas of constitutional law, racism and the law, and voting rights before he was elected to theU.S. Senate.[27]
The law school currently employs more than 200 full-time and part-time faculty members and enrolls approximately 600 students in itsJuris Doctor (J.D.) program.[28] It also offers advanced legal degrees such as theMaster of Laws (LL.M.) (or alternatively theM.C.L.), theMaster of Legal Studies (M.L.S.) and theDoctor of Jurisprudence (J.S.D.).[29] The J.D. degree may be combined with aMaster of Business Administration (M.B.A.) orDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) with theUniversity of Chicago Booth School of Business, aMaster of Arts (A.M.) in international relations, aMaster of Public Policy (M.P.P.) with theUniversity of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, or aMaster of Divinity (M.Div.) with theUniversity of Chicago Divinity School.[30]
The law school's professors use theSocratic Method to facilitate learning in lectures and seminars. This method includes calling on students without prior notice, presenting hypotheticals, and continuously questioning them to test their knowledge and application of the material and to flesh out underlying assumptions in their responses.[31] It is one of the few law schools in the United States that employs this mode of teaching, which is assisted by its low student-to-professor ratio.[32]
Clinics[edit]The law school offers sevenlegal clinics, in which students earn course credit while practicing law under the direction of the clinic's independent faculty:[33]
| Academic centers[edit]The law school has six research centers and projects. Each center hosts events, activities, and guest speakers throughout the academic year. They are as follows:[34]
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Policy initiatives[edit]The law school has five current and past policy initiatives:[40]
| Court Reform in the Juvenile Justice SystemInternational Best Standards for Guest Worker Programs (2015-2017)Bilateral Labor Agreements DatasetAnimal Law Policy Initiative (Concluded)Foster Care to Adulthood (2005-2008)Kanter Project on Mass Incarceration (2013) Programs[edit]
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The D'Angelo Law Library is part of theUniversity of Chicago Library system. Renovated in 2006, it features a second-story reading room. The Law Library is open 90 hours per week and employs 11 full-time librarians and 11 additional managers and staff members. It has study space for approximately 500 people, a wireless network and 26 networked computers. It contains over 700,000 volumes of books, with approximately 6,000 added each year, including materials in over 25 languages, and primary law from foreign countries and international organizations.[45]
In 2021, the law school enrolled 175 students from an applicant pool of 6,514. Overall, the acceptance rate was 11.91%[1] For the entering class of 2024, the 25th and 75thLSAT percentiles were 169 and 175, respectively, with a median of 172. The 25th and 75th undergraduateGPA percentiles were 3.82 and 3.98, respectively, with a median of 3.91.[1]
In 2020, the law school reported that it had received approximately 1,000 applications for 80 positions.[46]
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees and living expenses) at the law school for the 2017–18 academic year was $93,414.[47]
The law school employs a grading system that places students on a scale of 155–186. The scale was 55–86 prior to 2003, but since then the law school has used a prefix of "1" to eliminate confusion with the traditional 100 pointgrading scale. For classes of more than 10 students, professors are required to set the median grade at 177, with the number of grades above 180 approximately equaling the number of grades below a 173.[48]
In an article published inThe New York Times in 2010, business writerCatherine Rampell criticized other schools' problems with grade inflation, but commended Chicago's system, saying that Chicago "has managed to maintain the integrity of its grades."[49]
Students graduate "with honors" by attaining a final average of 179, "with high honors" upon attaining a final average of 180.5, and "with highest honors" upon attaining a final average of 182. The last of these achievements is rare; typically only one student every few years will attain the requisite 182 average. Additionally, the law school awards two honors at graduation that are based on class rank. Of the students who earned at the law school at least 79 of the 105 credits required to graduate, the top 10% are elected to theOrder of the Coif.[50] Students finishing their first or second years in the top 5% of their class, or graduating in the top 10%, are honored as "Kirkland and Ellis Scholars."[50]
The law school produces seven professional journals.
Four of those journals are student-run:
The other three are overseen by faculty:
The law school produces several series of academic papers, including the Kreisman Working Papers Series in Housing Law and Policy, the Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics, the Fulton Lectures, and the Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers, in addition to a series of occasional papers.[55]
There are approximately 60 student-run groups at the law school which fall under the umbrella of the Law Students Association.[56] It is home to one of the three founding chapters of theFederalist Society. As a professor, former Supreme Court justiceAntonin Scalia helped to organize the Chicago chapter of the society.[26] Chicago is also home to a large chapter of the progressiveAmerican Constitution Society for Law and Policy.[57]
In 2018, the law school was ranked first in the U.S. for overall employment outcomes by theNational Law Journal[58] and second in the U.S. for best career prospects byForbes.[59] According to the law school's official 2020ABA-required disclosures, 98.5% of the Class of 2019 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment within ten months of graduation.[47] The median salary for its graduates in the Class of 2019 was $190,000, and 75% of graduates earned starting salaries of $190,000 or greater upon graduation.[47] For the same cohort, 50.2% of graduates secured positions at law firms with more than 500 lawyers.[47] The law school is ranked first in the U.S. by theNational Law Journal for placing the highest percentage of recent graduates in law firms of 100 or more lawyers.[60] It also had the highest first-time Bar pass rate (98.9%) of all law schools in the United States.[47]
In 2023, University of Chicago Law School alumni comprised the third-highest percentage of recent graduates clerking for federal judges, afterStanford Law School andYale Law School.[61] Data compiled from the previous 12 years by Brad Hillis in 2017 indicates that the law school has the third-highest gross and third-highest per capita placement of alumni inSupreme Court of the United States clerkships among all law schools since 1882.[62] Between 1992 and 2017, it placed 88 alumni inSupreme Court of the United States clerkships. During the 2021-2022 Term alone, nine different Chicago alumni clerked for nine different justices on theSupreme Court of the United States.[63] In the Class of 2019, 27.6% of its graduates secured clerkships (with 87.3% of those graduates in federal clerkships).[47]
The law school is included in theT14, a classification of consistently high ranking U.S. law schools. Recent rankings include:
The law school was originally housed in Stuart Hall, a Gothic-style limestone building on the campus's main quadrangles. Needing more library and student space, the law school moved across theMidway Plaisance to its current,Eero Saarinen-designed building (next to what was then the headquarters of theAmerican Bar Association) in October 1959. The building contains classrooms, the D'Angelo Law Library, faculty offices, and an auditorium and courtroom, arranged in a quadrangle around a fountain (mimicking the college Gothic architecture of the campus's main quadrangles). The year saw a number of celebrations of the law school's new home, including a filming ofThe Today Show and appearances by Chief JusticeEarl Warren, Governor (and later Vice President)Nelson Rockefeller and Secretary-General of the United NationsDag Hammarskjöld.[73]
In 1987, and over the objections of the Saarinen family, the building was expanded to add office and library space (and the library renamed in honor of alumnus Dino D'Angelo). In 1998, a dedicated space for the law school's clinics, the Arthur Kane Center for Clinical Legal Education, as well as numerous additional classrooms, were constructed.[73] Renovation of the library, classrooms, offices, and fountain was completed in 2008, notable for the preservation of most of Saarinen's structure at a time when many modernist buildings faced demolition.[74][75]
The law school's faculty has included the44thU.S. PresidentBarack Obama,Supreme Court justicesAntonin Scalia,John Paul Stevens andElena Kagan, leaders of thelegal realism movementKarl Llewellyn andHerman Oliphant,tax law doyenWalter J. Blum, leading constitutional law scholarsHarry Kalven andMichael W. McConnell, founder of thelaw and literature movementJames Boyd White, and one of the most widely-cited legal scholars in the world,Cass Sunstein. Its current faculty includesKyoto Prize winnerMartha Nussbaum, distinguished legal philosopherBrian Leiter,First Amendment scholarGeoffrey R. Stone, federal appellate judgesFrank H. Easterbrook andDiane P. Wood, bankruptcy expertDouglas Baird, prominent legal historianRichard H. Helmholz, and among the most widely-cited legal scholars of the 20th and 21st centuriesRichard A. Posner,Richard A. Epstein andEric Posner.[76][77][78]
The law school has produced many distinguished alumni in the judiciary, government and politics, academia, business, and other fields. Its alumni include heads of state and politicians around the world, theLord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the President of theSupreme Court of Israel, judges ofUnited States Courts of Appeals, several U.S.Attorneys General andSolicitors General, members ofCongress andcabinet officials,Privy Counsellors, universitypresidents and facultydeans, founders of the law firmsKirkland & Ellis,Baker McKenzie, andJenner & Block, CEOs and chairpersons of multinational corporations, and contributors to literature, journalism, and the arts. The law school counts among its alumni recipients of thePresidential Medal of Freedom,Fulbright Scholars,Rhodes Scholars,Marshall Scholars,Commonwealth Fellows,National Humanities Medallists, andPulitzer Prize winners.
In the judiciary, notable alumni includeLord Thomas, who served asLord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2013 to 2017, and former President of theSupreme Court of Israel,Shimon Agranat.Federal appellate judges who graduated from the law school includeDouglas H. Ginsburg,David S. Tatel,Michael W. McConnell andRobert Bork, who wasunsuccessfully nominated to theU.S. Supreme Court. Other federal appellate judges includeAbner Mikva, who later served asWhite House Counsel in theClinton administration;Frank H. Easterbrook, who currently teaches at the law school; andJerome Frank, who served asChairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and, together with fellow alumnusHerman Oliphant, played a leading role in thelegal realism movement in the U.S. More recently confirmed alumni federal appellate judges includeAnthony Johnstone,Eric E. Murphy,Neomi Rao,Beth Robinson,Eric D. Miller, andAllison H. Eid.
Notable alumni in government and politics includeAttorneys GeneralJohn Ashcroft,Ramsey Clark andEdward H. Levi, who was Dean of the law school from 1950 to 1962. The lastSolicitor General of the United States,Noel Francisco, graduated from the law school in 1996. Other graduates include the formerPrime Minister of New Zealand,Geoffrey Palmer; prosecutor at theNuremberg trials and drafter of theU.N. Charter,Bernard D. Meltzer; formerFBI director,James Comey; formerUnited States Secretary of the Interior and key figure in the implementation of theNew Deal,Harold L. Ickes; formerSecretary of Health, Education, and Welfare,Abraham Ribicoff; the first director of theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau,Richard Cordray; currentWhite House CounselEd Siskel; currentCDC officialNirav D. Shah; currentU.S. senatorAmy Klobuchar, andU.S. Representative andUnited States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack Vice-ChairLiz Cheney, among other members ofCongress.
Alumni who are leaders in higher education include the current president ofPrinceton University,Christopher L. Eisgruber; the current Dean of theUniversity of Texas School of Law,Ward Farnsworth; the former Dean ofStanford Law School and President of theLondon School of Economics,Larry Kramer; the co-chair of theCOVID-19 Advisory Board, head ofOperation Warp Speed, and former Dean of theYale School of Medicine,David A. Kessler; the former Dean ofCornell Law School,Roger C. Cramton; and the former Dean ofVanderbilt University Law School,Tulane University Law School andCornell Law School,William Ray Forrester. Scholars who graduated from the law school includeHarvard Law School professorMary Ann Glendon, who is a formerU.S. ambassador to the Holy See;First Amendment scholarGeoffrey R. Stone;tax law doyenWalter J. Blum; and one of the pre-eminent constitutional law scholars of the 20th century,Harry Kalven.[79]
In business, notable alumni include the billionaire and founder of theCarlyle Group,David Rubenstein; the former CEO and president ofBloomberg L.P. and the current CEO ofSidewalk Labs,Daniel L. Doctoroff; the executive chairman ofHyatt Hotels Corporation,Thomas Pritzker; the chairman and president ofCompass Lexecon and an emeritus professor at the law school,Daniel Fischel; former president ofWeyerhaeuser and ofBoy Scouts of America,Norton Clapp; the current commissioner of theNBA,Adam Silver; the founder ofYammer,David O. Sacks; andKatherine L. Adams, the general counsel ofApple Inc.. In the field ofnon-governmental organizations, alumni include the founder and CEO of theInternational Justice Mission,Gary Haugen; and co-founder ofAmnesty International,Luis Kutner.
The law school also counts among its alumni four recipients of thePresidential Medal of Freedom; twoPulitzer Prize winners; the first female African-AmericanU.S. senator,Carol Moseley Braun; the first African-American to serve as a United States federal judge,James Benton Parsons; civil rights attorney and chairman of theFair Employment Practices Committee,Earl B. Dickerson; the first female president of theAmerican Law Institute and of theAmerican Bar Association,Roberta Cooper Ramo;Pulitzer Prize-winnerStuds Terkel; civil rights activist and the first woman to graduate from the law school,Sophonisba Breckinridge; and the founder of theintelligent design movement,Phillip E. Johnson.
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