William & Mary Law School, formally theMarshall-Wythe School of Law, is thelaw school of theCollege of William & Mary, apublicresearch university inWilliamsburg, Virginia. It is the oldest extant law school in the United States, having been founded in 1779 at the urging of William & Mary alumnusThomas Jefferson.[a][3][4] As of 2023, it has an enrollment of 606 full-time students seeking aJuris Doctor (J.D.) or aMaster of Laws (LL.M.) in the American legal system, a two or three semester program for lawyers trained outside the United States.[1]
Before filling the chair of law at William & Mary, Wythe tutored numerous students in the subject, includingThomas Jefferson andJames Monroe.John Marshall, who becameChief Justice of the United States in 1801, received his only formal legal education when he attended Wythe's lectures at William & Mary in 1780.St. George Tucker, who succeeded Wythe as Professor of Law and edited the seminal early American edition ofBlackstone's Commentaries, also was one of Wythe's students.
The growth of the school was halted abruptly by the beginning of theAmerican Civil War. The start of military campaigns on the Virginia Peninsula compelled William & Mary to close its doors. It would be another sixty years before the historical priority in law could be revived in a modern program that is now nearly ninety years old.
After William & Mary Law School was reopened early in 1921, it was moved around themain campus of the university to several different buildings in succession. In 1980, the school was moved to its current location on the outskirts ofColonial Williamsburg, a short distance from the main campus. The building has been renovated several times since 1980, with the addition of a new wing of classrooms and renovation of older classrooms in 2000, the opening of theHenry C. Wolf Law Library, the construction of a new admission suite, and the addition of the James A. and Robin L. Hixon Center for Experiential Learning and Leadership (dedicated in 2017).
A. Benjamin Spencer, a nationally renowned civil procedure and federal courts expert and former professor of law at theUniversity of Virginia, is the current dean and Chancellor Professor at William & Mary Law School. Named on July 1, 2020, he is William & Mary's first African-American dean of any school at the university, including the law school.[5]W. Taylor Reveley III, formerly managing partner of the law firm ofHunton & Williams, is a former dean of the law school. Reveley left the law school to become the 27th president ofWilliam & Mary (serving from 2008 to 2018). Davison M. Douglas was dean of the law school from 2009 until 2020. The former chancellor of William & Mary,Sandra Day O'Connor, delivered commencement remarks to the graduating class of the school in 2006, 2008 and 2010.[6]
In 2025, William & Mary Law tied for 31st in theU.S. News & World Report rankings.[8] In 2024, W&M law tied for 36th place.[2] It had been ranked tied for the 30th place in its 2023 rankings.[9]
According to William & Mary's official 2022 ABA-required disclosures, 92% of the Class of 2022 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD-advantaged, non-school funded employment nine months after graduation.[10] William & Mary's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 10%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2018 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation, with 0% of the class in school-funded jobs.[11]
In 2019, William & Mary Law School ranked 11th among all U.S. law schools in percentage of graduates that secured full-time, long-term federal judicial clerkships.[12]
William & Mary Law School offers institutes and programs such as the Center for Racial & Social Justice, the Coastal Policy Center, the Center for Comparative Legal Studies and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding, the Center for Legal and Court Technology, the Center for the Study of Law and Markets, the Dunn Civil Liberties Project, the Election Law Program, the Human Security Law Center, the Institute of Bill of Rights Law, and the Property Rights Project.
The annual Supreme Court Preview of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law brings journalists and academics together each fall for an analysis of key cases on the Court's docket for the new term.
William & Mary Law School has several Clinics for students to work under the supervision of attorneys, ranging in areas of practice. The Clinics offered include the Appellate and Supreme Court Clinic, Domestic Violence Clinic, Elder Law and Disability Clinic, Federal Tax Clinic, Immigration Clinic, Innocence Project Clinic, Lewis J. Puller Veterans' Benefits Clinic, and Special Education Advocacy Clinic.[13] The Lewis B. Puller, Jr. Veteran's Benefits Clinic provides students (under the supervision of staff attorneys) with the opportunity to ensure that veterans receive the benefits which they are entitled to as a matter of law and service.
Journals include theWilliam & Mary Law Review, theBill of Rights Journal,William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review,William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice, theWilliam & Mary Business Law Review, and theBrigham–Kanner Property Rights Journal.
The school's McGlothlin Courtroom is home to the Center for Legal and Court Technology, a joint program of the School and the National Center for State Courts. The mission of the project is to use technology to improve the administration of justice and the legal systems of the world.
Created in 2005 as a joint venture of the National Center for State Courts and the Law School, the Election Law Program was intended to provide practical assistance to state court judges in the United States who are called upon to resolve difficult election law disputes. It has since been expanded to include a student Election Law Society.
The George Wythe Society of Citizen Lawyers is a civic leadership program, formed in the fall of 2005, to recognize and encourage community service and civic participation by members of the student body.
The Human Rights and National Security Law Program focuses on the interplay between national defense and the protection of civil rights. The Program's Distinguished Lecture Series and co-sponsored symposia bring experts to campus each semester to foster discussion and debate about on-going and emerging issues.
The Center for the Study of Law and Markets seeks to advance the understanding of the role of legal institutions in promoting well-functioning markets in a free society.
The Center for Comparative Legal Studies and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding bridges the gap between resources available at academic institutions and the need for them in the field by rule of law actors engaged in post-conflict reconstruction efforts. The Center serves as a focal point for the law school's international and comparative legal and policy research and programming and sponsors summer international internships in developing and post-conflict countries around the world.[14]
The Institute of Bill of Rights Law engages in study of the Bill of Rights and sponsors a variety of lectures, conferences, and publications to examine Constitutional issues, including the annual Supreme Court Preview.[15]
The William & Mary Property Rights Project encourages scholarly study of the role that property rights play in society. The Project's annualBrigham–Kanner Property Rights Conference explores recent developments in areas such as takings litigation and takings law.
Tuition at William & Mary for the 2023-24 academic year is $36,418 for Virginia residents and $58,604 for non-residents.[16] Approximately 97% of students received financial aid (2022).Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years, based on data from the 2022-2023 academic year, is $179,472 for residents; the estimated cost for non-residents is $232,692.[17]
William H. Cabell (Law 1793), received first baccalaureate in law granted in America, governor of Virginia (1805–1808), justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia (1811–1851)[20]
Haldane Robert Mayer (Law 1971), judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (1987–present; chief judge of the Federal Circuit, 1997–2004)[25]
LeRoy Francis Millette, Jr. (William & Mary 1971, Law 1974), justice Supreme Court of Virginia (2009–present )
Jason Miyares (Law 2005), Attorney General of Virginia; former member of Virginia House of Delegates.[26]
Rebecca Beach Smith, (William & Mary 1971, Law 1979), Chief District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (2011–2018)
Henry St. George Tucker (William & Mary 1798, Law 1801), professor of law at William & Mary (1801–1804), justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia (1824–1831), remembered for editing the American edition of Blackstone'sCommentaries.[30]
This sectionis missing information about the dates when faculty where at the law school . Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on thetalk page.(October 2025)
