The school enrolls about 600 students and in addition to the J.D. degree it also offers dual JD–MBA and several a dual J.D. and Masters combined degrees (including JD/MS, JD/MA, JD/M.Eng.). It also offers the only American Bar Association–approved, year-long, study-abroad program, which is based in London.[8]
History
Beginnings
Notre Dame Law School opened in February 1869. It was the second Catholic law school opened in the United States, and the oldest in continuous operation. The first was the Saint Louis University School of Law, which opened in 1843 but closed soon after in 1847 (it was then re-opened in 1908).[7] From the start, the Law School required law students to have completed previous education in a thorough course in the liberal arts. This was uncommon at the time when Law School applicants only had to be 18. The first “principal” of the law department and Professor of Law was Matthew F. Colovin. Other law faculty in the early years included Lucius Tong and Timothy Howard. The first class graduated in 1871 and consisted of three students.
The reading room of the Kresge Law Library, in Biolchini Hall
"Colonel" Hoynes era
The Arch connecting Eck (left) and Biolchini (right) Halls
In 1882, Rev. Walsh, then the president of the university, invited William J. Hoynes to take control of the Law School, which was in demise. Hoynes accepted Rev. Walsh's offer in 1883 and expanded the program from two to three years. and introduced a "Moot Court" for practical training. Under his tenure, enrollment in the law school grew.
Originally, law classes were held in the Main Building and Sorin Hall. As the program grew, the university repurposed and renovated the former Institute of Technology building as Hoynes Hall in 1916.[9] This became the Law School’s home until its eventual relocation. The building later served the Architecture Department, the Psychology Department, and, since 1976, the Music Department as Crowley Hall.
In 1921 Maxine Evelyn Ryer became the first woman to study law at Notre Dame and the first woman to practice law in St. Joseph County, Indiana. In 1925 John Whitman was appointed by Dean Thomas Konop as the first Law School librarian, and the collection grew to 7,000 volumes in 1944, as part of a campus beautification projects, statues by Eugene Kormendi were added to Hoynes Hall.[10]
20th century
On October 7, 1930, the Law School was transferred to the new building located on Notre Dame Avenue. The Gothic building, which still stands today, has a large reading room. The second librarian, Lora Lashbrook, and the third, Marie Lawrence, grew the library's collection to 20,000 volumes by 1952, and 55,000 volumes by 1960. The increase of both the library collection and student population reduced the available space. Regardless, this was balanced by the expansion of the law school funded by a donation from S. S. Kresge, the namesake of the Kresge Law Library. Under the guidance of Dean Lawless the school started one of the nation's first programs allowing law students to study abroad, with a year-long program in London to study the roots of common law.[11] In 1986 a further expansion added the East Reading Room and created the reference librarian offices. In 1990 alumnus John F. Sandner donated funding for the acquisition of the entire 120,000 volume collection of the Chicago Bar Association Library. In 1970, Graciela Olivarez became the first woman and Latina to graduate from Notre Dame Law School. The next class to graduate women would be 1973.
21st-century
New resources for scholarship
In 2004, the Kresge Law Library became one of the few academic law libraries to own more than 600,000 volumes. This was accomplished mainly under the tenure of the fifth law librarian, Roger Jacobs, who also served as head librarian of the Library of the United States Supreme Court. Between 2007 and 2008, a new building, the Eck Hall of Law, was constructed to provide the Law School with an additional 85,000 square feet of classroom and office space. In 2010 Robert Biolchini, alumnus and entrepreneur from Tulsa, Oklahoma, funded the renovation of the Kresge Law Library, located in the renamed Biolchini Hall of Law. The renovated Biolchini Hall is 106,500 square feet, has two 50-seat classrooms, a seminar room, 29 group study rooms, and holds 300,000 book volumes and more than 300,000 volumes in microfilm. The total cost of renovations and expansions was approximately 58 million dollars.
Faculty hiring momentum
In recent years, the expanding Notre Dame Law faculty has attracted several accomplished scholars from other top law schools. In 2009, University of Virginia Law School Professor Stephen Smith left a tenured position to join the Notre Dame Law faculty.[12] In 2012, Professor Barry Cushman, the James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law and Professor of History at the University of Virginia, joined the ND Law faculty.[13] In 2017, it was announced that private law theorist Paul Miller from McGill University would join the Notre Dame faculty. Samuel Bray, a remedies theorist previously teaching at UCLA law, joined the faculty in 2018. During the same period, long-time Notre Dame professors have been invited for visiting faculty positions at Harvard, the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago law schools.
Expanded urban presence in DC and Chicago
In 2013, new space was secured for the Notre Dame Law in Chicago program, which allows ND Law students to pursue their studies from an urban campus in downtown Chicago ("in the Loop").[14] In 2015, in partnership with Kirkland & Ellis, the law school debuted its Notre Dame Law in DC program, which allows students to spend a semester studying in Washington, DC.[15]
Admission to Notre Dame Law School is highly selective. For the class entering in the fall of 2023, the median LSAT score was 169 and the median undergraduate GPA was 3.83.[24]
For 2024, Notre Dame Law School is ranked 20th among the nation's 196 ABA accredited schools by U.S. News & World Report.[25] and 10th by Above The Law in their annual Top 50 Law School Rankings for 2023.[26]
Degrees
The law school grants the professional Juris Doctor, Master of Laws and Doctor of Juridical Science degrees. The Master of Laws program can be pursued either at the main campus in South Bend or at the Law School's London Law Centre in the United Kingdom. The law school also offers a Master of Science in Patent Law, Certificate in Patent Prosecution, and LL.M. in International Human Rights Law.
Job and clerkship placement
For the class of 2022, 191 out of 210 graduates (90%) secured full-time, long-term employment requiring passage of the bar exam within ten months of graduation.[27] The top 3 most popular destinations for graduates in the class of 2018 were Illinois (18.1%), New York (13.3%), and California (7.1%). Furthermore, 38.6% of graduates in the class of 2022 found employment at national law firms and 15.2% pursued federal clerkships.[28]
Costs
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Notre Dame Law School for the 2024-2025 academic year is $97,116.[29]
Facilities
Former main entrance to Notre Dame Law School; the new Eck Hall of Law opened in 2009.
Notre Dame Law School is located on the Notre Dame Campus and is housed in the Eck and Biochini Halls, two buildings connected by a suspended walkway.
Biolchini Hall was designed by architect Charles Donagh Maginnis in 1930 and serves as a prominent example of collegiate Gothic architecture. It was renovated in 2010 due to a gift from Robert Biolchini and renamed to its current name. The Kresge Law Library is located in Biochini Hall, while most of the classrooms are in Eck Hall. Funding for the law library was provided by businessman S.S. Kresge, the founder of what is now Sears Holding. In 2004, the Kresge Law Library became one of the few academic law libraries to own more than 600,000 volumes. This was accomplished mainly under the tenure of the fifth law librarian, Roger Jacobs, who also served as head librarian of the U.S. Supreme Court Library.
Eck Hall was built in 2010. The $57-million, 85,000-square-foot building was connected to the original building through a suspended walkway that constitutes a common area. Eck includes both classrooms and faculty and administrative offices, as well as space for student services and activities. In addition to a 205-seat moot courtroom, the Patrick F. McCartan Courtroom, there are four lecture halls, five seminar rooms, and three skills training rooms available for classes and events.[30] The construction of Eck and the connecting walkway to Biolchini also allowed for the creation of a new chapel dedicated to St. Thomas More. The building was named in honor of school graduate, benefactor, and advisor Frank E. Eck.[31]
The Law School also hosts a legal aid clinic in South Bend.[32]
Notable alumni
Notre Dame's alumni roster includes a range of distinguished jurists, advocates, politicians, and business leaders.
Kevin Warren – Big Ten commissioner, former CEO of the Minnesota Vikings and the highest-ranking African-American executive working on the business side for an NFL team
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