Marshall-Wythe School of Law

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William & Mary Law School


Established	1779
Type	Public University
Postgraduates	600
Location	Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
Dean	W. Taylor Reveley III
Website	www.wm.edu/law

The Marshall-Wythe School of Law, more commonly known as William & Mary Law School (W&M Law), located in Williamsburg, Virginia, is a top-tier law school in the United States. It is a part of the College of William & Mary, the second-oldest college in the United States after Harvard University. William & Mary Law School maintains an enrollment of roughly 600 juris doctor degree seeking students.

As a public university, William and Mary charges relatively low tuition, and has generally been listed in the top 40 in the nation in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of American Law Schools; it was ranked ^#31 in the 2008 ranking (in a three-way tie with the law schools of Ohio State University, and University of Wisconsin-Madison). W&M Law School is the tenth highest-ranked public university law program on the U.S. News & World Report survey. The Law School's Dean is W. Taylor Reveley III, former managing partner of Hunton & Williams.

The College's chancellor, Sandra Day O'Connor, delivered commencement remarks to the Law School's Class of 2006. [1]

1 History
2 Programs
3 Notable W&M Law Alumni
4 Prominent Faculty Members
5 Law Journals
- 5.1 External links

[edit] History

The law school was founded in 1779 by order of then-governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, during his reorganization of the College of William and Mary. At Mr. Jefferson's urging the College's Board of Visitors established a Chair of Law that was filled by George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and member of the Virginia Supreme Court. (In the English-speaking world, the only older law professorship is the Chair at Oxford University which was first filled by William Blackstone.)

Prior to filling the Chair of Law at William & Mary, Wythe's notable students included Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. John Marshall, who later became Chief Justice of the United States in 1801, attended law classes at the College briefly in 1780. St. George Tucker, who succeeded Wythe as Professor of Law at William and Mary, and edited the seminal early American edition of Blackstone's Commentaries, was a student of Wythe's during Wythe's professorship at William & Mary.

The growth of the Law School at William & Mary was abruptly halted by the beginning of the American Civil War. The commencement of military campaigns on the Virginia Peninsula compelled the College to close its doors. It would be another 60 years before the historical priority in law could be revived in a modern program that is now more than 70 years old.

When the Law School at the College of William and Mary reopened in the 20th century, it moved around the main campus to several building locations. In 1979, Marshall-Wythe School of Law finally moved to its own home a short distance from the main campus, on the outskirts of Colonial Williamsburg. The Law School has undergone a few renovations since 1979, including the addition of a new wing of classrooms and renovation of older classrooms in 2000, and the soon to be completed Henry C. Wolf Law Library. The completed law library will nearly double the size of the former law library, increase the space for collections, and be one of the most advanced law libraries on law school campuses in the United States, assisting students and faculty in study and research. The McGlothlin Moot Courtroom is the most technologically advanced courtroom in the world.

[edit] Programs

The school offers programs such as the Institute of Bill of Rights Law, the newly established Election Law Program, and a widely-emulated and ABA-award winning Legal Skills curriculum for first and second-year students.

The annual Institute of Bill of Rights Law's Supreme Court Preview brings together court-watching journalists and academics for a lively analysis of key cases on the Court's docket for the new term. The Preview provides in-depth education for journalists on the underlying constitutional issues involved in the cases.

The William & Mary Law Review is among the top law reviews in the United States consistently ranking in the top 20 in circulation of law reviews, regularly receiving submissions from many of the top American legal minds. The law review is made up of about 75 students, half of whom graded on by being in the top 10% of their law school class, with the other half writing on through a write-on competition at the end of spring semester each year.

The Law School's McGlothlin Courtroom is home to the prize-winning Center for Legal and Court Technology, a joint program of the Law School and the National Center for State Courts. The Project's mission is to improve through appropriate technology the administration of justice and the world's legal systems.

Created in 2005 as a joint venture of the National Center for State Courts and the Law School, the Election Law Program seeks to provide practical assistance to state court judges in the United States who are called upon to resolve difficult election law disputes.

The George Wythe Society of Citizen Lawyers is a civic leadership program, formed in the fall of 2005, which will 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 leading experts to campus each semester to foster discussion and debate about on-going and emerging issues.

The Institute of Bill of Rights Law is one of the preeminent institutions in the country engaged in study of the Bill of Rights and sponsors a variety of lectures, conferences and publications that entice scholars from around the country to examine important constitutional issues.

The William & Mary Property Rights Project encourages legal scholarship on the role that property rights play in society. The Project's annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference explores recent developments in areas such as takings litigation and takings law.

Devoted to the study of law as a therapeutic agent, the Therapeutic Jurisprudence Program focuses on improving the administration of justice so that it has a positive effect on individuals, their families and the community.

[edit] Notable W&M Law Alumni

John Brownlee, (Law 1994), U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia
Eric Cantor, (Law 1988), U.S. House of Representatives, Virginia (2001-present)
Henry Clay, law student of Professor George Wythe; U.S. Secretary of State (1825-1829); U.S. Senator; U.S. House of Representatives, Kentucky
Thomas Jefferson, (Class of 1762, LL.D 1783), law student of Professor George Wythe; author of the Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia
Jerry W. Kilgore, (Law 1986), Attorney General of Virginia (2001-2005)
John Marshall, law student of Professor George Wythe; fourth Chief Justice of the United States
Haldane Robert Mayer, (Law 1971), Judge of U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit, Washington, D.C. (1987-present), Chief Judge from 1997 to 2004
James Murray Mason, (Law 1820), Member, U.S. House of Representatives ((1837-1839); United States Senator from Virginia (1847-1861)
James Monroe, (Class of 1776), law student of Professor George Wythe; fifth President of the United States, architect of the Monroe Doctrine
Robert E. Scott, (Law 1968), law professor and notable contract law scholar at Columbia Law School, former dean of University of Virginia Law School (1991-2001); Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1999)
Henry St. George Tucker, (Class of 1798, Law 1801), law professor at William & Mary (1801-1804); Judge, Virginia Supreme Court (1824-1831); known for editing the seminal American version of Blackstone's Commentaries, and for authoring the University of Virginia's honor pledge in 1842 [2] (since used as a model at numerous universities).
George Wythe, legal scholar; America's first Professor of Law, William & Mary (1769-1789); Member of Continental Congress (1775-1776); signer of U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776)
Henry C. Wolf, (Class of 1964, Law 1966) Chief Financial Officer and Vice Chairman, Norfolk Southern Corporation; benefactor of Henry C. Wolf Law Library at W&M