University of Chicago Law School

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The University of Chicago Law School, located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago and established in 1902, is one of the nations most prominent law schools. It was founded in part from a donation from John D. Rockefeller, who insisted the school should broaden the scope of legal education in the United States. As a result, the school purports to provide its students with a "scientific study of law [involving] the related sciences of history, economics, philosophy, and the whole field of man as social being." [1] Today the school is noted for its strong faculty, and is a bastion of conservative principles among American law schools.[2]

The Law School is currently ranked 7th in the US News and World Report's rankings of American law schools. The school was the first to award the J.D. degree, and also offers L.L.M., J.S.D and D.Comp.L degrees. Current and former faculty members include Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens, Barack Obama, Cass Sunstein, Richard Epstein, and Martha Nussbaum.


Publications

Through the University of Chicago Press, the law school publishes a wide range of legal-focused journals. Some notables include:

  • The Journal of Law and Economics, also overseen by faculty, publishes articles on the economic analysis of regulation and the behavior of regulated firms, the political economy of legislation and legislative processes, law and finance, corporate finance and governance, and industrial organization. JLE articles are some of the most influential and widely cited in the field of Law and economics
  • The Journal of Legal Studies, founded in 1972, emphasizes an approach to law through the interdisciplinary studies of the social sciences.
  • The University of Chicago Law Review is the school's premiere student-run journal, and accepts approximately 2/3 of its members based on GPA, with the remaining third selected by an annual writing competetion.
  • Other prominent student-run journals include Chicago Journal of International Law and the University of Chicago Legal Forum

Student Organizations

Legal Aid Clinics

The Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic is a legal aid clinic concerned with providing free counsel to indigent clients, while at the same time affording students the opportunity to gain valuable advocacy skills.

The Immigrant Children's Advocacy Project is a human service and policy advocacy program dedicated to advocating for the best interests of immigrant and refugee children who are alone in the United States

The Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship, “launched in 1997, the clinic is a partnership between its libertarian parent organization, the Washington-based Institute for Justice, and the University of Chicago law school. Its primary function is to help make the American dream come true for Chicago-area small-business owners, using a staff that consists mainly of University of Chicago law students. The clinic provides advice and helps eliminate regulatory red tape so its clients can get their businesses started or keep them afloat." [3]

Student Associations

  • Hinton Moot Court Competition
  • American Constitution Society
  • American Civil Liberties Union
  • American Constitution Society
  • Christian Legal Society
  • Environmental Law Society
  • Entertainment & Sports Law Society
  • Federalist Society
  • Intellectual Property Law Society
  • JD/MBA Association
  • Law Women's Caucus
  • Phoenix (newspaper)
  • Public Interest Law Society
  • Res Musicata
  • St. Thomas More Society
  • Women's Mentoring Program


Admissions and Grading

The Law School is currently ranked 7th by US News and World Report, 4th by the Gourman Report, and 2nd in the Educational Quality Rankings. [4]. In the 2007-2008 admission cycle the school's accepted students had an undergraduate GPA interquartile range of between 3.49 and 3.76, an LSAT IQR of between 169 and 173. The school accepted 16.2% of its applicants.

The Law School employs a unique grading system with a range from 155 to 186. These numerical grades convert to the more familiar alphabetical scale as follows: 155-159 = F, 160-167 = D, 168-173 = C, 174-179 = B, 180-186 = A. For classes of more than 50 students, the median grade is 177, and the number of As should approximately equal the number of Cs.

A student graduates "with honors" if a final average of 179 is attained, "with high honors" if a final average of 180.5 is attained, and "with highest honors" if a final average of 182 is attained. The latter achievement is rare; typically only one student every few years will attain the requisite 182 average. Additionally, the Law School awards two class-rank based honors at graduation. The top 10% are honored as "Order of the Coif," and the top 5% are honored as "Kirkland Scholars" (a designation created in 2006 by a $7 million donation from the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis).


Notable Faculty

The school has a student-faculty ratio of 10.3 to 1 (students to faculty), and has had a rich history of distinguished faculty, including:

  • Douglas Baird
  • Emily Buss
  • Adam Cox
  • Ronald Coase
  • Brainerd Currie (deceased)
  • David P. Currie (deceased)
  • Judge Frank H. Easterbrook (alumnus)
  • Richard Epstein
  • Daniel Fischel
  • Grant Gilmore (deceased)
  • Judge Douglas Ginsburg (alumnus)
  • Bernard Harcourt
  • Richard H. Helmholz
  • Dennis J. Hutchinson
  • Harry Kalven (deceased)
  • Dallin H. Oaks (former faculty member)
  • William Landes
  • Brian Leiter
  • Lawrence Lessig (former faculty member)
  • Saul Levmore
  • Catharine MacKinnon (former faculty member)
  • Judge Michael W. McConnell (former faculty member and alumnus)
  • Bernard D. Meltzer (former faculty member)
  • Judge Abner Mikva
  • Martha Nussbaum
  • U.S. Senator Barack Obama (on leave of absence)
  • Judge Richard A. Posner
  • Eric Posner
  • Gerald N. Rosenberg
  • Justice Antonin Scalia (former faculty member)
  • Justice John Paul Stevens (former lecturer)
  • Geoffrey Stone (alumnus)
  • David Strauss
  • Cass Sunstein (Currently Harry Kalven Visiting Professor)
  • Judge Diane Pamela Wood

Notable Alumni

  • Shimon Agranat: President of the Israeli Supreme Court 1965-1976
  • John Ashcroft: Former U.S. Senator, Governor of Missouri, and Attorney General of the United States
  • Alfred C. Aman, Jr.: Dean of Suffolk University Law School and Indiana University School of Law
  • Robert Bork: Former Solicitor General of the United States, acting Attorney General of the United States, and Judge on the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; unsuccessfully nominated to the Supreme Court
  • Carol Moseley Braun: U.S. Senator from Illinois; first (and only) African-American female U.S. Senator; sought 2004 Democratic Party presidential nomination
  • Elizabeth Cheney: head of the Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group (ISOG) and daughter of Vice President Richard Cheney
  • Marvin Chirelstein: Professor at Columbia Law School
  • Norton Clapp: Former president and chairman of Weyerhaeuser, former president of Boy Scouts of America
  • Ramsey Clark: Former Attorney General of the United States
  • James Comey: Former Acting Attorney General of the United States, former Deputy Attorney General of the United States, and former United States Attorney (for the Southern District of New York)
  • James I. Dolliver: Former U.S. Representative
  • Jerome Frank: Former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
  • James Hormel: First openly gay United States Ambassador (to Luxembourg)
  • Douglas H. Ginsburg: Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; unsuccessfully nominated to the Supreme Court
  • Mary Ann Glendon: Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University; US Ambassador to the Holy See
  • Jan Crawford Greenburg: ABC News legal correspondent (well known for Supreme Court coverage)
  • David Aaron Kessler: Former FDA Commissioner, former Dean of the Yale School of Medicine, and current Dean of the University of California, San Francisco Medical School
  • Amy Klobuchar: U.S. Senator from Minnesota
  • Alexander Krasnoshchyokov, the Head of the Far Eastern Republic (1920 to 1921)
  • Rex E. Lee: Former Solicitor General of the United States and President of Brigham Young University
  • Edward H. Levi: Former Attorney General of the United States
  • Harvey Levin: Popular purveyor of celebrity gossip and legal commentary
  • Michael W. McConnell: Judge on the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
  • Patsy Mink: Former U.S. Representative
  • Abner J. Mikva: Former U.S. Congressman from Illinois and Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
  • Nicholas J. Pritzker: Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Hyatt Development Corporation
  • Thomas Pritzker: Chairman and CEO of Global Hyatt Corporation
  • David M. Rubenstein, Founder, The Carlyle Group
  • Kyle Sampson
  • Adam Silver: NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer
  • Barbara Snyder: President of Case Western Reserve University
  • Jim Talent: Former U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator from Missouri
  • David S. Tatel: Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

See Also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.law.uchicago.edu/socrates/history.html History and Mission of the Law School
  2. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/politics/30law.html Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Slightly Apart
  3. ↑ http://www.ij.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=572&Itemid=200 Institute for Justice
  4. ↑ http://www.top-law-schools.com/rankings.html Law School Rankings
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