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70-494: Christopher Columbus Langdell (May 22, 1826 – July 6, 1906) was an American jurist and legal academic who was Dean of Harvard Law School from 1870 to 1895. As a professor and administrator, he pioneered the casebook method of instruction, which has since been widely adopted in American law schools and adapted for other professional disciplines, such as business, public policy, and education. He has been referred to as "arguably
140-507: A "jurist" (in English) is a jurisconsult ( iurisconsultus ). The English term jurist is to be distinguished from similar terms in other European languages, where it may be synonymous with legal professional , meaning anyone with a professional law degree that qualifies for admission to the legal profession, including such positions as judge or attorney. In Germany , Scandinavia and a number of other countries jurist denotes someone with
210-452: A carefully structured three-year graduate program leading to a postbaccalaureate degree. It was also Harvard under Langdell which developed the modern concept of the American law professor, starting with the 1873 hiring of Ames: a career academic with limited practice experience "who was appointed for his scholarly and teaching potential". Before Ames, law school faculty members were either practicing lawyers who did some part-time teaching on
280-583: A college degree for admission, but they also exempted undergraduates enrolled at the same university from that requirement. The underlying obstacle was that at the turn of the 20th century, public education was still in its infancy in most of the United States—a defect which the country was belatedly struggling to correct in what is now known as the Progressive Era . In most areas, there were simply not enough high school or college graduates to fill
350-421: A curve . In most law schools, the first year curve (1L) is considerably lower than courses taken after the first year of law school. Many schools use a "median" grading system, that can range from "B-plus medians" to "C-minus medians". Some professors are obliged to determine which exam or paper was the exact median in terms of quality (e.g., the 26th best out of 51), give that paper the relevant grade depending on
420-652: A few years following the American Revolution, some universities such as the College of William and Mary and the University of Pennsylvania established a "Chair in Law". Columbia College appointed its first Professor of Law, James Kent, in 1793. Those who held these positions were the sole purveyors of legal education (per se) for their institutions—though law was, of course, discussed in other academic areas as
490-473: A final exam in essay form. Most schools impose a mandatory grade curve (see below). After the first year, law students are generally free to pursue different fields of legal study. All law schools offer (or try to offer) a broad array of upper-division courses in areas of substantive law like administrative law , corporate law , international law , admiralty law , intellectual property law , and tax law , and in areas of procedural law not normally covered in
560-446: A forced grading distribution, where a predetermined percentage of students must receive certain grades. For instance, such a system could oblige professors to award a minimum and maximum number of "A's" and "F's" (e.g., 3.5%/7% A's and 4.5%/10% F's). Many professors chafe against the lack of discretion provided by such systems, especially the required failing of a certain number of students whose performance may have been sub-par but not, in
630-464: A law school entering class. In 1899, Cornell University forced its law school to require a high school diploma for admission, like the rest of the university, and the law school saw the size of its entering class crash from 125 to 62. In 1909, Minnesota started to require a single year of college-level work as a prerequisite for law school admission and saw its entering class drop from 203 to 69. Women were not allowed in most law schools during
700-423: A manner similar to hornbooks ) to a problem-solving method tightly focused on the application of legal rules to specific hypothetical fact patterns (which eventually resulted in a common exam response format known as IRAC ). It is this choice of Langdell's which explains why American law took "the atomistic rather than the unitary approach that distinguishes it from other common-law systems today". The genius of
770-681: A matter of course—and gave lectures designed to supplement, rather than replace, an apprenticeship. The first institution established for the sole purpose of teaching law was the Litchfield Law School , set up by Judge Tapping Reeve in 1784 to organize the large number of would-be apprentices or lecture attendees that he attracted. Despite the success of that institution, and of similar programs set up thereafter at Harvard University (1817), Dickinson College (1834), Yale University (1843), Albany Law School (1851), and Columbia University (1858), law school attendance would remain
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#1732765880948840-479: A professional law degree, and it may be a protected title, for example in Norway . Thus the term can be applied to attorneys, judges and academics, provided that they hold a qualifying professional law degree. In Germany – the term "full jurist" is sometimes used informally to denote someone who has completed the two state examinations in law that qualify for practising law, to distinguish from someone who may have only
910-583: A rare exception in the profession. Apprenticeship would be the norm until the 1890s, when the American Bar Association (which had been formed in 1878) began pressing states to limit admission to the bar to those who had satisfactorily completed several years of post-graduate instruction. In 1906, the Association of American Law Schools adopted a requirement that law school consist of a three-year course of study. Another key evolution
980-538: A satisfactory score on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) as prerequisites for admission. Some states that have non-ABA-approved schools or state-accredited schools have equivalency requirements that usually equal 90 credits toward a bachelor's degree. Globally, the requirement of a bachelor's degree is one of the most distinctive features of the American law school. Elsewhere, it is routine to award law degrees to undergraduates. In contrast,
1050-519: A school operated by the United States Army that conducts a post-J.D. program for military attorneys , is also ABA-accredited. Non-ABA approved law schools have much lower bar passage rates than ABA-approved law schools, and do not submit or disclose employment outcome data to the ABA. In addition, individual state legislatures or bar examiners may maintain a separate approval system, which
1120-436: A typical American lawyer must first complete seven years of postsecondary education before they become eligible for a license to practice law. Another significant distinction is that, unlike many other countries where law professors usually hold doctorates, most American law professors have earned only the exact same J.D. degree which will be awarded to the students they are teaching. Though undergraduate GPA and LSAT score are
1190-552: Is a person with expert knowledge of law ; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar , mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree ) and often a legal practitioner . In the United Kingdom the term "jurist" is mostly used for legal academics, while in the United States the term may also be applied to a judge. With reference to Roman law ,
1260-516: Is an upper-level course; most students take it in the 2L year. This requirement was added after the Watergate scandal , which seriously damaged the public image of the profession because President Richard Nixon and most of his alleged co-conspirators were lawyers. The ABA desired to demonstrate that the legal profession could regulate itself , wished to reassert and maintain its position of leadership, and hoped to prevent direct federal regulation of
1330-541: Is intended to counter bias by the grader. Each semester students are assigned random numbers, usually by the Registrar's Office, which students must include on their exams. Professors then grade the exams on an anonymous basis, only discovering student names after grades have been submitted to the Registrar's Office. General adoption of blind grading followed admission of significant numbers of minority students to law schools. An Accelerated JD program may refer to one of
1400-837: Is often disorienting to first-year law students who are more accustomed to taking notes from professors' lectures . Most casebooks do not clearly outline the law; instead, they force the student to interpret the cases and derive the basic legal concepts from the cases themselves. As a result, many publishers market law school outlines that concisely summarize the basic concepts of each area of law, and good outlines are highly sought after by many students, although some professors discourage their use . Legal pedagogy has also been criticized by scholars like Alan Watson in his book, The Shame of Legal Education . Some law schools, such as Savannah Law School , have changed direction and created collaborative learning environments to allow students to work directly with each other and professors in order to model
1470-418: Is open to non-ABA accredited schools. If that is the case, graduates of these schools may generally sit for the bar exam only in the state in which their school is accredited. California is the most famous example of state-specific approval. The State Bar of California 's Committee of Bar Examiners approves many schools that may not qualify for or request ABA accreditation. Graduates of such schools can sit for
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#17327658809481540-449: Is the assured outcome for the majority of students who pay their tuition on time, behave honorably and responsibly, maintain a minimum per-semester unit count and grade point average, take required upper-division courses, and successfully complete a certain number of units by the end of their sixth semester. The ABA also requires that all students at ABA-approved schools take an ethics course in professional responsibility . Typically, this
1610-448: The American Bar Association (ABA) at that time included one of five generic identifiers: "school of law" (118), "college of law" (38), "law school" (28), "law center" (7), and "faculty of law" (1). However, in ordinary speech, "law school" is universally preferred for its "brevity and clarity". In the United States, law schools require a bachelor's degree in any discipline, a satisfactory undergraduate grade point average (GPA), and
1680-489: The Ford Foundation began disbursing $ 12 million to persuade law schools to make "law school clinics" part of their curriculum. Clinics were intended to give practical experience in law practice while providing pro bono representation to the poor. However, conservative critics charge that the clinics have been used instead as an avenue for the professors to engage in left-wing political activism. Critics cite
1750-533: The Master of Laws (LL.M.) and the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D.) degrees, which can be more international in scope. Most law schools are colleges , schools or other units within a larger post-secondary institution, such as a university . Legal education is very different in the United States than in many other parts of the world. A 2006 study found that the names of the 192 law schools approved by
1820-519: The 1870s. Professors lead in-class debates over the issues in selected court cases, compiled into " casebooks " for each course. Under the Harvard approach, law professors do not deliver lengthy lectures and instead use the Socratic method to force students to teach one another, based on their individual understanding of legal theory and the facts of the case at hand. Many law schools continue to use
1890-442: The 204 approved ABA law schools. A decade later, in 2023, J.D. programs enrolled 116,897 students at the 196 institutions then approved by the ABA. As of 2016 , women enrolled in American law schools have outnumbered men. In 2023, over 50 percent of JD students enrolled at ABA -accredited schools were women. To sit for the bar exam , the vast majority of state bar associations require accreditation of an applicant's law school by
1960-476: The 92 American law schools then in existence were already using the Harvard approach, and by 1907, that number was over 30. Langdell's vision that law programs ought to be offered only at the graduate level and result in a postbaccalaureate degree took much longer to spread to all other American law schools. As of 1914, only Harvard and Penn were adhering to that principle. By 1921, the law schools at Stanford, Columbia, Western Reserve , and Yale were requiring
2030-610: The ABA or approved by state bar examiners, and the eligibility of their graduates to sit for the bar exam may vary from state to state. Even in California, for instance, the State Bar deems certain online schools as "registered", meaning their graduates may take the bar exam, but also specifically says the "Committee of Bar Examiners does not approve nor accredit correspondence schools." Kentucky goes further by specifically disqualifying correspondence school graduates from admission to
2100-633: The American Bar Association. The ABA has promulgated detailed requirements covering every aspect of a law school, down to the precise contents of the law library and the minimum number of minutes of instruction required to receive a law degree. As of 2020 , there are 203 ABA-accredited law schools that award the J.D., divided between 202 with full accreditation and one with provisional accreditation. The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia ,
2170-461: The Harvard approach to teaching law was its financial cost-effectiveness: it was "both cheaper and more exciting for both teacher and student". Law schools could get away with a much higher ratio of students to professors than under the old system, where the professor would first deliver a lecture dryly summarizing a legal topic, and then try to verify whether students had actually absorbed any information through quizzes and recitations. By 1902, 12 of
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2240-459: The Socratic method—consisting of calling on a student at random, asking about an argument made in an assigned case, asking the student whether they agree with the argument, and then using a series of questions to carefully expose logical flaws in the student's analysis of the argument. Examinations usually entail interpreting the facts of a hypothetical case, determining how legal theories apply to
2310-469: The U.S. confer the degree of Juris Doctor (J.D.), which is a professional doctorate . It is the degree usually required to practice law in the United States, and the final degree obtained by most practitioners in the field. Juris Doctor programs at law schools are usually three-year programs if done full-time, or four-year programs if done via evening classes. Some U.S. law schools include an Accelerated JD program . Other degrees that are awarded include
2380-466: The ancestor of its College of Arts and Sciences, but he got into its law school . Langdell's deanship from 1870 to 1895 transformed Harvard Law School into the "preeminent law school" in the United States, created the template for the modern American law school, and also established the modern expectation that "institutionalized legal training" was essential for "leaders of the profession". From 1870 to 1920, Harvard Law School proceeded "to overwhelm all
2450-414: The approach." Ames refined the approach further by contributing the ideas that casebooks should focus on cases selected for their "striking facts and vivid opinions", and group them together by subject. Langdell had simply printed cases chronologically. Finally, Langdell shifted law school examinations from the systematic exposition of rules (before him, students regurgitated legal rules in exam answers in
2520-571: The available materials of that science are contained in printed books". He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1870 and received the degree of LL.D. in 1875. Langdell resigned the deanship in 1895, in 1900 became Dane Professor Emeritus, and on July 6, 1906, died in Cambridge . In 1903 a chair in the law school was named in his honor and after his death the school's primary academic building, housing both
2590-470: The bar exam in California, and once they have passed that exam, a large number of states allow those students to sit for their bars (after practicing for a certain number of years in California). California is also the first state to allow graduates of distance legal education (online and correspondence) to take its bar exam. However, online and correspondence law schools are generally not accredited by
2660-413: The bar. This applies even if the graduate has gained admission in another jurisdiction. Law students are referred to as 1L s, 2L s, and 3L s based on their year of study . In the United States, the American Bar Association does not mandate a particular curriculum for 1L s. ABA Standard 302(a)(1) requires only the study of "substantive law" that will lead to "effective and responsible participation in
2730-439: The case, and then writing an essay. This process is intended to train students in the reasoning methods necessary to interpret theories, statutes , and precedents correctly, and argue their validity, both orally and in writing. In contrast, most civil law countries base their legal education on professorial lectures and oral examinations, which are more suited for the mastery of complicated civil codes . This style of teaching
2800-474: The chair of Dane Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Langdell accepted the offer and soon after became Dean of the Law Faculty, succeeding Theophilus Parsons , to whose Treatise on the Law of Contracts (1853) he had contributed as a student. As Dean he introduced sweeping changes to the curriculum of the Law school, extending the length of the academic programme from one to three years and replacing
2870-409: The course to first-year students. Some schools combine legal research and legal writing into a single year-long "lawyering skills" course, which may also include a small oral argument component. Because the first year curriculum is always fixed, most schools do not allow 1L students to select their own course schedules, and instead hand them their schedules at new student orientation. At most schools,
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2940-518: The curriculum Langdell instituted. Langdell, who came from a relatively unknown family, was conscious of the fact that students from more privileged backgrounds often received higher grades in their coursework purely because of their family's wealth and social status. Dean Langdell instituted the process of blind grading , now common at U.S. law schools, so that students already known by professors or from esteemed families would have no advantage over others. Attribution: Jurist A jurist
3010-470: The financial involvement of the Ford Foundation as the turning point when such clinics began to change from giving practical experience to engaging in advocacy. Law schools that offer accelerated JD programs have unique curricula for such programs. Nonetheless, ABA-approved law schools with Accelerated JD programs must meet ABA rules. Finally, the emphasis in law schools is rarely on the law of
3080-483: The first state examination or some other form of legal qualification that does not qualify for practising law. Some notable historical jurists include: This job-, occupation-, or vocation-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Blind grading A law school in the United States is an educational institution where students obtain a professional education in law after first obtaining an undergraduate degree . Law schools in
3150-478: The first year, like criminal procedure and remedies . Many law schools also offer upper-division practical training courses in client counseling, trial advocacy , appellate advocacy, and alternative dispute resolution . Depending upon the law school, practical training courses may involve fictional exercises in which students interact with each other or with volunteer actors playing clients, witnesses, and judges, or real-world cases at legal clinics . Graduation
3220-467: The following: As a result of student concerns about the time and cost (both in terms of tuition and the opportunity cost associated with foregoing a salary for three years) required to complete a law degree, there has been an emerging trend to develop accelerated JD programs. Most law school education in the United States is traditionally based on an approach developed by Christopher Columbus Langdell and James Barr Ames at Harvard Law School during
3290-537: The former are considered by law schools to be a more uniform standard than the latter for judging academic performance. Many law schools offer substantial scholarships and grants to many of their students, dramatically reducing the actual cost of attending law school compared to sticker tuition. Some law schools condition scholarships on maintaining a certain GPA. As of 2013 , there were 128,641 students enrolled in JD programs at
3360-476: The grade for an entire course depends upon the outcome of only one or two examinations, usually in essay form, which are administered via students' laptop computers in the classroom with the assistance of specialized software. Some professors may use multiple choice exams in part or in full if the course material is suitable for it (e.g., professional responsibility ). Legal research and writing courses tend to have several major projects (some graded, some not) and
3430-1004: The late 1800s and the early 1900s. In 1869, two newly opened law schools permitted women to enroll: Washington University School of Law became the first chartered law school in America to admit women, and Howard University School of Law was founded with an open admissions policy accepting Black and White men and women to enroll. The "first woman on record to have received a law degree was Ada Kepley from Union College of Law in Illinois (Northwestern)" in 1870. Some law schools that allowed women before most others were Buffalo Law School which "begun in 1887 ... and open to women and immigrant groups"; University of Iowa College of Law which "admitted women as law students" since at least 1869; University of Michigan Law School ; and Boston University School of Law which started admitting women in 1872. In 1878, two women successfully sued to be admitted to
3500-507: The legal profession through reading law , a form of independent study or apprenticeship , often under the supervision of an experienced attorney. This practice usually consisted of reading classic legal texts, such as Edward Coke 's Institutes of the Lawes of England and William Blackstone 's Commentaries on the Laws of England . In colonial America law schools did not exist. Within
3570-449: The legal profession." However, most law schools have their own mandatory curriculum for 1L s, which typically includes: These basic courses are intended to provide an overview of the broad study of law. Not all ABA-approved law schools offer all of these courses in the 1L year; for example, many schools do not offer constitutional law and/or criminal law until the second and third years. Most schools also require Evidence but rarely offer
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#17327658809483640-414: The long fight for the development of the elective system." Dean Langdell's greatest innovation was his introduction of the case method of instruction. Until 1890, no other U.S. law school used this method, which is now standard. Moreover, the standard first-year curriculum at all American law schools — Contracts , Property , Torts , Criminal Law , and Civil Procedure — stands, mostly unchanged, from
3710-473: The most important factors considered by law school admissions committees, individual factors are also somewhat important.personal factors are evaluated through essays, short-answer questions, letters of recommendation, and other application materials. The standards for grades and LSAT scores vary by school. Interviews—either in person or via video chat —may be optional, or invitational, application components. Many law schools actively seek applicants from outside
3780-402: The most influential teacher in the history of professional education in the United States". Dean Langdell's legacy lies in the educational and administrative reforms he made to Harvard Law School , a task he was entrusted with by President Charles Eliot . Before Langdell's tenure the study of law was a rather technical pursuit in which students were simply told what the law is. Langdell applied
3850-541: The old-style lecture system with a new system of tuition which required a significantly greater level of engagement and input from students. He rejected the tradition in English-speaking countries of learning law by professional apprenticeship, in favor of the European tradition of a university education. He insisted that law teaching had to be supported by an extensive law library, for "law is a science" and "all
3920-432: The ones at Harvard and Yale, were in competition for those same undergraduates. Students at the time chose law school or college, but not both. Law schools were technical schools with "second-class status" which usually had lower admissions standards than the colleges they were competing against for undergraduates. For example, in 1904, Hugo Black was denied admission to the University of Alabama 's Academic Department,
3990-436: The others" in every way imaginable, to the point that one critic, Gleason Archer Sr. , wrote an entire self-published book harshly attacking Harvard as the "educational octopus" whose tentacles (i.e., Langdell's students) reached into every corner of the American legal community. Langdell turned the law program at Harvard from a disorganized two-year undergraduate program―which undergraduates could wander into at any point―into
4060-412: The particular state in which the law school sits, but on the law generally throughout the country. Although this makes studying for the bar exam more difficult since one must learn state-specific law, the emphasis on legal skills over legal knowledge can benefit law students not intending to practice in the same state they attend law school. Grades in law school are very competitive. Most schools grade on
4130-491: The principles of pragmatism to the teaching of law as a result of which students were compelled to use their own reasoning powers to understand how the law might apply in a given case. This dialectical process came to be called the case method and has been the primary method of pedagogy at American law schools ever since. The case method has since been adopted and improved upon by schools in other disciplines, such as business, public policy, and education. Christopher Langdell
4200-469: The profession. As of 2004, to ensure that students' research and writing skills do not deteriorate, the ABA has added an upper division writing requirement. Law students must take at least one course, or complete an independent study project, as a 2L or 3L that requires the writing of a paper for credit. Most law courses are less about doctrine and more about learning how to analyze legal problems, read cases, distill facts and apply law to facts. In 1968,
4270-486: The professor's estimation, worthy of a failing grade. The "median" system seeks to provide some parity among teachers' grading scales while giving the teacher discretion to award a grade below the median only when deserved. Fairness and equity are the primary reasons for required curves and required grade distributions. Some faculty tend to give higher grades and others lower grades, with a mandatory curve balancing both extremes. Also, at law schools with multiple sections of
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#17327658809484340-418: The same class, it minimizes the problem that one section will have an unfair advantage over another section when applying for Law Review or Moot Court. Even with curved grading, some law schools such as Syracuse University College of Law still have a policy of "Dismissal for Academic Deficiency", in which students failing to meet a minimum GPA are dismissed from the school. One school that has deviated from
4410-573: The side, or full-time teachers who had moved into academia only after extensive experience practicing law. Harvard's dominance was most rapidly established through the wild popularity of its teaching approach: the casebook method combined with the Socratic method. The transition from traditional lectures to the interactive examination of cases became "the law schools' apparent passport to academic respectability". Langdell actually did not invent that approach to teaching law, but it "became known as his by virtue of his determined and systematic application of
4480-399: The system of competitive grading common to most American law schools is Northeastern University School of Law . Northeastern does not have any system of grade point averages or class rank , Instead, the school uses a system of narrative evaluations to measure student performance. A system of anonymous grading known as blind grading is used in many law schools in the United States. It
4550-430: The system used, and then grade the other exams based on how much better or worse they are than the median. A few schools, such as Yale Law School , Stanford Law School , Harvard Law School , University of California, Berkeley School of Law , and Northeastern University School of Law have alternate grading systems that put less emphasis (or no emphasis) on rank. Other schools, such as New York's Fordham Law School , use
4620-407: The teamwork of attorneys working on a case. For purposes of passing state bar examinations, some law school graduates find law school instruction inadequate , and resort to specialized bar review courses from private course providers. These bar reviews typically consist of lectures, often video recorded. Until the late 19th century, law schools were uncommon in the United States. Most people entered
4690-555: The traditional pool to boost racial, economic, and experiential diversity on campus. Most law schools now factor in extracurricular activities, work experience, and unique courses of study in their evaluation of applicants. A growing number of law school applicants have several years of work experience, and correspondingly fewer law students enter immediately after completing their undergraduate education. However, law schools generally only consider undergraduate and not post-collegiate transcripts when considering an applicant for admission;
4760-606: The world's largest academic law library and classrooms, was named Langdell Hall . Langdell made the Harvard Law School a success by remodeling its administration. In a private correspondence of April 13, 1915, Charles W. Eliot wrote: "the putting of Langdell in charge of the Law School was the best piece of work I did for Harvard University, except the reconstruction of the Medical school in [18]70 and [18]71, and
4830-483: Was born in the town of New Boston, New Hampshire , of English and Scots-Irish ancestry. He studied at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1845–48, at Harvard College in 1848–50 and at Harvard Law School in 1851–54. As a student, he served as one of the Harvard Law School's first librarians. From 1854 to 1870 he practiced law in New York City . In January 1870 he received an invitation from Charles Eliot to take up
4900-402: Was from law school as an alternative to undergraduate education to law school as a form of graduate professional education. Before 1870, there was nothing like a modern university in America, only a number of glorified liberal arts colleges which taught Greek, Latin, moral philosophy, and mathematics to undergraduates. The early law departments attached to these purported universities, such as
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