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32-937: 40°42′30″N 74°00′40″W  /  40.70833°N 74.01111°W  / 40.70833; -74.01111 The New York Law Institute library is located in the Equitable Building and has a circulating collection of over 250,000 print volumes, including Congressional documents, records on appeal, current and superseded U.S. and state laws, new and archival editions of legal treatises, and archival New York City and New York State materials. The library's collection also includes over 160,000 eBooks from Proquest and OverDrive, including legal, business, and engineering titles. Also available are numerous remote-access and on-site research databases such as CCH-Intelliconnect, Hein Online, LEXIS Advance, LLMC Digital, OED, ProQuest Congressional, and Westlaw Next. In 1876, The Report on Libraries of

64-524: A chapter in the two-volume History of the Bench and Bar of New York included a lengthy list of its rare and valuable titles, and noted that a recent press report had stated: "There is probably no other law library in this country which has upon its shelves so rich and valuable a collection of rare works on legal topics." The library became a Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) member in 1909 and the collection retains materials from that time through

96-544: A concrete slab collapsed, prompting an investigation by the city and a public rebuttal of accusations of misconduct from Mullett. The building's former site is directly across Broadway from the Woolworth Building . With the passage of time and changing tastes, architectural criticism now regards the City Hall Post Office as one of Mullett's best works, providing a now-missing defining element at

128-831: A member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1814. In 1821 he was a member of the New York State Constitutional Convention where he unsuccessfully opposed the raising of the property qualification for African American voters. Two years later, Chancellor Kent reached the constitutional age limit and retired from his office, but was re-elected to his former chair. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1829. He lived in retirement in Summit, New Jersey between 1837 and 1847 in

160-520: A simple four-roomed cottage (the original cottage no longer stands and has been incorporated into a large mansion at 50 Kent Place) which he referred to as 'my Summit Lodge', a name that has been offered as the derivation for the city's name. Kent has been long remembered for his Commentaries on American Law (four volumes, published 1826–1830), highly respected in England and America. The Commentaries treated state, federal and international law, and

192-577: A single design. Together, the firms produced a Second Empire concept that borrowed from Renwick's Corcoran Gallery of Art and the New York State Capitol . Feeling the proposed design was too expensive, Mullett took over the project, which nonetheless cost $ 8.5 million. This coup may have influenced opinions on his final product. The iron framing was clad with a pale granite quarried in Dix Island, Knox County, Maine . Regarding

224-470: A substantial amount of money.  When he died in 1884, O'Conor left the library $ 21,000, and the multi-volume bound sets of "My Own Cases" and "My Own Opinions," relating to the most notable cases of his long career. Another leading legal figure who took an interest in the development of the library was Judge John W. Edmonds , who "manifested the greatest interest in its welfare, and has contributed most substantially to its development and success."  It

256-615: Is now designated as its "first book."  However, the bulk of the collection appears to have been acquired through the purchase of the private library of attorney James Tillotson.  The collection was first housed in New York's "Old City Hall," but by the early 1850s, the collection, now consisting of over 4,000 volumes, had outgrown its quarters.  The Institute then petitioned the New York City Common Council for space in "New City Hall."   This request

288-399: The 1990s and continues to expand its online offerings and databases. James Kent (jurist) James Kent (July 31, 1763 – December 12, 1847) was an American jurist, New York legislator, legal scholar, and first Professor of Law at Columbia College . His Commentaries on American Law (based on lectures first delivered at Columbia in 1794, and further lectures in the 1820s) became

320-493: The 40-story Equitable Building at 120 Broadway, whose construction had prompted outrage and the promulgation of the Zoning Resolution of 1916 because of the seven-acre shadow it cast over its surroundings. At the time of its move to the Equitable Building, the library was said to hold over 99,000 volumes and it had grown to over 150,000 volumes by the late 1960s.  NYLI added its first electronic resources during

352-694: The New York bar in January 1785, Kent began practicing law in Poughkeepsie, New York and neighboring areas. Voters in Dutchess County elected him in 1791 and 1792–93 as their representative in the New York State Assembly . However, he had married and supporting his growing family based on his scholarship and nearly rural legal practice proved difficult. In 1793, Kent moved his family to New York City, where he had been appointed

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384-570: The United States described the New York Law Institute Library as "the best public law library in this country," and a success in the highest and broadest sense ...."  The Institute and its library were the result of the efforts of two young lawyers, George Sullivan and James W. Gerard, to break up the so-called "barrister ring" of twelve to fifteen lawyers who with the connivance of the judiciary monopolized all

416-451: The basis of American equity jurisprudence. As chancellor, Kent inspired the development of modern American discovery by allowing masters to actively examine witnesses during depositions (rather than following the old English procedure of merely reading static interrogatories), and he allowed parties and counsel to be present for depositions. These innovations led to the modern deposition by oral examination. Depositions are still one of

448-487: The building was decidedly unpopular, and was dubbed "Mullet's Monstrosity," after its designer, United States supervising architect Alfred Bult Mullet .  While located in the Post Office Building, the library paid no rent in exchange for free access for federal judges and United States district attorneys. Under the leadership of long-time director William H. Winters, an 1868 Harvard Law School graduate,

480-788: The building's lack of popularity, The New York Times wrote in 1912: The Mullett Post Office has always been an architectural eyesore, and has, from the first, been unsatisfactory to the Postal Service and the Federal Courts beneath its roof. Built in five stories (the fifth in its mansard roof ) with a basement for sorting mail and a subbasement for machinery, the building housed the main New York Post Office, as well as courtrooms and federal offices on its third and fourth floors. It had pneumatic tubes for efficient mail transfer to other post offices. Unfortunately,

512-565: The city's main post office was located in the Middle Dutch Church on Nassau Street , a dark 18th-century building that by the 1860s was stretched past its capacity. Congress eventually approved funds for a new central post office, and a competition was held for design proposals. Fifty-two designs were submitted, but none were judged acceptable. Five firms— Richard Morris Hunt , Renwick and Sands, Napoleon LeBrun , Schulze and Schoen, and John Perret —were selected to collaborate on

544-680: The cramped trapezoidal site required the post office's loading docks to be on the side facing City Hall and the park. The building's French Second Empire style and architectural vocabulary were similar to its surviving siblings, the Old Post Office in St. Louis, Missouri , and the Old Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. On May 1, 1877, during the building's construction, three workers were killed when

576-516: The fire, the Library received major assistance from Charles O'Conor , a leading local attorney with pronounced pro-Southern, pro-slavery views, who after the Civil War volunteered to defend Jefferson Davis.  Despite his reported lack of social skills, and curmudgeonly reputation, O'Conor was known for acts of generosity.  He helped the library settle with insurers for $ 2,250, and loaned it

608-605: The first professor of law in Columbia College , where he would teach (part-time) for the next five years. He was soon appointed a master in chancery for the city. Kent again served in the Assembly in 1796–97. In 1797, he was appointed Recorder of New York City and in 1798, a justice of the New York Supreme Court , in 1804 Chief Justice, and in 1814 Chancellor of New York . Kent was also elected

640-532: The formative American law book in the antebellum era (published in 14 editions before 1896) and also helped establish the tradition of law reporting in America. He is sometimes called the "American Blackstone ". Kent was born in what was then the town of Fredericksburg (the present-day towns of Patterson , Kent , Carmel , Southeast and Pawling ) in Dutchess County, New York . His father, Moss Kent,

672-450: The judge was also famous as a staunch believer in spiritualism, and once felt compelled to deny allegations that he consulted with the spirits before making decisions on the bench. In 1872, by which time the library had grown to over 25,000 volumes, it moved from its Chambers St. location to quarters in the new United States Post Office Building located at the southern end of City Hall Park.  A large colonnaded mansard-roofed structure,

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704-527: The law of personal rights and of property, and went through six editions in Kent's lifetime. Kent rendered his most essential service to American jurisprudence while serving as chancellor. Chancery, or equity law, had been very unpopular during the colonial period, and had received little development, and no decisions had been published. His judgments of this class cover a wide range of topics, and are so thoroughly considered and developed as unquestionably to form

736-454: The library continued to grow rapidly.  By 1887, the collection had grown to 35,000 volumes, necessitating the expansion of the library from one floor to two.  During this period, the library reportedly spent $ 7,000 annually on new books and was expanding at the rate of about 1,000 volumes per year.   In the subsequent decade, the library continued its steady growth, its collection totaling over 48,000 volumes by 1897.  That year,

768-417: The lofty aim of "guard[ing] the purity of the profession," but it became almost immediately apparent that this was beyond anyone's power, so the members' primary activity became the establishment of a law library that would contain "the law of the larger part of the civilized world." The library received donations from various leading lawyers, including a copy of his Commentaries from Chancellor Kent, which

800-533: The most unique and distinctive aspects of civil procedure in the United States and Canada. Kent married Elizabeth Bailey, and they had four children: Elizabeth (died in infancy), Elizabeth, Mary, and William Kent (1802–1861) who was a circuit judge and ran for Lieutenant Governor of New York with Washington Hunt in 1852. His brother Moss Kent was a Congressman . Notes Sources Further reading City Hall Post Office and Courthouse (New York City) The City Hall Post Office and Courthouse

832-800: The present. The collection not only has the basic core collection of the FDLP, but also contains items such as the Warren Commission reports on the Kennedy assassination, the SEC report on Investment trusts and Investment Companies from 1938, and the 1999 Report on Mass Tort Litigation. The much-maligned Post Office Building was torn down in 1938, but by then the Law Institute Library had moved again.  In 1915, it relocated to its present home — another controversial structure —

864-613: The worthwhile legal business in the circuit and supreme court, and the court of chancery during the mid-1820s.  They achieved one of their goals when the legislature established the Superior Court in 1828, but they believed that to break up the ring for good, the establishment of a "Law Association" was essential. This Law Association, renamed the Law Institute, was founded in February 1828.  One of its main goals

896-595: Was Edmonds who prepared the manuscript on which the first library catalog was based.  Edmonds also compiled the Statutes at Large of the State of New York (1863) (popularly known as Edmond's Statutes ), which sought to disentangle the Revised Statutes from a mass of other legislation, and Edmond's Select Cases , a compilation of cases over which he presided between 1834–53.  During his lifetime,

928-569: Was a lawyer in that county, as well as the first Surrogate of nearby Rensselaer County, New York . Despite interruptions caused by the American Revolutionary War , Kent graduated from Yale College in 1781, having helped establish the Phi Beta Kappa Society there in 1780. Returning to New York, Kent read law under Egbert Benson (then the state Attorney General and later a state judge). Admitted to

960-606: Was designed by architect Alfred B. Mullett for a triangular site in New York City along Broadway in Civic Center , Lower Manhattan , in City Hall Park south of New York City Hall . The Second Empire style building, erected between 1869 and 1880, was not well received. Commonly called "Mullett's Monstrosity", it was demolished in 1939 and the site used to extend City Hall Park to the south. Since 1845,

992-489: Was granted, but misfortune struck when the building, later described by a New York Times editorial as an "old rathole," was destroyed by fire in January 1854.  Most of the library's books were removed after the first alarm, and only 82 were lost, but the blaze destroyed all the furniture and many valuable donated artifacts.  For a time, the rescued books were stored in the courthouse basement, and were later moved to No. 45 Chambers St. and then to 41 Chambers St. After

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1024-441: Was the founding of a law library, a task that was considered essential since at that time the only significant collections of law books in New York were held privately by such notables as Chancellor James Kent and Chief Justice John Jay .  Thus, listed in the charter granted by the legislature in 1830 was a provision for "providing a seminary of learning in the law and the formation of a Law Library."  The founders also had

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