University of Chicago Law School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Established | 1902 |
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| Type | Private |
| Endowment | US $209 million |
| Dean | Saul Levmore |
| Staff | 124 |
| Students | 589 |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Campus | Urban |
| Website | http://law.uchicago.edu |
The University of Chicago Law School, having recently celebrated its centennial in the 2002-2003 school year, has established itself as a high profile part of the University of Chicago. It is ranked 6th overall in the influential US News graduate school rankings, with its student body ranking 5th in the nation [1]. Additionally, Chicago's faculty has the highest per capita article citation rate of any American law school [2]. The Law School is also notable for having the third highest gross and second highest per capita placement of alumni as U.S. Supreme Court clerkships[3], with roughly 15-25% of each graduating class going on to clerkships at the federal or state level. Private career prospects are equally bright for graduates, placing highly into elite firms [4]. The school awards the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree, having been the first American law school to do so, as well as the L.L.M., J.S.D and D.Comp.L solely to foreign trained lawyers.
The Law School is well-known for its advancement of the application of social science to the law. A significant movement in jurisprudence began at the law school when Aaron Director initiated the first modern systemic investigation between the instersection of law and economics, an area in which the law school's faculty figure prominently.
The University of Chicago Law Review is one of the school's student-run journals, and admits members by "grade on," i.e. first year GPA, and "write on," post first year writing competition, methods. The Chicago Journal of International Law and the University of Chicago Legal Forum are the Law School's other student-run journals. They primarily admit members through a post first year writing competition. The Supreme Court Review, published by the law school and overseen by faculty since the 1960's, remains the most cited legal journal internationally with respect to commentary on the nation's highest court. The faculty also oversees publication of the Journal of Law and Economics.
The Law School is also home to one of the three founding chapters of the conservative Federalist Society.
[edit] Grading
The Law School employs a unique grading system with a range from 155 to 186. The average grade is in the high 170s with a median grade of 177. Though the specific numbers may change from year to year, in general a student graduates "with honors" if a final average of 179 is attained and "high honors" if a final average of 180.5 is attained. The maximum grade attainable is 186.
The grading scale was previously 55-86, but the school prefixed their grades with a "1" in 2003 to avoid confusion with traditional grading scales.
[edit] Prominent faculty
- Douglas Baird
- Ronald Coase
- David P. Currie
- Judge Frank H. Easterbrook
- Richard Epstein
- Daniel Fischel
- Judge Douglas Ginsburg
- R.H. Helmholz
- Dennis J. Hutchinson
- Dallin H. Oaks (former faculty member)
- William Landes
- Lawrence Lessig (former faculty member)
- Saul Levmore
- Catharine MacKinnon (former faculty member)
- Bernard Meltzer
- 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)
- Geoffrey Stone
- David Strauss
- Cass Sunstein
- Judge Diane Pamela Wood
