| Washington and Lee University School of Law | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Non incautus futuri (Latin) |
| Motto in English | "Not Unmindful of the Future" |
| Established | 1849 by John White Brockenbrough |
| Type | Private school of law |
| Dean | Nora Demleitner (announced) |
| Students | 407 |
| Location | Lexington, Virginia, USA |
| Campus | National Historic Landmark, Rural, 325 acres (1.32 km2) |
| Colors | Royal Blue and White |
| Nickname | "The Generals" |
| Website | law.wlu.edu |
The Washington and Lee University School of Law (also known as W&L Law) is a private American Bar Association-accredited law school located in Lexington in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia. Facilities are currently on the campus of Washington and Lee University in Sydney Lewis Hall. W&L Law is known as one of the smallest top law schools in the country, with a total enrollment of approximately 400 students and a 9.52-to-1 student to faculty ratio. [1]
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The Lexington Law School, the precursor to W&L Law, was founded in 1849 by Judge John White Brockenbrough and is the 17th oldest law school in the United States. The Law School was not integrated into Washington and Lee University (then known as Washington College) until after the Civil War when Robert E. Lee was president of the university. In 1866, the School of Law was annexed to the university and known as the School of Law and Equity. In 1870, former Virginia Attorney General John Randolph Tucker was appointed to the faculty and later became Dean followed by his son Henry St. George Tucker, Sr. In 1900, the law school moved into the newly built Tucker Hall in memory of Dean Tucker. After significant periods of growth, the law school moved into new Tucker Hall after the original building was destroyed in a fire. After World War II, enrollment increased despite a period of low enrollment during the war. In 1950, the School of Law established its chapter of the Order of the Coif, one of only 80 such chapters in the country. The School of Law admitted its first female students in 1972, and opened its current home, Sydney Lewis Hall, in 1977. In 2008, Dean Rodney Smolla instituted the new third-year program. This new and unique program turned the entire 3L year into an experiential curriculum which emphasizes practice, professionalism, and service. The program became compulsory for W&L Law students in 2011. On December 21, 2011 Washington and Lee University School of Law announced Nora Demleitner as the new Dean, the first woman to hold the position and the 17th overall since 1849.[2]
Sydney Lewis Hall is the home of the school of law on the historic campus of Washington and Lee in Lexington, VA. Lewis Hall was built with a $9 million gift from Best Products founder Sydney Lewis and his wife Frances of Virginia. In addition to lecture halls, classrooms, and offices for faculty and staff, Lewis Hall houses the 150-seat Millhiser Moot Courtroom, newly renovated in 2006, and the accompanying Robert E. Stroud Judge's Chambers and the Roger D. Groot Jury Room. Lewis Hall also has a cafeteria for students, staff, and faculty called the Brief Stop, which serves food, snacks, and drinks. As part of its newly initiated $500 million campaign, "Honor Our Past, Build Our Future," the School of Law plans on renovating and expanding Lewis Hall including an identifiable front entrance for motorists; instructional space; new space for consolidated clinics, including ease of access for clients; an improved faculty lounge; group study/interview rooms; faculty offices; and a trial court room.
Lewis Hall's cornerstones are the Wilbur C. Hall Law Library and Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Wing. The 58,155-square-foot (5,402.8 m2) Wilbur C. Hall Law Library includes a separate faculty library, a rare book room, and an audio-visual media center and is open 24-hours a day. The library houses more than 439,347 volumes and is unique in offering each student personally-designated work and storage space. The Powell Wing was built in 1992 to house the professional and personal papers and archives of the United States Supreme Court Justice and noted W&L alum. The Powell Wing includes an expanded main reading room space, in addition to stack area and work space for the papers. The archives are managed by full-time staff and are open to researchers, faculty, and students. Woods Creek Apartments, across the street from Lewis Hall, serve as on-campus residence apartments for law students, though most law students live off-campus.
W&L Law's JD program, one of the smallest in the country, is the primary degree-program at the Law School. The Class of 2013 entered at 145-student strong with a median LSAT of 166. The Class of 2012 had 3,416 applicants and 873 offers, for an admissions rate of 25.6%. International exchange programs are available for JD students with the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, University of Western Ontario in London (Canada), Trinity College in Dublin, and the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen. The School of Law also offers a small LLM program to foreign educated lawyers and a joint JD and Master of Health Administration program with Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Washington and Lee University School of Law ranked 30th in the 2012 U.S. News and World Report ranking of America's law schools.[3] The School of Law also ranked 18th on U.S. News' ranking of law schools by recruiters from the top national law firms.[4] Brian Leiter ranked W&L Law's endowment-per-student as 14th in the country, at $214,000 per student, when adjusted for cost-of-living.[5] National Jurist ranked W&L Law at 15 in its list of best law schools for standard of living.[6] In 2011, W&L Law earned a passage rate of 95.83% on the Virginia bar exam, the highest of Virginia's law schools. [7]
The JD curriculum at W&L consists of a traditional casebook method in the first two years followed by a new third-year program that focuses on practice.
In the 1L year, students take required foundational courses in contract law, tort law, civil procedure, criminal law, property law, professional responsibility, administrative law, and international law. Additionally, each student is assigned a small section in which one substantive required course also serves as a legal writing course. This small section consists of approximately 20 students. 1Ls are also assigned to an upper-level student from the Burks Scholar Program who teaches legal research and Bluebook methods.
In the 2L year, students focus on advanced coursework. W&L requires evidence law and constitutional law in the second-year as well as the completion of an upper-level writing requirement. The writing requirement can be satisfied through a seminar course, through an independent writing project, or a note in one of the law journals. All other courses in the 2L year are electives and commonly include corporate law and tax law as well as many other classes and seminars.
The 3L year is new and replaces further elective advanced coursework based on the casebook method as is the norm in most ABA law schools. Instead, the program is meant to simulate client experiences. The 3L year requires students to exercise professional judgment, work in teams, solve problems, counsel clients, negotiate solutions, serve as advocates and counselors — the full complement of professional activity that engages practicing lawyers as they apply legal theory and doctrines to the real-world issues of serving clients ethically and honorably within the highest traditions of the profession.
Each semester begins with an immersion course. The two-week immersion focuses on litigation and alternative dispute resolution in the Fall semester and transactional practice in the Spring semester. Each student is then enrolled in practicum courses of their choosing. These courses cover substantive and advanced law but do so through practical methods of drafting paperwork and problem-solving rather than casebook and the socratic method. Students are also required to take a course in the legal profession as well as a law-related service requirement. Finally, each student is required to be involved in one of W&L's legal clinics, externship programs, or transnational programs to gain real-client experience. The program is flexible and allows students the ability to tailor their schedule and, if they wish, to take several traditional casebook method courses.
The Honor System has been run by the student body since 1905 and is derived from Robert E. Lee during his tenure as President of the University. Any student found guilty of an Honor Violation by his or her peers is subject to a single penalty: expulsion. The Honor System is defined and administered solely by students, and there is no higher review. A formal review, occasionally including referenda, is held every three years to refine the tenets of the Honor System. Students continue to support the Honor System and its single penalty overwhelmingly, and alumni regularly point to the Honor System as one of the distinctive marks they carry with them from their W&L experience. W&L Law students enjoy several distinct benefits from the Honor System. These include more freedom in exam taking as well as an informal account system at the Brief Stop cafeteria in Sydney Lewis Hall. These are balanced by the strict penalty of a violation of the Honor System.
Students pledge the following prior to turning in assignments and exams:
"On my honor, I have neither given nor received any unacknowledged aid on this (exam, test, paper, etc.)."
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The Law School houses nine legal clinics: |
The Law School is host to four academic journals:
The Law School is home to two research centers: |
The Law School offers five moot court programs:
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W&L Law has produced many notable graduates in Virginia and at the national level. Included amongst the alumni ranks are two Justices of the United States Supreme Court, six Presidents of the American Bar Association, two Solicitors General of the United States, one major party candidate for President of the United States, Presidential Cabinet members, as well as numerous state governors, United States Congressmen, United States Senators, federal and state judges, influential academics, business leaders, and distinguished attorneys. The list below is not exhaustive. The date following the name is the Law School class. Alumni with two dates also attended as undergraduates and the order is alphabetical.
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