Cornell Law School

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Cornell Law School
Established: 1887
Type: Private
Dean: Stewart J. Schwab
Students: 660
Location: Ithaca, New York, USA
Website: www.lawschool.cornell.edu

Cornell Law School, located in Ithaca, New York, is a graduate school of Cornell University. It is one of the five Ivy League law schools. The law school offers four types of law degrees, an array of programs and institutes, and over 120 courses for its students. Programs at the law school can be supplemented by the rich academic resources available in other units of Cornell University. The law school's faculty is one of the most prolific in the nation, and is also known for its excellence in classroom teaching. It has a faculty to student ratio 10.4 to 1, the third lowest of any the 184 ABA accredited law schools in the United States [1] Among the profession, Cornell retains an excellent reputation: its graduates have the sixth highest percent placement at the top 50 law firms. Additionally, Cornell's New York bar pass rate for first-time candidates is always among the highest of any law school in New York state.

Contents

[edit] History

The Deans of Cornell Law School
Douglas Boardman 1887-1891
Francis Miles Finch 1891-1903
Ernest Wilson Huffcut 1903-1907
Frank Irvine 1907-1916
Edwin Hamlin Woodruff 1916-1921
George Gleason Bogert 1921-1926
Charles Kellog Burdick 1926-1937
Robert Sproule Stevens 1937-1954
Gray Thoron 1956-1963
William Ray Forrester 1963-1973
Roger Conant Cramton 1973-1980
Peter William Martin 1980-1988
Russell King Osgood 1988-1998
Charles W. Wolfram 1998-1999 (Interim)
Lee E. Teitelbaum 1999-2003
John A. Siliciano 2003 (Interim)
Stewart J. Schwab 2004-present

The "law department" opened in 1887 in Morrill Hall with Judge Douglas Boardman as its first Dean. At that time, admission did not require even a high school diploma. In 1917, two years of undergraduate education was required for admission, and in 1924, it became a graduate degree program.[2] The department was renamed the Cornell Law School in 1925. Perhaps the most prominent faculty member in the early years was Charles Evans Hughes who taught from 1891-93. In 1890, George Washington Fields graduated, one of the first law-school-graduates of color in the United States.[3] In 1893, Cornell had its first woman graduate, Mary Kennedy Brown.

In 1892, the school moved into Boardman Hall, which was constructed specifically for legal instruction. The school moved from Boardman Hall (now the site of Olin Library) to its present-day location at Myron Taylor Hall in 1937. The law school building, an ornate, Gothic structure, was the result of a donation by Myron Charles Taylor, a former CEO of US Steel, and a member of the Cornell class of 1894. An addition to Myron Taylor Hall, the Jane M.G. Foster wing, was completed in 1988. Ms. Foster was a member of the class of 1918, and was the first woman to serve as Editor in Chief on an American law review.

In 1948, Cornell Law School established a program of specialization in international affairs and also started awarding LL.B. degrees. In 1968, the school began to publish the Cornell International Law Journal. The Clarke Program in East Asian Law and Culture was established in 2002.

[edit] Admissions

Cornell Law School
Cornell Law School

Admission is very competitive. The law school receives roughly 4000 applications each year for an entering class of 185-190. Successful applicants usually have thrived in academic as well as non-academic settings. The academic profile of students is strong. In 2006 the median GPA for incoming Cornell Law students was 3.67, and the median Law School Admission Test score was 167. The admission rate for 2006 was 22.6%. Entering students graduated from over 100 different undergraduate colleges and universities and studied a wide range of academic disciplines. In addition, they typically were active in extracurricular and community activities. Well over half usually have full-time work experience and less than 40% come straight from college to law school. In the LL.M. program, which is geared to non-U.S.-trained lawyers, 900 applications were received for the 50 to 60 openings. LL.M. students come from over 30 different countries.[4]

Along with consideration of the quality of an applicant's academic record and LSAT scores, the full-file-review admissions process places a heavy emphasis on an applicant's personal statement, letters of recommendation, community/extracurricular involvement, and work experience. The application also invites a statement on diversity and a short note on why an applicant particularly wants to attend Cornell. The Law School values applicants who have done their research and have particular interests or goals that would be served by attending the school versus one of its peer institutions.[5]

[edit] Reputation

Cornell is one of the pre-eminent law schools in the United States; 7th in the 2004 Law School 100 rankings,[6] 12th in the 2008 U.S. News and World Report,[7] and its master of laws, or LL.M., program ranked 1st in the 2006 AUAP rankings. In 2005, the National Law Journal reported that Cornell Law graduates had the 6th highest percent placement at the top 50 law firms.[8]

Cornell Law graduates have consistently achieved the highest bar pass-rate among law schools in the state of New York during the past few years.[9] In 2006, Cornell's July 2005 New York bar pass rate for first-time candidates was 95% versus 94% for New York University (NYU) and 90% for Columbia.[10]

[edit] Academic Offerings

[edit] Law Degrees

The Cornell Law School
The Cornell Law School
  • J.D. Programs (including the J.D. Transfer Program)
  • LL.M. Program
  • J.S.D. Program
  • J.D./Master en Droit, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne (four-year program that prepares graduates for admission to the bar in the United States and in France)
  • J.D./Master of German and European Law and Practice (M.LL.P.), Humboldt University of Berlin (three-year program that provides graduates with a knowledge of German and European law at both an academic and a practical level)
  • J.D./Master in Global Business Law, Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris and Paris I (three-year program that offers a multi-disciplinary, European perspective on international law and business issues)

[edit] Notable Programs

  • International and Comparative Law Program
  • Legal Information Institute
  • Death Penalty Project
  • Legal Aid Clinic
  • Public Interest
  • Keck Foundation Ethics Program
  • Olin Program of Law & Economics
  • Clarke Program in East Asian Law and Culture
  • Asylum Clinic
  • International Human Rights Clinic
  • Externships Program

[edit] International Summer Law Institutes

Cornell Law School runs two summer institutes overseas, providing Cornell Law students with unique opportunities to engage in rigorous international legal studies. The Cornell-Université Paris I Summer Institute of International and Comparative Law at the Sorbonne in Paris, France offers a diverse curriculum in the historic Sorbonne and Centre Panthéon (Faculté de droit) buildings at the heart of the University of Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne. Coursework includes international human rights, comparative legal systems, and international commercial arbitration. French language classes are also offered.

In 2006, Cornell Law School announced that it would launch a second summer law institute, the new Workshop in International Business Transactions with Chinese Characteristics in Suzhou, China. In partnership with Bucerius Law School (Germany) and Kenneth Wang School of Law at Soochow University (China), Cornell Law provides students from the United States, Europe, and China with an academic forum in which they can collaborate on an international business problem.

[edit] Library

Cornell's law library is one of the largest in the nation. The law library contains 700,000 books and microforms and includes rare historical texts relevant to the legal history of the United States.[11]

The Cornell Law School Library
The Cornell Law School Library

The library is one of the 12 national depositories for print records of briefs filed with the United States Supreme Court. Also, there is a large collection of print copies of the records and briefs of the New York Court of Appeals. The large microfilm collection has sets of Congressional, Supreme Court, and United Nations documents, as well as a large collection of World Law Reform commission materials. Microfiche records and briefs for the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and D.C. circuit, and the New York State Court of Appeals are also collected.[12] The library also has a large collection of international, foreign, and comparative law, with the main focus being on the Commonwealth of Nations and Europe. Along with this, there are also collections of public international law and international trade law. A new initiative by the library is to collect Chinese, Japanese, and Korean resources to support the Law School’s Clarke Program in East Asian Law and Culture.[12]

The law library also boasts a significant collection of rare books. This collection has over 1200 volumes and it is housed in the Rare Book Room, which was built in 1981. Among these rare books is the Samuel Thorne collection, which has 175 of the some of the earliest and most rare books on law. Other significant collections include the Nathaniel C. Moak library and the Edwin J. Marshall Collection of early works on equity and the Earl J. Bennett Collection of Statutory Material, a print collection of original colonial, territorial, and state session laws and statutory codes.[12]

Among the library’s special collections are 19th Century Trials Collection, Donovan Nuremberg Trials Collection, Scottsboro Collection, William P. and Adele Langston Rogers Collection and the Chile Declassification Project.[12]

[edit] Legal Information Institute

Cornell Law also is home to the Legal Information Institute (LII), known internationally as a leading on-line provider of public legal information. Legal Information Institute. The LII offers all opinions of the United States Supreme Court handed down since 1992, together with over 600 earlier decisions selected for their historic importance, over a decade of opinions of the New York Court of Appeals, and the full United States Code. The LII also publishes important secondary sources: libraries in two important areas (legal ethics and social security) and a series of “topical” pages that serve as concise explanatory guides and Internet resource listings for roughly 100 areas of law. Search engines and ranking systems identify the LII as the most linked to web resource in the field of law.

[edit] Publications

Cornell Law School boasts three highly-regarded law journals that are student-edited: the Cornell Law Review, the Cornell International Law Journal, and the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. Additionally, the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies is a peer-reviewed journal that is published by Cornell Law faculty.

[edit] Moot Court

Cornell Law students actively participate in myriad moot court competitions annually, both in the law school itself and in external and international competitions. The Langfan First-Year Moot Court Competition, which takes place every spring, traditionally draws a large majority of the first-year class. Other internal competitions include the Cuccia Cup and the Winter Cup.

[edit] Student Organizations

Student activities at Cornell Law School include:

[edit] Notable current faculty

See also: List of Cornell University people
  • Stewart J. Schwab, current Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law and noted employment law expert
  • Faust F. Rossi, current Samuel S. Leibowitz Professor of Trial Techniques and well-known for his lectures in evidence to students preparing for the bar examination
  • John H. Blume, current Professor of Law and Director of the Cornell Death Penalty Project, and a prominent U.S. Supreme Court advocate.
  • Robert S. Summers, current William G. McRoberts Research Professor in the Administration of the Law and co-author of the authoritative treatise on the Uniform Commercial Code
  • Annelise Riles, current Professor of Law and Professor of Anthropology who directs the law school's Clarke Program in East Asian Law and Culture, and is an internationally recognized expert on comparative law
  • John J. Barceló III, current William Nelson Cromwell Professor of International and Comparative Law and an expert on International Commercial Arbitration.
  • Cynthia R. Farina, current Professor of Law and co-author of the leading casebook on Administrative Law.
  • Theodore Eisenberg, current Henry Allen Mark Professor of Law and leader of the empirical legal studies movement.
  • Steven H. Shiffrin, current Charles Frank Reavis Sr. Professor of Law and acclaimed First Amendment scholar.
  • James A. Henderson Jr., current Frank B. Ingersoll Professor of Law, leading commentator on the law of torts and products liability and Special Master in the September 11, 2001 attacks respiratory illness cases.
  • Gregory S. Alexander, current A. Robert Noll Professor of Law and leading commentator on the law of property.
  • Valerie P. Hans, current Professor of Law and a leading authority on the jury system.
  • Kevin M. Clermont, current James and Mark Flanagan Professor of Law and nationally acclaimed casebook author and teacher of civil procedure.
  • Robert A. Hillman, current Edwin H. Woodruff Professor of Law and Reporter for the American Law Institute's Principles of the Law of Software Contracts.
  • Michael C. Dorf, a Constitutional Law expert who will begin teaching in 2008 having transferred from Columbia Law School

[edit] Notable alumni

See also: List of Cornell University people
Edmund Muskie
Edmund Muskie
William P. Rogers
William P. Rogers

[edit] United States government

[edit] Executive branch

[edit] Legislative branch

[edit] Judicial branch

  • Hon. Mary Donlon Alger - first female Judge on the United States Customs Court
  • Hon. Frederic Block - United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York
  • Hon. Robert Boochever - Judge for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
  • Hon. Leonie Brinkema - U.S. District Court Judge in Virginia who presided over the trial and conviction of 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.
  • Hon. Paul A. Crotty - United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York
  • Hon. Phillip S. Figa - United States District Court Judge for Colorado (2003-08)
  • Hon. Peter W. Hall - Judge for the 2nd Circuit US Court of Appeals, former United States Attorney for Vermont
  • Hon. Stephen C. Robinson - United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York; former United States Attorney for Connecticut
  • Hon. Shira A. Scheindlin - United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York
  • Hon. Amy St. Eve - United States District Court Judge for the Northern District of Illinois
  • Hon. Joseph L. Tauro - U.S. District Court Judge in Massachusetts; former United States Attorney for Massachusetts
  • Hon. Richard C. Wesley - Judge for the 2d Circuit Court of Appeals, former Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
  • Hon. Thomas S. Zilly - United States District Court Judge for the Western District of Washington
  • Hon. Elbert Tuttle - Chief Judge of United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, when that court became known for a series of decisions crucial in advancing the civil rights of African-Americans

[edit] Miscellaneous United States government

  • Steven D. Clymer - Professor of Law, Cornell Law School; Assistant United States Attorney that prosecuted United States v. Koon (Los Angeles police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King)
  • Arthur Hobson Dean - international law expert, chief U.S. negotiator at Panmunjeom, assisted with negotiations for Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, delegate to the United Nations
  • Boyd M. Johnson III - Assistant United States Attorney that led the investigation which led to the resignation of Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York.
  • Sudeen Kelly - Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the New Mexico Public Service Commission
  • Sol M. Linowitz - U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States; co-negotiated the treaty with Panama that restored Panamanian sovereignty over the Panama Canal; chairman of the President’s Commission on World Hunger; served as President Carter’s personal representative to the Middle East peace talks
  • Julie L. Myers - Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
  • Philip Perry - General Counsel, United States Department of Homeland Security
  • Jack L. Stempler - Award-winning distinguished civilian service in U.S. Department of Defense as counsel and assistant to secretaries of defense, 1948–81; executive of LTV Aerospace Corporation, 1982–92
  • Paul Szasz - Deputy to the United Nations Legal Counsel and principal drafter of the constitutions of Namibia and Bosnia-Herzegovina
  • Hon. Myron C. Taylor - CEO and Chairman of U.S. Steel; Emissary to the Holy See for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
  • William vanden Heuvel - former United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations and former Ambassador to the European Office of the United Nations in Geneva.

[edit] State government

  • Hon. Barry T. Albin - Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court
  • Mark J. Bennett - First Republican Attorney General of Hawaii in 40 years
  • Hon. Stephen G. Crane - Associate Justice of the New York Appellate Division – Second Department
  • Philip H. Hoff - Governor of Vermont 1963-69
  • Ernest Wilson Huffcut - Dean of Cornell Law School; legal adviser to Governor Charles Evans Hughes of New York
  • Hon. Debra Ann James - New York Supreme Court Justice
  • Hon. Samuel S. Leibowitz - criminal defense attorney, famously noted for defending the Scottsboro Boys, nine Southern African-American youths falsely accused of rape and sentenced to death in Alabama in 1931; New York Supreme Court Justice
  • Harold O. Levy - Chancellor of New York City Schools 2000 - 2002
  • Hon. Alfred J. Loew - Judge
  • Hon. Louis B. York - New York Supreme Court Justice

[edit] Academia

[edit] Business

  • J. Carter Bacot - former President, Chairman, and CEO of The Bank of New York
  • Robert B. Diener - founder of Hotels.com; class of 1982
  • Bob DuPuy - President and Chief Operating Officer of Major League Baseball
  • Milton S. Gould - prominent New York City trial lawyer
  • Joyce P. Hagg - General Counsel and Senior Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company; Class of 1975
  • David S. Litman - founder of Hotels.com; class of 1982

[edit] Celebrities

[edit] References

  1. ^ ABA – LSAC Official Guide to Law Schools.
  2. ^ http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/about/history.cfm Retrieved 2008-03-28.
  3. ^ http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/about/timeline/ Retrieved 2008-03-28.
  4. ^ Cornell Law School. JDAadmission.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-23.
  5. ^ Cornell Law School. JDAadmission.com. Retrieved on 2006-06-23.
  6. ^ Law School 100 Rankings. Retrieved on 2006-05-24.
  7. ^ US News Law School Rankings. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
  8. ^ Top 50 firms hire most from big names. The National Law Journal. Retrieved on 2006-05-23.
  9. ^ Highest bar pass-rates at law schools in New York State. Retrieved on 2006-05-24.
  10. ^ Bar Pass Rates. Retrieved on 2006-05-24.
  11. ^ Tax Proof Blog: Rankings of Law Libraries. Tax Proof Blog. Retrieved on 2006-06-23.
  12. ^ a b c d Cornell Law School Library. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-06-23.

[edit] External links

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