FOUNDING, 1891

New York Law School was established in 1891 by Columbia College School of Law faculty, students, and alumni who were protesting their trustees’ attempts to dictate the teaching methods used by professors. The central figure in the revolt against Columbia and the subsequent creation of New York Law School was Columbia Law School’s founder, Theodore Dwight, a major figure in the history of American legal scholarship.

THE EARLY YEARS, 1900s

Almost immediately, New York Law School attained a formidable reputation due to the excellence of its students and faculty.

From its beginning, New York Law School has been dedicated to providing diverse routes to achievement through innovation in scholarship, service, and professional training. By 1904, New York Law School was the largest law school in the country. That year, the school’s founders created one of the nation’s first evening divisions to provide a flexible alternative to full-time legal education for those in the workforce or with family obligations. The Evening Division also allowed students to build upon previously established successful careers or to begin a second career.

Among the Law School’s early lecturers were Woodrow Wilson and Charles Evans Hughes. The first class included James Gerard, who went on to serve as ambassador to Germany during World War I, and Bainbridge Colby, who became secretary of state under President Wilson. Other early graduates included Robert F. Wagner, a future U.S. senator from New York and a leader in developing national labor policy, and two Pulitzer Prize winners: Wallace Stevens (poetry) and Elmer Rice (drama). Another prominent alumnus from the pre–World War I era was the Honorable James S. Watson, a distinguished judge and an important member of New York’s African American community. The judge’s daughter, Barbara Watson, also attended the Law School and was the first woman to attain the rank of Assistant Secretary of State of the United States.

Many of those attending at the beginning of this century became founders or name partners of leading law firms, including Henry Hurlbut Abbott of Breed, Abbott & Morgan; Edwin Sunderland of Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Sunderland & Kiendel; and Albert Milbank and Walter Hope of Milbank, Tweed, Hope & Hadley.

Classes of the 1920s and 1930s produced graduates who would play a leading role in the profession. Among the most notable was U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan. Other prominent graduates included Albert Parker, a founding partner of Parker, Chapin, Flattau & Klimpl; Randolph E. Paul and John F. Wharton, founding partners of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Alfred Rose, a founding partner of Proskauer, Rose, Goetz & Mendelsohn; Cameron F. MacRae, a former chairman of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae; Chester Carlson, who invented the xerography process leading to the founding of Xerox Corporation; and Justice Emilio Nunez, the first Latino to be named to the bench in New York State.

New York Law School closed for one year during World War I, interrupting a steady expansion that had lasted until the mid-1920s. While the situation improved by the 1ate 1930s, the draft in 1940 dealt the institution another blow when the Law School was forced to close in 1941 for the duration of World War II.

POST-WAR REBUILDING, 1947-1977

In 1947, New York Law School reopened and began to rebuild. A major impetus came from graduates who formed a committee spearheaded by New York State Supreme Court Justice Albert Cohn. The new program was small, but the Law School made significant strides, and gained accreditation from the American Bar Association in 1954.

Steady growth marked the next decades. With the appointment of E. Donald Shapiro as dean in the early 1970s, the Law School joined the Association of American Law Schools and the trustees authorized an increase in the size of the full-time faculty. Admissions requirements were raised and enrollment grew. As facilities expanded, an endowment fund was established. In 1975, the school received its first endowed professorship, the Joseph Solomon Distinguished Professorship of Law. The School’s first center for specialized study, the Communications Media Center (now the Media Center), opened in 1977.

Many graduates, who achieved prominence in the bar, the judiciary, government, and business, were students during these years. They include the Honorable Roger J. Miner '56, former chief judge, now senior judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; Maurice Greenberg '50, president of American International Group, Inc. (AIG); Arthur N. Abbey '59, senior partner at Abbey Gardy LLP and current chairman of the Law School's Board of Trustees; Lawrence S. Huntington '64, chief executive officer of Fiduciary Trust International and former chairman of the Law School’s Board of Trustees; and Kathleen Grimm '80, deputy chancellor for administration and finance, New York City Department of Education.

GROWTH AND REVITALIZATION, 1980-1999

Dramatic growth and revitalization continued under the leadership of James F. Simon, dean from 1983 until 1992. A series of major facility renovations were begun, highlighted by the opening of the Mendik Library in 1990. This was followed by the construction of the Samuel and Ethel LeFrak Moot Court Room, the Ernst Stiefel Reading Room, and the Shepard and Ruth K. Broad Student Center. An extensive remodeling and modernization program transformed the Law School’s classrooms, offices, and specialty training areas. During Dean Simon’s tenure, the Rita and Joseph Solomon Professorship of Wills, Trusts and Estates was added, and the Law School introduced an innovative Lawyering Skills Program into the curriculum.

In 1992, Harry H. Wellington, Sterling Professor of Law Emeritus and former dean of Yale Law School, became the fourteenth dean and president of New York Law School. Under Dean Wellington’s dynamic leadership, a strategic plan was implemented to position New York Law School as a vital urban law center with an academic program that integrates the strategic and ethical perspectives of the practicing attorney. Dean Wellington broadened the Law School’s curriculum to increase emphasis on the development of professional skills.

In addition to the Media Center, two new centers for specialized study opened. The Center for New York City Law was established in 1993 to focus on the study of New York City government. Founded in 1996, the Center for International Law supports teaching and research in all areas of international law but concentrates on the law of international trade and finance.

During Dean Wellington’s tenure, the Ernst C. Stiefel Professorship of Comparative Law was created.

THE PRESENT AND OUR SHARED FUTURE, 2001- 

Richard A. Matasar, a nationally recognized scholar in civil procedure and federal jurisdiction, was named the fifteenth president and dean of New York Law School on July 1, 2000.

Almost immediately, Dean Matasar led a comprehensive, collegial self-evaluation process involving all members of the New York Law School community in an exercise that sharpened the definition of its goals. The School articulated a mission statement centered on three goals that focus its approach to legal education:

• to embrace innovation;
• to foster integrity and professionalism;
• to advance justice for a diverse society.

On this principled foundation, the Law School created a plan for its future to strengthen skills and values education for its students.

The words “Learn Law. Take Action.” express the Law School’s commitment to teach students to use the skills and knowledge they acquire as lawyers to do something valuable for others. By fostering an internal culture that embraces innovation and creativity, the Law School encourages students to develop the ability to adapt to new situations as they arise, to change their behavior when change requires it, and to graduate with a commitment to a lifetime of learning. Through an extensive program for professional development, with an emphasis on integrity and professionalism, the faculty and staff engage students in the ongoing improvement of the legal profession.

REINVIGORATING THE CURRICULUM

The faculty has adopted a new curricular approach, grounded on a strong J.D. curriculum, to provide students with different avenues for academic success. Dubbed “the right program for each student,” this new approach acknowledges that different practice settings require differing levels of training. For example, students working in larger organizations with extensive in-house training programs have less need for hands-on training than those who will open a solo practice. Those in larger organizations may need training in a specialized area, while those in general practice settings may need more breadth and less specialized expertise.

The faculty approved and implemented several new initiatives which together comprise The Right Program for Each Student:

• The John Marshall Harlan Scholars Program, a new honors program named after New York Law School’s alumnus and United States Supreme Court justice who served on the Court from 1955 to 1971. The program offers top students the opportunity to pursue in-depth study in a specialized field of law through affiliation with one of five academic centers;
• The Individual Program provides a curricular focus for students in the middle of the class who are likely to pursue careers as general practitioners and advocates;
• The Comprehensive Curriculum addresses the needs of students who require a special course of study to enhance mastery of fundamental aspects of legal analysis and writing; and
• The Professional Development Project helps students develop their professional portfolio—volunteer opportunities, extracurricular programs, solid legal skills—and a strong sense of professionalism and legal ethics.

In 2003, following a review by the American Bar Association and the New York State Board of Regents, the Law School established a new degree program, a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation. The program is open to graduates of U.S. and foreign law schools and offers advanced tax training for attorneys who seek to acquire a thorough grounding in U.S. tax law and to master the skills needed to work at the most challenging levels of tax practice. New York Law School is now one of only two law schools in the New York City metropolitan area to offer this advanced training for tax lawyers.

GROWTH AND STRENGTH
OF ACADEMIC CENTERS 

The School’s academic centers, led by members of the faculty, continue to be developed to maximize the effectiveness of faculty research and scholarly endeavors, teaching, and activism, and to increase opportunities for students to engage in important policy issues. The centers complement course work in civil rights, international human rights, international trade and finance, constitutional law, urban legal studies, information law and policy, and professional values and practice. Four academic centers and an institute, described below, play an integral role in the Harlan Scholars Honors Program.

Center for International Law

In mid-1996, New York Law School, aided by a grant from the C.V. Starr Foundation, created the Center for International Law. The Center supports teaching and research in all areas of international law but concentrates on the law of international trade and finance, deriving much of its strength from interaction with New York’s business, commercial, financial, and legal communities. The Center organizes symposia events to engage students and faculty in discussions of important and timely issues with experts and practitioners in the field. For professional development, the Center offers extensive resources for studying and researching careers in international law.

Center for New York City Law

Established in 1993, the Center for New York City Law is the only program of its kind in the country. Its objectives are to gather and disseminate information about New York City’s laws, rules, and procedures; to sponsor publications, symposia, and conferences on topics related to governing the city; and to suggest reforms to make city government more effective and efficient. The Center’s bimonthly publication, CityLaw, tracks New York City’s rules and regulations, how they are enforced, and court challenges to them. Its Web site, www.citylaw.org, contains a searchable library of more than 5,000 administrative decisions of New York City agencies.

Center for Professional Values and Practice

The School’s Center for Professional Values and Practice provides a vehicle through which to examine the role of the legal profession and approaches to law practice. The Center’s work supports the development of lawyering skills and reflective professionalism, including consideration of how these have evolved over the decades, even as business and ethical pressures have intensified and become more complex,and the roles of lawyers in society have multiplied.

Center on Business Law & Policy

Established in 2005, the Center on Business Law & Policy is designed to provide its Harlan Scholars honors students an enriched educational experience in the business, securities, and commercial law areas. The Center's goal is to prepare a motivated, hard-working corps of students to excel as planners and counselors in general advising, litigation and especially deal-making situations where businesses and other commercial entities are clients. Center graduates will have a firm grounding in the fundamentals needed to enter business-oriented law firms, law departments in corporations, investment banks, financial services and brokerage firms, institutional investors, as well as regulators and other commercially oriented governmental offices, and will be exposed to the areas of law that are relevant to these types of practices.

Institute for Information Law and Policy

Established in 2003, the new Institute for Information Law and Policy is New York Law School’s home for the study of information, communication and law in the global digital age. The goal of the Institute is to apply the theory and technology of communications and information to strengthening democratic institutions and the rule of law as technology evolves. Through its curriculum, ongoing conference and speaker series and a variety of original projects, the Institute investigates the emerging field of information law, which encompasses intellectual property, privacy, free speech, information access, communications, and all areas of law pertaining to information and communication practices.

Justice Action Center

The Justice Action Center brings together New York Law School faculty and students in an ongoing critical evaluation of public interest lawyering. Through scholarship and fieldwork, the Center seeks to evaluate the efficacy of law as an agent of change and social betterment. Through a focused curriculum, symposia, clinical experience, and research opportunities, the Center seeks to instill in students a deeper intellectual understanding of the law regardless of their final career goals, and to present opportunities to maintain their ties to the social justice community beyond law school.

In 2006, the School's Labor & Employment Law Program became part of the Justice Action Center. Ever since New York Law School alumnus Senator Robert F. Wagner—the “legislative pilot of the New Deal”—wrote and led the fight to enact the National Labor Relations Act, New York Law School has remained on the cutting edge of labor and employment law and public policy. In the tradition of Senator Wagner, New York Law School’s Labor & Employment Law Program seeks to advance and influence law and public policy with an action-oriented, public-interested agenda.

Lawyering Skills Center

Experiential learning is an integral part of the New York Law School curriculum. Beginning with the first-year required course called Lawyering, every student is given the opportunity to apply her or his legal reasoning and analysis skills in the context of a simulated interview of a client, then in an interview of a witness and finally in a session in which they counsel a client. This course is a ground-breaking and innovative way to introduce students to the tasks that lawyers are asked to perform. Building on the Lawyering course, the Lawyering Skills Center offers advanced simulation courses, an extensive Externship Program, and a rich array of clinics.

Media Center

The Media Center, one of the oldest and most extensive programs of its kind, was established in 1977 in response to the explosive growth of communication technologies. The Center continues to promote education, discussion, research, and writing about mass-communications law. The faculty offers a substantial number of related courses and extracurricular programs dealing with issues such as cable television franchising procedures, direct broadcast satellites, videotext services, racial discrimination in television, and the future of public broadcasting.

Mental Disability Law Program

Another unique program, New York Law School’s Online Course in Mental Disability Law, is offered to professionals who work with, or on behalf of, persons with mental disabilities. The fourteen-week course is delivered directly to students through the convenience of distance education.

POISED FOR SUCCESS

New York Law School is poised for continued success. Its vitality springs from the dedication of its stellar faculty, the talent and energy of its students, and the strong support and commitment of its graduates.

The Law School’s distinguished full-time faculty comprises productive scholars who are dedicated educators. Some of the nation’s most prominent scholars from other law schools also have served as visiting professors. Student enrollment has remained at a level of almost 1,400 students in the Day and Evening Divisions.

Government leaders and judges from the United States and abroad often speak at or visit the Law School. These have included former President Jimmy Carter; Justices of the Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harry A. Blackmun, William J. Brennan Jr., Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Sandra Day O’Connor; former New York State Governor Mario Cuomo; former New York City Mayors Edward I. Koch, David N. Dinkins, Rudolph W. Giuliani and current Mayor Michael Bloomberg; U.S. Solicitor General Drew S. Days III; former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Thomas Pickering, and, most recently Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo of the International Criminal Court.