William & Mary Law School


The Marshall–Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary, commonly referred to as William & Mary Law School, is the oldest law school in the United States. Located in Williamsburg, Virginia, it is a part of William & Mary, the second oldest college and first university in the United States. The Law School has an enrollment of 645 full-time students seeking a Juris Doctor or an LL.M. in the American Legal System, a two or three semester program for lawyers trained outside the United States.

History

William & Mary Law School was founded in 1779 at the impetus of Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson, an alumnus of the university, during the reorganization of the originally royal institution, transforming the college of William and Mary into the first university in the United States. At Jefferson's urging, the governing board of visitors of William & Mary established a chair of law and appointed George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, and Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, its first holder..
Before filling the chair of law at William & Mary, Wythe tutored numerous students in the subject, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe among them. John Marshall, who became Chief Justice of the United States in 1801, received his only formal legal education when he attended Wythe's lectures at William & Mary in 1780. St. George Tucker, who succeeded Wythe as Professor of Law and edited the seminal early American edition of Blackstone's Commentaries, also was one of Wythe's students.
The growth of the Law School was halted abruptly by the beginning of the American Civil War. The start of military campaigns on the Virginia Peninsula compelled William & Mary to close its doors. It would be another sixty years before the historical priority in law could be revived in a modern program that is now nearly ninety years old.
After William & Mary Law School was reopened early in the twentieth century, it was moved around the main campus of the university to several different buildings in succession. In 1980, the School was moved to its current location on the outskirts of Colonial Williamsburg, a short distance from the main campus. The building has been renovated several times since 1980, with the addition of a new wing of classrooms and renovation of older classrooms in 2000, the opening of the Henry C. Wolf Law Library, the construction of a new admission suite, and the addition of the James A. and Robin L. Hixon Center for Experiential Learning and Leadership.
W. Taylor Reveley III, formerly managing partner of the law firm of Hunton & Williams, is a former dean of the Law School. He served as the 27th president of William & Mary from September 5, 2008 to June 30, 2018, after serving as interim president since February 2008. Davison M. Douglas, a nationally renowned legal historian, served as dean from July 2009 through June 30, 2020. A. Benjamin Spencer, a nationally renowned civil procedure and federal courts expert and former professor of law at the University of Virginia, became dean and Chancellor Professor at William & Mary Law School on July 1, 2020. He is William & Mary’s first African-American dean of any school at the university, including the law school.
The former chancellor of William & Mary, Sandra Day O'Connor, delivered commencement remarks to the graduating class of the Law School in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

Cost of attendance

Tuition at William & Mary for the 2019-20 academic year was $35,000 for Virginia residents and $44,000 for non-residents. Approximately 88% of students received financial aid. Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years, based on data from the 2018-2019 academic year, is $197,520 for residents; the estimated cost for non-residents is $229,557.

Employment

According to William & Mary's official 2019 ABA-required disclosures, 95% of the Class of 2019 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD-advantaged, non-school funded employment nine months after graduation.
William & Mary's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 10%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2018 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation, with 0% of the class in school-funded jobs.

Ranking

W&M Law was ranked 24th on the Above the Law ranking in 2019.
U.S. News ranked W&M Law as tied for the 31st place in their latest 2021 rankings of the nation's law schools.
For the Class of 2022, the median undergraduate GPA was 3.76 and the median LSAT score was 163.

Programs