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The University of Virginia School of Law
(Virginia Law) was founded in Charlottesville in 1819 by Thomas
Jefferson as one of the original subjects taught at his
"academical village," the University of Virginia. The law
school maintains an enrollment of approximately 1,100 students in
its initial degree program (the Juris Doctor or J.D.). It also offers the
Master of Laws
(LL.M.) and the Doctor of the Science of
Law (J.S.D.) degrees.
According to U.S. News the school's reputation is
solidified as Top 14 (also known as a T-14 school)
and has enjoyed consistent appearances in the prestigious "Top 10"
U.S. News & World
Report rankings (UVA dropped out of the Top 10 once in
1994, when it was ranked 14th). Currently, U.S. News ranks Virginia Law 10th, tied with Northwestern and regional peer Duke.[1]
According to Brian Leiter's Law School rankings, Virginia Law ranks
17th in the nation in terms of scholarly impact as measured by
academic citations of its faculty. [1] And in terms of
overall student numerical quality, Virginia Law ranks 8th in the
nation. [2]
The school receives no funding from public coffers except for
in-state student tuition subsidies.[2] Thus,
the Law School depends upon the largesse of private donors, its
substantial endowment and student tuition payments. In 1995-1997,
the Law School used entirely donated funds to renovate and expand
its buildings on the University's North Grounds to include the
former facilities of the Darden
Graduate School of Business Administration which built a new
campus several hundred yards away. The Law School's 51% alumni
giving rate is among the highest of the nation's law schools.[3]
Admissions
Virginia Law is among the most selective law schools in the
nation. For the 2009-2010 entering class, 15% of applicants were
accepted with a class median LSAT score of 170 and median
GPA of 3.85. [4] Emphasizing its
role as a public institution, Virginia Law reserves 40% of the
seats in each first-year class for Virginia residents (comprising
mainly graduates from UVA and The
College of William and Mary).
Student
organizations
The Law School maintains an extensive roster of student
organizations, including chapters of the Federalist
Society, the American Constitution Society and the Saint
Thomas More Society.
The Virginia Law Weekly, the Law
School's student-run weekly newspaper, has been published since
1948. The paper has been cited in several court cases including the
U.S. Supreme Court case Patterson v. New
York. In addition to its news content, the VLW also
contains student-submitted content which often includes humor and
creative pieces. The Law Weekly has won the American Bar
Association's previous three "Best Newspaper Awards," in 2006,
2007, and 2008. [3]
Each spring over a hundred students write, direct and perform in
The Libel Show, a comedy and musical theatre production
that was first organized in 1904. Its performers roast Law School
professors, student stereotypes and life in Charlottesville
throughout each of its three nightly showings. Professors write and
sing their response to the students' jokes at the penultimate
performance.
Law
journals
The Law School is host to nine academic journals, including the
Virginia Law Review, one of
the most cited law journals in the country[4]:
Notable Virginia Law
graduates
Politics
- George
Allen ('77) - former U.S. Senator and former Governor of Virginia
- George E. Allen, Sr (1900) - former
Virginia State
Senator and founder of Allen, Allen, Allen &
Allen
- James Lindsay Almond, Jr.
(1923, LL.B) - former Governor of Virginia and Judge, United
States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- Alben W.
Barkley (1900) - former U.S. Senator and former U.S. Vice
President
- Evan Bayh ('81) -
U.S. Senator
- Robert Bauer
('76) - former General Counsel of the Obama Campaign and Personal
Attorney for President Barack Obama.
- Kit Bond ('63) - U.S.
Senator
- Rick Boucher -
U.S Congressman
- Alan Stephenson Boyd ('48) - First
U.S. Secretary of
Transportation
- John Brigeland ('87) - Director, USA Freedom Corps
- Mortimer
Caplin ('40) - former Commissioner, U.S. Internal Revenue Service
- John Cornyn
('95) - U.S. Senator
- Randy Forbes
('77) - U.S. Congressman
- Luis
Fortuño ('85) - Governor of Puerto Rico
- Doug Gansler
('89) - Attorney General of
Maryland
- Jim Gilmore
('77) - former Governor of Virginia
- Bob Inglis ('84) -
U.S. Congressman
- Ted Kennedy
('59) - U.S. Senator
- Robert
F. Kennedy ('51) - Attorney General of the United States
(1961-1964), United States Senator from New York(1966-1968)
Presidential Candidate
- Angus King ('69) -
former Governor of Maine
- Sheila
Jackson-Lee ('75) - U.S. Congresswoman
- Thurgood Marshall, Jr. ('81) -
former Cabinet Secretary under U.S.
President Bill
Clinton
- Robert
Mueller - Federal Bureau of
Investigation Director
- Janet
Napolitano ('83) - Secretary of Homeland Security and former
Governor of Arizona
- Bill Nelson
('68) - Astronaut and
current U.S. Senator
- W.
Robert Pearson ('68) - U.S. Ambassador to Turkey
- Charles Robb ('73) - former U.S. Senator and former Governor of Virginia
- Faryar
Shirzad - advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush
- Howard Worth Smith (1903) - former U.S.
Congressman (Virginia), avid segregationist
- Mike Signer -
Candidate for Virginia lieutenant governor and former advisor to Mark Warner and Tom Perriello
- John Warner
('53) - Former U.S. Senator
- Lowell P. Weicker ('58) - former
U.S. Senator and former Governor of Connecticut.[5]
- Sheldon Whitehouse ('82) - U.S. Senator
- Woodrow
Wilson (attended 1879) - former U.S. President
- Frank Wisner -
former head of the Office of Strategic
Services and head of the Directorate of Plans of the CIA during the
1950s
- Tom
Davis - former U.S. Congressman from Virginia
- Frank M.
Dixon -(1939-1943) - former Alabama Governor
Law
- G. Steven
Agee - Judge, 4th
Circuit Court of Appeals
- Albert Vickers Bryan - (1921)
Judge, 4th
Circuit Court of Appeals
- John D. Butzner, Jr. - (1941,
LL.M) - Judge, 4th
Circuit Court of Appeals
- Ronald
D. Castille (1971) - Chief Justice, Pennsylvania
Supreme Court
- James L.
Dennis - Judge, United
States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- Hardy Cross Dillard - Dean, UVa Law
School; Judge, International Court of
Justice
- Robert D.
Durham (1998, LL.M) - Justice, Oregon Supreme Court
- Jerry Falwell Jr. (1987) - Chancellor, Liberty
University
- John A.
Field Jr. (1935) - Judge, 4th
Circuit Court of Appeals
- Fred Fielding (1964) - former White House
Counsel and D.C. Bar 2004 Lawyer of the Year
- Julia Smith Gibbons (1975) - Judge,
6th
Circuit Court of Appeals
- Thomas
B. Griffith (1985) - Judge, United States Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit.
- Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr. -
Justice, Missouri Supreme
Court
- J.
Michael Luttig (1981) - former Judge, 4th
Circuit Court of Appeals and current senior vice president and
general counsel at Boeing
Co.
- James Clark McReynolds (1884) -
former Justice, United
States Supreme Court
- Paul
Redmond Michel (1966) - Chief Judge, United
States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- John T. Morton (1994) - Assistant Secretary, United States
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States Department of
Homeland Security
- Diana
Gribbon Motz (1968) - Judge, 4th
Circuit Court of Appeals
- Stanley Forman Reed (1908) - former
Justice, United
States Supreme Court
- W. Taylor
Reveley, III, (1968) - President, The
College of William and Mary, former dean and law professor at
William
& Mary Law School
- Edward Samuel Smith (1947) - Judge,
United
States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- Peter S. Vincent (1995) - Principal Legal Advisor, United
States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States
Department of Homeland Security
- Andy Vollmer
(?) - Acting General Counsel, United States Securities and Exchange
Commission
- Michael J. Wilkins (2001, LL.M) -
Associate Chief Justice, Utah Supreme Court
- J. Harvie
Wilkinson (1972) - Judge, 4th
Circuit Court of Appeals
- Victor J. Wolski (1991) - Judge, United States Court
of Federal Claims
- John T. Broderick, Jr. (1972) -
Chief Justice, New Hampshire Supreme
Court
Media
Business
References
External
links