{"id":25812,"date":"2016-09-05T20:52:54","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T01:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=25812"},"modified":"2016-09-05T20:52:54","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T01:52:54","slug":"americas-first-law-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2016\/09\/americas-first-law-school\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s First Law School"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"V__9AEC\"<\/a>I had the opportunity in August to spend a day at the Litchfield Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut.\u00a0 Although several universities enrolled students in law departments during the final decades of the eighteenth century, almost all lawyers of the period prepared for practice by completing apprenticeships in lawyers\u2019 offices.\u00a0 Attorney and Judge Tapping Reeve thought that education at a formal law school would be a better way for lawyers to prepare, and\u00a0therefore he founded the Litchfield Law School in 1774.<\/p>\n

More than 1,100 students attended the Litchfield Law School before it closed in 1833.\u00a0 Two of Reeve\u2019s students (Aaron Burr and John C. Calhoun) went on to become Vice President.\u00a0 Fifteen of the students became governors.\u00a0 Three of the students became Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.\u00a0 Twenty-eight students became United States Senators, and another ninety-seven served in the United States House of Representatives.\u00a0 Clearly, the Litchfield Law School was important in educating and credentialing a significant portion of the era\u2019s most accomplished lawyers.<\/p>\n

It took students two years to complete the full course of study at Litchfield, and all classes met in a small, one-room building that Reeve had constructed specifically as the School.\u00a0 Lectures covered a range of subject areas including contracts, domestic relations, evidence, and property, and a moot court took place weekly. Visitors to the School can review the surviving notebooks of several students.\u00a0 I consulted one notebook which began with a still-timely discussion of what counts as a \u201cright\u201d under the law.<\/p>\n

Overall, Reeve and his eventual partner Attorney James Gould strove for a comprehensive study of law, including more than the reigning common law.\u00a0 Reeve and Gould expected students to recognize law\u2019s complexities and complications and hoped the students would develop a theoretical understanding of the law.\u00a0 Having acquired a rich appreciation of the law, students went on to be leaders of the era\u2019s bar and especially distinguished themselves in public service.<\/p>\n

It might be worth remembering the Litchfield Law School\u2019s goals and achievements in the present, when some urge that law schools tend more to training rather than to educating their students.\u00a0 Yes, internships and clinical experiences are increasingly valuable parts of legal education, but law schools should still emphasize the comprehensive, theoretical understanding of the law.\u00a0 Our goal, after all, is not merely the production of lawyers but rather the graduation of men and women who will become great lawyers.\u00a0 Tapping Reeve figured out a way to accomplish that at the Litchfield Law School in the 18th century, and his model of legal education remains worthy of emulation.<\/p>\n

Pictured below: the Tapping Reeve Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"V__2C06\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the opportunity in August to spend a day at the Litchfield Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut.\u00a0 Although several universities enrolled students in law departments during the final decades of the eighteenth century, almost all lawyers of the period prepared for practice by completing apprenticeships in lawyers\u2019 offices.\u00a0 Attorney and Judge Tapping Reeve thought 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