Changing the Landscape: 1930-1955
1930
Jerome N. Frank launches the Legal Realism movement with his book Law and the Modern Mind, later is a regular instructor at YLS.
Pictured: Jerome Frank from the Yale Manuscripts and Archives.
1931
The Sterling Law Building is opened, modeled after the spirit and atmosphere of the English Inns of Court.
Pictured: Sketch for the New Law School by James Gamble Rogers; Section from Wall St. to Grove St.
1931
Jane M. Bolin becomes the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School, and later becomes the first Black woman judge in the United States.
Pictured: Jane Bolin from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
1935
Dean Charles E. Clark becomes the Reporter drafting the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which govern civil proceedings in the United States district courts.
Pictured: Charles E. Clark from the 1946 Yale Law Reporter.
1935
Professor Thurman W. Arnold publishes the best-selling book The Symbols of Government. Arnold later became the head of the federal Antitrust Division and the founder of the Arnold and Porter law firm.
Pictured: Thurman Arnold from Archives at Yale.
1936
Eight Yale Law School professors go to Washington to serve in Franklin Roosevelt's “New Deal.”
Pictured: Professor Hamilton, one of the eight, hosting an outdoor class in 1939.
1938
Professor J. W. Moore, J.S.D. Class of 1935, publishes classic treatise, Moore's Federal Practice. He would go on also to edit Collier on Bankruptcy.
Pictured: James W. Moore from the 1958 Yale Law Report.
1940
The America First Committee, dedicated to keeping the United States out of World War II, is founded at Yale Law School; members included Gerald R. Ford, Potter Stewart, and R. Sargent Shriver (all Class of 1941).
1940
Ashbel G. Gulliver becomes the sixth Dean.
Pictured: Ashbel G. Gulliver at the unveiling of his portrait from Volume 8 of the Yale Law Report.
1942
During World War II, Yale Law School almost comes to a halt as enrollments decline.
1943
Professors Myres S. McDougal, J.S.D. Class of 1931, and Harold Lasswell propose “policy science” in a Yale Law Journal article, “Legal Education and Public Policy: Professional Training in the Public Interest.”
Pictured: Myres McDougal from Yale Manuscripts and Archives.
1944
Miriam Lashley, Class of 1944, becomes the first woman Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal.
Pictured: The editorial board of the 1943-1944 Yale Law Journal; Lashley is sitting front and center.
1946
Wesley A. Sturges, Class of 1923, becomes the seventh Dean.
Pictured: Wesley Sturges from the 1946 Yale Law Reporter.
1946
Legal Aid Association is formed by students to serve the community and gain practical legal experience.
Pictured: Legal Aid Association from the 1946 Yale Law Reporter.
1950
Dean Wesley Sturges, asked to comment on Harvard Law School's decision to admit women, sends a telegram: “We have always followed with genuine interest long struggle of Harvard liberals in this matter. Our many generations of women graduates are of course a pride and joy.”
1954
Harry Shulman becomes the eighth Dean.
Pictured: Harry Shulman's profile in the 1954 Yale Law Reporter.
1955
Yale Law Report, the School’s alumni magazine, publishes its first issue. To date, the popular publication chronicling the life of the School has produced 70 volumes.
Pictured: Cover of the first issue.
