Fresh Start: 1873-1896
1873
Francis Wayland is appointed the first Dean of Yale Law School.
1873
Yale Law School moves into the New Haven County Courthouse, remaining there for the next 22 years.
Pictured: The Law Library in the courthouse on Church Street.
1873
The Reverend William Woodruff Atwater is appointed by the Yale Corporation to be the first law librarian.
Pictured: Rev. William Woodruff Atwater's gravestone at the Grove Street Cemetery.
1874
The idea of the Law School incorporating humanities and social sciences into its curriculum is first articulated in a 50th anniversary address by former Yale President Theodore D. Woolsey.
1875
Graduate instruction is commenced, with a Master of Laws degree being offered as well as a Doctor of Civil Law.
1877
Alexander Rieman Hack is the first student to receive Master of Laws degree.
1878
John Howard Whiting is the first student to receive Doctor of Civil Law degree.
1878
Professor Simeon E. Baldwin is the key founder of the American Bar Association. He later served as President of the American Historical Association, the American Political Science Association, and many other organizations, as well as being the leading railroad lawyer of his day, Governor of Connecticut, and Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court.
1878
The Yale Corporation establishes a professorship in international law at Yale Law School, electing Theodore S. Woolsey, Class of 1876, as the first incumbent.
1880
Edwin A. Randolph becomes the first Black Yale Law School graduate and the first Black person admitted to the practice of law in Connecticut.
1885
Alice Rufie Jordan Blake, Class of 1886, is admitted to Yale Law School as a result of her insistence that there was no written policy excluding women. She then became the first woman Yale University graduate.
1886
The Yale Corporation directs that future catalogues specify that “it is to be understood that the courses of instruction are open to persons of the male sex only.”
Pictured: Class of 1885.
1887
Warner T. McGuinn, a civil rights champion who was later a mentor to Thurgood Marshall, graduated from Yale Law School with part of his education funded by author Mark Twain. His story was featured in the Yale Alumni Magazine.
1888
Enrollment reaches 100 students for the first time.
1891
Yale Law Journal begins publication. It eventually became one of the most prominent law reviews in the country.
Pictured: Editors of the Yale Law Journal from 1892-93.
1895
The Law School's new home, Hendrie Hall, is built.
Pictured: Hendrie Hall in 1898, from the Yale Law Mirror.
1896
The Yale Law School program is lengthened from two to three years.
Pictured: Class in Hendrie Hall.
