New Millennium: 2000 - Present
2003
Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository is created by the Law Library. The Repository would become one of the largest open-access digital collections of legal scholarship in the world.
2003
A bomb of unknown origin explodes near the Law School’s Alumni Reading Room. There were fortunately no injuries.
Pictured: Reconstruction in the Reading Room.
2005
The Yale Law Journal is the first leading law review to publish an online companion.
2007
Tracey L. Meares becomes the first Black woman faculty member at Yale Law School.
Pictured: Tracey Meares from the Summer 2013 Yale Law Report.
2009
Robert C. Post, Class of 1977, becomes the 16th Dean.
2012
The first Ph.D. in Law program in the country is initiated at Yale Law School.
Pictured: Group of Ph.D. students from 2013.
2012
A study published in the Michigan Law Review shows that Yale Law School faculty dominate the list of most-cited contemporary law review articles.
2013
Cristina Rodríguez, Class of 2000, becomes the first Latina faculty member at Yale Law School.
2013
The bulk of the Anthony Taussig Collection, the most notable private collection of old English legal manuscripts and books in the world, is acquired by the Beinecke Rare Book Library and the Lillian Goldman Law Library.
Pictured (left to right): Fred Shapiro, Mike Widener, and S. Blair Kauffman share with YLS Dean Robert Post (in blue) recent arrivals from the Taussig Collection.
2017
Heather Gerken becomes the 17th and first woman Dean.
2017
Yale University names a residential college after Pauli Murray, J.S.D. Class of 1965, a pioneer of the civil rights movement and gender equality.
2017
Yale Law School welcomes the most diverse class in history with 53 percent students of color and 21 percent the first in their family to go to graduate or professional school.
2018
Yale Law School’s footprint expands with the opening of Baker Hall, bringing back residential life for the first time in decades and adding a beautiful new space to campus.
Pictured: Baker Hall from Winter 2019 Yale Law Report.
2018
Yale Law School clinics secure three nationwide injunctions in just over one year, reflecting the unparalleled ambition, scope, and impact of clinical experiences at Yale.
2020
The Law School grapples with a once-in-a-century pandemic, transforming courses to take place remotely, and later adapting to a hybrid format in 2021, until the campus returns to full in-person learning in 2022.
2021
A study in the University of Chicago Law Review reveals that, since the Class of 1967, Yale Law School has far more alumni on the list of most-cited legal scholars than has any other school.
2021
A tabulation of Supreme Court clerkships by school shows Yale Law School to have the largest number per capita by a wide margin.
2021
Yale Law School launches The Tsai Leadership Program, the largest program in the School's history to help equip students with a versatile skill set to make an impact in every sector of society.
2021
Femi Cadmus becomes the first Black person to be appointed Law Librarian and Professor of Law at Yale Law School.
2022
Yale Law School becomes the first law school in the country to provide full-tuition scholarships for students below the poverty line through the Hurst Horizon Scholarship Program. In the first year, the scholarship was given to 51 students.
2022
Yale Law School triples the number of veterans enrolled at the School over the course of five years following the expansion of the Yellow Ribbon Program and increased recruiting among veterans.
Pictured: Dean Gerken with student veterans.
2022
The Washington and Lee law journal database has the Yale Law Journal as the most-cited law review per article.
2022
Dean Heather Gerken announces that Yale Law School will no longer cooperate with the "deeply flawed" U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, sparking an important conversation on data transparency.
2023
Yale Law School expands the Hurst Horizon Scholarship Program to include 75 students receiving full-tuition scholarships for the 2023–2024 academic year.
