About the Law School

The University of Chicago Law School occupies a unique niche among this country's premier law schools. Located on a residential campus in one of America's great cities, UChicago Law offers a rigorous and interdisciplinary professional education that blends the study of law with the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. Students, faculty, and staff form a small, tightly knit community devoted to the life of the mind. Learning is participatory. UChicago Law does not seek to impose a single viewpoint or style of thought on its students. Instead, our faculty exposes students to contrasting views, confident in students' abilities to choose their own paths.

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President Theodore Roosevelt presided over the ceremony for the laying of the original Law School building cornerstone on April 1, 1903.

History of the Law School

The Law School opened its doors in 1902, twelve years after the founding of the University of Chicago. It has been an innovator in legal education ever since.

Our history
Portrait Caps Centennial Celebration

When the University of Chicago Law School commissioned artist Shawn Michael Warren to paint a portrait of its first Black JD graduate, Warren turned first to a stack of reading and then began visiting the library. The story of Earl Burrus Dickerson, 1920, wasn’t immediately familiar; Dickerson, after all, is a local figure who was well-known in the early 20th century but whose remarkable life was never stamped into the collective memory.

Law School history
How a 1997 Student Lecture Series Mixed Wit, Wisdom, and the UChicago Way
Law School history
A Small Piece of the New Ronald Coase Papers Offers an Up-Close View of a Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience
Law School history
Law School history
Remembering the Rhymes of Brainerd Currie
Law School Art & Architecture

Our mid-century modern building was designed by famed architect Eero Saarinen.

Our art & architecture