University of Georgia School of Law

The University of Georgia School of Law (Georgia Law) is the law school of the University of Georgia, a public research university in Athens, Georgia. It was founded in 1859, making it among the oldest American university law schools in continuous operation.[5] Georgia Law accepted 14.83% of applicants for the Class entering in 2022.[3][6]

University of Georgia School of Law
MottoJustitia
Established1859 (1859)
School typePublic law school
Parent endowment$1.8 billion (2021)[1][2]
DeanPeter B. Rutledge
LocationAthens, Georgia, United States
Enrollment577
Faculty107
USNWR ranking20th (2024)[3]
Bar pass rate95.32% (2020 first-time takers, all jurisdictions) [4]
Websitewww.law.uga.edu

Georgia Law recent graduates include 11 governors, over 110 state and federal legislators, approximately 70 federal judges, and numerous state supreme court justices, practitioners, government officials, ambassadors, trial court judges, academics and law firm principals. Notable recent alumni of Georgia Law include former acting United States Attorney General Sally Yates, former President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate Richard B. Russell Jr., former Chief Judge and present Senior Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals Larry Edmondson, and Ertharin Cousin, named to the TIME 100 most influential people in the world list and Payne Distinguished Professor at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.[7]

History

The law school was founded in 1859. The founding three professors of the university's new law school included one of the United States' first state supreme court chief justices, Joseph Lumpkin, a Princeton alumnus.[8] Joining him was attorney Thomas Cobb, who was the author of first enacted comprehensive codification of common law in the United States.[9] The third original law professor was William Hull, an honors graduate of the University of Georgia, who had been a United States Attorney and a Solicitor General of the United States.[10] Previously, law courses had been offered as part of the undergraduate curriculum of Franklin College of the university. The first classes of the Lumpkin Law School, as it was originally designated, were held at the law offices of Lumpkin and Cobb at the corner of Prince Avenue and Pulaski Street until 1873.[11]

University of Georgia Law School, Class of 1889

By 1880, the curriculum included courses in equity, parliamentary law, and various commercial law studies such as partnership, insurance, tax, and tariffs. Around 1889, stricter admission standards mandated that students be at least 18 years old. Two years later, an entrance exam had been instituted. The modern method of case law instruction was ushered in during the 1920s. In December 1931, the school was granted membership in the Association of American Law Schools. After being housed in various buildings over the years, the law school in 1932 moved into the new Hirsch Hall, named in honor of prominent attorney Harold Hirsch, located on historic North Campus at the University of Georgia.[12]

Hirsch Hall, expanded by many thousands of square feet over the years in connected buildings and upgrades, remains the site of law school classrooms and offices, as well as the Alexander Campbell King Law Library and the Hatton Lovejoy Courtroom.[13][14] A 2012 renovation created almost 4,000 square feet of additional space, including a cafe and enclosed three story courtyard.[14]

The law school's four-story, 40,000-square-foot separate addition, Dean Rusk Hall, opened in 1996 near Hirsch Hall.[15] Named for former U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, who was a Georgia Law professor, this building became the new home of the Dean Rusk International Law Center, founded in 1977. Dean Rusk Hall also houses additional classrooms, faculty offices, and library space, and a second law school courtroom, the James E. Butler Courtroom.[16][17]

In the three years up to 2020, the Law School raised an additional $61 million to add to its endowment for scholarships, teaching, clinics, and experiential offerings.[18]

Academics

More than 300 courses, clinics, and seminars are offered at Georgia Law, including business-related law, property-related law, personal rights and public interest law, trial and appellate practice, as well as global practice preparation.[19] Although academics, theory, and legal reasoning are primary, Georgia Law is also ranked A+ and 16th of all ABA law schools for practical training.[20] Degrees awarded include the Juris Doctor (J.D.), the Master of Laws (LL.M.) for foreign-trained lawyers,[21] and the Master in the Study of Law (M.S.L.) for those who do not want to practice law, but wish to gain an understanding of legal principles and perspectives in order to advance their careers.[22] Students also may choose to pursue interdisciplinary coursework in other University schools and colleges, or to earn one of many dual degrees including a J.D./M.B.A. or LL.M./M.B.A.[23][24]

The law school is accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA), is a member of the Association of American Law Schools, has a chapter of the Order of the Coif, and is host to two advocacy inns: Lumpkin Inn of Court, one of the earliest American inns of court, and E. Wycliffe Orr Sr. American Inn of Court. Both are modeled after the English inns of court.[25][26] It is also an academic partner of the American Society of International Law.[27]

Admissions

The law school is among the most selective law schools in the nation, Georgia Law accepting 14.83% of applicants for the Class entering in 2023, with that class having an average LSAT score of 169 and average undergraduate GPA of 3.83.[28][6][29] Georgia Law's 2022 average selectivity rating was 96 out of a possible maximum of 99, Georgia Law enrolled students being in the top 3% of law school applicants.[30] Approximately 25% of enrolled students self-identify as belonging to historically underrepresented groups.[28] Although grades, degrees earned, and standardized test scores are important, for each applicant the admissions committee primarily considers a mandatory personal admission essay, a mandatory resume detailing the applicant's education, employment, fellowships, skills, honors, awards, community involvement, volunteer work, and other accomplishments, as well as mandatory letters of recommendation.[31]

The 165 students entering in 2023 came from 26 states, 15 countries, and 59 undergraduate institutions.[28] Of those students, 73% received merit based scholarships.[32][33]

Student support and faculty to student ratio

Georgia Law's Mentorship Program matches every law student with a faculty member mentor, an upperclassman peer mentor, a Career Development Office counselor, and an alumnus professional mentor.[34] There are just six students for each faculty member.[35][36]

Law review and journals

Georgia Law students publish four legal journals: Georgia Law Review, Journal of Intellectual Property Law, Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, and Georgia Criminal Law Review.[37] These journals have frequently been cited by federal and state courts, as well as textbooks and law reviews.[38] Membership on the journals is limited to students in their second and third years of law school.[38] In addition to the Georgia Law Review, students publish the online component, the Georgia Law Review Posts, which features essays by students, practitioners, judges and professors focused primarily on timely legal issues in the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Courts of Appeals.[39]

Alexander Campbell King Law Library
Entrance to the Alexander Campbell King Law Library.

The Alexander Campbell King Law Library is the oldest and largest law library in the state of Georgia. In 1967, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black gave the keynote address at an outdoor ceremony to dedicate a modern law library building adjacent to Hirsch Hall.[40] Housing a collection of more than 500,000 digital and print titles, the law library is a founding member of the Legal Information Preservation Alliance and the Law Library Microform Consortium. It has been designated a Federal Depository Library.[41] The library is also one of the United States' Specialized European Documentation Centres, houses the Faculty Writings Collection, the Phillips Nuremberg Trials Collection, the Rare Book Collection, and the J. Alton Hosch Collection, which includes the extensive personal library of Dean Hosch, a member of the law school faculty from 1935 to 1964.

The Louis B. Sohn Library on International Relations is housed within the school's Dean Rusk International Law Center.[42][43] The Sohn library is the extensive international law collection of Louis B. Sohn, who was the Woodruff Chair professor at Georgia Law and previously the Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School.

For the 2020–21 academic year, more than 450 Georgia Law students enrolled in clinical and field placement programs for approximately 94,000 hours.[44] There are over 100 organizations, experiential learning and practical training offerings, and other additional education opportunities at Georgia Law.[45] Some of the offerings include, without limitation, the Business Law Clinic, Civil Law Practice Externships, the Corporate Counsel Externship, the Environmental Law Practicum, the Washington D.C. Semester in Practice, the First Amendment Clinic,[46] the Atlanta Semester in Practice,[47] Corsair Law Society (transactions and litigation in major financial markets),[48] the Family Justice Clinic, Labor & Employment Law Association, Public Interest Law Council, Real Estate & Other Property Organization,[49] the Mediation Clinic, the Community Health Law Partnership (HeLP) Clinic, Business Law Society, American Constitution Society,[49] the Public Interest Practicum and Fellowships, Health Law Society, Intellectual Property Law Society, International Law Society,[49] the Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic, Family Law Society, Association of Law and Politics,[49] the Criminal Defense Practicum, the Prosecutorial Justice Program, Environmental Law Association,[49] Veteran Legal Services Clinic, Trial Lawyers Association,[49] Practicum in Animal Welfare Skills, Entertainment & Sports Law Society, Federal Bar Association, Tax Law Society,[49] national award-winning moot court, mock trial and negotiation programs (for example, in last five years members have been awarded 13 national and ten regional titles),[50][51] Georgia Law-Leuven Centre Global Governance Summer School in Belgium,[52] Georgia Law at the University of Oxford program, and the Capital Assistance Project.[35][36] Students in the Appellate Litigation Clinic have briefed and argued before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Ninth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits (with students winning five times in four courts in 2020–2021).[53][54] The Global Externship initiative provides global practice preparation for many students each summer, for instance past practice preparation included, without limitation, placement with law firms like DLA Piper in Russia, GÖRG Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten mbB in Germany, Priti Suri & Associates (PSA) in India, Siqueira Castro Advogados in Brazil, and King & Wood Mallesons in China.[55] To educate students in the benefits of public service and the functioning of the judiciary, up to 20 jurists, including U.S. Supreme Court justices, U.S. Court of Appeals judges, and trial judges, visit Georgia Law to teach classes.[56][57]

Costs

The total of tuition and fees for one year at Georgia Law is $18,994 for Georgia residents and $37,752 for non-residents. The total cost of attendance (including the cost of tuition, fees, room and board, books and supplies, transportation, and miscellaneous personal expenses) for the 2022–23 academic year is estimated to be $36,694 for Georgia residents living on-campus, $39,860 for Georgia residents living off-campus, $56,286 for non-residents living on-campus, and $59,452 for non-residents living off-campus.[58][59] Non-resident students are able to obtain Georgia residency at the beginning of their second year of law school, and besides other scholarships, available are tuition reduction scholarships that allow non-residents to pay resident tuition for one or two semesters of the first year of Georgia Law.[60] Further, over 73% of the members of the class matriculating in 2022 received merit based scholarships funded by donors.[33] U.S. News & World Report ranked Georgia Law as a top ten law school in having the 4th best salary to debt ratio,[61] while Georgia Law has been ranked #1 as the best value in legal education in the United States by the National Jurist for the last three straight years.[62][32]

Carl E. Sanders Reading Room in the law library.

Employment

Living Georgia Law graduates work in all 50 states and more than 60 countries.[63] Those who graduated in 2021 are working in 26 states and abroad.[64] According to ABA required disclosures, not including those choosing to open their own practices, to pursue additional education, etc., 97% of the 2021 graduating class were hired to perform high-value jobs within nine months after graduation, and 92.57% held full-time, long-term, JD-required positions at that point (Georgia Law being the nation's #1 law school for high-value jobs out of 199 ABA-approved schools).[65][64] For the class graduating in 2021, Georgia Law was ranked 5th of all ABA approved law schools for the highest percentage of graduates obtaining full-time legal jobs requiring bar passage.[66] Georgia Law was among the top law schools that sent the highest percentage of juris doctor graduates into associate positions at the largest 100 law firms in the country.[67] Of 202 students who graduated in 2021 - not including those who opened their own practices, pursued additional education, etc. - 57 went to law firms with up to 50 attorneys, 54 to law firms with 51 to over 500 attorneys including 25 to law firms of over 500 attorneys, 5 to business organizations, 38 to government and public interest organizations (not including judicial clerkships that 38 graduates obtained) and six to academia.[65]

Serving as a judicial clerk is considered one of the most prestigious positions in legal circles, and often opens up wide-ranging opportunities in private practice, high-ranking government work, and academia.[68] Georgia Law has had six alumni serve as judicial clerks for justices of the United States Supreme Court since 2005. Based on the 2005-2021 graduating classes, the School of Law was ranked 14th among the nation's law schools for sending its graduates to clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court.[69][70] For the class of 2021, Georgia Law placed 38 graduates in federal and state court clerkships (for 2020 Georgia Law had a top eight placement rate of all ABA approved law schools in the nation for federal court clerkships).[70]

Rankings

For the 2022 Top 50 Law School Rankings, of the 196 ABA-approved law schools, Georgia Law was ranked #13. However, according to the study by Law School Transparency, Georgia Law ranked in the top ten nationally for employment outcomes, while The New York Times recognized Georgia law as being in the top five law schools offering the best salary-to-debt ratios in the nation.[71][72][73][74] Furthermore, the law school has been ranked #13 of the top best law schools by the National Jurist[75] as well as by Above the Law.[76] U.S. News & World Report's 2024 ranking of #20 places Georgia Law in the top tier of all 196 ABA-approved law schools and in the top 10% of those schools, with the school additionally individually ranked in Trial Advocacy, Business/Corporate Law, Clinical Training, Constitutional Law, Contracts/Commercial Law, Dispute Resolution, Environmental Law, Intellectual Property Law, International Law, Healthcare Law, Legal Writing, and Tax Law.[77] Finally, based on outcome-driven factors such as average indebtedness, bar passage, and employment, Georgia Law has been ranked #1 as the best value in legal education in the United States by the National Jurist for the last three straight years.[62][32]

Notable recent alumni

Georgia Law graduates work in all 50 states and more than 60 countries.[63] Among recent Georgia Law graduates are 11 governors, more than 110 state and federal legislators, approximately 70 federal appeals and district court judges, multiple state trial and appeals court judges, numerous state supreme court justices, government officials, ambassadors, law firm principals, as well as other notable practitioners, leaders, authors, and academics.[78] Some recent graduates include the following.

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