Cornell Law School

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Cornell Law School
TypePrivate
Established1887
DeanStewart J. Schwab
Students660
Location
Ithaca
,
New York
,
USA
Websitewww.lawschool.cornell.edu

Cornell Law School, located in Ithaca, New York, is a graduate school of Cornell University. It is one of the five Ivy League law schools. The law school offers four types of law degrees, an array of programs and institutes, and over 120 courses for its students. Programs at the law school can be supplemented by the rich academic resources available in other units of Cornell University. The law school's faculty is one of the most prolific in the nation, and is also known for its excellence in classroom teaching. Among the profession, Cornell retains an excellent reputation: its graduates have the sixth highest percent placement at the top 50 law firms. Additionally, Cornell's New York bar pass rate for first-time candidates is always among the highest of any law school in New York state.

Cornell Law School was formally opened in 1887, but was moved to its present-day location at Myron Taylor Hall in 1937. The law school building, an ornate, Gothic structure, was the result of a donation by Myron Charles Taylor, a former CEO of US Steel, and a member of the Cornell class of 1894. An addition to Myron Taylor Hall, the Jane M.G. Foster wing, was completed in 1988. Ms. Foster was a member of the class of 1918, and was the first woman to serve as Editor in Chief on an American law review.

Admissions

File:PictureofMyronTaylorHall.jpg
Cornell Law School

Admission is very competitive. The law school receives roughly 4000 applications each year for an entering class of 185-190. Successful applicants usually have thrived in academic as well as non-academic settings. The academic profile of students is strong. In 2006 the median GPA for incoming Cornell Law students was 3.67, and the median Law School Admission Test score was 167. The admission rate for 2006 was 22.6%. Entering students graduated from over 100 different undergraduate colleges and universities and studied a wide range of academic disciplines. In addition, they typically were active in extracurricular and community activities. Well over half usually have full-time work experience and less than 40% come straight from college to law school. In the LL.M. program, which is geared to non-U.S.-trained lawyers, the admission rate hovered around 6.67% in 2006, as 900 applications were received for the 50 to 60 openings in the program. LL.M. students come from over 30 different countries.[1]

Along with consideration of the quality of an applicant's academic record and LSAT scores, the full-file-review admissions process places a heavy emphasis on an applicant's personal statement, letters of recommendation, community/extra-curricular involvement, and work experience. The application also invites a statement on diversity and a short note on why an applicant particularly wants to attend Cornell. The Law School values applicants who have done their research and have particular interests or goals that would be served by attending the school versus one of its peer institutions.[2]

Reputation

Cornell is one of the pre-eminent law schools in the United States; 7th in the 2004 Law School 100 rankings, 13th in the 2007 U.S. News and World Report, and its master of laws, or LL.M., program ranked 1st in the 2006 AUAP rankings.[3][4] In 2005, the National Law Journal reported that Cornell Law graduates had the 6th highest percent placement at the top 50 law firms.[5]

Cornell Law graduates have consistently achieved the highest bar pass-rate among law schools in the state of New York during the past few years.[6] In 2006, Cornell's July 2005 New York bar pass rate for first-time candidates was 95% versus 94% for New York University (NYU) and 90% for Columbia.[7]

Academic Offerings

Law Degrees

File:Cornellaw.jpg
The Cornell Law School

Notable Programs

  • International and Comparative Law Program
  • Legal Information Institute
  • Death Penalty Project
  • Legal Aid Clinic
  • Public Interest
  • Keck Foundation Ethics Program
  • Olin Program of Law & Economics
  • Clarke Program in East Asian Law and Culture
  • Asylum Clinic
  • International Human Rights Clinic
  • Externships Program

International Summer Law Institutes

Cornell Law School runs two summer institutes overseas, providing Cornell Law students with unique opportunities to engage in rigorous international legal studies. The Cornell-Université Paris I Summer Institute of International and Comparative Law at the Sorbonne in Paris, France offers a diverse curriculum in the historic Sorbonne and Centre Panthéon (Faculté de droit) buildings at the heart of the University of Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne. Coursework includes international human rights, comparative legal systems, and international commercial arbitration. French language classes are also offered.

In 2006, Cornell Law School announced that it would launch a second summer law institute, the new Workshop in International Business Transactions with Chinese Characteristics in Suzhou, China. In partnership with Bucerius Law School (Germany) and Kenneth Wang School of Law at Soochow University (China), Cornell Law provides students from the United States, Europe, and China with an academic forum in which they can collaborate on an international business problem.

Library

Cornell's law library is one of the largest in the nation. The law library contains 700,000 books and microforms and includes rare historical texts relevant to the legal history of the United States.[8]

The Cornell Law School Library

The library is one of the 12 national depositories for print records of briefs filed with the United States Supreme Court. Also, there is a large collection of print copies of the records and briefs of the New York Court of Appeals. The large microfilm collection has sets of Congressional, Supreme Court, and United Nations documents, as well as a large collection of World Law Reform commission materials. Microfiche records and briefs for the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and D.C. circuit, and the New York State Court of Appeals are also collected.[9] The library also has a large collection of international, foreign, and comparative law, with the main focus being on the Commonwealth of Nations and Europe. Along with this, there are also collections of public international law and international trade law. A new initiative by the library is to collect Chinese, Japanese, and Korean resources to support the Law School’s Clarke Program in East Asian Law and Culture.[9]

The law library also boasts a significant collection of rare books. This collection has over 1200 volumes and it is housed in the Rare Book Room, which was built in 1981. Among these rare books is the Samuel Thorne collection, which has 175 of the some of the earliest and most rare books on law. Other significant collections include the Nathaniel C. Moak library and the Edwin J. Marshall Collection of early works on equity and the Earl J. Bennett Collection of Statutory Material, a print collection of original colonial, territorial, and state session laws and statutory codes.[9]

Among the library’s special collections are 19th Century Trials Collection, Donovan Nuremburg Trials Collection, Scottsboro Collection, William P. and Adele Langston Rogers Collection and the Chile Declassification Project.[9]

Legal Information Institute

Cornell Law also is home to the Legal Information Institute (LII), known internationally as a leading on-line provider of public legal information. The LII offers all opinions of the United States Supreme Court handed down since 1992, together with over 600 earlier decisions selected for their historic importance, over a decade of opinions of the New York Court of Appeals, and the full United States Code. The LII also publishes important secondary sources: libraries in two important areas (legal ethics and social security) and a series of “topical” pages that serve as concise explanatory guides and Internet resource listings for roughly 100 areas of law. Search engines and ranking systems identify the LII as the most linked to web resource in the field of law.

Publications

Cornell Law School boasts three highly-regarded law journals that are student-edited: the Cornell Law Review, the Cornell International Law Journal, and the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. Additionally, the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies is a peer-reviewed journal that is published by Cornell Law faculty.

Moot Court

Cornell Law students actively participate in myriad moot court competitions annually, both in the law school itself and in external and international competitions. The Langfan First-Year Moot Court Competition, which takes place every spring, traditionally draws a large majority of the first-year class. Other internal competitions include the Cuccia Cup and the Winter Cup. The current composition of the Cornell Law School Moot Court Board is Amanda Klopf as Chancellor, Wilson Antoine and Nomi Barst as Vice-Chancellors of Internal Competitions, Patricia Astorga as Vice-Chancellor of External Competitions, C. Andrew Keisner as Vice-Chancellor of International Competitions, Dylan Letrich as Vice-Chancellor of Mock Trial, Kevin Yung as Treasurer-Secretary, and Yosef Ibrahimi as Executive Bench Editor.

Student Organizations

Student activities at Cornell Law School include:

Notable Faculty

See also: List of Cornell University people
  • Stewart J. Schwab, current Allan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law
  • Faust F. Rossi, current Samuel S. Leibowitz Professor of Trial Techniques and well-known for his lectures in evidence to students preparing for the bar examination
  • John H. Blume, current Professor of Law and Director of the Cornell Death Penalty Project, and a prominent U.S. Supreme Court advocate.
  • Robert S. Summers, current William G. McRoberts Research Professor in the Administration of the Law and co-author of the authoritative treatise on the Uniform Commercial Code
  • Annelise Riles, current Professor of Law and Professor of Anthropology who directs the law school's Clarke Program in East Asian Law and Culture, and is an internationally recognized expert on comparative law
  • John J. Barceló III, current William Nelson Cromwell Professor of International and Comparative Law and an expert on International Commercial Arbitration.
  • Cynthia R. Farina, current Professor of Law and co-author of the leading casebook on Administrative Law.
  • Theodore Eisenberg, current Henry Allen Mark Professor of Law and leader of the empirical legal studies movement.
  • Steven H. Shiffrin, current Charles Frank Reavis Sr. Professor of Law and acclaimed First Amendment scholar.
  • James A. Henderson Jr., current Frank B. Ingersoll Professor of Law, leading commentator on the law of torts and products liability and Special Master in the September 11, 2001 attacks respiratory illness cases.
  • Gregory S. Alexander, current A. Robert Noll Professor of Law and leading commentator on the law of property.
  • Valerie P. Hans, current Professor of Law and a leading authority on the jury system.
  • Kevin M. Clermont, current James and Mark Flanagan Professor of Law and nationally acclaimed casebook author and teacher of civil procedure.
  • Robert A. Hillman, current Edwin H. Woodruff Professor of Law and Reporter for the American Law Institute's Principles of the Law of Software Contracts.

Notable Alumni

See also: List of Cornell University people
Edmund Muskie
William P. Rogers

References

  1. ^ "Cornell Law School". JDAadmission.com. Retrieved 2006-06-23.
  2. ^ "Cornell Law School". JDAadmission.com. Retrieved 2006-06-23.
  3. ^ "US News Law School Rankings". Retrieved 2006-05-24.
  4. ^ "Law School 100 Rankings". Retrieved 2006-05-24.
  5. ^ "Top 50 firms hire most from big names". The National Law Journal. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
  6. ^ "Highest bar pass-rates at law schools in New York State". Retrieved 2006-05-24.
  7. ^ "Bar Pass Rates". Retrieved 2006-05-24.
  8. ^ "Tax Proof Blog: Rankings of Law Libraries". Tax Proof Blog. Retrieved 2006-06-23.
  9. ^ a b c d "Cornell Law School Library". Cornell University. Retrieved 2006-06-23.

External Links

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