National Law Center records

The George Washington University Law School is the oldest law school in the District of Columbia. Originally established in 1826 by vote of the board of trustees of Columbian College (now The George Washington University), classes were discontinued just one year later due to insufficient enrollment and lack of financial support.

In 1865, the Trustees recommended the reestablishment of the Law School, and classes began in the Old Trinity Episcopal Church on Fifth Street between D and E. The Law School was to occupy this space until 1884. The Department of Law offered the degree of bachelor of laws, which required two years of study.

Sixty graduates, from 22 of the then 37 states, received degrees in 1867. The School continued to have a student body and a faculty that reflected its location at the heart of the seat of the nation's government. Supreme Court Justices David J. Brewer and John Marshall Harlan were among the many prominent members of the bench and bar who were on the Law School faculty.

In 1872, the Trustees adopted a resolution to establish a one-year postgraduate course in legal practice. That same year, Lydia S. Hall and Belva Ann Lockwood graduated from the National University Law School, the school's first female graduates. (The National University Law School, which had held an important place in legal education in the District since 1869, was merged into The George Washington University Law School in 1954.)

In 1877, one year after the first such program was adopted in the United States, the Law School instituted a course leading to the degree of Master of Laws. In 1891, the Intellectual Property and Patent Law Program was initiated, with the first course in Patent Law taught by the Commissioner of Patents.

The George Washington Law Alumni Association was established in 1912, and in 1914 the Department of Law became the Law School.

In 1924, Stockton Hall was constructed on 20th Street. Designed to house the Law School in total when it was built, Stockton Hall now is one of four buildings that adjoin to form the Law School complex occupying the block on 20th Street between G and H Streets, across from the World Bank and just four blocks from the White House.

In 1936 the Law School was made a graduate school and the degree of Juris Doctor was established. A baccalaureate degree was a prerequisite for admission to the J.D. degree program.

As its contribution to the war effort, GW maintained the third floor of Stockton Hall during 1941 for use by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps in testing fabrics for tropical use. In 1946, the Law School began accepting foreign attorneys into specially designed programs, and in 1948, Law School enrollment surpassed the one thousand mark.

In 1965 the International and Comparative Law Program was established. Two years later, the Law School library was able to consolidate its growing collection in the newly completed Jacob Burns Law Library. In 1970, the Environmental Law Program was introduced.

The Law School's Enrichment Program, which has annually brought such illustrious speakers as Supreme Court Justices Scalia, O'Connor, Kennedy, and Ginsburg; Senators Fred Thompson, George Mitchell, and Orrin Hatch; author Scott Turow; columnist George Will; FCC chairman Reed Hunt; ACLU president Nadine Strossen, and many others to the school, was established in 1981.

In 1984, Lerner Hall was completed and dedicated in a ceremony addressed by Chief Justice Warren Burger. In 2000, the Law School began a major building and renovation scheme to create an integrated, modern learning facility. The National Law Center became the School of Law in 1996.