Boston College Law School

Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. Boston College Law School is situated on a 40-acre (160,000 m2) wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

Boston College Law School
MottoΑἰέν ἀριστεύειν
Parent schoolBoston College
Religious affiliationRoman Catholic (Jesuit)
Established1929
School typePrivate
Parent endowment$2.220 billion (2015)[1]
DeanVincent Rougeau
LocationNewton, Massachusetts, USA
Enrollment794[2]
Faculty103 (Fall)
110 (Spring)[2]
USNWR ranking31st (2021)[3]
Bar pass rate94.0%[2]
Websitewww.bc.edu/schools/law

With approximately 800 students and 60 full-time faculty members distinguished for scholarly research, BC Law is consistently ranked in the top-tier of law schools in the United States. In 2020, U.S. News and World Report ranked BC Law as the #31 law school in the nation.[4] The school's small size and prestige make admission highly selective.[5] Reflecting its Roman Catholic (Jesuit) heritage, BC Law has established programs in human rights, social justice and public interest law, as well as programs in business law and innovation, law and public policy and criminal and civil litigation. Its faculty played a part in arguing for the repeal of the Solomon Amendment, presenting oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court in Rumsfeld v. FAIR.

According to BC Law's 2019 American Bar Association (ABA)-required disclosures, 85% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or advantage employment ten months after graduation.[6]

History

Although provisions for a law school were included in Boston College's original charter, ratified by the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1863, Boston College Law School was formally organized later in 1929. Previously, promising Boston College graduates interested in a legal education were encouraged to seek admission to Harvard Law School, as attested by the law school's inaugural faculty of whom 11 out of 17 members held degrees from both universities.[7][8] BC Law's founder, John B. Creeden, formerly president of Georgetown University, served as its first regent and alumnus Dennis A. Dooley as its first dean.[9]

On September 26, 1929, BC Law opened its doors in the 11-story Lawyer’s Building on Beacon Street opposite the Massachusetts State House in downtown Boston. From a pool of nearly 700 applicants, 102 day and evening division students had been selected. So rigorous were the school's academic standards that 50% of the first class eventually dropped out or flunked out.[10] However, just three years later, the school received American Bar Association accreditation, joining Harvard, Yale, and Boston University as the only law schools in New England to attain that distinction; accreditation by the Association of American Law Schools followed in 1937.[11]

Women were admitted to the school by 1940, when enrollment had surpassed 350 students.[12] In 1954, the school moved to St. Thomas More Hall on the edge of the main Chestnut Hill campus and to its present 40-acre (160,000 m2) Newton campus, the home of the former Newton College of the Sacred Heart, in 1975. Today, the law campus includes Stuart House, an administrative building; lecture halls; seminar spaces; a dining hall; conference space; and a law library that includes the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room.

Academics

Curriculum
Mone Courtyard on the BC Law campus

BC Law offers a first-year law program that includes constitutional and criminal law, civil procedure, contracts, property, and torts, as well as a two-semester legal reasoning, research, and writing course called Law Practice, which provides three experiential learning credits and a foundation in critical thinking, analysis, and communication.[13] There is also a 1L experiential-based elective in the spring semester. The School offers programs abroad through the Semester-in-Practice International Program primarily based in Dublin and exchange programs with Bucerius Law School, Paris HEAD Law School, and Renmin University in China. The law school also has exchange programs with Bucerius Law School, the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina, and numerous other law faculties throughout the world.[14]

Law reviews

Boston College Law School has two main, student-run publications: Boston College Law Review (BCLR) and the Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest (UCC Reporter-Digest). In Spring 2017, the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, Boston College International and Comparative Law Review, and the Journal of Law and Social Justice published their last issues and consolidated into the Boston College Law Review.

The Boston College Law Review is the Law School's main flagship journal and was ranked 20th in the 2019 Washington & Lee Law Review Rankings, the highest ranking in its history.[15] Starting in Fall 2017, it publishes eight issues per year. It endeavors to publish high-quality pieces written by students and scholars on a wide variety of legal issues.

Boston College Law Library

The Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest is published by Matthew Bender & Company, a division of LexisNexis. It provides annotations on numerous cases relating to the Uniform Commercial Code, thereby serving as a helpful research tool.[16]

BC Law also maintains an online publication, the Intellectual Property and Technology Forum, covering issues of copyright, trademark and patent law.[17]

Libraries

Opened in 1996 at a cost of $11.7 million, the 84,500-square-foot Law Library building was designed by the Boston firm of Earl R. Flansburgh & Associates and contains four levels organized in four wings around a unifying central atrium.[18] It houses 500,000 print volumes covering all major areas of American law and primary legal materials from the federal government, Canada, United Kingdom, United Nations, and European Union. The library also features a substantial electronic volumes offering, treatise and periodical collection and a growing collection of international and comparative law material. The library's Coquillette Rare Book Room houses works from the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries, including works by and about Saint Thomas More.[19] It also contains a marble fireplace mantel that once adorned the East Room of the White House.[20]

Research centers and institutes
  • Center for Human Rights and International Justice
  • Business Institute, Boston College
  • Center for Asset Management
  • Center for Corporate Citizenship (CCC)
  • Center for East Europe, Russia and Asia
  • Center for Ignatian Spirituality
  • Center for International Higher Education
  • Center For Investment Research And Management
  • Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture (ISPRC)
  • International Study Center
  • Irish Institute
  • Jesuit Institute
  • The Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy
  • Small Business Development Center
  • Urban Ecology Institute
  • Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics
  • Women's Resource Center

Rankings

Ranking Summary: Above the Law 2020: 22nd; U.S. News & World Report 2020: 31st; National Law Journal Go-To Law Schools: 19th; Washington & Lee Law Review Rankings: 20th.[21]

Boston College Law School campus

Due to BC Law faculty reputations as teachers and mentors among students, the Princeton Review law rankings placed BC Law in the #7 position for "Best Professors".[22] BC Law is also ranked #10 for "Best Quality of Life."[23] In 2019, Above The Law, a legal blog that focuses on BigLaw, ranked BC Law 31st overall in the country.[24]

Since 2007, the National Law Journal has ranked BC Law in the top 20 law schools due to the large number of graduates the school places in top American law firms. Harvard was the only other Boston area law school that placed in the top 20 for recruiting.[25]

The U.S. News & World Report's 2021 law school rankings placed BC Law 31st in the country.[26] The magazine ranked BC Law's tax program 14th in the nation, its environmental law program 27th, and its legal writing program 29th.[27][28][29]

Employment

According to BC Law's 2019 ABA-required disclosures, 85% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or advantage employment ten months after graduation.[30] BC Law's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 14.2%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2018 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.[31]

For BC Law graduates, median private sector starting salary is $190,000, and the median public service starting salary is $60,000, based on self-reporting data.[32]

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at BC Law for incoming students in the 2019-2020 academic year is $79,473.[33] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $301,402.[34]

Nickname

In a nod towards the nickname of Boston College athletics teams, the term "Legal Eagle" is sometimes used to refer to students and alumni of Boston College Law School.

Noted people

See also

References
  1. As of June 30, 2015. "U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 Endowment Market Value and Change in Endowment Market Value from FY 2014 to FY 2015" (PDF). National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund Institute. 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-01-31. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  2. Boston College Official ABA Data Archived January 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Boston College". U.S. News & World Report – Best Law Schools. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
  4. https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/law-rankings
  5. "Boston College | Law School Numbers". Bc.lawschoolnumbers.com. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  6. "Law School ABA Employment Report" (PDF).
  7. http://bcm.bc.edu/index.html%3Fp=788.html
  8. https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=bcbulletin
  9. Donovan, Dunigan, FitzGerald, Charles F., David R., Paul A. (1990). History of Boston College: From the Beginnings to 1990. University Press of Boston College. ISBN 0-9625934-0-0.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/af88/130f6e3a49cb81a28bc3f23a271ad1e9f265.pdf
  11. https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/law/about/history-mission.html
  12. https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/law/about/history-mission.html
  13. "Curriculum - Law School - Boston College". bc.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
  14. "BC Law International". Bc.edu. 2014-04-28. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  15. "BC Law Review Gains in Stature". Boston College Law School Magazine. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  16. "UCC Reporter-Digest". Boston College Law. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  17. "The Intellectual Property and Technology Forum". Bc.edu. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  18. https://archello.com/project/boston-college-law-library
  19. "Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room - Boston College". Bc.edu. 2014-03-04. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  20. https://bcheights.com/2014/09/07/historic-fireplace-rediscovered-at-bc-law-library/
  21. "Law Calendar". Washington and Lee University. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
  22. "Best Professors | The Princeton Review". princetonreview.com. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
  23. "Princeton Review List". Princetonreview.com. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  24. Shepherd, David Lat, Elie Mystal, Staci Zaretsky, Kashmir Hill, Marin, Mark Herrmann, Jay. "The 2015 ATL Top 50 Law School Rankings". abovethelaw.com. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  25. The go-to schools Archived February 2, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  26. https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/law-rankings
  27. "US News Legal Writing Rankings". Grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com. Archived from the original on 2010-07-22. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  28. "US News Best Grad Schools". Premium.usnews.com. Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  29. "US News Legal Writing Ranking".
  30. "Employment Summary for 2018 Graduates" (PDF).
  31. "Boston College Profile".
  32. "Law - Best Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report". Retrieved 1 November 2013.
  33. "2013-2014 law school cost of attendance" (PDF).
  34. "Boston College Profile".
  35. "Boston College Law Bookshelf, Spring 2006". Boston College. Retrieved 30 December 2013.

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