University of North Carolina School of Law

Following discussion in the North Carolina legal community, on December 12, 1842, the Trustees of the University of North Carolina authorized the University President, David L. Swain, to review and establish a law professorship. In 1845, William Horn Battle was named the first professor of law, and legal instruction began at the university.[2] In the years following, assistant professors and later an organized faculty and law library were added.

In 1915, Margaret Berry became the first female to graduate from the law school.[3] In the 1920s, the school began taking on much of the character of a modern law school, after the American Bar Association first published guidelines for schools. University President Harry Woodburn Chase was instrumental in leading the efforts for this reorganization over notable opposition, including the governor of North Carolina.[4]

In June 1951, Harvey Beech, J. Kenneth Lee, Floyd McKissick, and James Robert Walker Jr. became the first four black students enrolled at the law school. McKissick and other black students had argued in court that a state law school for blacks in Durham was not equal to that in Chapel Hill. In March 1951, a U.S. Court of Appeals agreed and ordered UNC to stop excluding black applicants.[5] Sylvia X. Allen became the first black female student to graduate in 1962, and did so as the mother of six children.[6]

As of 2017, the law school has 634 enrolled students and a student-faculty ratio of 11.3 to 1.[7] The entering class of first-year law students in 2017 was composed of 213 students from 25 states, the District of Columbia, and China. Sixty-three percent of students were from North Carolina, and students of color made up 26 percent of the class. Fifty-one percent of incoming students were female, while 49% were male.[8]

UNC Law is consistently ranked in the top-tier of law schools. Its U.S. News current rank is 27.[9]

The 1999 addition to Van Hecke-Wettach Hall commonly referred to as the "Rotunda"

The law school is currently located in Van Hecke-Wettach Hall, towards the southeastern side of the Chapel Hill campus, neighboring the School of Government and several athletic facilities. Van Hecke-Wettach Hall includes the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library, located primarily on four floors on the back side of the building.

The UNC School of Law is home to several centers that focus on issues of state and national interest:[10]

• Center for Banking and Finance - Lissa Broome, Director
• Center for Civil Rights - Theodore Shaw, Director.
• Center for Climate, Energy, Environment & Economics - Jonas J. Monast, Director
• North Carolina Coastal Resources Law, Planning and Policy Center
• UNC Center for Media Law and Policy - David Ardia, Co-Director
• Director Diversity Initiative
• Intellectual Property Initiative
• UNC School of Law Medical Child Abuse Initiative
• Prosecutors and Politics Project
• N.C. Poverty Research Fund

Clinics provide students with the opportunity to learn legal theory and put the legal theory to practice.[11]

• Civil Legal Assistance Clinic
• Community Development Law Clinic
• Consumer Financial Transactions Clinic
• Domestic and Sexual Violence Clinic
• Immigration Clinic
• Intellectual Property Clinic
• Military and Veterans Law Clinic
• Youth Justice Clinic

The school is home to five student-edited law journals.[12] The oldest, the North Carolina Law Review, was founded in 1922. This journal features an annual North Carolina issue reviewing developments in the state's law.

• First Amendment Law Review
• North Carolina Banking Institute Journal
• North Carolina Journal of International Law
• North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology (NC JOLT)
• North Carolina Law Review

According to UNC School of Law 2017 ABA-required disclosures, 80.51% of the Class of 2017 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD advantage employment ten months after graduation.[13]

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at UNC for the 2017-2018 academic year is $49,562 for North Carolina residents and $66,193 for out-of-state students.[14] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $176,368 for residents and $243,846 for nonresidents.[15]

There are more than 10,000 alumni of the University of North Carolina School of Law.[16] Roughly 40 percent of practicing North Carolina attorneys are Carolina Law graduates, more than any other law school in North Carolina.[16] Many have gone on to notable roles, including countless government offices, such as former United States Senator and 2004 Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards, and current Chief of Staff to the President and former United States Congressman, Mick Mulvaney. Additionally, many have served in numerous positions in the North Carolina state government. Among these are the current and several recent NC governors (Cooper, Hunt, Holshouser, Moore, and Sanford) and (as of the 2019 term) three of seven North Carolina Supreme Court justices (Davis, Newby and Hudson).

• William Horn Battle, 1845-1868; 1877-1879 (as professor of law)
• Kemp Plummer Battle, 1879-1881 (as professor of law)
• John Manning, Jr., 1881-1899 (as professor of law)
• James Cameron MacRae, 1899-1909 (as dean)
• Lucius Polk McGehee, 1910-1923 (as dean)
• Merton Leroy Ferson, 1924-1926
• Charles T. McCormick, 1927-1931
• Maurice Taylor Van Hecke, 1931-1941
• Robert Hasley Wettach, 1941-1949
• Henry Brandis, Jr., 1949-1964[4]
• James Dickson Phillips, Jr., 1964-1974
• Robert Gray Byrd, 1974-1979
• Kenneth S. Broun, 1979-1987[17]
• Judith Welch Wegner, 1989-1999
• Gene Nichol, 1999-2005
• John "Jack" Charles Boger, 2006-2015
• Martin H. Brinkley, 2015–Present[18]