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Law School Facts

For almost 150 years, the University of Michigan’s Law School has offered its students one of the world’s finest legal educations in a setting of stunning physical beauty. Among Michigan Law’s nearly 20,000 alumni can be found leaders in law, business, and public service in countries across the globe.

So what explains the Michigan difference? While students certainly gain access to a collegial community of scholars who work at the top of their fields, they also come into contact with each other – with a diverse body of talented students whose cooperative spirit helps bring out the best in faculty and student alike.

Browsing the rich variety of events and news clips offers a glimpse into a dynamic intellectual world.

Nota Bene
J.D. Students
Graduate Students
Tuition and Fees
Graduate Placement
Bar Passage
Graduates
Faculty
Library
Timeline

Nota Bene
  • Evan Caminker is the 16th and current Dean of the Law School.


  • Michigan's Law Quadrangle is the finest living/learning environment in the world of legal education.


  • Michigan has 81 full-time faculty members: 60 tenured and tenure track and 21 clinical and legal practice.


  • Law School Professors Phoebe C. Ellsworth, Yale Kamisar, Richard O. Lempert, and Rebecca J. Scott all hold Distinguished University Professorships.


  • The University of Michigan Law School is an international center for interdisciplinary legal scholarship and teaching.


  • Michigan is among the top law schools in placing the largest percentage of graduates in the most prestigious national law firms.


  • Michigan Law class of 2006 (the most recent information available) has a 99.41 percent employment rate.
     
  • Michigan ranks in the top 5 for the number of alumni teaching in U.S. law schools, and in the top 3 for tenure- and tenure-track positions.


  • Michigan's Law Library has one of the world's most comprehensive collections of foreign, comparative, and international law materials.


  • At Michigan, legal writing is taught by 9 full-time legal practice professors, not adjuncts or students.


  • Michigan Law Library's comprehensive collection and superb services support research on any topic in any jurisdiction.


  • With over 975,500 volumes, the Law Library has one of the world's premier collections and is staffed by experts in legal librarianship.


  • The National Jurist magazine has ranked the University of Michigan Law Library fourth out of a total of 183 law school libraries in the nation in 2004.


  • Michigan offers 14 different dual-degree programs, or students can design their own.


  • Michigan has clinics in trial and appellate litigation, child advocacy, community development, mediation, environmental law, and poverty law.


  • Michigan has the most progressive Debt Management Program in the country.


  • Michigan is the world's center for the study of refugee and asylum law.


  • Michigan has externships in South Africa, Geneva, and human rights organizations worldwide.


  • On average, 1 or 2 Michigan Law School graduates clerk with the U.S. Supreme Court every year; fifteen have done so in the last decade.


  • Michigan is ranked 3rd in the country for the number of top law firms recruiting on-campus.


  • Michigan is 1 of the top 3 of our peer law schools in the percentage of graduates taking their first job in public interest (judicial Clerkship, public interest, and government).


  • Two Michigan Students were selected by the International Court of Justice for its university traineeship program in the Law School's first year of participation.


  • Michigan students come from 257 undergraduate institutions and about 75% of students are from other states.


  • There are 1,148 J.D. Students enrolled at the Law School.


  • The Law School wireless network allows students internet connections within Hutchins Hall, Legal Research, the library, the Law Quadrangle, and beyond.


  • Already unsurpassed for the beauty of its architecture, Michigan Law is also ranked among the top law schools for technology by The National Jurist.


  • Michigan has 6 student-edited journals and more than 50 student organizations.


  • Michigan Law has over 20,000 graduates worldwide.


  • Ann Arbor is considered among the best places in the United States to live, work, raise children, and acquire an education.


  • Restaurants, clubs, coffee shops, bookstores, shopping, and athletic facilities are within a few blocks of the Law Quadrangle.


  • The variety of workshops, symposia, and student activities reflects the Law School's strong institutional interest in global affairs.


  • Half of our students take advantage of one of Michigan Law's many established clinical offerings.


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Students 2007-2008
Class of 2008 2009 2010
Class Totals 366 369 357
Residents 24% 22% 20%
Non-Residents 76% 78% 80%
Minorities 31% 28% 25%
Men 57% 55% 55%
Women 43% 45% 45%

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Graduate Students
  2005-06 2006-07 2007-08
LL.M. 39 34  46
S.J.D 5 7  5

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Tuition and Fees 2007-2008
Resident tuition and fees $38,950
Non-resident tuition and fees $41,950
Living expenses $15,000
Receiving financial aid To Come
Receiving Law School grant & loan aid To Come

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Graduate Placement
  2004 2005 2006
Judicial Clerkships 15% 13% 13%
Private Practice 73% 70% 71%
Government or Public Interest 9% 12% 9%
Other 3% 5% 7%

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Bar Passage - First-time Takers 2006
New York 97%
California 85%
Illinois 95%
Michigan 93%

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Graduates
Living Graduates 20,076
Women 24%
Minorities 12%
States Represented 50
Foreign Countries Represented 79

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Faculty

Full-time

81
Tenured & Tenure Track 60
Clinical & Legal Practice 21
Men 58
Women 23
Minorities 8

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Library
Volumes 975,524
Titles 320,239
Microform Items 1,626,819
Periodical Subscriptions 7,813

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Timeline

1859 Law School enrolls its first students.

1859 James Valentine Campbell, Thomas MacIntyre Cooley, and Charles Irish Walker appointed law professors.

1859 First law department lecture given to students.

1863 First law building completed.

1868 First African American student admitted. Gabriel Franklin Hargo became the first African American student to graduate from the Law School in 1870.

1870 First female student admitted. Sarah Killgore graduated in 1871, the first woman with a law degree in the nation to be admitted to the bar.

1877 Clarence Darrow studies law.

1883 First full-time professor appointed.

1890 First LL.M. degrees granted, two to students from Japan.

1895 Course of law study extended to three years.

1896 First summer session held.

1902 First issue of Michigan Law Review published.

1910 Henry Moore Bates appointed dean, serving until 1939.

1915 Law department changed to Law School by Regental action.

1922-33 Law Quadrangle constructed.

1939 Cases and Materials on the Law of Future Interest, Lewis M. Simes published.

1942-46 Judge Advocate General's (JAG) School in operation.

1946 Cases on Remedies: II, Restitution at Law and in Equity, John P. Dawsom and Edgar N. Durfee, published.

1953 International Law: Cases and Materials, William W. Bishop Jr. published.

1954 International legal studies program expanded by Ford Foundation grant.

1959 Institute of Continuing Legal Education established.

1962 Committee of Visitors established.

1969 Basic Criminal Procedure: cases, Comments and Questions, Yale Kamisar, Jerold H. Israel (and Wayne R. LaFave), published.

1971 Clinical law program established.

1981 Smith Library addition opened.

1996 Legal Practice Program opened.

1998 Center for International and Comparative Law established.

2001 Transnational Law added as graduation requirement.

2003 Law School wins Grutter v. Bollinger Affirmative Action Admissions Lawsuit.

2009 Law School Sesquicentennial.

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