Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School (CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. It was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The university was known for its legal scholarship dating back to the 18th century. Graduates of the university's colonial predecessor, King's College, include such notable early-American legal figures as John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States, and Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, who were co-authors of The Federalist Papers.
Columbia Law has many distinguished alumni, including United States presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt; ten justices of the Supreme Court of the United States;[5] numerous U.S. Cabinet members and presidential advisers; US senators; representatives; governors; and more members of the Forbes 400 than any other law school in the world.[6]
Dual degree programs and alliances, abroad[edit]
Columbia has cultivated alliances and dual degree programs with overseas law schools, including the University of Oxford, King's College London, University College London, and the London School of Economics in London, England; the Institut d'études politiques de Paris ("Sciences Po") and the Université Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris, France; the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands; and the Institute for Law and Finance (ILF) at Goethe University Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany.[31][32] The double degree options include JD/Masters in French Law (4 year program in Paris), JD/Masters Program in Global Business (3 Year program in Paris), JD/LLM (3 year program in London), LLB/JD (4 year program in London), and JD/LLM (4 year program in Frankfurt).
Columbia Law School has one of the largest international alliances with China, and with Peking University, specifically, a joint exchange program that began in 2006, when students could be exchanged for a semester, which was expanded as a program in 2011 to allow faculty to teach or co-teach courses abroad, and which was expanded as a program again in 2013 when Columbia Law School dean David Schizer and Peking University Law School dean Zhang Shouwen signed a memorandum of understanding between the universities, allowing for joint publications and joint seminars between faculty at the respective universities.[33]
Clinical and experiential learning programs[edit]
The law school runs several clinical programs that contribute to the community,[34] including the nation's first technology-based clinic, called Lawyering in the Digital Age. This clinic is currently engaged in building a community resource to understand the collateral consequences of criminal charges.[35] In April 2006, Columbia announced that it was starting the nation's first clinic in sexuality and gender law.[36] The Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic "is the first law school clinic anywhere in the U.S. directed by a full-time law school faculty member and dedicated to legal and public policy issues related to gender and sexuality."[37] In 2007, Columbia opened a new program in law and technology.[38]
Given that Columbia is well known for its strength in corporate law, the law school offers, for example, a "Deals" course that includes participants from the Columbia Business School and the law school. In addition, the Columbia Business and Law Association (CBLA), the law school's principal student group dedicated to the interaction between law and business, routinely sponsors lectures, workshops, and networking events from traditional areas of interest such as investment banking, management consulting, venture capital, private equity, hedge funds, and entrepreneurship. CBLA also serves as a center for members of the Columbia Law School community interested in many aspects of business law, including corporate governance and securities regulation.[39]
Columbia graduate legal studies program[edit]
Columbia offers a Graduate Legal Studies Program, including the Master of Laws (LL.M.) and the Doctor of the Science of Law (J.S.D.) degrees. The LL.M. Program is considered one of the best in the United States and has been ranked very highly according to private studies.[40][41] Each year the law school enrolls approximately 210 graduate students from more than 50 countries with experience in all areas of the legal profession, including academia, the judiciary, public service, civil rights and human rights advocacy, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and private practice. Graduate students are an important component of the law school community. They participate in many co-curricular activities, including student journals, moot courts, and student organizations. Graduate students also organize and speak at conferences, workshops, and colloquia on current legal issues.[42]
U.S. Supreme Court clerkships[edit]
Since 2005, 24 Columbia Law alumni have served as judicial clerks at the United States Supreme Court, one of the most distinguished appointments a law school graduate can obtain. This record gives Columbia a ranking of fifth among all law schools for supplying such law clerks for the period 2005–2017. Columbia has placed 135 clerks at the U.S. Supreme Court in its history, one of the top five law schools for clerks; this group includes Lee Bollinger, who clerked for Chief Justice Warren Burger in the 1972 Term, and who was formerly the president of Columbia University.
Facilities[edit]
Columbia Law School's main building, Jerome L. Greene Hall, was designed by Wallace Harrison and Max Abramovitz, architects of the United Nations Headquarters and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (which for many years served as the site of Columbia Law School's graduation ceremonies). It is located at the intersection of Amsterdam Avenue and West 116th Street. One of the building's defining features is its frontal sculpture, Bellerophon Taming Pegasus, designed by Jacques Lipchitz, symbolizing man's struggle over (his own) wild side/unreason.
In 1996, the law school was given an extensive renovation and expansion by Polshek Partnership (now Ennead Architects), including the addition of a new entrance façade and three story skylit lobby, as well as the expansion of existing space to include an upper-level students' commons, lounge areas, and a café. In the summer of 2008, construction of a new floor in Jerome Greene Hall was completed providing 38 new faculty offices. Other Columbia Law School buildings include William and June Warren Hall, the Jerome Greene Annex (which Jerome Greene's representatives politely declined to have renamed after the building of Jerome Greene Hall), and William C. Warren Hall (or "Little Warren").
Lenfest Hall, the law school's premier residence, opened in August 2003. The hall was named for H. F. Lenfest '58 and his wife Marguerite. Lenfest contains more than 200 luxury student residences, including private studio apartments and one-bedroom apartments.[43] In addition to Lenfest Hall, the majority of Columbia Law students live in the university's Graduate Student Housing consisting of single and shared apartments in buildings throughout Morningside Heights. All Columbia Law students are guaranteed housing on campus for the duration of their law school studies.
The school reported in December 2020 that its Center for Chinese Legal Studies will be named for Hong Yen Chang, the school's first Chinese graduate in 1886, and the country's first Chinese American lawyer.[44]
