University of Chicago Law School

The University of Chicago Law School was founded in 1902 (by a coalition of donors led by John D. Rockefeller) as the graduate school of law at the University of Chicago and consistently ranks among the highest-rated law schools in the United States. The U.S. News & World Report currently ranks it fifth among U.S. law schools, and it is noted particularly for its influence on the economic analysis of law. University president William Rainey Harper requested assistance from the faculty of Harvard Law School in establishing a law school at Chicago, and Joseph Henry Beale, then a professor at Harvard, was given a two-year leave of absence to serve as the first Dean of the law school. During that time Beale hired many of the first members...