New York Law School (NYLS) is a private, American law school in the Tribeca neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. The third oldest law school in New York City, it was founded in 1891 by Theodore Dwight, who had decades earlier founded Columbia Law School in 1858 when he became its original professor. Nationwide, NYLS is the 50th oldest among 197 American Bar Association-accredited law schools.
NYLS is the only law school founded in New York City between the end of the U.S. Civil War and the 1898 consolidation of all five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island) into the City of Greater New York.
The first president of NYLS's Board of Trustees was John Bigelow, who had served as the American Consul in Paris under President Abraham Lincoln and played a crucial role in blocking France and the United Kingdom from intervening on behalf of the Confederacy.
Over the course of 33 years prior to founding NYLS, Dwight had taught thousands of lawyers at Columbia, including the founders of Shearman & Sterling, Sullivan & Cromwell, and Simpson Thatcher, as well as Columbia Law School's first African-American student, George Henry Schanck.
NYLS has a full-time day program and, since 1894, a part-time evening program. Its faculty includes more than 50 full-time and over 100 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members have included Woodrow Wilson, Annette Gordon-Reed, Charles Evans Hughes, William Kunstler, Edward A. Purcell Jr., Nadine Strossen, Penelope Andrews, Lenni Benson, founder of the Safe Passage Project, Michael L. Perlin, Carlin Meyer, Chen Lung-chu, and Robert Blecker.
NYLS has produced more NYC Mayors than any other law school, including the son of Civil War General George B. McClellan, George B. McClellan Jr.; John Purroy Mitchel; John Francis Hylan; and Jimmy Walker.
Prominent NYLS alumni include Robert F. Wagner, James S. Watson, Maurice R. Greenberg, former chairman and CEO of American International Group Inc. and current chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr and Co. Inc.; Charles E. Phillips Jr., former CEO of Infor and former President of Oracle; and Judith "Judge Judy" Sheindlin, New York family court judge, author, and television personality. Other past graduates include Wallace Stevens, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Elmer Rice, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, and United States Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan II.
History
Early years
During the winter of 1890, a dispute arose at Columbia Law School over an attempt by Columbia University president Seth Low to introduce the Case Method of study. The Case Method had been pioneered at Harvard Law School by Christopher Columbus Langdell, who opposed educating women in the practice of law.
Theodore Dwight opposed the case method. Therefore, he and most of Columbia Law School's faculty and students departed Columbia Law School in protest to found NYLS the following year because they believed Columbia, by introducing the case method, had moved away from moral engagement and toward abstraction, hierarchy, and exclusivity.
Ironically, Dwight was succeeded at Columbia by William Albert Keener. A Southerner from Augusta, Georgia, and the son of a carpenter, Keener was born before the outbreak of the Civil War and enjoyed access to education denied African-Americans in the Antebellum South, and he happily implemented Low's agenda so he could remain in New York.
On June 11, 1891, New York Law School was chartered by the State of New York, and the school began operation shortly thereafter. By this time, Theodore Dwight was in poor health and was not able to be actively involved with the law school, so the position of dean went to one of the other professors from Columbia Law School, George Chase. New York Law School held its first classes on October 1, 1891, in the Equitable Building at 120 Broadway, in Lower Manhattan's Financial District."In and About the City: New York Law School Opened. The Offspring of the Trouble at Columbia a Great Success," New York Times, October 2, 1891.
In 1892, after only a year in operation, it was the second-largest law school in the United States. Steady increases in enrollment caused the law school to acquire new facilities in 1899, at 35 Nassau Street, only blocks away from the law school's previous location; and by 1904, the law school had become the largest law school in the United States. Continuous growth led the law school to acquire a building of its own in 1908, at 172 Fulton Street, in the Financial District. New York Law School would remain at this site until 1918, when it closed briefly for World War I."New Building for New York Law School: Eleven Story Building to be Ready Next Spring-Banking Floor and Business Offices," New York Times, July 21, 1907.
Persecution by Columbia Law School
In 1897, furious about the fact that Dwight resigned from Columbia, taking the entire faculty with him save for one professor, and jealous of New York Law School's success (New York Law School had 617 students, compared to 361 at Columbia), Columbia Law School lobbied the New York State Assembly to oppose New York Law School's effort to obtain a charter to confer law degrees by its own examination -- a privilege all other law schools throughout New York State already enjoyed.
+Deans of NYLSGeorge Chase1891–1918School closed for World War I1918–1919George Chase1919–1924Robert D. Petty1924–1932George C. Smith1932–1936Alfred E. Hinrichs1936–1938Edmund H. H. Caddy1938–1941School closed for World War II1941–1947Edmund H. H. Caddy1947–1950Alison Reppy1950–1958Daniel Gutman1958–1968Charles W. Froessel1968–1969Walter A. Rafalko1969–1973E. Donald Shapiro1973–1983James F. Simon1983–1992Harry Wellington1992–2000Richard A. Matasar2000–2011Anthony Crowell2012–present
Interwar period When New York Law School reopened in 1919, it was located in another building at 215 West 23rd Street, in Midtown.Display Ad 133 – No Title, New York Times, August 17, 1919. However, George Chase contracted an illness that resulted in him running New York Law School for the last three years of his life from his bed; he died in 1924."George Chase Dies, Law School Dean," New York Times, January 9, 1924. New York Law School continued without Chase, seeing its enrollment peak in the mid-1920s, but it saw a steady decline at the onset of the Great Depression. The law school began seeing a serious decline in enrollment. The law school moved to smaller facilities at 253 Broadway, just opposite City Hall.Display Ad 95 – No Title, New York Times, September 16, 1934. In 1936, the law school moved to another location at 63 Park Row, on the opposite side of City Hall Park; it also became coeducational that same year. However, the military draft, which started in 1940, contributed to further declines in enrollment, and the school closed in 1941. The remaining students who were still enrolled finished their studies at St. John's University School of Law, in Brooklyn."N. Y. Law School to Close in Fall: Institution, Founded in 1891 After Columbia Split, to be Absorbed by St. John's" New York Times, September 12, 1941.
Reopening After reopening in 1947, the law school started a new program that was influenced by a committee of alumni headed by New York State Supreme Court Justice Albert Cohn. The law school resumed operations in a building at 244 William Street.
In 1954, New York Law School was accredited by the American Bar Association, and in 1962, moved to facilities at 57 Worth Street, in Tribeca.
Renaissance In 1973, E. Donald Shapiro became the dean of the law school and reformed the curriculum, expanding it to include many more classes to train students for more than simply passing the Bar Examination. These reforms, combined with the addition of new Joint Degree Programs with City College of New York in 1975 and Manhattanville College in 1978, helped the law school to recruit new students. Dean Shapiro's reform of the curriculum was behind New York Law School gaining membership to the Association of American Law Schools in 1974. That year, the New York State Department of Education changed its view of the law school, which in 1973 it had criticized in a report as the worst school in the state, proclaiming that the law school had started to undergo a "renaissance.""Law School is Fighting Its Way Back," New York Times, February 1, 1977.
The buildings of the law school underwent renovation under the leadership of Dean James F. Simon from 1983 to 1992. Under Simon's successor, Dean Harry H. Wellington, who served in that position until 2000, the curriculum was revised to put greater emphasis on the practical skills of a professional attorney.
21st century
In late June 2006, under the leadership of Dean Richard A. Matasar, New York Law School sold its Bernard H. Mendik building at 240 Church Street. This sale enabled the school to move forward with the sale of $135 million in insured bonds, which were issued through the New York City Industrial Development Agency. The school's securities were given an A3 credit rating by Moody's and an A-minus rating by S&P, both reflective of the school's stable market position and solid financial condition. The proceeds from the building sale have been allocated to the school's endowment, which is now among the top 10 of all American law schools.New York Law School Launches $190 Million Expansion and Renovation of Tribeca Campus
The law school opened its first dormitory in the East Village in 2005. In August 2006, it broke ground on the $190 million expansion and renovation program that transformed its Tribeca campus into a cohesive architectural complex that nearly doubled the school's current size. The centerpiece of the expansion is a new glass-enclosed, , nine-level building—five stories above ground and four below, which integrates the law school's existing buildings. The new facility opened in July 2009, followed by the complete renovation of the law school's existing buildings in the spring of 2010.
On December 16, 2008, in connection with the Bernard Madoff scandal, New York Law School filed a lawsuit against J. Ezra Merkin, Ascot Partners, and Merkin's auditor BDO Seidman, LLP, after losing its $3 million investment in Ascot. The lawsuit charged Merkin with recklessness, gross negligence, and breach of fiduciary duties.
In May 2012, Anthony W. Crowell became the 16th Dean and President of New York Law School. In 2012, Crowell launched JumpStart, an incentive program for NYLS students who undertake bar prep classes. Following the creation of the JumpStart program, NYLS' bar passage rate registered the highest increase of all NY law schools from 2012 to 2013. In February 2013, NYLS launched a public service scholarship program, which extends full and partial tuition scholarships to city, state, and federal service members and public servants living in New York City. In April 2013, New York Law School announced an expansion of its clinical and experiential learning programs, doubling the number offered from 13 to 26.New York Law School Undertakes Historic Expansion Of Its Clinical And Experiential Learning Programs April 9, 2013
On September 5, 2013, New York Law School announced the creation of a two-year J.D. Honors program, slated to begin in January 2015. The program allows selected students to graduate one year sooner at two-thirds of the cost of a traditional three-year J.D. program.New York Law School Announces Two-Year Honors Program September 5, 2013 Each honors student also receives a $50,000 academic scholarship. The inaugural class of 2015 had 23 honors students selected from 166 applicants. In October 2013, in recognition of the two-year program and other innovations, Crain's New York Business included Dean Crowell in its list of "People to Watch in Higher Education."Crain's New York Business People to Watch in Higher Education, October 13, 2013