Sturm College of Law - History and Background

History and Background

The University of Denver College of Law opened its doors in 1892, pioneering legal education on America’s frontier and graduating many of the attorneys and judges who built the legal structure of America’s Mountain West. Independence, ingenuity, and excellence remain guiding principles at DU Law and for the whole of the University of Denver, which also includes top graduate schools in business, international studies, social work and other fields.

The law school initially adopted an apprenticeship model of legal education, recruiting the most prestigious attorneys in Denver to teach students the nuts and bolts of the practice of law. Students gained invaluable insight from their practitioner professors; aside from the rigors of classroom study, students also frequently observed courtroom proceedings. This approach to teaching students by employing in-the-field methods remains at the heart of DU Law.

A pioneer amidst pioneers, the College of Law opened the doors to its Legal Aid Dispensary in 1904, thus creating the first clinical programs in the nation and the precursor to DU Law’s Student Law Office (SLO). A frontrunner in serving Denver’s indigent populations, the Dispensary saw several incarnations before it evolved into the law school’s present day clinical programs. The SLO trains law students in the practice of law under the supervision of experienced faculty, while at the same time representing the under-served in criminal defense, civil practice, civil rights and disabilities, tax, and mediation matters. The Environmental Law Clinic, and Rocky Mountain Child Advocacy Clinical Partnership and the Tenth Circuit Clinic give students additional opportunities for public interest practice.

The Westminster Law School is an important part of the history of legal education in Denver. For 45 years, from its founding in 1912 to its merger with the University of Denver College of Law in 1957, Westminster provided the only evening program of law study from Kansas City to the Pacific Coast. In Westminster’s prime, it boasted a sizeable student body and its alumni were successful in passing the bar and practicing law. Evolving accreditation standards eventually required too large a budget for the strictly part-time institution, and the school merged with the University of Denver. Terms of the merger included naming the law library the Westminster Law Library and the development of an evening program at the College of Law.

In 2013, law schools in the United States faced a thirty year low in applications. In response, Dean Martin Katz, in a pitch to prospective students argued as follows:

Last year, contributing writer Shawn O’Connor stated in Forbes magazine – a respected source on value investing – that, despite its cost, a law school education is a “relatively low-risk investment that will have an impact on your future and can pay exceptional dividends over a lifetime.”

Paul Campos, Professor at the University of Colorado Law School, responded to Dean Katz' pitch as follows:

Trust Forbes, not the critics! It's a good line, except that Forbes did not endorse legal education in the way that Katz implies. The column cited by Katz was not written by “Forbes” or by any member of its editorial staff. It was written by a Forbes "contributor" named Shawn O'Connor. O'Connor is the CEO of StratusPrep, a company that offers LSAT test prep classes and law school admissions coaching.