University of Illinois College of Law - History

History

The College of Law was founded in 1897 and is a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools. The law honor society known as the Order of the Coif was founded at the University of Illinois College of Law in 1902.

University of Illinois College of Law is on the south end of the main University of Illinois campus in Champaign, near the football stadium and Assembly Hall.

The University of Illinois College of Law has the 14th largest law library in the United States of America, and several notable alumni in law firms, politics, the judiciary, and academia, including: Albert Jenner, Jr., name partner at law firm Jenner & Block, LLC., Robert M. Dell, Global Chair and Managing Partner of Latham & Watkins LLP, Annette Lu, Vice President of Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2000 to 2008, and Philip McConnaughay, Dean of Penn State University Dickinson School of Law.

One of 16 colleges, schools, and institutes on the University's flagship Urbana-Champaign campus, the law school is consistently ranked among the nation's top 10 public law schools and a peer of the nation's private elite. In its annual ranking of “Go-To Law Schools,” the National Law Journal has ranked the University of Illinois College of Law 16th in the number of alumni associates promoted to partner in 2011. The College of Law tied with the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Emory University School of Law. Several of the law schools ranked in the Top 16 – including Harvard, Columbia, and Georgetown – graduate over twice as many students as the College of Law. In the 2010 U.S. News and World Report ranking of American law schools, the College of Law was ranked 21st in the country, in the 2011 U.S. News and World Report ranking of American law schools, the College of Law was ranked 23rd in the country, and in the 2012 U.S. News and World Report ranking of American law schools, the College of Law was ranked 35th in the country.