Life
He studied at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1845-1848, at Harvard College in 1848-1850 and at Harvard Law School in 1851-1854. He served as one of the Harvard Law School's first librarians, as a student. From 1854 to 1870 he practiced law in New York City, but was almost unknown when, in January 1870, he was appointed Dane Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Soon after, he became Dean of the Law Faculty, succeeding Theophilus Parsons, to whose Treatise on the Law of Contracts (1853) he had contributed as a student.
He resigned the deanship in 1895, in 1900 became Dane Professor emeritus, and on 6 July 1906 died in Cambridge. He received the degree of LL.D. in 1875; in 1903 a chair in the law school was named in his honor; and after his death the school's primary academic building, housing both the world's largest academic law library and classrooms, was named Langdell Hall.
Christopher Langdell made the Harvard Law School a success by remodeling its administration. In a private correspondence of 13 April 1915, Charles Eliot wrote: "the putting of Langdell in charge of the Law School was the best piece of work I did for Harvard University, except the reconstruction of the Medical school in 70 and 71, and the long fight for the development of the elective system."
Read more about this topic: Christopher Columbus Langdell
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