History
In 1908, two women from Boston decided to sit for the Massachusetts bar examination. A lawyer named Arthur Winfield MacLean agreed to tutor them, and other students followed over the next few years. MacLean's wife called the school Portia Law School after the heroine of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. From 1908 to 1938, Portia Law School was the sister school to the then all male, Suffolk University Law School. This partnership fostered because MacLean was a law partner with Suffolk founder, Gleason Archer, Sr. MacLean also served as the school's first Dean from 1908-1943.
Beginning in 1920, Portia graduates received the LL.B. degree. In 1922, the school moved into its first permanent building in Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood, when enrollment had reached 228. In 1926, Portia was awarded the authority to award LL.M. degrees to both men and women. A few years later, in 1938, Portia Law School became a fully integrated coeducational institution. As the school entered the 1950s it saw its student body shift from a student body that had a majority female population to a predominately male student body. 1963 saw Portia Law School begin the process of applying for American Bar Association accreditation, and some of the steps the school took included restructuring its board of governors and launching the schools first law review. In 1969, the school changed its name to New England School of Law to coincide with its accreditation granted by the ABA.
| Dean | Tenure |
|---|---|
| Arthur W. MacLean | 1908–1943 |
| W. Chesley York | 1943–1952 |
| Margaret H. Bauer | 1952–1962 |
| Guy V. Slade | 1962–1966 |
| Walter J. Kozuch, Jr. | 1966–1971 |
| Robert E. O’Toole | 1971–1974 |
| Colin W. Gillis | 1974–1978 |
| Thomas C. Fischer | 1978–1983 |
| Timothy J. Cronin | 1983–1988 |
| John F. O’Brien | 1988–Present |
As New England Law neared its 75th anniversary, new programs were started, the first was the creation of Law Day in 1970 and then the opening of its clinical law services office in 1971. The clinical law services program is performed by the law students to those who did not have the economic means to seek paid legal assistance. In 1980, New England moved into its current location; which is located in the Boston Common neighborhood. To honor the 75th anniversary of New England Law the 41st President, George H. W. Bush, was the keynote speaker for the celebration.
In the 1980s, the school started a program that arranged for students to study abroad and work with former Soviet Bloc nations to develop their own legal systems. New England Law also became a co-founder of the Consortium for Innovative Legal Education; which allows students to study abroad at countries throughout the world and learn about foreign law and put their current education to work through externships. In 1996, New England Law students worked with Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals by providing legal research and analysis for war crimes in Rwanda and the former nation of Yugoslavia. New England Law received membership from the Association of American Law Schools in 1998. In 2002, New England Law expanded its campus by buying adjacent buildings around the schools current location. Also, in 2008, New England School of Law began a new campaign to rebrand itself as "New England Law | Boston", with the purpose to put an emphasis on its location.
Read more about this topic: New England School Of Law
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