History
WCL was founded in 1896 by Ellen Spencer Mussey and Emma Gillett in response to a lack of legal educational opportunities for women in the region.
Mussey herself learned the law by apprenticeship at her husband's law offices. She was rejected by several schools in the area, including the National University School of Law, which later merged into the George Washington University Law School, because "women did not have the mentality for the law."
Gillette however, found admission at Howard University School of Law, and graduated in 1882 with an LL.B and in 1883 with an LL.M. She passed the bar in the District of Columbia the same year. Additionally, President Garfield appointed her to be the first female notary public in the United States.
Mussey and Gillett began teaching in Mussey's law offices after they were approached by three women who wished to study with them. With its first graduating class, the Washington College of Law became the first law school to be founded by women, and also the first law school to graduate an all-female class. The "single-sex" education did not last long however: Mussey's male law clerk enrolled in 1897. WCL officially became part of American University in 1949.
Read more about this topic: Washington College Of Law
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