Our 150-Year History
Our timeline showcases just a few of the history makers — 150 years of people, places and ideas — that distinguish UW Law from all the rest. This 150-year timeline starts in 1868 and ends in 2018. Visit the UW Law School website to learn more about what’s going on at the Law School today.
1868
First UW Law Classes Held
The first UW Law School classes were held in 1868 in the State Capitol Building, shown here before the construction of its dome. (Photo: Wisconsin Historical Society)
1885
Belle Case La Follette, First Female Graduate
Belle Case La Follette, who graduated in 1885, holds a prominent place in U.S. history as a suffragist, women’s peace party member and co-founder (with husband Robert La Follette) of The Progressive Magazine.
1889
Dean Edwin Bryant
“The established lawyer is always a public man, and his influence on affairs is always more or less potent. His office well-stocked with books, is one from which no fitful gust of the popular will can turn him out. His income is not precarious, nor his independence fettered. He is above the wiles of the politician or the caprice of the populace.”
1891
First Law Building Established
In 1891, the state legislature appropriated funds for the construction of a law building on UW-Madison’s Bascom Hill. The new building opened in September 1893.
1892
William Green, First African-American Graduate
After graduating from UW Law School in 1892, William Green (1860-1911) practiced law in Milwaukee and was a leader in the community’s civil rights movement.
In Howell v. Litt, he became the first black attorney to argue (and win) a case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The case led to the creation of the Wisconsin Civil Rights Act of 1895.
1893
Law Library Opened Its Doors
Prior to the opening of UW Law’s first permanent Law Library in 1893–the same year the first Law Building opened on Bascom Hill–many had complained about the inadequacy of the school’s library collection and services.
In fact, when the Board of Regents created the UW’s College of Law in 1868, no money had been appropriated for books.
1903
Dean Harry S. Richards
“The great work of his life was the law school of the University of Wisconsin. When he came to this school as dean in 1903, he found a school of position and standing, but one which was committed quite generally to the older method of teaching; a method which was just beginning to be displaced by the new, and in the displacing of which, in the West, Mr. Richards was one of the prominent leaders.”
1917
First Cane Toss
UW Law’s Homecoming cane toss began in 1917 — or did it? The late Professor William Page claimed he introduced the annual rite of passage for third-year law students that year, after he joined the faculty.
But others say the tradition began in 1922, when the first group of World War I veterans graduated. Either way, 3Ls still observe the tradition at every UW Homecoming game.
View a UW Law School Cane Toss on YouTube.
1920
Wisconsin Law Review
UW Law students and faculty founded the Wisconsin Law Review, but it wasn’t until 1935 that students became sole editors. The journal’s original purpose was laid out in its first publication in October 1920:
“Its publication has been undertaken in the hope that a discussion of legal problems, with particular application to State law, will be of service to the bench and the bar and the people of the state, and that a survey of the present condition of Wisconsin law will contribute in some measure to its scientific development.”
1929
Dean Oliver Rundell
UW Law School alumni Oliver Rundell was acting dean for two separate terms — from 1929 to 1932, and again from 1943 to 1945 — before serving officially as dean between 1945 and 1953.
At his death in 1958, law faculty published “memorial resolutions” in the Wisconsin Law Review, which included this excerpt:
“Two devotions shaped Oliver Rundell’s professional life: first, service to the University as a teacher and administrator; second, study of the law of property, the focus of his teaching and research, in order to clarify whatever was obscure, and to make it a better servant of human needs.”
1932
Dean Lloyd K. Garrison
Besides serving as UW Law dean from 1932 to 1945, Lloyd K. Garrison also led a number of governmental organizations, including the National Labor Relations Board and the National War Labor Board.
He briefly served as special assistant to the United States Attorney General.
1942
John Steuart Curry Mural Completed
Law Dean Garrison, the great-grandson of famous abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, commissioned John Steuart Curry’s iconic ‘Freeing of the Slaves’ for UW’s Law Library after the U.S. Department of Justice rejected it as controversial.
Garrison felt a strong connection to the work:
“Here is one of the great events in our constitutional history, an event fashioned in the midst of a national crisis by a great lawyer-president. The mural not only symbolizes that event but proclaims in a noble and patriotic setting the dignity and freedom of all persons, however humble, in a democracy whose ideals of liberty are summed up and protected by the constitution.”
1951
Vel Phillips, First Female African American Graduate
After earning her law degree in 1951, Vel Phillips went on to become the first woman to serve on Milwaukee’s Common Council, the first woman judge in Milwaukee County and the first African American judge in Wisconsin.
She campaigned nationally for civil rights, waging a historic fair housing battle in Milwaukee. In 1978, she was the first woman and first African American to be elected as Wisconsin’s secretary of state.
When Phillips died in 2018 at 95, she was eulogized in newspapers around the nation, including this New York Times obituary.
1953
Dean John Ritchie
John Ritchie, UW Law dean from 1953 to 1957, also led the law schools of Washington University in St. Louis and Northwestern University.
“Probably a law school is at its best in educating the student to think clearly and exactly, to analyze and synthesize, to sift the relevant from the irrelevant, to beware of over-generalizing and to seek constantly for the reasons in policy and doctrine underlying legal rules and principles. In short, to think like a lawyer.”
1958
Dean George H. Young
George H. Young, a 1941 UW Law graduate, served as dean from 1958 to 1968.
According to an article in the Summer 1999 issue of The Gargoyle alumni magazine:
“As Dean, George Young would ask individual faculty members, ‘What can I do to help you achieve your goal?’ His approach was to build a strong faculty and then give them the support needed to achieve important teaching and research goals.”
1959
Professor Marygold Melli, First Female Faculty Member
As UW Law’s first woman tenure-track professor, Marygold Shire Melli (1926-2018) laid the groundwork for UW Law’s family law concentration, adding a wide range of courses to the original two-credit offering (then known as ‘domestic relations’).
A trailblazer in her own right, Melli shaped pedagogy and policy, particularly in the areas of child support and shared child custody.
1963
A Mascot Is Born
In 1963, when the existing Law School was demolished to make way for a new building, Dean George Young found and rescued a sandstone gargoyle from the rubble. It was one of a pair of gargoyles that had sat on the roof of the 1893 building for nearly 70 years.
That gargoyle, which became a symbol of the Law School, is on permanent display in the atrium.
The second gargoyle, originally believed to have been destroyed during the 1963 demolition, was recovered in 2018 after spending nearly 70 years with the Paul Been ’53 family. It, too, is back at the Law School.
1967
LEO Program Begins
Launched in 1967, the Legal Education Opportunities Program has become a national model for recruiting and retaining students of color.
Commonly known as LEO, the trailblazing program has graduated more than 1,500 attorneys, who actively serve their communities in a multitude of ways.
As role models, mentors, and scholarship donors, LEO alumni also support future generations of lawyers.
1968
Dean Spencer L. Kimball
“The difference between a good and a poor lawyer, more than anything else, is his capacity to learn for himself what he needs to know.”
1969
Professor James Jones, First African American Faculty Member
After receiving his J.D. from UW Law in 1956, Jim Jones (1924-2014) moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Labor.
There, he worked on historic legislation, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Philadelphia Plan, a groundbreaking affirmative action program for government contractors.
He returned to the Law School in 1969, when he became its first African American faculty member. He was a scholar of labor law and industrial relations, which he taught until his retirement in 1997.
1972
Dean George Bunn
George Bunn became UW Law dean in 1972 and, frustrated at the lack of state support for the Law School, he reportedly left the role in protest three years later. But he may have been best known as a leader and an international negotiator in the nuclear disarmament movement.
In a public radio interview, Bunn’s son Matthew described the impetus for his father’s life work:
“He thought, ‘Well, if we’re going to have disarmament, we’re going to need treaties. If we’re going to have treaties, we’re going to need lawyers, so I’ll go off to law school.’ So he went off to law school specifically with the idea of controlling the bomb.”
1973
Hastie Fellowship Program
Established in 1973, the Hastie Fellowship Program trains minority lawyers for careers in the legal academy. Fellows complete a two-year program leading to their LL.M. degrees.
Along with Nancy Bernstine, Daniel Bernstine was the first Hastie Fellow to graduate from the program. He later became dean of UW Law School.
Over the years, the program has prepared more than thirty fellows to join the law professoriate and has produced several law school deans.
1974
Economic Justice Institute Founded
When it originated in 1974, the Economic Justice Institute was known as the Center for Public Representation, with Professor Louise Trubek as its first director.
Now EJI is home to the Law School’s four civil, anti-poverty clinical programs: Consumer Law Clinic, Family Court Clinic, Neighborhood Law Clinic, and Immigrant Justice Clinic.
1975
Dean Orrin Helstad
Orrin Helstad, dean from 1975 to 1983, graduated in UW Law School’s Class of 1950. He would later join with colleague Marygold Melli to produce a new Wisconsin Criminal Code, the first to be codified in the U.S.
The two were recognized for their superior work, which provided much of the conceptual basis for, as well as specific provisions in, the Model Penal Code. Helstad went on to author the State Administrative Code and the Wisconsin version of the Uniform Commercial Code.
1983
Dean Cliff Thompson
“One of my mental stabilizers as a dean has been a constant and simple belief in a society governed by rules. I am aware of the flaws in actual legal systems compared to the ideals heard in Law Day speeches. But I am convinced that overall government by laws has been better for humans than the two main alternatives: dictatorship (from enlightened to ghastly) or rule by ideology (religious to secular). Legal education is crucial to a strong legal system, and this is the environment in which I have been happy to work.”
1990
Dean Daniel Bernstine
Daniel Bernstine became the Law School’s first dean of color in 1990. He served in that position until 1997.
Under challenging financial conditions, he successfully guided the Law School through a $16 million renovation that modernized classrooms, provided space for clinical programs and increased space for the Law Library. At an international conference on legal education in 1996, he said:
“Law schools must continue to identify new financial resources without depending exclusively on tuition increases or state taxpayers to support higher education costs. In most instances, law school alumni must be the primary resource to support the expanding financial costs of legal education.”
East Asian Legal Studies Center
Established in April 1990, the East Asian Legal Studies Center promotes academic interactions with East and Southeast Asian universities, government ministries and the private sector.
Shown is the center’s founder, Professor Charles Irish.
1992
Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center Established
The Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center was established in 1992 to improve the practical legal skills of all students interested in federal Indian law while providing legal resources for tribal members.
Eleven federally recognized Native Nations are surrounded by the State of Wisconsin, including six bands of Chippewa and Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Oneida, Menominee, and Mohican (Stockbridge-Munsee) Tribes.
Professor Richard Monette was the center’s director.
1995
First Dean’s Cup
The inaugural Dean’s Cup competition between UW’s Law and Medical Schools was held in the fall of 1995, as documented in an ad to alumni in The Gargoyle alumni magazine.
While the Medical School won that first year, the Law School has since gone on to win the trophy 10 times.
1996
Frank J. Remington Center Formally Established
The criminal justice clinics at UW Law were formally named after founder Frank Remington in November 1996. But the Law School’s clinical programming got its start much earlier than that.
Its beginnings can be traced to 1964, with the launch of the Correctional Internship Program (later renamed the Legal Assistance to Institutionalized Persons Program).
The center now houses one of the oldest, largest and most diverse clinical legal programs in the country.
1997
Dean Kenneth Davis
“Our position as the only public law school in a relatively large state is key. While most of our peers were trying to look more like private schools, our niche might best be to instead celebrate our public status and treat it as a source of opportunity to become The Preeminent and Public Law School in the country. We are public, and we are stronger for it.”
The Gargoyle alumni magazine, Fall 2011
2000
Center for Patient Partnerships Formed
In 2000, Professor Meg Gaines founded the interdisciplinary Center for Patient Partnerships, transforming her personal experience as a cancer survivor into a model for consumer-centered patient advocacy.
Based at UW Law, the center builds relationships among patients, health care providers and policy makers, with the goal of improving health care experiences.
2007
Pro Bono Program Launched
Founded on the principle that law is a service profession, the Pro Bono Program (formerly the University of Wisconsin Law School Pro Bono Partnership Project) launched as a pilot project in 2007.
Its original structure involved pairing law students with Dane County attorneys to provide legal assistance in civil matters to persons otherwise unable to secure legal representation.
Today, students participate in approximately two dozen projects, or they can create their own project subject to approval by the Pro Bono Program director. The Pro Bono Program oversees our Veterans Law Center (pictured), which opened in 2008.
2009
Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic Opened
The Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic opened its doors in 2009 to provide free legal services to entrepreneurs and early stage companies.
Law students do the work — under the guidance of clinic faculty and private sector attorneys — and gain transactional legal skills in the process.
The clinic has steadily grown, beyond the impacts described in this 2015 video: view on YouTube.
2011
Government and Legislative Clinic Began
Launched in 2011, the Government and Legislative Clinic provides students with the unique opportunity to observe and participate in the many facets of governmental law, policy and the legislative process.
Working under the direct supervision of clinical faculty and attorneys in legislative, administrative and judicial settings, students gain first-hand experience working with government agencies on legal issues with policy significance.
Dean Margaret Raymond
Margaret Raymond became the first woman to lead UW Law School in 2011.
Before that, she was a law professor at the University of Iowa, where she served in a number of campus leadership roles, including president of the University Faculty Senate.
Her scholarship focuses on constitutional criminal procedure, substantive criminal law and the professional responsibility of lawyers.