IIT Chicago Kent College of Law - Transcript Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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l I The T fm5C lPf 1925 1

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..4 The Transcript 1925

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9' f e 1 f THE, if N 1 History of Chicago-Kent College ofLaw No one person founded Chicago-Kent College, of Law. Chicago College of Law sprang into existence in 1886 as the result of the conditions surround- ing the legal profession and the study of law during the middle eighties. From the earliest days of the Law Temple of London, tradition had decreed that apprentices, -and, as they were termed, clerks in the law, should secure their training in the profession under the private tuition of an ex- perienced practitioner and in the atmosphere of the law office. With the growth of Chicago, which, at the timer of which we write, had reached a population of about one million, law clerks studying under the private tuition of members of the local bar found that the increasing business in the growing metropolis was greatly diminishing the amount of time which their em- ployer instructors werevable to devote to the legal improvement of their office students. The leisurely days of quiet study in the office under the kindly personal interest of some veteran of a thousand legal battles were gone. In the fall of 1886, about twelve law clerks, studying in as many law ofhces, met by mutual agreement after the close of office hours in the office of the firm, of Burke Q Hollett, then loca-ted on La Salle Street just across from the City Hall, the place where one of these boys was employed. Their purpose was to form a class for additional law study. It was sug- gested by one, for these young 'men had by- their experience learned the value of the practical in law study, that it would be a great benefit to them if their class could be directed by some experienced lawyer or jurist. judge Thomas A. Moran, then justice of the Appellate Court of the First District of Illinois, was suggested, and a delegation was sent to him. The idea was new, how- ever, and he dreaded separation from his family, and suggested that they take the matter up with judge Bailey, then also a justice of the Appellate Court of the First District of Illinois. To him the committee went and his acceptance was secured. At first the class came to his chambers in the Appellate Court rooms at five o'clock each afternoon. The judge was a man who lived with the law. No hours were too long for him to give to preparing his work for the class nor to personal guidance to its members. Within a few months, however, the judge, in conversation with judge Moran, described so glowingly .the success of the class, the earnest application of the students and the pleasure that he himself had found in the work, that at the suggestion of Judge Moran, an arrangement was made whereby the class should meet at the chambers of Judge Bailey and Judge Moran on alternate afternoons. Early in 1887, in order to better facilitate the collection of the small dues which were being paid the judges for their sacrifices, these young men or- ganized under the name of the Chicago Evening Law School. 'The news soon spread among the law clerks of other law offices, and in the fall of 1887 as many as the size of the Chambers would permit joined the class and F2195 Sf. Page zo 4-2