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

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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

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l I The T fm5C lPf 1925 1

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THE, 2 IDANSCNPT , finally a new class was formed. ' This brought the organizers face to face with two problems: more instructors would be required and more room would be necessary to accommodate the! large number of law clerks who wished to supplement their instruction in the law office by membership in these classes. In 1888 the matter was solved by the securing of quarters in the First Methodist Church Block and the adding of Judge Griggs to the roll of the faculty . The name of the institution was also changed at this time to the Chicago College of Law and all the classes were announced to meet at 6:30 P. M., a time which was found to suit best the convenience of both students and instructors. . Judge Bailey became the first dean, and in 1889 the college became the law department of the Lake Forest University, which it continued to be till the dissolution of the University in 1904. Though the state law at this time required but two years of study before admission-to the bar and those who completed the second year's work were admitted to practice wi'thout exam- ination, this college from the very beginning required three years of study before granting the Degree of Bachelor of Laws. It was the first law school in this state to make this requirement and one of the first in the United States. Its growth was so rapid that larger quarters were secured in 1892 in the Athenaeum Building on Van Buren Street, just east of Vlfabash Avenue, which were occupied until- the college moved in 1912 to 116 South Michigan Avenue, where it remained for eleven years. Judges Edmund W. Burke, Henry M. Sheppard and john Gibbons were added to the faculty in 1893, and in 1896, upon the death of Judge Bailey, judge Moran became dean, which position -he occupied until his death in 1904, when Judge Edmund W. Burke, the third .dean, was elected to head the faculty of the college. Upon his death in 1918, Webster H. Burke, the assistant dean of the college, became first acting dean, and later was, elected to the deanship, which position he now holds. In 1900 the Kent College of Law, which had been founded in 1892 and which was the second- largest school in the state, was affiliated and the name of the institution changed to Chicago-Kent College of Law. During the thirty-eight years of its existence about six thousand men have grad- uated from its classes, of which number about twenty-five hundred are prac- ticing in Chicago and vicinity. Many of its graduates have achieved dis- tinction at the bar and on the bench, not only in Illinois but in almost every state in the Union. Three other institutions have been merged into the present college. In the year 1912 the Western College of Law was absorbed. The Chicago Business Law School was affiliated in the year 1917. In 1923 the students of the Webster College of Law were also transferred to its classes. 3 . The year 1924 will alwaysbe remembered. in Kent history, as it was then that. the Junior College was founded, and that the college completed the 53 1935 X Page II