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

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i t f A THE. 93 erection of its own home at 10 North Franklin Street. This event was made possible by the many generous contributions of students and alumni to the college endowment. The building is of fireproof construction throughout and designed especially for law school purposes, containing the latest and most efficient of heating and ventilating devices. Chicago-Kent College of Law is the only independent endowed law school in the state, and is the only law school in the downtown distr-ict of Chicago owning and exclusively occupying its own building. T Two memorial funds have been presented to the trustees of this instituf tion and are now being administered bythem. The Moran Memorial Fund was contributed by former members of the classes conducted by Judge Moran, the purpose of said fund being to provide scholarship prizes for ex- cellence in classroom attainment, to be awarded each year by the faculty. The Edmund W. Burke Memorial Fund was presented by the members of the family of Judge Burke, and the interest arising from this fund is devoted each year by the trustees to providing prizes for those showing highest excellence in debate. F-4 l 5IfiNQNsgf! 64 f Page I2 fE?9Q' 'i in ' F X -ti 1925

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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

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