Temple University School of Law - Restatement Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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temple Unffiemtp Hato ;i cf)ool By Francis Chapman THE Law School, which is one of the oldest departments of the I'niversity, was founded in the spring of 1895 and was for years known as the Philadelphia Law School of Temple College. The first class graduated was that of 1901. For some years after the school was founded it was the rule to confer degrees only on those students who had successfully completed the course in the school and had in addition passed the final examination for admission to the Bar, given by the state or county where the student sought admission. The result of this policy was that the students, seeing the emphasis laid on the examinations conducted by authorities outside the school, began to leave the school as they got into the final year and place themselves under tutors who made a business of preparing students for finals. In many instances after doing this they did not return to obtain a degree. As a consequence, there are at the Bar today in Philadelphia many lawyers who owe their legal training to the Temple Law School, wholly or in part, who are. not on its alumni list. In 1905 the faculty determined to abandon this policy and to grant degrees solely on the college examinations without reference to any outside judgment. About the same time the County Board of Philadelphia County decided to accept a completed course in the Law School as the equivalent of a clerkship in a lawyer’s office or a course in the law school of the University of Pennsylvania. The beneficial result of this was at once seen. From this time the students felt themselves equal to the students of other schools in treatment as they had long felt themselves in ability and training. In 1911 the school was removed from the buildings of the University at Broad and Berks Streets to the Wilson Building at Sixteenth and Sansom Streets, thus providing a central location readily accessible from the railroad stations and convenient to the subway. Students from out of the city who had found it impossible to attend at Broad and Berks Streets because of the distance from the various railroad stations and the consequent difficulty of getting trains late at night after lectures, began to come in and the attendance has grown steadily with an ever-increasing number of students from New Jersey and out-of-town points in Pennsylvania. At first, after the removal, the school had the third floor of the Wilson Building, but it soon outgrew this and took over the two upper floors of the building. In the summer of 1922 the school was moved to its present location at 1521 Locust Street where it occupies the entire building. 28