Columbia Law School is renowned for the intellectual rigors of its curriculum and the groundbreaking scholarship of its faculty. Our mission of teaching and research serves the world at large and instills in our students a cosmopolitan worldview that prepares them to be exceptionally capable, ethical, and resourceful leaders. Drawing unparalleled strength from the vast interdisciplinary resources of our distinguished research university—and the global stage that is our New York City location—our students complete their legal training ready to engage the world’s most challenging issues across borders, jurisdictions, subject matters, sectors, and industries. Our training includes J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. programs.
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School combines traditional strengths in corporate law and financial regulation, international and comparative law, property, contracts, constitutional law, and administrative law with pioneering work in intellectual property, digital technology, tax law and policy, national security, sexuality and gender, and environmental law.
Columbia University, formerly known as King's College, was founded near the present site of New York's City Hall. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in the state of New York and the sixth-oldest such institution in the United States. Its early students included such statesman as Alexander Hamilton, an author of The Federalist Papers, and John Jay, the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
James Kent was named the first professor of law at Columbia, and he lectured until he was appointed to the Supreme Court of New York five years later. His lectures were eventually published as the classic Commentaries on American Law.
Columbia Law School was founded as one of the first law schools in the United States and a charter member of the American Association of Law Schools. The Law School's first dean, Theodore W. Dwight, did much to form the superiority of academic training via office instruction (the era's norm) to a skeptical legal profession.
The Law School's first commencement took place at the Hall of the New York Historical Society. The class had 28 graduates.
