The Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram (also Government College of Law, Thiruvananthapuram) at University of Kerala is one of the most prestigious institution imparting undergraduate and graduate legal education in India.
Established in 1875 by the then Maharajah of the erstwhile Princely State of Travancore, the college has produced some of the finest legal minds, including Indian Supreme Court Judges, more than half a dozen sitting Judges of the Kerala High Court, Union Ministers/legislators, academicians, bureaucrats etc. The first woman Judge of the Supreme Court Justice Fathima Beevi is an alumnus of the college, so also noted academician Dr. N.R Madhava Menon.
The Government of His Highness Maharaja of Travancore on 31 January 1875 sanctioned "the Organisation of a Law Class in connection with His Highness College at Thiruvananthapuram to enable candidates from Travancore to present themselves for the Law Examination of the University of Madras and to encourage others to pursue the study of Law systematically". The order sanctioning the scheme directed that it shall be worked on the same lines as the Class attached to the Presidency College at Madras. Mr. W. E. Ormsby, Barrister-at-law, then a Judge of Sadur Court of Travancore was appointed Professor of Law in His Highness the Maharajas College. He opened the class on 9 February of the same year. In 1877, His Highness College was affiliated to the University of Madras in the Faculty of Law.
The class was thus continued till 1894 when in conformity with important alterations in the by-laws of the Madras University regarding the B.L. Degree Examination, the institution was re-organised on an entirely different footing. The Law Class which till then was working as a part of His Highness College and the Professors whereof were treated as members of that College was raised to the status of an independent College under the designation of "His Highness Maharaja's Law College, Thiruvananthapuram". A complete set of rules was also sanctioned by the Government for the control and regulation of work in the college. The rules prescribed the qualification required for the members of the teaching staff.