William & Mary School of Law
| Marshall–Wythe School of Law | |
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Seal of the School
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| Parent school | College of William & Mary |
| Established | 1779 |
| School type | Public |
| Dean | Davison M. Douglas |
| Location |
Williamsburg, Virginia, USA 37°15′55″N 76°42′18″W / 37.26528°N 76.70500°WCoordinates: 37°15′55″N 76°42′18″W / 37.26528°N 76.70500°W |
| Enrollment | 625 |
| Website | www.law.wm.edu |
| ABA profile | ABA Profile |
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The Marshall–Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary, commonly referred to as William & Mary Law School, is the oldest law school in the United States. Located in Williamsburg, Virginia, it is a part of the College of William & Mary, the second oldest college and first university in the United States. The Law School maintains an enrollment of about 650 students seeking the juris doctor, the fundamental legal degree in the United States today.
William & Mary Law School was founded in 1779 at the impetus of the governor of Virginia Thomas Jefferson, an alumnus of the College, during the reorganization of the originally royal institution, transforming the college of William and Mary into the first University in the United States. At Jefferson's urging, the governing board of visitors of the College established a chair of law and appointed George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, and Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, its first holder. (In the English-speaking world, older law professorships include the chair at Oxford University, first held by William Blackstone, the chair at Edinburgh University's School of Law (1709), and the Regius Chair of Law at Glasgow University).
Before filling the chair of law at William & Mary, Wythe tutored numerous students in the subject, Henry Clay, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe among them. John Marshall, who became Chief Justice of the United States in 1801, received his only formal legal education when he attended Wythe's lectures at the College in 1780. St. George Tucker, who succeeded Wythe as Professor of Law and edited the seminal early American edition of Blackstone's Commentaries, also was one of Wythe's students.
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