Columbia Law School is one of the professional schools of Columbia University. It is a pre-eminent American law school with about 1,500 students in New York, New York. Historically, Columbia has ranked as one of the top law schools in the United States by reputation and selectivity.
One of the first law schools in the United States, Columbia Law School was established in 1858. While Columbia is well known for its highly regarded curriculum in transactional law, it also has America’s oldest and most respected programs in the areas of international and comparative law and human rights law. The Columbia Law Review is the third most widely distributed and cited Law Review in the country, and is one of the four publishers of the Bluebook.
Columbia Law School’s Arthur W. Diamond Library is the second largest law library in the United States, with over 1,000,000 volumes. The law school’s main building, Jerome L. Greene Hall, was designed by Max Abramovitz, architect of the United Nations and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which serves as the site of Columbia Law School's graduation ceremonies. In 1996, the Law School was extensively renovated, including the addition of a new entrance façade and lobby, as well as the expansion of existing space to include a café and lounges.
The hugely influential legal realism movement, which flourished during the 1920s and 1930s, is often associated with Columbia Law School. Among the major realists affiliated with Columbia were Karl Llewellyn , Felix S. Cohen and William O. Douglas. One effect of this influence was an attempt to reorganize the Columbia curriculum in order to acquaint students with the tools of social science analysis; a first-year course on the foundations of the regulatory state was required until 2005.
John Jay 1764¹, co-author of the Federalist Papers (1788), first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1789), and governor of New York (1797-1801)
Samuel Blatchford 1837¹, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1882-1883)
Charles Evans Hughes 1884, New York governor (1907), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1910-1916), Republican nominee for President of the United States (1916), Secretary of State under Presidents Warren Harding (1921-23) and Calvin Coolidge (1923-29), and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1930-41)
Harlan Fiske Stone 1898, professor (1902-05) and dean (1910-23) at Columbia Law School, Attorney General under President Calvin Coolidge (1924-25), Associate Justice (1925-41) and Chief Justice (1941-46) of the Supreme Court
Stanley Forman Reed², Soliciter General (1935-38) and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1938-57)
William O. Douglas 1925, professor at Yale Law School (1928-34), Chairman of the SEC (1936-39), and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1939-75)
Ruth Bader Ginsberg 1959, law professor at Rutgers University (1963-72) and Columbia Law School (1972-80), ACLU attorney (1972-80), judge on the DC Circuit (1980-93), and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1993-present)
Perry Belmont 1876, congressman from New York (1880-88) and US Ambassador to Spain (1888-1889)
Theodore Roosevelt 1880², hero of the Spanish-American War, New York governor (1899-1901), 25th Vice President of the United States (1901), 26th President of the United States (1901-1909), and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (1906)
Thomas E. Dewey 1925, Manhattan district attorney (1937-42), New York governor (1942-55), and Republican nominee for President of the United States (1944, 1948)
Clifford P. Case 1928, congressman (1945-53) and senator (1955-79) from New Jersey
Constance Baker Motley 1946, attorney for the NAACP (1945-64); Manhattan Borough president (1964-66); first African American woman appointed to the federal bench (1966-86)
Jack B. Weinstein 1948, professor at Columbia (1952-98) and federal judge (1967-93)
Harrison A. Williams 1948, congressman (1953-57) and senator (1959-82) from New Jersey
Slade Gorton 1953, senator from Washington (1981-87, 1994-2001)
John D. Hawke, Jr. 1960, Comptroller of the Currency (1998-2004)
Charles Fried 1960, professor at Harvard Law School (1961-87, 1989-95, 1999-present), US Soliciter General (1985-89), and Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1995-99)
Richard Ben-Veniste 1976, federal prosecutor (1968-73), chief of the Watergate Task Force of the Special Prosecutor's Office (1973-75), and member of the 9/11 Commission (2002-2004)
John William Sterling 1893, founder of the Manhattan law firm Shearman & Sterling; major donor to his undergraduate alma mater, Yale University; namesake of Yale's library, law building, and its most prestigious endowed chair
Douglas Black 1918, president of Doubleday (1946-63)
Bruce Ratner 1970, founder (1985), president, and CEO of Forest City Ratner ; principal owner of the New Jersey Nets, which he hopes to move to Brooklyn
Roland W. Betts 1978, investor, film producer, lead owner in George W. Bush’sTexas Rangers partnership (1989-1998), and developer and owner of Chelsea Piers (1989-present)
Michael I. Sovern 1955, professor (1957-present) and dean (1970-79) at Columbia Law School, president of Columbia University (1980-93), and chairman of Sotheby's (2002-present)
Edward Packard, children's author who developed the "choose your own adventure" style of storytelling
John Montgomery Ward 1883, played baseball for the Providence Greys (1878-82), New York Giants (1883-1889, 1893-94), Brooklyn's Ward Wonders (1890) and Brooklyn Grooms (1890-91); president of the Boston Braves (1911-1912); advocate for player's rights; member of the Baseball Hall of Fame (1964)
