ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION

OF AMERICAN LAW SCHOOLS.

THE PAST AND PRESENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN LAW SCHOOLS.

BY

CHARLES NOBLE GREGORY,

DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF LAW, STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA.

The report of the American Bar Association for 1900 (at p. 569) records the following:

"Pursuant to the invitation extended by a Committee of the Section of Legal Education of the American Bar Association, representatives from American law schools met at Saratoga on Tuesday, August 28, 1900, and held three sessions during that day.

"Charles Noble Gregory, of the University of Wisconsin, was chosen Chairman and Ernest W. Huffcut, of Cornell University, was chosen Secretary."

Thirty-five law schools were represented at the conference, but eleven others," which had notified the committee of the appointment of delegates, were not represented at the conference."

Judge George M. Sharp, of Baltimore, to whom more than any other the meeting was due, for the Committee of the Section, submitted a draft of articles of association. These were discussed, section by section, it may be said with some acrimony and personal conflict. The weather was very warm, and views and interests diverse, and the Chairman fears that the vote of thanks to him passed at the close of the session "for his uniform courtesy and patience in presiding over the deliberations of the Association" illustrated the patience and courtesy of his colleagues rather than his own.

The articles as approved were referred to a committee on style, consisting of Judge Sharp, the late Judge William Wirt Howe

and Dean James Barr Ames, and, as reported back by that committee at the evening session, with some verbal changes, "they were adopted as read, and ordered printed and sent to all law schools."

So our Association came into being. The simple and orderly procedure reminds us of that of the convention which framed our federal constitution. The declared object of the Association was "the improvement of legal education in America, especially in the law schools."

At the end of nine years, the member at that time called to preside, finds himself, by the great kindness of his associates, for which he is most grateful, chosen to the presidency of the Association, and, by custom, required to deliver a president's address. Under these circumstances it has seemed not inappropriate to briefly review the history of those nine years of existence, and to seek to ascertain in what measure the Association has fulfilled its avowed object.

The articles of association sought to fix a moderate standard to which schools must within a limited time conform as a requisite for membership. They provided:

1st. That each school require of its students in preliminary education "the completion of a high school course of study or its equivalent."

2d. That the course of study leading to its degree should cover at least two years of thirty weeks, and after 1905, three years. 3d. That the conferring of degrees "shall be conditioned upon the attainment of a grade of scholarship ascertained by examination."

4th. Certain very limited library facilities.

It will be recalled that 35 schools were represented at the first meeting. At the present time the Association has 36 members. Of this only 18, or exactly one-half, were represented at the initial meeting. Since the number represented at the meeting was 35, substantially one-half of those there assembled are not now members.

The great endowed foundations of both the East and West, as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Pennsylvania, George

Washington, Leland Stanford, Chicago, Northwestern, are members, and the state universities which occupy a like position, west of the tide water states, are also members.

The schools which failed to become members, or to maintain membership, did so in almost every case, if not always, because of inability or unwillingness to comply with the standard set.

The first subsequent meeting was held at Denver, Colorado, in 1901. Twenty-seven schools had become members, but eighteen only were represented. Five new schools were elected to membership.

The next meeting was held at Saratoga in 1902, and of the 32 schools having membership, 21 were represented, and 5 new schools were elected to membership. At the third annual meeting at Hot Springs, Virginia, in 1903, 26 of the 37 schools enjoying membership were present. At the fourth annual meeting at St. Louis, in 1904. of the 35 members, 25 were represented. At the fifth meeting held at Narragansett Pier, in 1905, 26 schools in a membership of 37 were represented. Three schools were elected to membership at that meeting, raising the membership to 40. A resolution was adopted at this meeting requiring all candidates for its degree, in any school belonging to the Association, at the time of their admission to the school, to have completed a four years' high school course or certain equivalents, such resolution to take effect September, 1907.

This raised the standard doubly, in requiring a four years' course instead of the two- or three-year courses which had sufficed, and in that it required the completion of the preparatory studies before the law studies were begun, whereas theretofore they could be finished at any time before the law degree was conferred.

At the meeting at St. Paul in 1906, 27 schools out of 40 were represented.

At this meeting the resignations of the Baltimore, Buffalo and Illinois law schools were reported (American Bar Association Report for 1906, Part 2, pages 125-127), and no resignation having been received from another two-year school (Tennessee), it was "resolved that all law schools, members of this Association,

which maintain less than a three years' course in law shall be, and hereby are, dropped from the Association."

Another school reported as failing to maintain the requirements of the Association, in that it had "received and graduated students who have not had a high school preliminary education or the equivalent thereof," was, after hearing and protracted debate, dropped from membership in the Association on a vote taken by the schools of 16 in favor to 6 against. This was our first and last case of capital punishment. One new school (Texas) was admitted, and we were left with 36 members.

At the seventh meeting, held at Portland, Maine, in 1907, 25 schools out of 36 were represented. The resignation of one school was accepted (Georgetown), and three schools were elected to membership (South Dakota, South California and Creighton), leaving us with 38 members.

The eighth annual meeting was held in 1908, at Seattle, and only 16 schools were represented out of 38, the smallest meeting ever held, due doubtless to the remoteness of the place of meeting from the schools.

The resignations of two schools of importance, Boston University Law School and New York University Law School, were accepted. The resignations were understood to be on account of the unwillingness of the schools to accept the interpretation of the rule by which three years of law study were required, and the doing of the three years' work in two years' time was held not allowable. This left us with 36 members for the meeting of 1909.

I do not fail to appreciate that the number of schools which, in the nine years our Association has existed, have advanced from very elementary standards to that moderate one prescribed for membership, is considerable, and that some have been able to advance still further. It has been easier to advance in platoons than singly. Though not merely that, ours is largely a bureau of standards.

Our honored guest, Sir Frederick Pollock, in 1903 told us, speaking of law teaching in his country: "In fact every teacher who has taken up the matter seriously in England has not only gone his own way, but had to go his own way, because there was no established system he could follow."

The public teachers of law in England and Wales have now, however, within the year, effected an organization, and a representative of the drafting committee to shape and report on rules has requested from your president copies of your articles, and he has been glad to furnish them. The objects of that society are substantially the same as of yours, and are declared to be "the furtherance of the cause of legal education in England and Wales, and of the work and interests of public teachers of law therein, by holding discussions and enquiries, by publishing documents, and by taking such other steps as may from time to time be deemed desirable." This society, however, only admits to membership teachers representing institutions "not established or existing for the purpose of making pecuniary profit divisible among their members." This organization of our brethren in Great Britain has, I am sure, the best wishes of every one of us, and the cordial good will of all who enjoy the benefits of that system of law which is perhaps England's greatest gift to the world.

It is deemed worth while to analyze the statistics of our Association during the past nine years and at the present time.

The report of the United States Bureau of Education for 1899 and 1900 shows 96 law schools in the country. Of these 35 were represented at our initial meeting, little more than one-third in number.

The 96 schools had 12,516 students. The schools present at our meeting had 8084, substantially two-thirds in number of the whole body of students, though the schools were in number only about one-third.

The like report for 1908, which is the last in print, shows 108 law schools with 18,069 students, an increase in the number of schools of only one-eighth, but of students of nearly one-half.

The rain has fallen upon the just and the unjust, but not alike. The increase in students in the schools represented at our first meeting is 1429, and in the other schools 4124. In other words, the 35 schools having two-thirds of the students which founded this Association have since then had about one-fourth only of the growth, and the other schools, which had one-third of the stu