The University of Michigan Law School (branded as Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law (MCL), Juris Doctor (JD), and Doctor of the Science of Law (SJD) degree programs.
The law school is primarily supported through student tuition, private gifts, and endowment payouts, with less than 2% of its expenses covered by state appropriations.
As of 2024, the law school enrolls 990 students and employs 119 full-time faculty members and 89 part–time faculty members. Notable alumni include U.S. Supreme Court Justices Frank Murphy, William Rufus Day, and George Sutherland, as well as a number of heads of state and corporate executives. Approximately 98% of Class of 2022 graduates were employed within ten months of graduation; its first time bar passage rate in 2023 was 95.45% and the passage rate for all graduates within two years was 99.20%.
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History
19th century
Michigan Law is one of the oldest law schools in the United States. In 1837, the statute that created the Regents of the University of Michigan provided for Michigan University to have a department of law. Due to tight funds and the fact that lawyers-in-training preferred to learn alongside practitioners, it was not immediately created. The law school was eventually founded on October 4th 1859, by Charles I. Walker, James V. Campbell and Thomas M. Cooley.
The law school inherited a progressive tradition from Michigan’s politics as a state that emphasized abolition of slavery and educational reform. In 1870, Gabriel Franklin Hargo graduated from Michigan Law as the second African American to graduate from law school in the United States. In 1871, Sarah Killgore, a Michigan Law graduate, became the first woman to both graduate from law school and be admitted to the bar.
Paul D. Carrington describes there being a tension at the time between "populist-democratic aspirations of American law, represented by Cooley, and the rising technocratic-elitist pretensions of the profession, reflected in the emerging character of Harvard Law School." Cooley's beliefs were imprinted on Michigan Law School's founding, which emphasized practical training, Jacksonian common-man politics, and the belief that a public law school existed “to create an elite that would not be too elite.”
Carrington writes that Michigan Law School emphasized the historical and cultural origins of law, and the social and political aims it had, in contrast to elite institutions at the time, which emphasized law as self-contained and best practiced without regard for social and economic effects. This approach to legal teaching had a direct impact on other law schools, who adopted the Michigan model. For example, Cornell University invited Michigan Dean Harry Burns Hutchins to organize the Cornell Law School when it was founded in 1887.
At the start, the minimum requirements were only being over 18 years of age and a certificate of good moral character, and no tuition was charged. This was because the first students were already practicing lawyers or on the verge of taking the Bar. Junior and senior students took classes together, and graduates were awarded with an LLB. Eighteen years later in 1877, under Dean Henry Wade Rogers, the Law Department lengthened terms and began requiring entrance exams for all candidates that did not have a high school degree or comparable diploma. In October 1897, as the number of candidates grew, the law department raised criteria and required law students to satisfy the same admission requirements as Bachelor of Letters candidates.
20th century
From 1910 to 1930, the school expanded with the Lawyer’s Club building, Hutchins Hall, Martha Cook Residence Hall, William W. Cook Legal Research Library, and the eventual Law Quadrangle. In 1915, admission requirements were again raised so candidates needed two years of prior college work, and the degree would be three years long. The Law Department was also renamed the Law School. With Michigan being located next to the Canada border and the University accepting international students, the law school emphasized international and comparative law.
Michigan Law and its professors and alumni made much progress in the 20th century. In 1902, the Michigan Law Review was established. Michigan Law School professor Edward S. Rogers authored the 1946 intellectual property Lanham Act, with his initial 1914 authorship appearing in the journal. James J. White, associate dean from 1978 to 1981, co-authored the Uniform Commercial Code that was adopted by all American states. Michigan professor James Boyd White is credited with initiating the law and literature movement with his 1973 book The Legal Imagination.
In the late 1960s, the law school introduced clinical programs to provide students with real-world experience and it quickly expanded under the deanship of Theodore J. St. Antoine.
21st century
In 2009, Michigan Law began a $102 million enterprise to construct a new law building that would remain loyal to the English Gothic style. The enterprise was fully funded by endowments and private gifts. 2009 also marked the school's sesquicentennial celebration. As a part of the festivities, Chief Justice John Roberts visited the school and participated in the groundbreaking ceremony for the new building. The building was dedicated in 2012 and called South Hall. In December 2018, South Hall was renamed Jeffries Hall, after a record $33 million donation from real estate developer Christopher M. Jeffries.
The school's faculty continues to have a direct impact on national law. In 2022 assistant professor Rachel Rothschild authored a legal framework for climate superfunds that were adopted in Vermont and New York.
Campus
Built between 1924 and 1933 by the architectural firm York and Sawyer with funds donated by attorney and alumnus William W. Cook, the Cook Law Quadrangle comprises four buildings:
Hutchins Hall, the main academic building, named for former Dean of the Law School and President of the University, Harry Burns Hutchins
The Legal Research Building
John P. Cook Dormitory
The Lawyer's Club, providing additional dormitory rooms and a meeting space for the residents of the Quad, is highlighted by a Great Lounge, and a dining room with a high-vaulted ceiling, an oak floor, and dark oak paneling.
In 2012, extensive renovations of the Lawyers Club were undertaken thanks in part to a $20 million gift from Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman Charles T. Munger, and was re-opened on August 19, 2013 for the 2013 school year.
Academics
Admissions and costs
Admission to Michigan Law is highly selective. For the class entering in the fall of 2024, 802 applicants were accepted out of a total of 6,766, an acceptance rate of 11.85%. Out of those 802 accepted applicants, 307 students enrolled, a 38.28% enrollment rate. The 25th and 75th LSAT percentile scores for the entering class were 166 and 172, with a median of 171. The 25th and 75th undergraduate GPA percentile scores were 3.70 and 3.95, with a median of 3.86.
Tuition at the University of Michigan Law School for the 2020–2021 academic year is $63,680 for residents of the state of Michigan and $66,680 for non-residents. The estimated cost of living for a Michigan student is $21,900. Assuming no tuition increases, a typical three-year course of study at Michigan therefore costs $256,740 (or $85,580 per year) for residents and $265,740 (or $88,580 per year) for non-residents.
Publications
Michigan Law School students publish several law journals in addition to the Michigan Law Review, the sixth oldest legal journal in the United States. These include:
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Michigan Journal of International Law
Michigan Journal of Gender and Law
Michigan Journal of Race & Law
Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review
Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law
Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review, formerly the Michigan Journal Private Equity and Venture Capital Law
Journal membership is obtained through participation in writing competitions.
Moot court
Students may compete in intramural moot court competitions, the oldest of which is the Henry M. Campbell Moot Court Competition, established in 1926 and first held in the 1927–1928 academic year. Other moot court competitions include the Child Welfare Law Moot Court Competition, Criminal Law Moot Court Competition, the Entertainment Media and Arts Moot Court Competition, the Environmental Law Moot Court Competition, the Intellectual Property Moot Court Competition, the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the Vis International Arbitration Moot Court, the Native American Law Students Association Competition, the Manfred Lachs Moot Court, Michigan Law Corporate Counseling Competition, and the 1L Oral Advocacy Competition.
Clinics
Michigan Law's clinical program allows students to provide direct representation to clients under the supervision of full-time faculty. There are 18 clinical programs, including the Child Advocacy Law Clinic, the Entrepreneurship Clinic, the Environmental Law Clinic, the Federal Appellate Litigation Clinic, the International Transactions Clinic, the Michigan Innocence Clinic, the Transactional Lab, and the Unemployment Insurance Clinic.The Michigan Innocence Clinic has accomplished several exonerations for wrongful convictions.
Student groups
Michigan Law offers a wide array of student organizations centered around various interest areas, including politics, pro bono work, community service, race, gender, religion, and hobbies. Student organizations organize various annual events, from student pageants such as Mr. Wolverine to the Michigan Law Culture Show.
Externships and internships
Michigan's externship program is designed to provide students with real-world legal experience and advanced research opportunities beyond what is separately available in either a classroom or a clinic. Externships are available in places such as Switzerland, South Africa, and India.
Reception
Rankings
Michigan Law was ranked third in the initial U.S. News & World Report law school rankings in 1987. Michigan Law is also one of the "T14" law schools, schools that have consistently been ranked in the top 14 since U.S. News began publishing rankings. In the 2025 U.S. News ranking, Michigan Law is ranked 8th overall. During the period 2010 through 2014, Michigan Law ranked 15th among U.S. law schools, tied with the Georgetown University Law Center, for the number of times its tenured faculty's published scholarship was highly cited in legal journals.
Employment
According to the University of Michigan Law School's ABA-required employment disclosures, 98% of the graduates of the Class of 2021 were employed or seeking an advanced degree. This includes the 94.2% of the class who had obtained jobs requiring a J.D. Of the Class of 2021, 55% were employed by firms of greater than 100 attorneys and 18% obtained clerkships. Michigan's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 5.8%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2021 who are unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation. In addition to Michigan, the majority of Michigan Law graduates work in New York, Illinois, California, and Washington, D.C.
People
Notable faculty
Theodore J. St. Antoine, Dean Emeritus – legal philosopher and labor law scholar
Reuven Avi-Yonah – tax law scholar
Samuel Bagenstos – constitutional scholar and expert on disability rights
Evan Caminker, Dean Emeritus – constitutional law scholar
Edward H. Cooper – civil procedure scholar
Steven P. Croley – expert on administrative and regulatory law
Donald Duquette – Clinical Professor of Law Emeritus
Phoebe C. Ellsworth – scholar of law and psychology
Samuel R. Gross – criminal law expert widely cited for work on exonerations
Daniel Halberstam – comparative constitutional law, transnational law and European law scholar
James C. Hathaway – international refugee law expert and scholar of public international law
John Hudson – English legal historian
Ellen D. Katz – voting rights and election law scholar
Thomas E. Kauper – scholar of property law and antitrust
Vikramaditya Khanna – expert on international commercial law and the laws of India
James E. Krier – property law scholar