Before filling the chair of law at William & Mary, Wythe tutored numerous students in the subject, including Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. 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 William & Mary 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.
The growth of the school was halted abruptly by the beginning of the American Civil War. The start of military campaigns on the Virginia Peninsula compelled William & Mary to close its doors. It would be another sixty years before the historical priority in law could be revived in a modern program that is now nearly ninety years old.
After William & Mary Law School was reopened early in the twentieth century (1921), it was moved around the main campus of the university to several different buildings in succession. In 1980, the school was moved to its current location on the outskirts of Colonial Williamsburg, a short distance from the main campus. The building has been renovated several times since 1980, with the addition of a new wing of classrooms and renovation of older classrooms in 2000, the opening of the Henry C. Wolf Law Library, the construction of a new admission suite, and the addition of the James A. and Robin L. Hixon Center for Experiential Learning and Leadership (dedicated in 2017).
A. Benjamin Spencer, a nationally renowned civil procedure and federal courts expert and former professor of law at the University of Virginia, is the current dean and Chancellor Professor at William & Mary Law School. Named on July 1, 2020, he is William & Mary's first African-American dean of any school at the university, including the law school.[5]W. Taylor Reveley III, formerly managing partner of the law firm of Hunton & Williams, is a former dean of the law school. He served as the 27th president of William & Mary from September 5, 2008, to June 30, 2018, after serving as interim president since February 2008. Davison M. Douglas served as dean from July 2009 through June 30, 2020. The former chancellor of William & Mary, Sandra Day O'Connor, delivered commencement remarks to the graduating class of the school in 2006, 2008 and 2010.[6]
For the Class of 2025 (enrolled as of October 1, 2022), the median undergraduate GPA was 3.75 and the median LSAT score was 165.[7]
In 2024, U.S. News & World Report ranked W&M law tied for 36th place.[2] It had been ranked tied for the 30th place in its 2023 rankings.[8]
According to William & Mary's official 2022 ABA-required disclosures, 92% of the Class of 2022 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD-advantaged, non-school funded employment nine months after graduation.[9] William & Mary's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 10%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2018 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation, with 0% of the class in school-funded jobs.[10]
In 2019, William & Mary Law School came in 11th among all U.S. law schools in percentage of graduates that secured full-time, long-term federal judicial clerkships, often seen as the most prestigious clerkships law graduates can obtain.[11]
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William & Mary Law School offers institutes and programs such as the Center for Racial & Social Justice, the Coastal Policy Center, the Center for Comparative Legal Studies and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding, the Center for Legal and Court Technology, the Center for the Study of Law and Markets, the Dunn Civil Liberties Project, the Election Law Program, the Human Security Law Center, the Institute of Bill of Rights Law, and the Property Rights Project.
The annual Supreme Court Preview of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law brings journalists and academics together each fall for an analysis of key cases on the Court's docket for the new term.
William & Mary Law School has several Clinics for students to work under the supervision of attorneys, ranging in areas of practice. The Clinics offered include the Appellate and Supreme Court Clinic, Domestic Violence Clinic, Elder Law and Disability Clinic, Federal Tax Clinic, Immigration Clinic, Innocence Project Clinic, Lewis J. Puller Veterans' Benefits Clinic, and Special Education Advocacy Clinic.[12] The Lewis B. Puller, Jr. Veteran's Benefits Clinic provides students (under the supervision of staff attorneys) with the opportunity to ensure that veterans receive the benefits which they are entitled to as a matter of law and service.
Journals include the William & Mary Law Review, the Bill of Rights Journal, William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review, William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice, and William & Mary Business Law Review.
The school's McGlothlin Courtroom is home to the Center for Legal and Court Technology, a joint program of the School and the National Center for State Courts. The mission of the project is to use technology to improve the administration of justice and the legal systems of the world.
Created in 2005 as a joint venture of the National Center for State Courts and the Law School, the Election Law Program was intended to provide practical assistance to state court judges in the United States who are called upon to resolve difficult election law disputes. It has since been expanded to include a student Election Law Society.
The George Wythe Society of Citizen Lawyers is a civic leadership program, formed in the fall of 2005, to recognize and encourage community service and civic participation by members of the student body.
The Human Rights and National Security Law Program focuses on the interplay between national defense and the protection of civil rights. The Program's Distinguished Lecture Series and co-sponsored symposia bring experts to campus each semester to foster discussion and debate about on-going and emerging issues.
The Center for the Study of Law and Markets seeks to advance the understanding of the role of legal institutions in promoting well-functioning markets in a free society.
The Center for Comparative Legal Studies and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding bridges the gap between resources available at academic institutions and the need for them in the field by rule of law actors engaged in post-conflict reconstruction efforts. The Center serves as a focal point for the law school's international and comparative legal and policy research and programming and sponsors summer international internships in developing and post-conflict countries around the world.[13]
The Institute of Bill of Rights Law engages in study of the Bill of Rights and sponsors a variety of lectures, conferences, and publications to examine Constitutional issues, including the annual Supreme Court Preview. [14]
The William & Mary Property Rights Project encourages scholarly study of the role that property rights play in society. The Project's annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference explores recent developments in areas such as takings litigation and takings law.
Tuition at William & Mary for the 2023-24 academic year is $36,418 for Virginia residents and $58,604 for non-residents.[15] Approximately 97% of students received financial aid (2022). Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years, based on data from the 2022-2023 academic year, is $179,472 for residents; the estimated cost for non-residents is $232,692.[16]
Michele Bachmann (LL.M., 1988), U.S. House of Representatives, Minnesota (2007–2014)[17]
John L. Brownlee (Law 1994), former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia[18]
William H. Cabell (Law 1793), received first baccalaureate in law granted in America, governor of Virginia (1805–1808), justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia (1811–1851)[19]
Haldane Robert Mayer (Law 1971), judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (1987–present; chief judge of the Federal Circuit, 1997–2004)[24]
LeRoy Francis Millette, Jr. (William & Mary 1971, Law 1974), justice Supreme Court of Virginia (2009–present )
Rebecca Beach Smith, (William & Mary 1971, Law 1979), Chief District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (2011–2018)
Henry St. George Tucker (William & Mary 1798, Law 1801), professor of law at William & Mary (1801–1804), justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia (1824–1831), remembered for editing the American edition of Blackstone's Commentaries.[29]
Jessica Aber, (Law 2006), U.S. Attorney for Eastern District of Virginia.[30]
Jennifer Wexton, (Law 1995), U.S. House of Representatives, Virginia (2019–present)[31]
