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University of Michigan Law School

law school

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ911830
Source-derived summary

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%.

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.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “University of Michigan Law School” as law school. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around University, Michigan and School.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1859, 2024, 2022, 2023—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1859-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with University, Michigan and School providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “University of Michigan Law School”, the useful work is to connect “law school” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q911830. VIAF identifies the subject as 126605394. The Library of Congress control number is n82116981. Authority coordinates are 42.274, -83.739. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1859, 2024, 2022 and 2023.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
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Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “University of Michigan Law School”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow University of Michigan Law School primary sources, University of Michigan Law School archive and University research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “University of Michigan Law School”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from University of Michigan Law School” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.