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Vanderbilt University Law School 

Vanderbilt University Law School
Established 1874
School type Private
Endowment $80 Million (US)
Parent Endowment $3.4 Billion (US)
Dean Edward L. Rubin
Location Nashville, TN, USA
Enrollment 601
Faculty 132
USNWR ranking 15
Bar pass rate 97.8%
Annual tuition US$39,838
Homepage www.law.vanderbilt.edu

Vanderbilt University Law School (also known as VULS) is a graduate school of Vanderbilt University. Established in 1874, it is one of the oldest law schools in the southern United States. Vanderbilt Law has consistently ranked among the top 20 law schools in the nation[1], and is currently ranked 15th in the 2009 edition of the U.S. News & World Report.

Vanderbilt Law is considered to be among the most prestigious law schools in the United States. In addition to its U.S. News & World Report ranking, VULS was ranked 11th in the inaugural Vault Top Law School Guide[2]. In 2008, the Princeton Review ranked Vanderbilt 7th for Best Career Prospects, 4th for Best Classroom Experience, and 4th for Best Quality of Life[3]. Most recently, Vanderbilt Law was ranked 15th in the 2008 National Law Journal job placement study[4], with slightly over 45% of the graduating class being hired by the NLJ Top 250 firms[5]. The median starting salary for Vanderbilt Law graduates is $145,000 (US)[6].

The Law School places much emphasis in fostering a small, collegial environment; with only approximately 600 students enrolled, each entering class usually consists of slightly under 200 students. Given the law school's endowment of approximately $80 Million (US), the small class size receives the 16th highest per-capita endowment among US law schools.[7]

The dean of the law school is Edward L. Rubin[8], formerly the Theodore K. Warner, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Contents

Culture

The Law School Building, dusk.
The Law School Building, dusk.

Vanderbilt is one of the smallest law schools in the country. With a limited enrollment of approximately 600 Juris Doctor and L.L.M. candidates, usually no more than 200 students comprise each entering class. The student-to-faculty ratio has correspondingly dropped in recent years, and is currently at 13:1[9], similar to small, elite peer schools like Duke Law and Cornell Law.

The small class size, complementing the small-city background of the Nashville metropolitan area, has contributed to a congenial, non-competitive atmosphere. VULS has over 40 student organizations[10], which supports many social events throughout the year. Most Fridays during the school year, the law school sponsors an informal social gathering known as "Blackacre", named after the outdoor courtyard on campus where the gatherings are held.[11] "Blackacre" typically features free food and beverages, including kegs of beer, and is sponsored by different student organizations every week.

VULS was based in Kirkland Hall from 1944 to 1962.
VULS was based in Kirkland Hall from 1944 to 1962.

Regarding career options, the small class size and diverse makeup of its students contribute to a dispersing graduating body, both in terms of industry and geography. While 71.8% of the most recent graduating class pursued law firm work, 13% found employment as judicial clerks, and 7% entered the public service industry. Geographically, Vanderbilt graduates pursue work in the Southern/Mid-Atlantic (38%) and Northeastern (30%) regions; slightly fewer graduates find work in the Western/Southwestern (14%) and Midwestern (13%) region, and 5% of the class find work abroad.[12]. 85% of graduates find jobs in major metropolitan areas, and 94% already had jobs by graduation.[13]

This dispersal, along with its lack of a class rank system[14], has minimized competition among students for firm opportunities among different regions and different firms. Moreover, students may not compete with each other relative to other schools because of heavy firm recruiting---typically over 800 firms recruit second-year students annually, with 550 firms participating in the On-Campus Interview (or OCI) program.[15] Notable firms include Skadden, White & Case, and Davis Polk.[16].

The law school also offers a unique 1L OCI program, which is traditionally held in the spring semester, and involves more regionally proximate firms based in Nashville, Charlotte, and Atlanta.

History

VULS annually hosts a summer international law program on its Venice, Italy campus.
VULS annually hosts a summer international law program on its Venice, Italy campus.

Vanderbilt Law School was established in 1874, and was the first professional school to open (Vanderbilt University itself did not start its undergraduate classes until 1875)[17]. The Law School's first class consisted of only seven students and eight professors, with a two-year course of study comprising the school's curriculum. William Sullivan was the school's first graduate, and would eventually represent Tennessee in the United States Senate.

Through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Law School remained reasonably small, and never exceeded 70 students. The curriculum continued as a two-year departmental program, and changed locations between downtown Nashville and the Vanderbilt Campus. By 1941, it had expanded into the old chapel area of Kirkland Hall, but faced very limited enrollment during World War II. Classes were suspended in 1944, which largely remained stagnant until the end of the war.

The Law School was revived with $1 million endowment in 1947, and experienced significant growth through the 1960's. Facing overcrowding, it was moved out of Kirkland Hall in 1962, and into the Law School Building on 21st Street, where it currently resides.

Since then, VULS has undergone a series of renovations and expansion, notably including a $24 million upgrade under then dean (and current Washington University School of Law Dean) Kent Sveyrud. Such expansion has included greater integration with the Owen School of Management, the Peabody School of Education, and other Vanderbilt professional programs.

By 2000, VULS had established a Law & Business Program, new clinical programs, multiple law journals, and an LL.M. program for foreign lawyers. At this point, Vanderbilt had greatly solidified its regional prestige and was well on its way to aggressively developing a national reputation.[18]

In 2005, Edward Rubin was appointed to replace Sveyrud as Dean of VULS. Since then, the Law School has significantly developed its Dispute and Resolution Program (resulting from a $2.9 endowment donation), established a Summer Study program on its Venice, Italy campus, and increased its reputation in the field Law and Economics with the notable hiring of former Harvard Law professor Kip Viscusi.

Admissions

The Commons, located on the Peabody campus, is across from the Vanderbilt Law School, off 21st Avenue
The Commons, located on the Peabody campus, is across from the Vanderbilt Law School, off 21st Avenue

Vanderbilt's prestige, post-graduate career placement opportunities, and desire to maintain a traditionally small community has made it an attractive option for many applicants. This has allowed its Admissions Office to be among the most highly selective in the country.[19].

While the law school typically receives nearly 4,000 applications a year, less than 1,000 applicants receive offers, resulting in a matriculating class of under 200. In the 2007 application cycle, it received the largest number of applications in its history, experiencing a 10 percent increase over the previous year[20]. Its acceptance rate is approximately 24%[21], and the entering Class (of 2010) had median undergraduate GPA and LSAT scores of 3.74 and 167[22], respectively.

Fifty-six percent of the most recent entering class had graduated from college at least one year before arriving at Vanderbilt[23]. Backgrounds of such people have included experience in the business, science, military service, education, technology, entertainment, and public policy industries. Of the most recently admitted class, 51% are women and 23% are minorities; the entering class also represents 112 different undergraduate institutions, spanning 38 different states and three foreign nations.

Programs

Vanderbilt's corporate law program allows students to earn a Certificate in Law & Business, and it has strong programs in international and constitutional law. In 2005, a new program—the Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution Program, headed by complex litigation scholar Richard Nagareda[24] received a $2.9 million endowment through a cy pres settlement of a class action lawsuit. Vanderbilt also has programs in law and human behavior, constitutional law, regulatory law, and environmental law.

In the spring of 2006, the law school announced the creation of a new program to award a Ph.D. in Law & Economics—the first program of its kind in the nation—directed by economists W. Kip Viscusi and Joni Hersch. The program admitted its first class in Fall 2007.

Vanderbilt Law School also offers a summer study program, Vanderbilt in Venice[25], which is open to students from all accredited law schools and offers courses in comparative and international law.

Publications

The Vanderbilt Law Review is ranked 18th among general-topic law reviews, based upon the number of times its articles are cited.[26]. Other journals are the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, founded in 1967, and the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, founded as the Journal of Entertainment Law and Practice in 1998. The recently created Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review, a new joint publication with the Environmental Law Institute, debuted in 2008.

Notable alumni

Notable faculty

Current

  • Robert Belton, recipient of the 2006 National Bar Association Presidential Award.
  • James F. Blumstein [27], health law and Constitutional law scholar, he also has argued 10 cases before the Supreme Court.
  • Lisa Schultz Bressman, highly regarded scholar of administrative law.
  • Rebecca L. Brown [28], an individual rights constitutional theorist and co-chair of the American Constitution Society's "Constitution for the 21st Century" project.
  • John Goldberg [29], expert in tort law, a proponent for constitutionalizing the right to redress through tort, on which he published an article recently in Yale Law Journal.
  • Owen D. Jones [30], scholar on the impact of evolutionary biology on law, a subject on which he has published articles in Columbia Law Review, among other journals.
  • Nancy J. King [31], author of a Criminal Procedure casebook and member of the Rules Committee for the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
  • Richard Nagareda [32], author of Mass Torts in a World of Settlement (University of Chicago Press - released in 2007).
  • Edward L. Rubin [33], has authored numerous books and articles on legal theory and administrative law. He is among the most cited members of the law faculty.
  • Jeffrey Schoenblum [34], scholar in choice of law in international wealth transfers and probate.
  • Suzanna Sherry, author of numerous books on constitutional interpretive theory and casebooks on Civil Procedure and Federal Jurisdiction.
  • Michael Vandenbergh [35], an environmental law scholar who explores the relationship between formal legal regulation and informal social regulation.
  • W. Kip Viscusi [36], economist and health and safety risk scholar.

Former

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