Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School
Emblem
MottoLex et Iustitia
(Latin for 'Law and Justice')
Parent schoolHarvard University
Established1817; 207 years ago (1817)
School typePrivate law school
DeanJohn C. P. Goldberg (interim)[1]
LocationCambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Enrollment1,990 (2019)[2]
Faculty135[3]
USNWR ranking4th (tie) (2024)[4]
Bar pass rate99.4% (2021)[5]
Websitehls.harvard.edu
ABA profileStandard 509 Report

Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United States.

Each class in the three-year JD program has approximately 560 students, which is among the largest of the top 150 ranked law schools in the United States.[6] The first-year class is broken into seven sections of approximately 80 students, who take most first-year classes together. Aside from the JD program, Harvard also awards both LLM and SJD degrees.

HLS is home to the world's largest academic law library.[7][8] The school has an estimated 115 full-time faculty members.[3] According to Harvard Law's 2020 ABA-required disclosures, 99% of 2019 graduates passed the bar exam.[9][10][11] The school's graduates accounted for more than one-quarter of all Supreme Court clerks between 2000 and 2010, more than any other law school in the United States.[12]

  1. ^ Sloan, Karen. "Harvard law dean named interim university provost amid leadership churn". March 01, 2024. Retrieved March 05, 2024.
  2. ^ "About". Harvard Law School. Harvard University. Archived from the original on November 18, 2019. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Harvard Law School". Hls.harvard.edu. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
  4. ^ "Harvard University".
  5. ^ Sloan, Karen. "Harvard, NYU Law are tops for first-time bar exam pass rates". April 27, 2022. Retrieved April 03, 2023.
  6. ^ "Best Law Schools". U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on July 13, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  7. ^ "About". Harvard Law School. Archived from the original on January 10, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  8. ^ "The Harvard Law School Library". Library Tours. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  9. ^ "Harvard Law School – 2015 Standard 509 Information Report" (PDF). Harvard Law School. Harvard University. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 11, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  10. ^ Rubino, Kathryn. "Bar Passage Rates For First-time Test Takers Soars!". February 19, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
  11. ^ "Bar Passage Outcomes". American Bar Association. Archived from the original on June 10, 2019. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  12. ^ "Brian Leiter Law School Supreme Court Clerkship Placement, 2000-2010". leiterrankings.com. Archived from the original on December 17, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2017.. However, because of its greater size, approximately 2.5 times that of Yale, Harvard had a greater total number of Supreme Court while Yale has a significantly higher per-capita placement of clerks on the Court. Id.