The University of Oklahoma College of Law

The University of Oklahoma College of Law. . In the spring of 1909, the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents approved the establishment of a law school and the University began a search for the first dean of the school. Julian Charles Monnet, who received a graduate degree from the Harvard Law School in 1908, was selected. On September 1, 1909 Monnet moved to Norman to begin a new life in a new state, as first dean of a new school. The school opened on schedule with an enrollment of 47 students. The faculty consisted of the Dean and two professors. Due in no small part to Monnet's leadership, the O. U. School of Law quickly became the outstanding law school in the state and one of the finest in the nation. He eventually assembled a faculty of outstanding scholars of national and international reputation. In 1913, a new law school building on Parrington Oval was completed and by unanimous request of the students, it was named Monnet Hall at the dedication ceremony on March 4, 1914. Monnet retired as Dean in 1941 but continued to teach until his death in 1951. , The law school eventually outgrew Monnet Hall and in 1974 the new law center was built at this site. Nationally prominent architect Edward Durrell Stone who designed the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., designed the facility which was constructed for $4.2 million. , In 1997, Dean Andrew Coats led an effort to raise funds for a major $18 million expansion and renovation of the law center building. Ground was broken on October 22, 1999. Those participating included Governor Frank Keating; Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice Hardy Summers; Bill W. Burgess, Chairman of the State Board of Regents for Higher Education; University of Oklahoma President David Boren; and Dean Coats, all of whom were graduates of the College of Law. , The expansion of the law school came as the college under the leadership of Dean Coats was recognized as one of the top law schools in the nation in various national surveys. The addition doubled the space available to the law library and created the 250-seat Dick Bell Courtroom/Auditorium. The law library reached over 350,000 volumes by 2001 and serves the entire state. The new building also includes The Chapman Great Reading Room modeled after the fondly remembered reading room in Monnet Hall which now houses O.U.'s Western History Collection. , The new building was dedicated in the spring of 2002.