History of the Catholic University Law School

History of the Catholic University Law School. As early as 1890, Archbishop John Joseph Keane, the first rector of The Catholic University of America recognized the need for the study of law at the university to meet the demand for Catholic lawyers imbued with the true spirit of their religion as well as with the fundamentals of jurisprudence. In 1895, the Trustees of Catholic University opened the School of Social Sciences which included a Department of Law. Two years later a separate School of Law was established. The Honorable William Callyhan Robinson was appointed the first dean of the law school., In 1921, the law school became a member of the Association of American Law Schools. By 1925, The Catholic University Law School became one of the first District of Columbia law schools to be recognized by the American Bar Association. In 1938, the school was one of only 10 law schools in the United States requiring a baccalaureate degree of every candidate for admission., In 1954, the CUA law school merged with the Columbus University School of Law which had been established in 1922 by the Knights of Columbus. The new school became the Columbus School of Law of The Catholic University of America. At the same time, CUA acquired the property of the former Columbus University and moved the law school from McMahon Hall to the site at 1323 Eighteenth Street, N.W., After twelve years, the law school returned in 1966 to the CUA campus to occupy the newly constructed Leahy Hall. The facility was named for the last president of the Columbus University, William Leahy, a member of the Knights of Columbus., Enrollment increased steadily during the sixties and seventies and the school soon outgrew Leahy Hall. In 1983 space in McMahon Hall was converted into classrooms for law school use. In 1988 the school expanded into Keane Hall to provide additional teaching, study, and administrative space., The law school moved into a newly constructed building in the summer of 1994. For the first time in years, all components of the school were housed under one roof with adequate space to ensure a quality legal education for generations to come. This building was dedicated October 1, 1994., Small, lower dedicatory marker: , Gift from William J. Whalen, '83 and Carol A. Whalen, In honor of Mary E. Parker and in memory of James L. Parker, History of The Columbus University School of Law , 1922-1954, In 1919, the national chapter of the Knights of Columbus founded more than 100 evening school programs nationwide, including one in Washington, D.C. These programs provided free education for veterans returning from World War I, granting undergraduate degrees as well as high school equivalency diplomas., In 1922, funding from the national chapter of the Knights of Columbus for these evening programs was depleted. That same year, the local Washington, D.C. council of the Knights of Columbus voted to continue the evening school program, but limited the curriculum to law and accounting. The name of the program was changed to the Columbus University School of Law. In August 1922, the Columbus University School of Law was incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia and continued to operate under this charter until June 1934. In that year the United States Congress granted the charter under which it operated until 1954., The local council's goal for the school was to enable "young men and women in moderate circumstances" to study the law. The 1928-29 Announcements describes the faculty as "attorneys actively engaged in the practice of the law before various branches of the government in Washington, and before the various courts of the city.", By 1939, the Columbus University School of Law had the third largest enrollment in the United States with 1,059 students. The law school was accredited by the American Bar Association in 1944., The Columbus University School of Law was originally located in a row house at 1311 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. It then moved to the "Dulles Mansion" at 1323 Eighteenth Street, N.W., and later acquired an adjoining townhouse at 1325 Eighteenth Street, N.W. to house administrative functions., In 1954, an act of Congress signed by President Eisenhower approved the merger of the Columbus University School of Law with the Catholic University School of Law to form the present Columbus School of Law of The Catholic University of America., Small, lower dedicatory marker: , Gift from William J. Whalen, '83 and Carol A. Whalen, In honor of David D. and Mary D. Whalen