University of Pittsburgh School of Law
The University of Pittsburgh School of Law was founded in 1895. It became a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools in 1900. Its primary home facility is the Barco Law Building. The school offers four degrees: Master of Studies in Law, Juris Doctor, Master of Laws for international students, and the Doctor of Juridical Science. The school offers several international legal programs, operates a variety of clinics, and publishes several law journals.
According to University of Pittsburgh School of Law's 2016 ABA-required disclosures, 91.4% of graduates were employed ten months after graduation with 68% attaining positions where bar admission is required.
History
The law department was founded in 1843 and is one of 17 schools constituting the University of Pittsburgh. The first four law degrees were conferred in 1847. Classes were held in a stone building at Third Street until the building was destroyed in the fire of 1845 and were then held in the university's building on Duquesne Way until that building was burned in 1849. Classes were continued after the second fire in the basement of the Third Presbyterian Church until the universities first law professor, Walter H. Lowrie, was elected to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1851 and forced him to abandon his teaching at the school. This, along with the fires that destroyed many of the university's facilities and resources, disrupted the development of the School of Law.Although various attempts were made to reestablish law instruction beginning in 1862, a permanent law school was not established until 1895. The university at that time was named the Western University of Pennsylvania, but despite this, the law school was originally named the Pittsburgh Law School, a name it held until 1918. The Pittsburgh Law School became a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools in 1900.
The first classes in the permanently established school were conducted in the orphans' court rooms in the old Allegheny County courthouse. In 1897, the school moved into the old university building at Ross and Diamond streets that had been sold to the county in 1882. The school moved again in 1919-20 to the tenth floor of the Chamber of Commerce building. In 1936 the School of Law moved in its entirety to the 14-16 floors of the Cathedral of Learning on the main campus of the university located in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The School of Law moved into their own dedicated facility, the Barco Law Building, upon its opening on the university's main campus in 1976.
Today, Pitt's Law School faculty has been ranked 21st in the nation based on a standard objective measure of scholarly impact. Pitt Law is currently ranked 76th out of 184 in U.S. News & World Report's rankings of America's top law schools and is listed among the "Best Law Schools" by The Princeton Review. Pitt Law is also one of 80 law schools with membership in the Order of the Coif.
Facilities
- Barco Law Building - Pitt Law School is housed in the six-story Barco Law Building on Forbes Avenue, located on the main campus of the University of Pittsburgh.
- Barco Law Library - The Law Library is housed on the third, fourth, and fifth floors of the Barco Law Building. The library was renovated in 2004 , and the current collection numbers some 450,000 volumes and volume equivalents and has a seating capacity, in both the individual carrels and in private reading areas, of over 400. In addition, located within several blocks of the Law Building are Hillman Library, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and several special libraries of the University, including the business, medical, and public and international affairs libraries.
- Teplitz Memorial Moot Courtroom - Located on the ground floor, the moot courtroom, named for the late Benjamin H. Teplitz, includes a seven-seat judges' bench, jury and press boxes, counselors' tables, judges' chambers, and a jury room. It is used primarily by trial tactics classes and by the growing number of moot court programs. It is equipped to handle special sessions of the Commonwealth and Federal Appellate Courts and hearings before various administrative tribunals.
- Other design features of the Law Building include a pedestrian bridge connecting the School of Law with Litchfield Towers dormitories, Lawrence Hall, and Wesley W. Posvar Hall.
Deans of the Law School
- John Douglass Shafer, 1895–1920
- Alexander Marshall Thompson, 1920–1940
- Eugene Allen Gilmore, 1940–1942
- Judson Adams Crane, 1942–1949
- Charles Bernard Nutting, 1949–1951
- Judson Adams Crane, 1951–1952
- Brainerd Currie, 1952–1953
- Arthur Larson, 1953–1956
- Charles Wilson Taintor II, 1954–1957
- Thomas McIntyre Cooley II, 1957–1965
- William Edward Sell, Chairman, Administrative Committee, 1965–1966; Dean, 1966–1977
- John E. Murray, Jr., 1977–1984
- Richard J. Pierce, Jr., 1984–1985
- Mark A. Nordenberg, 1985-1993
- Richard H. Seeburger, 1993–1994
- Peter M. Shane, 1994–1998
- David J. Herring, 1998–2005
- Mary A. Crossley, 2005–2012
- William M. Carter Jr., 2012–2018
- Amy J. Wildermuth, 2018–Present
Academics
Academic programs
- The John P. Gismondi Civil Litigation Certificate Program
- Environmental Law, Science and Policy
- Health Law
- Intellectual Property and Technology Law
- International and Comparative Law
- Disability Studies
- Law and Entrepreneurship
- Washington, D.C. Externship Program
Pitt Law Center for International Legal Education
- Asian Studies
- Global Studies
- Latin American Studies
- Russia and Eastern European Studies
- Western European Studies
Experiential skills programs
Clinics
The University of Pittsburgh School of Law has several clinical programs, which allow law students to gain practical experience as lawyers before graduating from law school. The following clinics are currently offered by the School of Law:- Tax Clinic
- Securities Arbitration Clinic
- Family Law Clinic
- Environmental Law Clinic
- Health Law Clinic
- Elder Law Clinic
- Immigration Law Clinic
Lawyering Skills Competitions
Practicums
The law school has several practicum courses, which aim to combine traditional coursework and instruction with experiential learning under supervising attorneys in various specific interest areas:- Criminal Prosecution Practicum
- Education Law Practicum
- Health Law Practicum: Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Law, Entertainment, and Social Enterprise Practicum
- Lawyering Process III Practicum
- Pennsylvania Practice Practicum
- Medicare and Medicaid Practicum
- Social Security Disability Practicum
- Unemployment Compensation Practicum
- Veterans Practicum
- Workers' Compensation Practicum
Semester in D.C. Program
Publications
Journals
Pitt Law is home to two law reviews and several student-edited legal journals, including the Pittsburgh Law Review, which is one of the 40 most-cited law reviews in the country, according to Chicago-Kent Law Review's 1996 Faculty Scholarship Survey . The following law reviews are all publications of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law:The following journals are all publications of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law:
- Pittsburgh Tax Review
- Pittsburgh Journal of Technology Law & Policy
- Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law
JURIST
Applicant Information
Admissions
Admissions to the University of Pittsburgh School of Law are conducted on a rolling basis, with an acceptance rate of slightly less than 30%. For the entering class of 2013, the median LSAT score was 158 and the median GPA was 3.42. There were 174 entering students out of nearly 1,500 applications.Admissions Statistics for the University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Year | Enrolled | Applications | LSAT - Median | GPA - Median | LSAT - 25th | LSAT - 75th | GPA - 25th | GPA - 75th |
2016 | 140 | 1,341 | 156 | 3.42 | 152 | 159 | 3.12 | 3.64 |
2015 | 134 | 1,401 | 156 | 3.36 | 153 | 159 | 3.03 | 3.63 |
2014 | 156 | 1,172 | 157 | 3.46 | 152 | 160 | 3.09 | 3.68 |
2013 | 174 | 1,487 | 158 | 3.42 | 154 | 161 | 3.16 | 3.61 |
2012 | 210 | 1,973 | 158 | 3.34 | 155 | 160 | 3.09 | 3.60 |
Costs and Financial Aid
The estimated cost of attendance at Pitt Law for the 2014-15 academic year is $50,008 for a Pennsylvania resident and $57,492 for a non-resident. The average law school debt for the graduating Class of 2012 was $94,879, well below the national average.Pitt Law was one of only 53 law schools out of over 200 nationally to be ranked as a 2014 Best Value by The National Jurist. The survey took into account multiple factors, with success in job placement weighted most heavily at 35%, followed by tuition, average indebtedness, bar passage rates, and cost of living.
Employment
The overall employment rate of the members of the Pitt Law Class of 2016 was 91.4%. Among the members of the Class of 2016, 74% obtained a full-time, long-term job either requiring bar passage or where a law degree presented a demonstrable advantage. 18.3% of the members of the class obtained jobs at law firms with 101 or more attorneys, and an additional 6.85% of Pitt Law’s graduates of the Class of 2016 accepted state or local judicial clerkships.Rankings and Honors
- Pitt Law is ranked among the top 30 US law schools and the top 12 public U.S. law schools by QS World University Rankings
- Pitt Law is ranked 76th by US News and World Report
Notable alumni
- Ruggero J. Aldisert - - U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit 1968-1986
- W. Thomas Andrews - - Pennsylvania State Senator
- Pavel Astakhov - - Children's Ombudsman of Russia
- George Barco - - Cable television executive who played a key role in development of that industry
- Yolanda Barco - - cable television executive
- Derrick Bell - - First tenured black professor at Harvard Law School
- Homer S. Brown - - Judge, civil and political rights activist, elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
- Mary Beth Buchanan - - United States Attorney for Western Pennsylvania
- Linda Drane Burdick - - Chief Assistant State Attorney at the Orange and Osceola County State Attorney's Office in Orlando, Florida. She was the lead prosecutor on the State of Florida vs. Casey Anthony case.
- Ralph J. Cappy - - Justice and Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
- Earl Chudoff - - U.S. Representative
- Robert J. Cindrich – former U.S. attorney and US District judge
- Harry W. Colmery – Author of G.I. Bill.
- William Corbett - 2nd Secretary of Guam and the 3rd Civilian Governor of Guam
- Harmar D. Denny, Jr. - - U.S. Representative
- Q. Todd Dickinson - - former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office ; current Executive Director of the American Intellectual Property Law Association
- Dawne Hickton – vice chair, President, CEO of RTI International Metals
- James H. Duff - - Pennsylvania Governor, U.S. Senator
- Harry Allison Estep - - U.S. Representative
- Lucy Fato - - Corporate attorney, general counsel of AIG
- Tom Feeney - - U.S. Representative
- Melissa Hart - - U.S. Representative
- Orrin Hatch - - President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate and U.S. Senator
- David J. Hickton - – staff director and senior counsel to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, director and founder of the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security
- Mark R. Hornak - - Judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
- K. Leroy Irvis - - first African American to serve as a speaker of the house in any state legislature in the United States since Reconstruction.
- William Lerach - - Retired notable private securities class action attorney
- Susan Richard Nelson - - Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota
- Maryellen Noreika - - Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Delaware
- Dan Onorato - - Chief executive of Allegheny County
- Vjosa Osmani - Member of Parliament for the Assembly of Kosovo
- David A. Reed - - U.S. Senator
- Edgar Snyder - - Prominent personal injury attorney, Pennsylvania "Super Lawyer"
- Joseph H. Thompson - Medal of Honor Recipient, College Football Hall of Fame player and coach, Pennsylvania State Senator
- Dick Thornburgh - - Pennsylvania Governor, U.S. Attorney General
- Debra Todd - - Justice on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
- Dennis Unkovic — — International business advisor, partner at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott and author of six books
- Cyril Wecht - - American forensic pathologist
- Joseph F. Weis, Jr. - - U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit 1973-1988
- Mary Jo White - - Pennsylvania State Senator
- James A. Wright - - U.S. Representative
- Joseph "Chip" Yablonski - - Attorney, NFL Players Association; son of murdered labor leader Joseph Yablonski