Suffolk University Law School

Infobox_University


name = Suffolk University Law School
established = 1906
type = Private
endowment =
parent endowment =
head = Alfred C. Aman, Jr.
city = Boston
state = Massachusetts
country = USA
students = 1,644 [http://officialguide.lsac.org/SearchResults/SchoolPage_PDFs/ABA_LawSchoolData/ABA3771.pdf Suffolk University Law School Official ABA Data] ]
faculty = 150
bar pass rate = 90%
annual tuition = $36,068
homepage = [http://www.law.suffolk.edu www.law.suffolk.edu]
motto = "“Honestas et Diligentia"
aba profile = [http://officialguide.lsac.org/SearchResults/SchoolPage_PDFs/LSAC_LawSchoolDescription/LSAC3771.pdf Suffolk University Law School Profile]

Suffolk University Law School is a private law school in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The fourth oldest law school in New England in continuous existence (after Harvard, Yale, and Boston University), Suffolk was founded in 1906 by Gleason Archer, Sr. to provide a legal education for those who traditionally lacked the opportunity to study law because of socio-economic or racial discrimination.

The law school currently has both day and evening (part-time) divisions. The school is located in the newly built Sargent Hall on Tremont Street in downtown Boston. There are over 200 upper level electives offered at the law school, and the school is consistently ranked one of the most technologically advanced schools in the nation. [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/directory/dir-law/brief/glanc_03077_brief.php US News Ranking Information] ] [ [http://www.law.suffolk.edu/about/ Suffolk Law Information] ] Admission to Suffolk is quite competitive. In 2005, 43% of applicants were admitted to the law school. Suffolk regularly publishes five law reviews, to which students, faculty, and other scholars contribute. The school is featured annually in the Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report rankings. Suffolk has attracted notable scholars and prominent speakers ranging from John F. Kennedy to William Rehnquist to Antonin Scalia to Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Suffolk University alumni are found in high level judicial, political, and private positions throughout the United States. With over 25,000 alumni, Suffolk is the fourth largest law school in the United States, and only Harvard and Georgetown have a larger enrollment amongst eastern law schools. [ [http://www.shichenconsulting.com/manage/images/upfile/2007716102859749.pdf U.S. News Statistics PDF 2006] ]

History

One of the oldest law schools in New England, Suffolk was founded in 1906 by lawyer Gleason Leonard Archer as the "Suffolk School of Law." The school was named after its location in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Archer's goal was to provide immigrants, minorities, and the working class with the opportunity to study law. In 1907, Archer moved the school from Roxbury to downtown Boston. His first student passed the bar in 1908. By 1930, Archer developed Suffolk into one of the largest law schools in the country, and the law school received full accredition from the ABA. [ [http://www.suffolk.edu/centennial/105.html Suffolk University Centennial Celebration - History ] ] Originally an all-male school with New England School of Law serving as a "sister" school, Suffolk became co-educational in 1937. [Suffolk Law School Centennial Celebration, accessed June 21, 2008] ] In 1999 Suffolk Law School opened its new building on 120 Tremont Street across from Boston Common.

Curriculum

Suffolk Law School has a 3-year day program and a 4-year evening program offering a broad selection of courses. The law school maintains a traditional first-year juris doctor curriculum which includes the year-long courses of Civil Procedure, Contracts, Property, Torts, and Legal Writing, in addition to the semester-long Constitutional Law and Criminal Law courses. A course in Professional Responsibility is required, and each student must also fulfill legal writing and legal skills requirements prior to graduation. Until 2008 Fiduciary Relations, a class concentrating on the law of Agency and Trusts, was required. Upon completion of the required curriculum, students at Suffolk choose from over 200 upper-level courses, many of which focus on learning practical skills, including several legal clinics. [http://www.suffolk.edu/28306.html Suffolk News Release, accessed June 15, 2008] ] Students may also receive credit for diverse internships and clerkships, including those at various courts in the Boston area. Academic concentrations are available in Civil Litigation, Financial Services, Health/Biomedical, and Intellectual Property. [ [http://www.law.suffolk.edu/academic/conc.cfm Suffolk Academic Concentration, accessed June 21, 2008] ]

In addition to the J.D., Suffolk offers an advanced LL.M. in Global Law and Technology. Suffolk University Law School also offers joint degrees with Suffolk's Sawyer Business School (J.D./M.B.A., J.D./M.S.F., J.D./M.P.A.), and the Suffolk University College of Arts and Sciences (J.D./M.S.C.J., J.D./M.S.I.E.). [ [http://www.law.suffolk.edu/academic/joint/ Suffolk Law Joint JD programs, accessed June 15, 2008] ]

Suffolk Law also offers a program abroad: the Semester in Sweden Program with Lund University, a university where Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg conducted research for her book on Swedish Law in the 1960s. [Linda, Bayer "Ruth Bader Ginsburg"(Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2000), 46. ]

The average faculty to student ratio at Suffolk is 16.5 students per faculty member. [ [http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/grad/law/items/03077 U.S. News 2007 Annual Rankings] ]

Academic rankings

Suffolk is ranked annually in the U.S. News and Princeton Review lists of top law schools in the United States. In 2008 U.S. News ranked Suffolk 20th in the United States for its legal clinics, tied with UCLA Law and the University of Chicago Law School, and Suffolk's Legal Writing program was ranked 33rd, tied with Georgetown Law.The school was ranked in the top third tier overall. [ [http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/grad/law/search/c_final_tier+3 Law Schools List] ] The 2007 edition of "Judging the Law Schools" ranked Suffolk #38 in the United States behind the University of Chicago based upon ABA data. [ [http://www.cooley.edu/newsevents/2007/102607_judging.html 2007 edition of Judging the Law Schools] ] In the 2004 edition of "The Best 117 Law Schools," Princeton Review ranked Suffolk 5th in the United States in "most competitive students." [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=_asDaTCdFosC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=%22most+competitive+students%22+law+school+students+suffolk+law&source=web&ots=D3Kp-zOWs2&sig=Qz6cmTN-s4pSDm6tq49W4dMMzS0&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result "The Best 117 Law Schools"By Eric Owens, Princeton Review (Firm) 2005, pg. 55] ]

Admissions

In 2005 the median GPA for incoming Suffolk Law students was 3.35, and the median LSAT score was 157. The admission rate for 2005 was 43%. A breakdown of the various degree programs reveals that for certain programs the selectivity can dramatically increase,such as the LL.M. program. [ [http://www.princetonreview.com/law/research/profiles/generalinfo.asp?listing=1035889&LTID=5 Princeton Review Ranking Information] ]

Libraries

In 1999, after construction on a new law school building was completed, the John Joseph Moakley Library moved to its new home in Sargent Hall. The library contains over 375,000 volumes covering common law and statutes from all major areas of American law in each of the 50 states and with primary legal materials from the U.S. federal government, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United Nations, and the European Union. The library also features a substantial treatise and periodical collection and houses the John Joseph Moakley Archive (a collection of the late U.S. Representative's papers which he gifted to the school in 2001). [ [http://www.law.suffolk.edu/library/ Suffolk Law School Library information] ] Suffolk also records and broadcasts oral arguments for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and has archives of those proceedings available in the library and online. [ [http://www.suffolk.edu/sjc/ Suffolk SJC Oral Argument Archives online] ]

Law Review publications

Suffolk University Law School maintains five student-run publications. The Suffolk University Law Review, founded in 1967, is the oldest continuously published scholarly publication at the law school. [ [http://www.law.suffolk.edu/highlights/stuorgs/lawreview/index.cfm Suffolk Law Review] ] The [http://www.law.suffolk.edu/highlights/stuorgs/moot/ Moot Court Honor Board] , which runs many of the school's successful mock trial competitions, produces the Suffolk Journal of Trial & Appellate Advocacy, which publishes scholarly work written by leading academics, judges, practitioners, and students covering varied trial and appellate practice issues in the United States. Suffolk's Journal of High Technology Law focuses on providing research articles on issues of copyright, trademark and patent law. The Suffolk Transnational Law Review, founded in 1976, is one of approximately 30 law reviews in the United States that focus on international legal issues and the second oldest in existence (after the Harvard International Law Journal). Suffolk recently recognized a fifth journal, the [http://www.law.suffolk.edu/highlights/stuorgs/health/jhbl.html Journal of Health and Biomedical Law] , which focuses on cutting-edge legal developments in the field of health law. [ [http://www.law.suffolk.edu/highlights/stuorgs/boards.cfm Honor Boards at Suffolk Law School] ] In addition to the journals, Suffolk publishes "Dicta," the law school student newspaper since 1972. [ [http://www.law.suffolk.edu/about/history/timeline.cfm Suffolk Law Timeline, 2006] ]

uffolk Law School in literature, film and culture

*"The Departed" (2006) - In the film, Matt Damon plays a Suffolk Law School night student, Colin Sullivan, parts of the movie are filmed at Suffolk. [http://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2006/10/law_school_came.html]
*"The Practice," ABC (1997-2004) Bobby Donnell is a Suffolk Law alumnus played by Dylan McDermott.
*"Boston Legal," ABC, (2005-2006) Justin Mentell plays Garrett Wells, a hot shot attorney who graduated at the top of his class from Suffolk Law. [http://www.tv.com/boston-legal/breast-in-show/episode/580523/summary.html]

Notable alumni

*Peter Agnes, class of 1975, Superior Court Justice, Massachusetts
*Gleason Archer Jr., class of 1939, theologian
*James Bamford, class of 1975, Author
*James A. Burke, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts (1959-1979)
*Jonathan W. Blodgett, class of 1983, current District Attorney for Essex County, Massachusetts
*Judge Frank Caprio, class of 1965, television judge on "Caught in Providence on ABC", Chief Judge Providence, RI Municipal Court
*Daniel F. Conley, class of 1983, District Attorney for Boston (Suffolk County)
*Michael A. Costello, class of 1996, Legislator, member of the Mass. House of Representatives ("served" 2002 - "present")
*Linda S. Dalianis, class of 1974, Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court
*Salvatore DiMasi, class of 1971, Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives ("served" 1979 - "present")
*Frank J. Donahue, class of 1921, longest serving justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts (forty-two years) [ [http://www.law.suffolk.edu/highlights/stuorgs/lawreview/donahue.cfm Suffolk Law Website, accessed June 15, 2008] ]
*James H. Fagan, class of 1973, member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives ("served" 1992 - "present")
*Christopher G. Fallon, class of 1981, member of the Mass. House of Representatives ("served" 1996 - "present")
*Jerald G. Fishman, class of 1976, President & CEO, Analog Devices
*Francis Flaherty, class of 1975, Justice of Rhode Island Supreme Court
*William F. Galvin, class of 1975, Secretary of State of Massachusetts
*Gustavo Gelpí, class of 1991, United States District Court Judge for the District of Puerto Rico
*Maureen Goldberg, class of 1978, Justice of Rhode Island Supreme Court
*Dan Harrington, world renowned poker player
*John Hynes, mayor of Boston (1950–1960), namesake of Boston's Hynes Convention Center
*Cheryl Jacques, class of 1987, Legislator, former President of the Human Rights Campaign
*William R. Keating, class of 1985, current District Attorney for Norfolk County, Massachusetts
*Thomas J. Lane, class of 1925, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts (1941-1963)
*Richard J. Leon, class of 1974, U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, judge (2002-present)
*Gerard T. Leone, Jr., class of 1989, current District Attorney for Middlesex County, Massachusetts
*John Loftus, class of 1977, author, television commentator
*Martin F. Loughlin, class of 1951, U.S. District Court of New Hampshire, judge (1979-1995)
*Patrick C. Lynch, class of 1992, Attorney General of Rhode Island
*Ronald Machtley, class of 1978, President of Bryant College, U.S. Representative from Rhode Island (1989-1995)
*Martin Meehan, class of 1983, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts (1993-2007)
*Joe Moakley, class of 1956, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts (1973-2001)
*Kate Murray, Supervisor, Town of Hempstead, New York
*Irwin Novack, co-owner of Tampa Bay Lightning
*Gunnar S. Overstrom, Jr., class of 1968, vice-chair of Fleet Boston and president and chief operating officer of the Shawmut National Corporation.
*Paul Reiber, class of 1974, Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court
*Robert Rufo, class of 1975, Superior Court Justice, Massachusetts
*Thomas J. Ryan, class of 1974, General Counsel and Vice-President of Pepsi Co.
*David Sargent, class of 1954, President of Suffolk University (1989-)
*Ellen Simon, class of 1979, U.S. Representative candidate from Arizona (2006)
*James Sokolove, class of 1969, television personal injury attorney
*Michael Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts
*Paul Suttell, class of 1976, Justice of Rhode Island Supreme Court
*John F. Tierney, class of 1976, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts (1997-present)
*Joan Vennochi, class of 1984, Pulitzer Prize winner, investigative journalist
*Nina Mitchell Wells, Secretary of State of New Jersey, (2006-present)
*Justice Peter T. Zarella, class of 1975, Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court

Notable faculty and trustees

*Alfred Aman, Jr., Dean of Law School, internationally known legal writer
*Joseph Glannon, Professor, namesake of the popular "Glannon Guide" book series
*Joseph P. Hoar, Trustee, Commander of U.S. central command
*Stephen Hrones, Teaching Assistant 1980-82, Clark Rockefeller case attorney
*Charles P. Kindregan, Jr. Professor of Law, Family Law author
*Alasdair Roberts, Professor of Law and Public Policy, author of "The Collapse of Fortress Bush: The Crisis of Authority in American Government" and other works on government authority and secrecy
*Charles E. Rounds, Jr., Professor of Law, Author of "Loring: A Trustee's Handbook" and other works on trusts and estates
*Michael Rustad, Lambert Professor of Law, Author on Intellectual Property

Honorary degree recipients and speakers

*John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
*Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
*William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
*Stephen Breyer, Justice U.S. Supreme Court
*Antonin Scalia, Justice U.S. Supreme Court
*Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Justice U.S. Supreme Court
*Andrew Card, Chief of Staff to George W. Bush
*Ralph Nader, consumer advocate, Green Party Presidential nominee
*Edward Kennedy, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts
*Coretta Scott King, civil rights activist
*Edwin Meese III, U.S. Attorney General
*Richard Posner, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals
*Rudy Giuliani, Mayor of New York City during September 11
*Robert S. Mueller III, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Notes

External links and references

* [http://www.law.suffolk.edu/ Suffolk University Law School "official site"]
* [http://www.law.suffolk.edu/admissions/ Suffolk Law Admissions]
* [http://www.suffolk.edu/archive/27366.html Suffolk Law School Class and Student profiles from 1909-1929]
* [http://www.princetonreview.com/law/research/profiles/generalinfo.asp?listing=1035889&LTID=5 Princeton Review]
* [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/directory/dir-law/brief/glanc_03077_brief.php U.S. News and World Report]

ee also

*Suffolk University
*Rappaport Center