The story
Early days
The school began in the early 1800s in the New Haven law office of Seth P. Staples, who began training lawyers. By 1810, Staples was operating a law school. He took on a former student, Samuel Johnson Hitchcock, as a law partner, and Hitchcock became the proprietor of the New Haven Law School, joined by David Daggett in 1824. The Yale Law School shield (shown at the upper right of this page) shows staples and a rampant dog, representing Seth Staples and David Daggett. The school's affiliation with Yale began in the mid-1820s and in 1843, the school's students began receiving Yale degrees.
Daggett went on to serve as the mayor of New Haven, a U.S. senator, and a judge of the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors (now the Connecticut Supreme Court). An opponent of education for African Americans and a supporter of colonization, he helped lead opposition to the establishment of a college for African Americans in New Haven and presided over the trial of a woman who ran a boarding school for African American girls.
21st century
The law school's 15th dean, Harold Koh (2004–2009), made human rights a focus of the law school's work, building on a tradition that had developed over the previous two decades. On March 23, 2009, the White House announced the appointment of Koh to the United States Department of State as the legal adviser of the Department of State. Robert C. Post was selected to replace him as dean of the law school.
In 2022, two federal appeals judges, James C. Ho and Elizabeth L. Branch, stopped hiring Yale Law graduates as clerks because of concerns that the school suppresses conservative views. The school responded by initiating actions to "reaffirm its commitment to free speech", which included an orientation about "free expression" and "respectful engagement", the appointment of a new dean to help law students "resolve disagreements", and a prohibition on secret recordings and disruption of campus events.
From Wikipedia’s article on Yale Law School, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3