Abstract
The history of the University of Georgia School of Law examines how developments in American legal education and local attitudes and traditions influenced its formative years. Founded in 1859 as the Lumpkin Law School, it was among the newest of 21 university law schools (those that awarded law degrees) on the eve of the Civil War.
To head the revived law school, the UGA board of trustees chose William L. Mitchell. As chairman of the board’s Prudential Committee, he was a principal architect of the 1859 reorganization of the university that included creation of the law school.
Almost all southern law schools were closed during the Civil War, and many continued to struggle during the Reconstruction era as well, dealing with damaged buildings, low enrollments, and inadequate finances. Enrollments at many northern and western law schools remained strong, but the only successful southern law school before 1900 was at the University of Virginia.
It remains for law schools with antebellum origins to examine how the subject and the law of slavery were taught in their curriculums and influenced proslavery thought in Georgia and other southern states
Repository Citation
Hicks, Paul DeForest, "The University of Georgia School of Law and Early Legal Education" (2023). Other Law School Publications. 490.
https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/lectures_pre_arch_archives_other/490