University of South Carolina School of Law

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The University of South Carolina School of Law is a law school founded in 1867 in Columbia, South Carolina. The mission of the School of Law is to teach law through in-depth study; to contribute through faculty and student research to the common good, to the fund of legal know

Contents 1 History 2 Buildings 3 Admissions 4 Bar passage 5 External links 6 Sources 7 References

[edit] History

The discussion of starting a law program began as early as 1810 when President Jonathan Maxcy recommended to the board of trustees of South Carolina College (as the University was then known) that the school establish a professorship of the law to lecture to the two higher classes. A resolution of the statehouse in 1823 requested the college to consider "the propriety and advantage of establishing a Professorship of Law in that institution, and to report to this house, at the next session, the manner in which such a Professorship may be established, so as to be most advantageous to the community, and least expensive to the State." The trustees replied that a professor should be hired, but that the courses should be offered only to graduates. With that, the matter ended.

When the modern University of South Carolina was formed from South Carolina College in December 1865, the act doing so also authorized the trustees to hire one or more persons to form classes to instruct on the law under such terms as the trustees should decide. In 1866, the act was amended to require the trustees to do so on the quickest possible terms.

In January 1867, the trustees offered Chancellor J.A. Inglis the position, but he declined. In 1868, the offer was next made to Col. A.C. Haskell who accepted and held the post until August 1868. The course of study included the various branches of common law and equity, commercial, international, and constitutional law. Although the program was meant to cover two years, many students completed it in one. A moot court was also overseen by the professor to train students in the details of actual practice. Four students started in the program, and two graduated in June 1868.

The program lapsed during the 1868-1869 academic year, but resumed the following term under the direction of the Hon. C.D. Melton. The program continued until it was shuttered following the death of a subsequent professor, Chief Justice Franklin J. Moses, in 1877.

The school resumed in 1884 under Col. Joseph Daniel Pope with a two year program that again was often completed in one. Professor Pope was given a small salary and the fees generated from tuition. Special provision was made for the teaching of short courses by leading members of the bar. The school also added minimum entrance standards at that time: An applicant had to be at least nineteen years old, have a good English education, and known enough Latin to readily understand legal terms and maxims. Juniors were instructed in the following subjects: "Organization and Jurisdiction of Courts of United States (Supreme, Circuit, and District Courts) and South Carolina (Supreme, Common Pleas, Sessions, Probate, and Trial Justice Courts); Sources of Municipal Law; Domestic Relations; Personal Property, and title to same; Administration, Wills, Contracts, Bailments, Bills and Notes, Principal and Agent, Corporations; Criminal Law, and herein of Torts and nuisances; Public and Private Law, Law of Evidence." Seniors were instructed in the following: "Pleadings and Practice; Law of Real Property; Equity Jurisprudence; Law of Conveyancing; Trial of Title to Land; Maritime Law and Law of Nations; State of Law of the State on subjects not read with the text and lectures of the course; Deeds, Recording, Habeas Corpus, etc." In addition, the juniors were required to write essays, while seniors were trained in court details in a moot court.

[edit] Buildings

The law school is now located in the Law Center at 701 South Main Street next to Moe's South West Grill, Shell Station, and former college mart.

[edit] Admissions

	1996	1999	2000	2001	2003	2004	2006	2008
Applications	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	1612	1609	2082
Accepted	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	478 (30%)	500 (31%)	729 (35%)
Enrolled	250	218	225	N/A	225	240	225	229
75% LSAT/GPA	N/A	158/3.56	159/3.55	159/3.58	159/3.55	N/A	161/3.70	160/3.7
Median LSAT/GPA	157/3.2	155/3.22	156/3.28	156/3.28	156/3.28	158/3.5	159/3.40	159/3.4
25% LSAT/GPA	N/A	151/2.90	152/3.01	154/3.02	152/3.01	N/A	156/3.10	156/3.05

[edit] Bar passage

In South Carolina, the bar exam is administered twice a year—in July and February. July is the primary testing date for those who graduate in May. A much smaller group, generally out-of-state applicants, repeat takers, and December graduates, take the February exam. The South Carolina Supreme Court did not release the pass rate for specific schools' alumni until the July 2007 exam when the court separately listed the pass rate for the University of South Carolina and the Charleston School of Law.

	Feb.	July
2007	---	91.5%*
2008	64.7%	86.4%
2009	76.3%[1]	84.8%[2]

^* The July 2007 results were revised upwards after the South Carolina Supreme Court threw out a section of the exam because of an error by a bar examiner.^[3]

[edit] External links

• The University South Carolina School of Law

[edit] Sources

Edwin L. Green, A History of the University of South Carolina 236-40 (1916) (on the history of the law school).

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.sccourts.org/bar/ewcFeb2009Results.htm
2. ^ http://www.judicial.state.sc.us/bar/July2009Results.htm
3. ^ Knich, Diane (November 7, 2007). "State high court drops portion of bar exam". The Post and Courier. http://archives.postandcourier.com/archive/arch07/1107/arc11105353723.shtml. Retrieved June 5, 2009. 

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