See Report of the Committee on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, PROCEEDINGS OF THE ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING of the Tennessee Bar Association, hereafter Report of the Committee to the Eleventh Annual Meeting] (opinion that southern lawyers must be content for the time being with such legal education as very moderate wealth affords their department"). See REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LEGAL EDUCATION AND ADMISSION TO THE BAR, CHARTER, CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS, TOGETHER WITH THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE TENNESSEE BAR ASSOCIATION AT ITS FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. See Report of the Committee on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, Tennessee Bar Association: SECOND ANNUAL MEETING.
Report of the Committee on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, PROCEEDINGS OF THE EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE PROVINCIAL ASSOCIATION OF TENNESSEE hereinafter Committee Report for the Eighteenth Annual Meeting]. REPORT OF THE TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION Law School Curriculum, supra note 45, at 11.
Bradford to act as a representative at the organizational meeting of the AALS.46 However, the Law School did not join the formation of the Association, but it was not until 1910 that the requirements for membership were met.4 7 This was not unusual ; law schools in the South during that period generally experienced difficulty meeting AALS standards.48 Vanderbilt Law School's delayed entry into the AALS is consistent with the school's status at the turn of the twentieth century: an established, effective operation with a primarily local, state, and regional outlook, but not an institution that competes with elite law programs nor is heavily involved in legal education at the national level.49. The Vanderbilt Law School faced fierce competition in the nineteenth century, even within its limited scope. The neighboring Cumberland School of Law was nationally recognized and was the premier law school in Tennessee, if not the area, for most of the mid- to late-nineteenth century.50 Although Cumberland's star.
See HARNO, supra note 22, at 88-90; REPORT OF THE TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION Law School Curriculum 10-12 (undated), Centennial History Project, Box 25 (unpublished memorandum on file with Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt Law School , University of Vanderbiltafter) . 56:497 had begun to fade by the end of the century,5 1 Vanderbilt's law program was not yet as high-profile as Cumberland's at the time.52 Additionally, many other law schools were founded, including a at the University of Tennessee. in the state and region during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, adding numerous competitors to the law school market.53 Thus, in the early twentieth century, Vanderbilt Law School was both a step behind Cumberland in name recognition54 and facing the challenge from the new legal schools.55.
PART OF "A GREAT UNIVERSITY"
It was the overriding feeling of the body to attempt nothing unless something great could be accomplished. The university can be traced back to 1858, when the Tennessee legislature granted a charter for the Central University of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South,59 which included a judicial department with its own board of trust.60 The Civil War slowed down however, any attempt to act on the approved charter and establish a university.6 1. Speech of Bishop Wightman at the Laying of the Cornerstone of Vanderbilt University, CHRISTIAN ADVOC., May 9, 1874, at 6.
In fact, expressions of high expectations for the university were on the agenda. Thus, by December 1875, the term "Harvard of the South" appeared in print in connection with Vanderbilt.
VANDERBILT LAW REVIEW
Although the university's founders may have underestimated the financial resources needed to develop a top-notch law school, the law school's operation under a quasi-leasehold arrangement should not be taken as evidence that it became part of the university after the fact,73 on a second-class basis,74 or purely for cosmetic purposes. .75 The general understanding in the academy at the time was that law schools would be financially self-sustaining,76 and Vanderbilt's founders were well aware of this convention.77 Proprietary-leaning university law schools were often associated with their parent universities with relatively weak academic ties and were generally had a free hand operationally.7 8 Vanderbilt's approach to law school/university affiliation was therefore quite common.79. See Holladay, supra note 47, at 14 ("Law school wasn't exactly an afterthought for Vanderbilt, but it wasn't a primary goal either."). Regarding the establishment of the university, Chancellor James Kirkland stated: "The question arose at the outset whether Vanderbilt should not devote itself exclusively to graduate or university work.
Indeed, the absence of a law school would have been notable for a university where professional education was a central feature of the ambitions of its creators. However, the law school's quasi-proprietary nature and its rather ambiguous administrative relationship with the university80 were sources of tension during the 25-year operational lease.81.
34;A FALSE START"
Spofford, former member of the Louisiana Supreme Court.8 7 The remaining members of the law faculty selected by the board were: Edmund D. He was a well-known chancery judge who later became the first president of the Nashville Bar Association, a member of the Tennessee Supreme Court and the original president of the Tennessee Bar Association. 8 9 He had a demonstrated interest and some experience in law school education, having served a few months as a professor at the University of Nashville's short-lived law department in the middle of the year. 1850.90 Coincidentally, Cooper worked at Vanderbilt University before being named dean of its law school. See id.; Meeting of the Board of Trustees of Vanderbilt University, CHRISTIAN ADVOC., May 9, 1874, at 9 o'clock; Vanderbilt University Law Department, THE BANNER REPUBLICAN, Aug.
Judge East was heavily involved in the organization and early growth of the University, serving as one of its incorporators and as a member of the Board of Trustees from the institution's inception until 1893. noting the high quality of Cooper's opinions as chancellor and emphasizing his influence as a judge and legal commentator in the field of equity); Judge William Frierson Cooper: Paper read by John Bell Keeble before the Tennessee Bar Association at Chattanooga, NASHVILLE AM., August.
VANDERBILT LAW REVIEW
Faced with the embarrassment of having no suitable location to operate a law school and only a handful of students, Dean Cooper consulted with law faculty secretary Reese, Bishop Holland McTyeire (the President of the Board of Trust) and the four prospective law students . It was finally arranged that, rather than delay the opening of the Law School, Reese would teach classes on his own.100 He did so in a "very neatly appointed" classroom in an office building, just above an insurance business. .10 1 In the course of the academic year, three more students arrived, bringing the total to seven, but one only stayed a short time before taking leave. some legal training at Cumberland School of Law.104 He was known as a kind and understanding individual,'0 5 who was well liked by his students.106 He successfully tutored the seven young men in law who graduated from the Vanderbilt Law School in its initial year of operation In essence, Reese was Vanderbilt Law School.
Still, an aggressive modern public relations professional might see a bright side to the situation—with four students and eight faculty members, Vanderbilt Law School began with perhaps the most favorable student/faculty ratio in the history of legal education. The authors were unable to find further information about Reese's law studies at Cumberland.
VANDERBILT LAW REVIEW
Vol. 56:497
After graduation, Sullivan returned to his home state of Mississippi to practice law, eventually becoming a United States Senator.117 In law school, he was the founding president of the Cornelian Debating Society, supposedly the initial student organization at Vanderbilt.118 Years later, in 1900, Sullivan, then a senator, returned to the Vanderbilt campus to demonstrate his oratorical skills, serving as the keynote speaker at twenty of the University's colleges. celebration of the fifth anniversary.11 9. However, the small number of students and the overall organization of the school had to be addressed.
THE "LEASE"
Since the lease dictated the basic structure of the Law School for a quarter of a century, it must be examined. Of the three, Reese appears to have had the least extensive local practice and devoted the most time to the law school venture. Reese entrusted with the long-term management of Vanderbilt Law School on a part-time basis.
See generally Law School Administration: Deans, supra note 81, first through ninth unnumbered pages (discussing Malone's deanship, citing his achievements, and providing examples of conflict with Chancellor Garland over law school-university relations mention). Malone and Baxter were still affiliated with the law school when the lease expired in 1900. Although the three tenants—Baxter, Malone, and Reese—provided the bulk of the teaching at the Vanderbilt Law School in the nineteenth century,186 the Law School also employed other faculty members.
In 1898, the Law School made two other faculty appointments, greatly expanding the size of the faculty. The appointments of Burch and Lurton were an important part of a plan to strengthen the Law School's program. Circumstances dictated that Vanderbilt Law School make a final adjustment to its faculty schedule before the end of the lease.
Hood, Vanderbilt Law School Student Centennial History Project (unpublished rough draft on file with Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University) (discussing law student participation in campus "literary societies"-"clubs of public speaking or debate"). Central Tennessee College (later Walden University) maintained a law school in Nashville for African American students during the last two decades of the nineteenth century and beyond. In addition, several members of the Chickasaw Nation received their legal education at Vanderbilt Law School in the mid to late 1890s.
Malone, Dean, Vanderbilt Law School (June 7, 1876) [hereinafter the unsent Garland letter) (on file at Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University); see also Law School Administration: Deans, supra note 81, on the third unnumbered page. Malone, Dean, Vanderbilt Law School (June 7, 1876) (deposited at Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University); see also Law School Administration: Deans, supra note 81, on the third unnumbered page.
ACADEMIC PROGRAM
Over time, the law faculty seemed to conclude that the intellectual quality of the law school experience suffered for those students who finished in one year. Vanderbilt University's financial arrangement with the Law School tenants, beginning with the 1875 lease,354 was straightforward. Enrollment in the Law School's first academic year (1874-75) is discussed above notes 99-102 and accompanying text.
However, this factor does not seem to have had a significant negative financial impact on the Faculty of Law. By 1896, the Law Faculty's accommodation situation in the Law and Dental Building had become a problem. The Law School's original catalog indicates that space on Main was set aside for a law library.
Several important breakthroughs occurred for the law library when the Vanderbilt Law School moved to establish operations in the newly constructed Law and Dental Building in the summer of 1889. Later, the law library was allocated an even larger space in the Law and Dental Building. However, the Board of Trust by no means ignored the financial needs of the law library.
Another misunderstanding about the Library's financial matters arose regarding the Law School's acquisition of the Cooper Collection. At the 1899 annual meeting of the Board of Trust, Kirkland noted that the lease for the Law School would expire the following year. By the end of the century, several factors prompted the university's decision to restructure its relationship with the law school.
The university provided the Law School with teaching and library space, which the university furnished. 44 6 In fact, Kirkland formulated the issue that led to a restructuring of the Law School, largely in terms of enrollment.
