page_title: University of Richmond School of Law
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: University of Richmond School of Law / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Front entrance of Richmond Law in January
context_page_description: The T. C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond is a school of the University of Richmond, located in Richmond, Virginia. Richmond Law is a "highly selective" US News & World Report tier 1 law school, considered top tier by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, among the top five value law schools by the National Jurist, and one of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools of 2018.
  One of the three highest ranked small private law schools—alongside Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School and W&L Law—with approximately 150 J.D. candidates per class year, the University of Richmond School of Law has full accreditation by all recognized standardizing agencies in the United States on the American Bar Association registry. Richmond Law's Dean, Wendy Perdue, is also a former president of the Association of American Law Schools.
  Richmond Law is regionally accredited by the Virginia State Board of Bar Examiners, and is the #1 alma mater of judges in the state.
context_section_description: The school was founded in 1870 as a college within the University of Richmond. In 1890, the family of the late T.C. Williams, a university trustee, donated $25,000 as the nucleus of an endowment for the law school. In recognition of this gift, the school was named The T.C. Williams School of Law in 1920.  In recent years, the school has adopted the name "University of Richmond School of Law" in order to promote a unified identity for the university.
  In 1914, Richmond College (as the university was then known), including its law department, moved from its location downtown to the present campus.  Returning servicemen from World War I created space problems for the college and the law department had to be relocated to the old Columbia Building at Grace and Lombardy streets.  In 1920, the law department was reorganized as a separate School of Law within what was now the University of Richmond.
  The current Law School building, constructed in the Collegiate Gothic architectural style, was originally opened in 1954, and it was enlarged in 1972 and 1981. In 1991, the building was significantly expanded, renovated, and refurbished. The Law School building now provides modern and technologically equipped classrooms, seminar rooms, a law library, a moot courtroom, faculty and administrative offices, faculty and student lounges, and offices for most student organizations.
  The Richmond School of Law was ranked 54th in the 2021 ranking of law schools by U.S. News and World Report. According to US News, the school has 440 students with a student-to-faculty ratio of 7.7:1.
caption: The Entrance to the School of Law
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