Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
When the ASU College of Law changed its name to the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, it signaled its determination to become a great law school – one that, like its namesake, would have the talent and courage to set a new path for law and legal education in the United States. The urgent challenges of our time – such as climate change, terrorism, local and international poverty, threats to human rights and the rule of law, and translating biomedical research into medical practice – transcend disciplinary boundaries. Their solutions will as well. We want students who are as excited as we are about meeting and overcoming the world’s newest challenges and those not yet imagined.
The College has a large, nationally acclaimed faculty with a tradition of high standards in both teaching and research. About half of our professors have advanced degrees in disciplines other than law. Our Center for the Study of Law, Science, and Technology is the oldest, largest and by far the most comprehensive law and science center in the country. Our Indian Legal Program is arguably the best in North America. The College’s faculty, staff, and students enjoy high esprit de corps. We provide our students with a unique degree of individualized attention and with choices you may never have thought possible.
Our diverse and accomplished student body currently ranges in age from 18 to 70 and represents nearly 200 undergraduate institutions. Minority students comprise 30 percent of the class that entered in 2006. Because the College is the only accredited law school in the Phoenix metropolitan area, our students have tremendous opportunities. Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the country and the only large capital city served by only one accredited law school.
As our namesake did, we are breaking the mold. We do all of the traditional things well while embracing the transdisciplinary nature of the New American University that is Arizona State University. Our vision includes excellence in all we do, while reaching out to all parts of the University and the real world, striving for inclusion, and having a meaningful impact on contemporary problems through teaching, research and collaborative problem solving. We are creating a new sort of law school and need students with the talent and courage to break the mold, people who want to be part of a community of thinkers and doers.
History of the College
In 1964, the Arizona Board of Regents approved the establishment of a law school at Arizona State
University. ASU President Homer Durham launched a search for a dean for the school, wishing to find a “different kind” of person to serve as the first dean. His search led him to Willard H. Pedrick, a highly respected law professor at Northwestern Law School.
After several trips to Arizona, Pedrick accepted Durham’s offer to be the first dean in 1965.
Pedrick needed to build a faculty and did so by looking to the law schools he admired, searching for the innovative faculty that he wanted for the new school. By 1966, he had assembled a fine group of scholars and leaders: William Canby, Edward W. Cleary, Richard Dahl, Richard Effland, and Harold Havighurst.
Class In Matthews libraryLate in the summer of 1967, Willard H. Pedrick and the six well-respected faculty welcomed the inaugural class of 117 students. The class was diverse for the times, including women, Blacks, and Native Americans. While the law school building was being constructed, classes were held in the Old Matthews Library near the center of the ASU campus.
In 1968, Armstrong Hall was dedicated with Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren in attendance. The school received accreditation the very next year.
In 1970, the first class graduated from the new law school. Many of these graduates became prominent attorneys, judges, and politicians in Arizona and across the nation.
Several of the faculty appointed in the early years of the college are still teaching at the college, including:
Alan Matheson, appointed 1967
Jonathan Rose, appointed 1968
Michael Berch, appointed 1969
Milton Schroeder, appointed 1969
The college has benefited from the leadership from strong and progressive deans over the years:
Willard Pedrick, 1965-1974
Ernest Gellhorn, 1974-1977
Alan Matheson, 1977-1984, 1989, 1997-1998
Paul Bender, 1984-1989
Richard Morgan, 1989 – 1997
Patricia White, 1999 - 2008
Paul Schiff Berman 2008 - Present
Through the years, the college has seen many changes. Some of the highlights are:
* 1971 – The first clinic, the Prosecutor Clinic, was established.
* 1976 – The law library was designated as a Government Documents Repository.
* 1980 – The model courtroom was completed.
* 1981 – The Pedrick Scholar Program was established.
The Moot Court competition began.
* 1984 – The Center for the Study of Law, Science, and Technology was approved.
* 1988 – The Armstrong Hall building addition was dedicated.
The Indian Law Program was approved.
* 1992 – The law school celebrated its 25th Anniversary.
* 1993 – The Ross-Blakley Law Library opened.
* 2003 – The Ronald Jay Cohen Student Center was completed.
* 2006 – The College of Law is renamed Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in honor of Justice O’Connor.
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