Boston College Law School#Law reviews

{{Short description|Private law school in Newton, Massachusetts, US}}

{{Infobox law school

| name = Boston College Law School

| image = East Wing - Boston College Law School - Newton, MA - DSC07351.jpg

| image_size = 250px

| established = 1929

| parent endowment = $3.8 billion (2021)As of June 30, 2021. {{cite report |url=https://www.bcheights.com/2021/10/08/bc-endowment-increases-by-1-2-billion-in-past-year/ |title=BC Endowment Increases By $1.2 Billion In Past Year |publisher=The Heights |date=October 8, 2021 |access-date=October 8, 2021}}

| dean = Odette Lienau

| city = Newton Centre

| state = Massachusetts

| country = U.S.

| students = 634 (2024){{Cite web|url=https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/bc1/schools/law/about/facts/BCLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdf|title=Boston College Law School - 2024 Standard 509 Information Report|website=www.bc.edu}}

| faculty = 82 (full-time)
138 (part-time){{cite web |title=Boston College - 2024 Standard 509 Information Report |url=https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/bc1/schools/law/about/facts/BCLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdf|website=abarequireddisclosures.org |publisher=American Bar Association|access-date= April 9, 2025}}

| ranking = 25th (2025){{cite web |title=Boston College |url=https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/boston-college-03072 |website=U.S. News & World Report – Best Law Schools |access-date=9 April 2025}}

| bar pass rate = 93.82% (2024 first-time takers){{Cite web|url=https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/bc1/schools/law/about/facts/bclaw-aba-bar-passage.pdf|title=Boston College Law School - 2025 First-Time Bar Admission|website=www.bc.edu}}

| motto = Αἰέν ἀριστεύειν
"Ever to excel"

| aba profile =[https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/bc1/schools/law/about/facts/BCLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdf Standard 509 Report]

| religious affiliation = Roman Catholic (Jesuit)

| parent = Boston College

|logo = BC Law logo.png

|logo_size = 250

| homepage = {{URL|https://bc.edu/schools/law}}

}}

Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College, a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It is situated on a {{convert|40|acre|m2|adj=on}} campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about {{Convert|1.5|mi|km}} from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill.

The law school has approximately 650 students and 80 full-time faculty members.{{Cite web |title=Boston College Law School - 2024 Standard 509 Information Report |url=https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/bc1/schools/law/about/facts/BCLaw-Std509InfoReport.pdf |website=www.bc.edu}} BC Law has programs in human rights, social justice, and public interest law, as well as programs in business law and innovation,{{Cite web |title=Program on Innovation & Entrepreneurship - Law School - Boston College |url=https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/law/centers/program-on-innovation-and-entrepreneurship.html |access-date=2023-02-06 |website=www.bc.edu}} law and public policy, and criminal and civil litigation.

History

Although provisions for a law school were included in Boston College's original charter, ratified by the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1863, Boston College Law School was formally organized later in 1929. Previously, promising Boston College graduates interested in a legal education were encouraged to seek admission to Harvard Law School, as attested by the law school's inaugural faculty of whom 11 out of 17 members held degrees from both universities.{{Cite web |title=Untitled Document |url=https://bcm.bc.edu/index.html?p=788.html |website=bcm.bc.edu |access-date=December 19, 2022 |archive-date=December 19, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221219044004/https://bcm.bc.edu/index.html?p=788.html |url-status=dead }}[https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=bcbulletin BC Bulletin] bc.edu {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921092009/https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=bcbulletin|date=September 21, 2021}} BC Law's founder, John B. Creeden {{post-nominals|list=SJ}}, formerly president of Georgetown University, served as its first regent and alumnus Dennis A. Dooley as its first dean.{{cite book |last=Donovan, Dunigan, FitzGerald |first=Charles F., David R., Paul A. |title=History of Boston College: From the Beginnings to 1990 |publisher=University Press of Boston College |year=1990 |isbn=0-9625934-0-0}}

On September 26, 1929, BC Law opened its doors in the 11-story Lawyer's Building on Beacon Street opposite the Massachusetts State House in downtown Boston. From a pool of nearly 700 applicants, 102 day and evening division students had been selected. So rigorous were the school's academic standards that 50% of the first class eventually dropped out or flunked out.{{cite journal |last1=Bigelow |first1=Brandon |date=19 August 2004 |title=The Impact of the GI Bill on Legal Education: A Case Study of Boston College Law School, 1949-1959 |url=https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/law_school_publications/51/ |journal=Law School Publications}} However, just three years later, the school received American Bar Association accreditation, joining Harvard, Yale, and Boston University as the only law schools in New England to attain that distinction; accreditation by the Association of American Law Schools followed in 1937.{{Cite web |title=History & Mission - Law School - Boston College |url=https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/law/about/history-mission.html |website=www.bc.edu}}

Women were admitted to the school by 1940, when enrollment had surpassed 350 students.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/law/about/history-mission.html|title=History & Mission - Law School|website=Boston College}} In 1954, the school moved to St. Thomas More Hall on the edge of the main Chestnut Hill campus and to its present {{convert|40|acre|m2|adj=on}} Newton campus, the home of the former Newton College of the Sacred Heart, in 1975. Today, the law campus includes Stuart House, an administrative building; lecture halls; seminar spaces; a dining hall; conference space; and a law library that includes the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room.

Academics

=Admissions=

For the class entering in 2024, 13.27% of applicants were admitted with 26.20% of admitted students enrolling. The average enrollee had an LSAT score of 167 and a GPA of 3.80.{{cite web |title=2024 Standard 509 Information Report -Boston College School of Law |url=https://www.abarequireddisclosures.org/Disclosure509.aspx |access-date=April 10, 2025 |website=abarequireddisclosures.org |publisher=American Bar Association}}

=Curriculum=

File:Boston College Law Window Outlook.jpg

BC Law offers a first-year law program that includes constitutional and criminal law, civil procedure, contracts, property, and torts, as well as a two-semester legal reasoning, research, and writing course called Law Practice, which provides three experiential learning credits and a foundation in critical thinking, analysis, and communication.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/law/academics-faculty/curriculum.html|title=Curriculum - Law School - Boston College|website=bc.edu|access-date=2020-01-09}} There is also a 1L experiential-based elective in the spring semester. The School offers programs abroad through the Semester-in-Practice International Program primarily based in Dublin and exchange programs with Bucerius Law School, Paris HEAD Law School, and Renmin University in China. The law school also has exchange programs with Bucerius Law School, the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina, and numerous other law faculties throughout the world.{{cite web|url=https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/law/academics-faculty/global.html|title=BC Law International|date=2014-04-28|publisher=Bc.edu|access-date=2014-06-24}}

=Law reviews=

Boston College Law School has two main, student-run publications: Boston College Law Review (BCLR) and the Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest (UCC Reporter-Digest). In Spring 2017, the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, Boston College International and Comparative Law Review, and the Journal of Law and Social Justice published their last issues and consolidated into the Boston College Law Review.

The Boston College Law Review is the Law School's flagship journal and was ranked 16th in the 2023 Washington & Lee Law Review Rankings, the highest ranking in its history.{{cite web|url=https://lawmagazine.bc.edu/2023/09/boston-college-law-review-rises-to-16th-nationwide/|title=Boston College Law Review Rises to 16th Nationwide|website=Boston College Law School Magazine|access-date=14 February 2024}} It publishes 8 print issues and one electronic-only issue per year. It endeavors to publish high-quality pieces written by students and scholars on a wide variety of legal issues. In addition to articles written by outside academics, BCLR prints the work of its student staff, many of whom publish notes during their third year. BCLR’s second-year staff members also prepare short comments on significant court decisions, which may be published in the BCLR Electronic Supplement.{{cite web|url=https://bclawreview.bc.edu/|title=About this journal|website=Boston College Law Review|access-date=14 February 2024}}

File:Boston College Law Library - Boston College Law School - Newton, MA - DSC07362.jpg

The Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest is published by Matthew Bender & Company, a division of LexisNexis. It provides annotations on numerous cases relating to the Uniform Commercial Code, thereby serving as a helpful research tool.{{cite web|title=UCC Reporter-Digest|url=https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/law/academics-faculty/law-reviews/ucc-reporter-digest.html|website=Boston College Law|access-date=9 August 2017}}

BC Law also maintains an online publication, the Intellectual Property and Technology Forum, covering issues of copyright, trademark and patent law.{{cite web |url=http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/st_org/iptf/ |title=The Intellectual Property and Technology Forum |publisher=Bc.edu |access-date=2014-06-24 |archive-date=2014-07-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703232935/http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/st_org/iptf/ |url-status=dead }}

=Libraries=

Opened in 1996 at a cost of $11.7 million, the 84,500-square-foot Law Library building was designed by the Boston firm of Earl R. Flansburgh & Associates and contains four levels organized in four wings around a unifying central atrium.{{Cite web|url=https://archello.com/project/boston-college-law-library|title = Boston College Law Library | Flansburgh Architects}} It houses 500,000 print volumes covering all major areas of American law and primary legal materials from the federal government, Canada, United Kingdom, United Nations, and European Union. The library also features a substantial electronic volumes offering, treatise and periodical collection and a growing collection of international and comparative law material. The library's Coquillette Rare Book Room houses works from the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries, including works by and about Saint Thomas More.{{cite web|url=http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/library/about/rarebook.html |title=Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room - Boston College |publisher=Bc.edu |date=2014-03-04 |access-date=2014-06-24}} It also contains a marble fireplace mantel that once adorned the East Room of the White House.{{Cite web|url=https://bcheights.com/2014/09/07/historic-fireplace-rediscovered-at-bc-law-library/|title = Historic Fireplace Rediscovered at BC Law Library – the Heights|date = 8 September 2014}}

Rankings

File:Boston College Newton Campus, Newton MA.jpg

The Princeton Review rankings placed BC Law in the #8 position for "Best Professors".{{Cite web|url=https://www.princetonreview.com/law-school-rankings?rankings=best-professors|title=Best Professors {{!}} The Princeton Review|website=princetonreview.com|language=en|access-date=2024-02-14}} BC Law is also ranked #10 for "Best Quality of Life."{{cite web|url=https://www.princetonreview.com/law-school-rankings?rankings=best-quality-life|title=Princeton Review List|publisher=Princetonreview.com|access-date=2024-02-14}}

For 2024, Above The Law, a legal blog that focuses on outcomes-based methodology, ranked BC Law 16th overall in the country.{{cite web|url=https://abovethelaw.com/top-law-schools-2024/|title=The 2024 ATL Top 50 Law School Rankings|last=Shepherd|first=David Lat, Elie Mystal, Staci Zaretsky, Kashmir Hill, Marin, Mark Herrmann, Jay|website=abovethelaw.com|access-date=15 February 2024}}

In 2024, the National Law Journal ranked the school #15 in its Top Law Schools for “Big Law” rankings.

The U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 law school rankings placed BC Law as the 25th best law school in the country. In 2025, the magazine ranked BC Law's tax program tied for 12th in the nation, its intellectual property law program tied for 31st, and its International law program tied for 29th. The 2025 report also ranked BC Law as tied for the 18th in placing its graduates at Big Law firms.{{cite web |title=Bodton College |url=https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/boston-college-03072. |website=usnews.com |publisher=U.S. News & World Report |access-date=9 April 2025}}

Bar passage

In 2022, the overall bar examination passage rate for BC Law first-time examination takers was 91.77%. The Ultimate Bar Pass Rate, which the ABA defines as the passage rate for graduates who sat for bar examinations within two years of graduating, was 97.10% for the class of 2020.{{cite web |title= Boston College Law School - Bar Passage |url=https://www.abarequireddisclosures.org/BarPassageOutcomes.aspx |website=abarequireddisclosures.org |publisher=American Bar Association |access-date=14 February 2024}}

Employment

According to BC Law's 2023 American Bar Association (ABA)-required disclosures, 86.82% of the Class of 2022 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment (i.e., as attorneys) ten months after graduation.{{cite web |title=Boston College Law School Employment Summary 2022 Graduates |url=https://www.abarequireddisclosures.org/employmentoutcomes.aspx |website=abarequireddisclosures.org |publisher=American Bar Association |access-date=14 February 2024}} BC Law's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 6.98%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2022 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lawschooltransparency.com/schools/bc|title=Overview of Boston College|website=Law School Transparency}}

For BC Law graduates, median private sector starting salary is $145,000, and the median public service starting salary is $51,000, based on self-reporting data.{{cite web|url=http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/boston-college-03072|title=Law - Best Graduate Schools - Education - U.S. News & World Report|access-date=1 November 2013|archive-date=October 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161024181211/http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/boston-college-03072|url-status=dead}}

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at BC Law for incoming students in the 2023–2024 academic year is $91,101. The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $353,770.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lawschooltransparency.com/schools/bc/costs|title=Cost of Attendance and Debt at Boston College|website=Law School Transparency}}

Notable people

= Alumni =

= Faculty =

Arthur Berney (born 1930, deceased), was a Boston College Law School Professor Emeritus{{cite web|url=http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/fac-staff/deans-faculty/berneya.html|title=Home - Law School - Boston College|website=Bc.edu|accessdate=24 April 2018|archive-date=August 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160824082814/https://www.bc.edu/schools/law/fac-staff/deans-faculty/berneya.html|url-status=dead}}
Mary Sarah Bilder, Founders Professor of Law, legal historian. Bilder is the author of multiple books, with the most well known being Madison's Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention. This book won the 2016 Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy. She teaches broadly in the areas of property, trusts and estates, and American legal and constitutional history. Bilder has also been a frequent commentator on television and in news articles, and she served as Stephen Spielberg's legal history consultant on the 1997 historical film: Amistead.{{Cite web |title=Mary Sarah Bilder - Law School |url=https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/law/academics-faculty/faculty-directory/mary-sarah-bilder.html |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=Boston College |language=en}}
Kent Greenfield, Professor of Law, Dean's Distinguished Scholar
Aziz Rana, Professor of Law, author
Renee Jones, Professor of Law, Thomas F. Carney Distinguished Scholar, former Director of the Division of Corporation Finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.{{Cite web |title=Renee Jones - Law School |url=https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/law/academics-faculty/faculty-directory/renee-jones.html |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=Boston College |language=en}}
R. Michael Cassidy, Professor of Law, Expert in prosecutorial ethics, criminal law, and moral and professional responsibility for practitioners.{{Cite web |title=Michael Cassidy - Law School |url=https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/law/academics-faculty/faculty-directory/michael-cassidy.html |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=Boston College |language=en}}
Patricia McCoy, Liberty Mutual Insurance Professor of Law, McCoy is an expert in insurance law and banking regulation and helped form the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). At the CFPB, she served as the first assistant director for mortgage markets.{{Cite web |title=Patricia McCoy - Law School |url=https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/law/academics-faculty/faculty-directory/patricia-mccoy.html |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=Boston College |language=en}}