{{Short description|Law school in Washington, DC}} {{Infobox Law School |name = Howard University School of Law |image = Howard_School_of_Law_(55264815306).jpg |parent = Howard University |established = 1869<ref name=History>{{cite web|title=History|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/19|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=16 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005205510/http://www.law.howard.edu/19|archive-date=5 October 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> |type = Private law school |city = Washington, D.C. |country = U.S. |students = 464<ref name="509 Info">{{cite web|title=Howard University School of Law 2022 Standard 509 Information Report|url=http://law.howard.edu/sites/default/files/Overall%20Statistics%202022.pdf|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=23 June 2023|archive-date=24 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230624183852/http://law.howard.edu/sites/default/files/Overall%20Statistics%202022.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> |head = Roger Fairfax<ref name="Howard University School of Law Names Danielle R. Holley-Walker as New Dean">{{cite web |title=Howard University Press Release |url=https://thedig.howard.edu/all-stories/roger-fairfax-jr-appointed-dean-howard-university-school-law |website=Howard University School of Law |access-date=22 December 2023 }}</ref> |faculty = 37 full-time, 63 part-time<ref name="509 Info" /> |ranking = 130th (2024)<ref name="USNWR Profile">{{cite web|title=Howard University|url=https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/howard-university-03033|publisher=U.S. News & World Report|access-date=April 10, 2024 }}</ref> |bar pass rate = 82% (2023)<ref name = ILRG>{{cite web | url = https://law.howard.edu/sites/law.howard.edu/files/2023-07/2023-BarPassage-ABA_Data.pdf | access-date = 12 December 2023 | title = 2023-BarPassage-ABA_Data | website = Howard}}</ref> |motto = ''Veritas et Utilitas'' |website={{URL|https://law.howard.edu/}} |aba profile = }}
'''Howard University School of Law''' ('''Howard Law''' or '''HUSL''') is the law school of Howard University, a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is one of the oldest law schools in the country and the oldest historically black law school in the United States.<ref name=H.RES.684>{{cite web|title=Text of Recognizing and honoring Howard University School of Law's 140-year legacy of social justice and its continued commitment to the training... |url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hres684/text |website=GovTrak.us|access-date=17 July 2014}}</ref>
Howard University School of Law confers about 185 Juris Doctor and Master of Law degrees annually to students from the United States and countries in South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia.<ref name="History" /> The school was accredited by the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools in 1931.<ref name="History" />
==History== Howard University opened its legal department, led by John Mercer Langston, on January 6, 1869.<ref name="History" /> The founders of Howard Law recognized "a great need to train lawyers who would have a strong commitment to helping black Americans secure and protect their newly established rights" during the country's tumultuous Reconstruction era.<ref name="History" />
The first class consisted of six students who met three evenings a week in the homes and offices of the department's four teachers.<ref name="History" /> Classes were held in various locations throughout the years before the law school settled into its current location at 2900 Van Ness Street N.W. in 1974.<ref name="History" /> At the time, the LL.B program required only two years of study. Ten students were awarded degrees at the first commencement ceremony, which was held on February 3, 1871.<ref name="History" />
The school was accredited by the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools in 1931.<ref name="History" />
===Women at Howard Law=== Howard Law was the first school in the nation to have a non-discriminatory admissions policy. From its founding, it admitted white male and female students along with black students.<ref name=Smith>{{cite book|last1=Smith, Jr.|first1=J. Clay|title=The Making of the Black Lawyer 1844–1944|date=1999|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia}}</ref> It was a progressive policy at the time to admit women, but only eight women graduated from Howard Law during the first 30 years of its existence.<ref name=Drachman>{{cite book|last1=Drachman|first1=Virginia |title=Sisters in Law: Women Lawyers in Modern American History|url=https://archive.org/details/sistersinlawwome00drac|url-access=registration|date=1998|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Mass.|isbn=9780674809918 }}</ref>
An 1890 review of women lawyers in the United States published in ''The Green Bag'', found that many women had difficulty being admitted to law school, or gaining admission to the bar, and practice, even at Howard.<ref name="Robinson" />
Charlotte E. Ray was admitted to Howard's law program in 1869 and graduated in 1872, becoming its first black female lawyer.<ref name=Ray>{{cite web|title=Ray, Charlotte E. (1850-1911) |url=http://www.blackpast.org/aah/ray-charlotte-e-1850-1911|website=BlackPast.org|date=16 November 2010 |access-date=17 July 2014}}</ref> It is reported that Ray applied for admission to the bar using initials for her given and middle names, in order to disguise her gender, because she was "[a]ware of the school's reluctant commitment to the principle of sexual equality."<ref name="Drachman" />{{page needed|date=February 2019}}
Mary Ann Shadd Cary was among four women enrolled in the law school in 1880. She said in 1890 that she had actually been admitted to Howard's law program in September 1869, prior to Ray.<ref name=Robinson>{{cite journal |last1=Robinson|first1=Lelia J|title=Women Lawyers in the United States|journal=The Green Bag|date=1890|volume=II|page=28 |url=http://wlh.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/greenbag-vol2-1890.pdf|access-date=17 July 2014}}</ref> However, Cary claims she was barred from graduating on time because of her gender and did not graduate until 1883.<ref name="Robinson" />
Eliza A. Chambers, an early white female graduate of Howard's law program, was admitted in 1885 and successfully completed the three-year course of study, earning two diplomas.<ref name="Robinson" /> But, "the Law School faculty refused to hand in [Eliza's] name to the examiners, for admission to practice, omitting her from the list of her male classmates whom they recommended, simply because she was a woman." After that, she succeeded in entering practice.<ref name="Robinson" />
===Ties to the civil rights movement=== Howard University School of Law has significant ties to the civil rights movement. Former HUSL Dean Charles Hamilton Houston's work for the NAACP earned him the title of "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow."<ref name=Houston>{{cite web|title=Charles Hamilton Houston: The Man Who Killed Jim Crow |url=http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/publication/2009/01/20090105175532jmnamdeirf0.3197138.html#axzz37qTD8CSl|website=IIP Digital|access-date=18 July 2014}}</ref> Thurgood Marshall, a 1933 graduate of Howard Law, successfully argued the landmark ''Brown v. Board of Education'' case before the U.S. Supreme Court and in 1967 became the first African-American Supreme Court Justice.<ref name=Marshall>{{cite web |title=Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court Justice |url=http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/marshall.htm |website=Center for History and New Media at George Mason University |access-date=18 July 2014 |archive-date=14 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814183739/http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/marshall.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1950, Howard law graduate Pauli Murray published ''States' Laws on Race and Color'', an examination and critique of state segregation laws throughout the nation. Thurgood Marshall called the book the "bible" of the civil rights movement.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/17/the-many-lives-of-pauli-murray |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170512021541/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/17/the-many-lives-of-pauli-murray/amp |archive-date=May 12, 2017 |title=The Many Lives of Pauli Murray (The Civil-Rights Luminary You've Never Heard Of) |magazine=The New Yorker |last=Schulz |first=Kathryn |author-link=Kathryn Schulz |date=April 17, 2017 |access-date=2017-04-12}}</ref> In 1952 and again in 1953, two HUSL professors, James Nabrit Jr. and George E. C. Hayes, successfully argued the landmark Supreme Court case ''Bolling v. Sharpe'', a companion case to ''Brown v. Board of Education''.<ref>{{cite news | last1=Pace|first1=Eric| date= 30 December 1997| work=The New York Times| url= https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/30/us/james-m-nabrit-jr-dies-at-97-led-howard-university.html | title= James M. Nabrit Jr. Dies at 97; Led Howard University | access-date= 22 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.law.howard.edu/1113 |title=JAMES M. NABRIT JR. BIOGRAPHY |publisher=Howard University |date=February 10, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905130830/http://www.law.howard.edu/1113 |archive-date=September 5, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{ussc|name=Bolling v. Sharpe|347|497|1954}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/4-five/washington-dc-2.html|title=Washington, D.C.: A Challenge to Jim Crow in the Nation's Capital |website=Smithsonian National Museum of American History|language=en-us|access-date=2020-07-13}}</ref><ref name=CUA>{{Cite web|url=https://libguides.law.cua.edu/exhibits/bolling|title=Bolling v. Sharpe|website=The Catholic University of America, Judge Kathryn J. Dufour Law Library|language=en-us|access-date=2020-07-13|archive-date=2020-07-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716031330/https://libguides.law.cua.edu/exhibits/bolling|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Academics==
===Curriculum=== First year students at Howard Law are required to take courses on civil procedure; constitutional law; contracts; criminal law; legislation and regulation; legal reasoning, research, and writing; real property; and torts.<ref name=Curriculum>{{cite web|title=Law School Required Curriculum|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/law_school_curriculum|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=17 July 2014|archive-date=10 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140710112230/http://www.law.howard.edu/law_school_curriculum|url-status=dead}}</ref> Students must also take courses on evidence and professional responsibility and fulfill the school's scholarly writing requirement.<ref name="Curriculum" />
The school offered 126 courses beyond the first year curriculum in the 2021-22 academic year.<ref name="509 Info" />
===Degrees offered=== Howard University School of Law offers the Juris Doctor (J.D.)<ref name=JD>{{cite web|title=JD Application and Information|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/656|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=17 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140724204119/http://www.law.howard.edu/656|archive-date=24 July 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the Master of Laws (LL.M.).<ref name=LLM>{{cite web |title=Master of Law (LLM) Application and Brochure |url=http://www.law.howard.edu/46 |website=Howard University School of Law |access-date=17 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140724194314/http://www.law.howard.edu/46 |archive-date=24 July 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Additionally, students can enroll in the four-year J.D./M.B.A. dual degree program with the Howard University School of Business.<ref name="JD/MBA">{{cite web|title=J.D./MBA Program|url=http://www.bschool.howard.edu/|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=17 July 2014|archive-date=23 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090223123400/http://www.bschool.howard.edu/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
HUSL students can also earn a certificate in family law.<ref name="Family Law">{{cite web|title=Family Law Certificate Program|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/1430|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=17 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140710112219/http://www.law.howard.edu/1430|archive-date=10 July 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>
===Faculty=== As of 2022, Howard Law employed 37 full-time faculty and 63 non-full-time faculty.<ref name="509 Info" /> The school's student-faculty ratio accounting for full-time faculty was 12.5 to 1.<ref name="509 Info" /> Over 80 percent of faculty members are people of color.
====Deans====
{| class="wikitable" |- ! Name !Took office ! Left office |- | John Mercer Langston | 1869 | 1875 |- | William Bascom | 1875 | 1877 |- | John Hartwell Cook | 1877 | 1878 |- | Richard T. Greener | 1878 | 1880 |- | Warren C. Stone | 1880 | 1881 |- | Benjamin F. Leighton | 1882 | 1921 |- | Mason N. Richardson | 1921 | 1921 |- | Fenton W. Booth | 1922 | 1930 |- | Charles Hamilton Houston | 1930 | 1935 |- | William E. Taylor | 1935 | 1939 |- | William Henry Hastie | 1939 | 1946 |- | George M. Johnson, Jr. | 1946 | 1958 |- | James Nabrit, Jr. | 1958 | 1960 |- | Spottswood Robinson III | 1960 | 1963 |- | Clarence Clyde Ferguson, Jr. | 1963 | 1969 |- | Patricia Roberts Harris | 1969 | 1969 |- | James A. Worthington, Jr. (interim) | 1969 | 1970 |- | Paul E. Miller | 1970 | 1972 |- | Herbert O. Reid (interim) | 1972 | 1974 |- | Charles T. Duncan, Jr. | 1974 | 1977 |- | Wiley A. Branton | 1978 | 1983 |- | Oliver Morse (interim) | 1983 | 1985 |- | John T. Baker | 1985 | 1986 |- | J. Clay Smith, Jr. | 1986 | 1988 |- | Daniel O. Bernstine (interim) | 1988 | 1990 |- | Alice Bullock (interim) | 1990 | 1990 |- | Henry T. Ramsey, Jr. | 1990 | 1996 |- | Alice Bullock | 1997 | 2002 |- | Patricia M. Worthy (interim) | 2002 | 2002 |- | Kurt L. Schmoke | 2003 | 2012 |- | Okianer Dark | 2012 | 2014 |- | Danielle R. Holley-Walker | 2014 | 2023 |- | Lisa Crooms-Robinson | 2023 | 2024 |- |Roger Fairfax |2024 |''present'' |} <ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=J. Clay, Jr. |date=Fall 1994 |title=Howard University School of Law: One Hundred and Twenty-Five Years |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/howlj38&id=11&men_tab=srchresults |journal=Howard Law Journal |volume=38 |issue=1 |access-date=April 25, 2026 |pages=3 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Rosenblatt |first=Jim |title= AALS Rosenblatt's Deans Database |url= https://www.lawdeans.com/schoolprofile.php?UID=57 |access-date=April 25, 2026 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Carter |first=Terry |title=Former Howard law dean and diversity leader Henry Ramsey dies at 80 |url=https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/former_howard_law_dean_and_diversity_leader_henry_ramsey_dies_at_80 |access-date=April 25, 2026 }}</ref>
===Programs and clinics=== Howard Law boasts three institutes and centers: the Education Rights Center, the Institute of Intellectual Property and Social Justice, and the World Food Law Institute.<ref name=Institutes>{{cite web|title=Institutes and Centers|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/1512|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=17 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140710112816/http://www.law.howard.edu/1512|archive-date=10 July 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The school's Clinical Law Center also offers eight in-house legal clinics that provide students with first-hand legal experience as well as an Externship and Equal Justice Program.<ref name=Clinics>{{cite web|title=Clinical Education at Howard|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/96|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=17 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140710125801/http://www.law.howard.edu/96|archive-date=10 July 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> These clinics are: *Alternative Dispute Resolution Clinic *Child Welfare Clinic *Civil Rights Clinic *Criminal Justice Clinic *Fair Housing Clinic *Intellectual Property and Trademark Clinic *Investor Justice and Education Clinic *Movement Lawyering Clinic
=== Publications === Howard Law has published the student-managed ''Howard Law Journal'' since 1955.<ref name=HLJ>{{cite web|title=Howard Law Journal|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/229|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=17 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140710140335/http://www.law.howard.edu/229|archive-date=10 July 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> The school also publishes the ''Howard Human & Civil Rights Law Review'', formerly known as the ''Human Rights & Globalization Law Review'' and the successor to the ''Howard Scroll: Social Justice Law Review''.<ref name=HRG>{{cite web |title=Howard Human & Civil Rights Law Review |url=http://www.law.howard.edu/1941 |website=Howard University School of Law |access-date=17 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150811093945/http://www.law.howard.edu/1941 |archive-date=11 August 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
''The Barrister'' is the HUSL student-edited newspaper.<ref name=Barrister>{{cite web|title=The Barrister|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/233|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=17 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140710132450/http://www.law.howard.edu/233|archive-date=10 July 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The school publishes a news journal, ''The Jurist'',<ref name=Jurist>{{cite web|title=The Jurist|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/230|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=17 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140710113823/http://www.law.howard.edu/230|archive-date=10 July 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the ''Howard Docket'' newsletter.<ref name=Docket>{{cite web|title=The Howard Docket|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/1725|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=17 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140710131400/http://www.law.howard.edu/1725|archive-date=10 July 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> For the school's 140th anniversary, the school published ''A Legacy of Defending the Constitution: A Pictorial History Book of Howard University School of Law (1869-2009)''.<ref name=Legacy>{{cite web|title=A Legacy of Defending the Constitution|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/1333|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=17 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140710113658/http://www.law.howard.edu/1333|archive-date=10 July 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Student life==
Howard Law enrolled 464 J.D. students for the 2021-2022 academic year, 100% of whom were enrolled full-time.<ref name="509 Info" /> The student body is two-thirds women, and just over three-fourths of J.D. students identify as Black or African-American. About 15% identify as multiracial, with small numbers of students who are Hispanic, Asian, White, or another group.<ref name="509 Info" /> As of 2022, the law school admitted 31 percent of applicants. HUSL students may participate in 26 extra-curricular groups, including the moot court team, associations focused on specific areas of law, law fraternities, and political, ethnic, and religious affiliation groups.<ref name="Extra-Curriculars">{{cite web|title=Extra-Curricular Activities|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/238|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=18 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140710120423/http://www.law.howard.edu/238|archive-date=10 July 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Campus== thumb|The campus The campus is located at 2900 Van Ness St NW, Washington, DC 20008 in the upper Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., in the Forest Hills area of the city. It is a few blocks from the University of the District of Columbia, the former headquarters of Intelsat and the Van Ness–UDC station on the Washington Metro. The law school is located on its own {{convert|22|acre|m2|adj=on}} campus approximately five miles from the main campus.<ref name=Campus>{{cite web|title=Our Campus|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/288|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=18 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140710131608/http://www.law.howard.edu/288|archive-date=10 July 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The campus was built by Dunbarton College of the Holy Cross, which built it in the 1930s and occupied it until the school closed in 1973.<ref name=Anniversary>{{cite web|title=HUSL 140th Anniversary|url=http://www.law.howard.edu/1234|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=18 July 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140724204542/http://www.law.howard.edu/1234|archive-date=24 July 2014}}</ref> Howard purchased the campus in 1974 and moved its law school to it the same year.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bright-Sagnier |first1=Barbara |title=Law School Faculty Is 'Green' Too |newspaper=Washington Post |date=August 20, 1974}}</ref> The law school shares the campus with Howard's School of Divinity. thumb|Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. Law Library The school's main building, Houston Hall, is named after Charles Hamilton Houston.<ref name="Campus" /> The library was named after Vernon Jordan after his death in March 2021.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Alonda |first1=Thomas |title=Howard University Names Law Library in Honor of Civil Rights Activist Vernon Jordan |url=https://newsroom.howard.edu/newsroom/article/14016/howard-university-names-law-library-honor-civil-rights-activist-vernon-jordan |access-date=9 March 2021 |work=Howard University |date=March 8, 2021 |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308210819/https://newsroom.howard.edu/newsroom/article/14016/howard-university-names-law-library-honor-civil-rights-activist-vernon-jordan |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Admissions== Howard Law had a 31% acceptance rate in 2022 with the school receiving 1,813 applications.<ref name="509 Info" /> The school's matriculation rate was 28% with 160 of the 565 admits enrolling.<ref name="509 Info" /> The median LSAT score for students enrolling in HUSL in 2022 was 154 (60th percentile)<ref name="LSAT Percentile">{{cite web|title=LSAT Percentiles Table |url=http://www.cambridgelsat.com/resources/data/lsat-percentiles-table/|website=Cambridge LSAT|access-date=24 June 2023}}</ref> and the median GPA was 3.49.<ref name="509 Info" />
== Employment == According to Howard Law's official 2022 ABA-required disclosures, 78% of the Class of 2022 obtained full-time, long-term, bar passage-required employment nine months after graduation.<ref name="2022 Employment">{{cite web|title=Employment Summary for 2022 Graduates|url=http://law.howard.edu/content/employment-and-placement-statistics|author=American Bar Association|website=Howard University School of Law|access-date=24 June 2023|archive-date=24 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230624183902/http://law.howard.edu/content/employment-and-placement-statistics|url-status=dead}}</ref> HUSL's full-time long-term bar passage-required employment rate for 2022 graduates was similar to the national average of 77% for ABA-approved law schools, estimated ten months after graduation.<ref name="2022 Grad Data">{{cite web|last1=Caron|first1=Paul|title=Employment Outcomes as of March 15, 2023 (Class of 2022 Graduates) | url=https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/legal_education_and_admissions_to_the_bar/statistics/2023/class-2022-online-table.pdf |website=American Bar Association|access-date=24 June 2023}}</ref>
According to the National Directory of Legal Employers, 128 firms conduct on-campus interviews at Howard Law and includes elite firms like Debevoise & Plimpton, which only conducts interviews at 25 law schools.<ref name=debevoise-plimpton>{{cite web|title=Debevoise & Plimpton LLP |url=https://nalpdirectory.com/employer_profile?FormID=15473&searchCondJSON=%7B%22SearchCampusInterviewSchools%22%3A%5B%221988%5E1506%5E990%5E560%22%5D%7D|website=The National Association for Law Placement|access-date=24 June 2023}}</ref> In terms of elite placement as of 2013, while more than 60% students who graduated from Yale Law School and Cornell Law School in 2013 were hired for federal clerkships or at law firms with more than 250 employees,<ref name="Yale Employment">{{cite web|title=Class of 2013 Employment|url=http://www.law.yale.edu/studentlife/cdoprospectivestudents2013employstats.htm|website=Yale Law School|access-date=18 July 2014|archive-date=26 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726122514/http://www.law.yale.edu/studentlife/cdoprospectivestudents2013employstats.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Cornell Employment">{{cite web| title=Statistics| url=https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/careers/aboutus/statistics.cfm|website=Cornell University Law School|access-date=18 July 2014}}</ref> only 13% of 2013 Howard Law graduates secured such positions.<ref name="2013 Employment">{{cite web|title=Employment Summary for 2016 Graduates|url=http://law.howard.edu/sites/default/files/EmploymentQuestionnaireSummary-32-25038-04-07-2017%2014-41-21.pdf|access-date=2018-08-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180814041403/http://law.howard.edu/sites/default/files/EmploymentQuestionnaireSummary-32-25038-04-07-2017%2014-41-21.pdf|archive-date=2018-08-14|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Howard Law's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 10%, 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.<ref name="LST Profile">{{cite web|title=Howard University Profile |url=https://www.lawschooltransparency.com/schools/howard |website=Law School Transparency|access-date=24 June 2023}}</ref> Of the 160 graduates of the Class of 2022, 84.4% had some full time job, and 77.5% had a full-time job requiring a JD.<ref name="LST Profile" />
Howard Law placed 45th on the 2014 ''National Law Journal'' "Top 50 Go-To" list, climbed to No. 22 on the 2015 list, fell to 37th for the 2016 list, and climbed back to 32nd for the 2017 list. The list ranks the top 50 schools by the percentage of JDs who accept first-year associate positions at the 100 largest firms.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/howard_law_grads_get_major_law_firm_attention|title=Howard Law grads get major law firm attention|work=ABA Journal|access-date=2018-01-25|others=Liane Jackson|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/almID/1202780534815/|title=The Top 50 Go-To Law Schools {{!}} National Law Journal|work=National Law Journal|access-date=2018-01-25}}</ref>
==Costs== The cost of tuition and fees at Howard Law for the 2022-2023 academic year is $37,160, and estimated cost of attendance is $68,620 when estimated living expenses are included.<ref name="509 Info"/> The $68,620 total cost of attendance at Howard Law is lower than some schools in the D.C. area — for example George Washington University Law School's total cost of attendance was $100,000 for the 2023-2024 academic year<ref name="GW Cost">{{cite web|title= Cost of Attendance |url= https://www.law.gwu.edu/cost-of-attendance |website=GW Law |access-date=24 June 2023}}</ref> — but higher than others, such as the University of the District of Columbia's David A. Clarke School of Law where the total cost of attendance for D.C. residents for the 2023-2024 school year was $45,731 (and $58,665 for non-residents).<ref name="UDC Cost">{{cite web|title=Full Time First Year Cost of Attendance |url=https://law.udc.edu/FinAidCost/ |website=University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law|access-date=24 June 2023}}</ref>
The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $248,300 as of 2022.<ref name="LST Cost">{{cite web|title=Howard University Profile, Cost |url=https://www.lawschooltransparency.com/schools/howard |website=Law School Transparency|access-date=24 June 2023}}</ref>
==Rankings== ''U.S. News & World Report'' ranked Howard Law 98th out of 192 schools in its 2023 rankings.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Howard University Law School |url=https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/howard-university-03033 |access-date=2023-04-10 |website=US News & World Report}}</ref> Its ranking fell to 125th in the 2024 rankings, as the ranking methodology changed dramatically from the prior year.<ref name = usnews-shift>{{cite news | title = Revamped US News law school rankings yield major shifts | author = Karen Sloan | publisher = Reuters | url = https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/revamped-us-news-law-school-rankings-yield-major-shifts-2023-05-11/ | date = 11 May 2023 | access-date = 24 June 2023}}</ref>
==Notable alumni==
=== Civil rights activism ===
* Louis Berry, civil rights activist in Louisiana * Mary Ann Shad Cary, first black woman to cast a vote in a national election *Danielle Conway, first African-American dean of Maine Law School<ref>{{cite web|url=http://law.howard.edu/node/547|title=Danielle M. Conway - Howard University School of Law|website=law.howard.edu|access-date=18 April 2018|archive-date=18 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180418230421/http://law.howard.edu/node/547|url-status=dead}}</ref> *Mahala Ashley Dickerson, first African-American elected as president of the National Association of Women Lawyers<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indianalegalarchive.com/journal/2015/2/18/thirst-for-justice|title='Thirst For Justice': Indiana's Pioneering Black Lawyers|author=Ryan Schwier and Ravay Smith|date=February 23, 2015|publisher=Indiana Legal Archive|access-date=January 3, 2019}}</ref> *Emma Gillett, co-founder of American University's Washington College of Law and the first woman to be appointed notary public by the president of the United States *Letitia James, New York State Attorney General and first African American woman to hold citywide office in New York City. *Edward W. Jacko (1916–1979) American Civil Rights attorney, defended Nation of Islam. *Pauli Murray, was an American civil rights activist, women's rights activist, lawyer, and author. She was also the first black woman ordained an Episcopal priest. *Zephyr Moore Ramsey (1893–1984), lawyer based in Southern California *Charlotte E. Ray, first African American female lawyer *Dovey Johnson Roundtree, Army officer, civil rights lawyer, and A.M.E. Church minister<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/obituaries/dovey-johnson-roundtree-dead.html|title=Dovey Johnson Roundtree, Barrier-Breaking Lawyer, Dies at 104|date=2018-05-21|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-05-24|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
=== Judges ===
*Henry Lee Adams Jr., United States District Court Judge *Loretta Copeland Biggs, United States District Court Judge *William Bryant, United States District Court Judge *Robert L. Carter, United States District Court Judge *Wiley Young Daniel, United States District Court Judge *James Dean, county judge and first African-American judge in Florida *Leland DeGrasse, New York Supreme Court (Appellate Division) Judge *George W. Draper III, Supreme Court of Missouri Judge *Richard Erwin, United States District Court Judge *Wilkie D. Ferguson, United States District Court Judge *William P. Greene, Judge to the United States Court of Appeals for Veteran Claims *LaShann Moutique DeArcy Hall, United States District Court Judge *Joseph Woodrow Hatchett, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit *Odell Horton, former United States District Court Judge *J. Curtis Joyner, United States District Court Judge *Damon Keith, United States Court of Appeals Judge *Consuelo Bland Marshall, United States District Court Judge *Thurgood Marshall, first African American United States Supreme Court Justice and first African American Solicitor General of the United States *Vicki Miles-LaGrange, United States District Court Judge *Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, United States District Court Judge and International Criminal Tribunal *Tanya Walton Pratt, United States District Court Judge *Scovel Richardson, United States Court of International Trade Judge *Spottswood William Robinson III, United States Court of Appeals Judge *William M. Skretny, United States District Court Judge *Emmet G. Sullivan, United States District Court Judge *Fiti A. Sunia, Associate Justice of the High Court of American Samoa and former Attorney General of American Samoa *Anne Elise Thompson, United States District Court Judge *Joseph Cornelius Waddy, United States District Court Judge *Alexander Williams Jr., United States District Court Judge *Carolyn Wright, American lawyer, jurist and the Chief Justice of the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas *John Milton Younge, United States District Court Judge
=== Politicians ===
* Aisha N. Braveboy, former Member of Maryland House of Delegates and current Prince George's County State's Attorney * Roland Burris, former Illinois United States Senator * Evandro Carvalho, former Representative, Massachusetts House of Representatives * Kevin P. Chavous, Council of the District of Columbia Representative *Darcel D. Clark, District Attorney, Bronx County, New York *James Felder, first Black member of the South Carolina Legislature since Reconstruction * Adrian Fenty, former mayor of Washington, DC *Earl Hilliard, United States House of Representatives *Letitia James, Attorney General of New York *Sharon Pratt Kelly, former mayor of Washington, DC *Annie Brown Kennedy, first Black woman to serve in the North Carolina House of Representatives *Summer Lee, Pennsylvania House of Representatives *Janeese Lewis George, member of the Council of the District of Columbia *Henry L. Marsh, former mayor of Richmond, Virginia and Virginia State Senator *Gregory Meeks, United States House of Representatives *James E. O'Hara, United States House of Representatives *Vincent Orange, former Member of the Council of the District of Columbia *Kasim Reed, former mayor of Atlanta, Georgia *Hugh Shearer, former prime minister of Jamaica *Walter Washington, first mayor of Washington, DC *Togo D. West Jr., former United States Secretary of Veteran Affairs under Bill Clinton. *L. Douglas Wilder, first African-American United States governor since Reconstruction and former mayor of Richmond, Virginia *C. T. Wilson, Member, Maryland House of Delegates *Harris Wofford, United States Senate
=== Other === *Denise George, former Attorney General of the United States Virgin Islands *Prince Joel Dawit Makonnen, Ethiopian prince *Cheryl L. Johnson, 36th Clerk of the United States House of Representatives *Vernon Jordan, former president of the National Urban League and Senior Managing Director with Lazard Freres *Kellis Parker, Columbia Law School professor *Gladys Tignor Peterson, educator in Washington, D.C. *Willie L. Phillips, chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission *Leigh Whipper, actor
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== * {{Official website|https://law.howard.edu/}}
{{Howard University}} {{Law Schools of the Mid-Atlantic States}} {{HBCU}}
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Category:Forest Hills (Washington, D.C.) Category:Howard University Category:Law schools in Washington, D.C. Category:Universities and colleges established in 1869 Category:1869 establishments in Washington, D.C. Category:Historically black law schools