Notre Dame Law School is the professional graduate law school of the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

. Established in 1869, it is the oldest continuously operating

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

law school in the United States. ND Law is ranked 22nd among the nation's "Top 100 Law Schools" by '' U.S. News & World Report'' and 14th by Above The Law in their annual Top 50 Law School Rankings. It is ranked 8th in graduates attaining federal judicial clerkships and 7th in graduates attaining Supreme Court clerkships. According to Notre Dame's 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 86% of the Class of 2019 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment ten months after graduation. 41.5% of the Class of 2019 accepted positions at Large Firms, while 11.9% accepted Federal Clerkships, and 17.6% of the Class of 2019 Graduates accepted public service positions. The school enrolls about 600 students and in addition to the J.D. degree it also offers dual

JD–MBA A JD–MBA is a dual degree program in which students jointly earn Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration degrees. The programs are commonly offered in the United States and Canada by universities' graduate business and law schools. The ...

and several a dual J.D. and Masters combined degrees (including JD/MS, JD/MA, JD/M.Eng.). It also offers the only

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...

–approved, year-long, study-abroad program, which is based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

History

Beginnings

Notre Dame Law School opened in February 1869. It was the second Catholic law school opened in the United States, and the oldest in continuous operation. The first was the law school of Saint Louis University, which opened in 1843 but closed soon after in 1847 (it was then re-opened in 1908). Despite its humble beginning, right from the start, the Law School required law students to have completed previous education in a thorough course in the liberal arts. This was uncommon at the time when Law School applicants only had to be 18. The first “principal” of the law department and Professor of Law was Matthew F. Colovin. Other law faculty in the early years included Lucius Tong and Timothy Howard. The first class graduated in 1871 and consisted of three students. University of Notre Dame Law Library

"Colonel" Hoynes era

One of the most important names in the history of the school was "Colonel" William J. Hoynes. He was born in County Kilkenny,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in 1847 and emigrated with his parents at age seven. He fought for the Union Army during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. After the war, he was a student at Notre Dame from 1867 to 1872, and later went to

Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law (MCL ...

where he obtained his LL.B. In 1882, Rev. Walsh, then the president of the university, invited Hoynes to take control of the Law School, which was in demise. Hoynes accepted Rev. Walsh's offer in 1883, and taught classes in the Main Administration Building and in

Sorin Hall Sorin Hall, also known as Sorin College, is the oldest of the 32 Residence Halls on the campus of the University of Notre Dame and one of the 16 male dorms. It is named after Edward Sorin, the founder of Notre Dame. Sorin is located directly nor ...

where a large room permitted him to set up a "Moot Court". The course of study was extended from two to three years. Hoynes was assisted in various subjects by John Ewing and Lucius Hubbard of South Bend. Under his tenure, enrollment in the law school began to rise immediately. The university restored the old building of the Institute of Technology after it was damaged by fire in 1916, and renamed it Hoynes Hall in honor of Dean William Hoynes. It was given to the exclusive use of the law students who moved there from Sorin Hall. After the Law School moved to its own building, Hoynes Hall housed the Architecture Department until 1963 and the Psychology Department until 1974, and then was renamed Crowley Hall and became the house of the Music Department since 1976. In 1925 John Whitman was appointed by Dean Thomas Konop as the first Law School librarian, and the collection grew to 7,000 volumes. In 1921 Maxine Evelyn Ryer became the first woman to study law at Notre Dame and the first woman to practice law in St. Joseph County, Indiana. In 1944, statues by

Eugene Kormendi Eugene Kormendi (1889–1959) was a Hungarian sculptor. He studied at the Academy of Budapest before moving to Paris to collaborate with Auguste Rodin and Jean Paul Lorenz. Kormendi first came to the United States in 1939 along with his wife, ...

were added to the building as part of a campus beautification project.

20th century

On October 7, 1930, the Law School was transferred to the new building located on Notre Dame Avenue. The beautiful Gothic building, which still stands today, has a large reading room. The second librarian, Lora Lashbrook, and the third, Marie Lawrence, grew the library's collection to 20,000 volumes by 1952, and 55,000 volumes by 1960. The increase of both the library collection and student population reduced the available space. Regardless, this was balanced by the expansion of the law school funded by a donation from S. S. Kresge, the namesake of the Kresge Law Library. Under the guidance of Dean Lawless the school started one of the nation's first programs allowing law students to study abroad, with a year-long program in London to study the roots of

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...

. In 1986 a further expansion added the East Reading Room and created the reference librarian offices. In 1990 alumnus John F. Sandner donated funding for the acquisition of the entire 120,000 volume collection of the

Chicago Bar Association Founded in 1874, the Chicago Bar Association (CBA) is a voluntary bar association with over 20,000 members. Like other bar associations, it concerns itself with professional ethics, networking among members, and continuing legal education. It is ...

Library. In 1970, Graciela Olivarez became the first woman and Latina to graduate from Notre Dame Law School. The next class to graduate women would be 1973.

21st-century

New resources for scholarship

In 2004, the Kresge Law Library became one of the few academic law libraries to own more than 600,000 volumes. This was accomplished mainly under the tenure of the fifth law librarian, Roger Jacobs, who also served as head librarian of the Library of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. Between 2007 and 2008, a new building, the Eck Hall of Law, was constructed to provide the Law School with an additional 85,000 square feet of classroom and office space. In 2010 Robert Biolchini, alumnus and entrepreneur from

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, funded the renovation of the Kresge Law Library, located in the renamed Biolchini Hall of Law. The renovated Biolchini Hall is 106,500 square feet, has two 50-seat classrooms, a seminar room, 29 group study rooms, and holds 300,000 book volumes and more than 300,000 volumes in microfilm. The total cost of renovations and expansions was approximately 58 million dollars.

Faculty hiring momentum

In recent years, the expanding Notre Dame Law faculty has attracted several accomplished scholars from other top law schools. In 2009, University of Virginia Law School Professor Stephen Smith left a tenured position to join the Notre Dame Law faculty. In 2012, Professor Barry Cushman, the James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law and Professor of History at the University of Virginia, joined the ND Law faculty. In 2017, it was announced that private law theorist Paul Miller from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

would join the Notre Dame faculty. Samuel Bray, a remedies theorist previously teaching at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

law, joined the faculty in 2018. During the same period, long-time Notre Dame professors have been invited for visiting faculty positions at Harvard, the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago law schools.

Expanded urban presence in DC and Chicago

In 2013, new space was secured for the ''Notre Dame Law in Chicago'' program, which allows ND Law students to pursue their studies from an urban campus in downtown Chicago ("in the Loop"). In 2015, in partnership with

Kirkland & Ellis Kirkland & Ellis LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1909, Kirkland & Ellis is the largest law firm in the world by revenue and the seventh-largest by number of attorneys, and was the first la ...

, the law school debuted its ''Notre Dame Law in DC'' program, which allows students to spend a semester studying in Washington, DC. In recent years, the school has hosted talks and events by many prominent legal figures, including

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( ; ; March 15, 1933September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by Presiden ...

, Antonin Scalia,

Clarence Thomas Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall and has served since 1 ...

, Samuel Alito,

Sonia Sotomayor Sonia Maria Sotomayor (, ; born June 25, 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and has served since ...

, William Barr, and

Amy Coney Barrett Amy Vivian Coney Barrett (born January 28, 1972) is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The fifth woman to serve on the court, she was nominated by President Donald Trump and has served since October 27, 2020. ...

Deans

*1883–1919: William J. Hoynes *1918–1923: Francis J. Vurpillat *1923–1941: Thomas F. Konop *1941–1952:

Clarence Manion Clarence E. "Pat" Manion (July 7, 1896 – July 29, 1979) was an American lawyer and conservative radio talk show host who was dean of Notre Dame Law School. from 1941 to 1952 He hosted the radio show ''Manion Forum'' which later aired on televisio ...

*1952–1968: Joseph O'Meara *1968–1971: William B. Lawless Jr. *1971–1975: Thomas L. Shaffer *1975–1999: David T. Link *1999–2009: Patricia A. O'Hara *2009–2019: Nell Jessup Newton *2019–Present: G. Marcus Cole

Admissions and rankings

Admission to Notre Dame Law School is highly selective. For the class entering in the fall of 2022, the median

LSAT The Law School Admission Test (LSAT; ) is a standardized test administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) for prospective law school candidates. It is designed to assess reading comprehension as well as logical and verbal rea ...

score was 168 and the median undergraduate GPA was 3.81. Notre Dame Law School is ranked 25th among the nation's "Top 100 Law Schools" by '' U.S. News & World Report'' for 2023 and 14th by Above The Law in their annual Top 50 Law School Rankings for 2022. The law School is a top 10 runner-up for Elite Litigation boutique hiring.

Degrees

The law school grants the professional Juris Doctor,

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

and

Doctor of Juridical Science A Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD; ), or a Doctor of Science of Law (JSD; ), is a research doctorate in law equivalent to the more commonly awarded Doctor of Philosophy degree. Australia The S.J.D. is offered by the Australian National Univ ...

degrees. The Master of Laws program can be pursued either at the main campus in South Bend or at the Law School's London Law Centre in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The law school also offers a Master of Science in Patent Law, Certificate in Patent Prosecution, and LL.M. in International Human Rights Law.

Job and clerkship placement

In the class of 2019, 167 out of 193 graduates (86%) secured full-time, long-term employment requiring passage of the bar exam within ten months of graduation. The top 3 most popular destinations for graduates in the class of 2018 were Illinois (21.7%), New York (10.6%), and California (9.5%). Furthermore, 41.5% of graduates in the class of 2019 found employment in large law firms (100+ attorneys) and 11.9% pursued federal clerkships. Notre Dame has been recognized as a feeder school for federal clerks and in recent years has placed a higher percentage of its graduates as federal clerks than other top law schools, such as the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

and

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Notre Dame Law School for the 2020–2021 academic year is $84,230.

Facilities

Notre Dame Law School is located in the heart of Notre Dame's campus and it housed in the Eck and Biochini Halls, two buildings connected by a suspended walkway. Biolchini Hall was designed by architect

Charles Donagh Maginnis Charles Donagh Maginnis (January 7, 1867 – February 15, 1955) was an Irish-American architect. He emigrated to Boston at age 18, trained as an architect and went on to form the firm Maginnis & Walsh, designing ecclesiastical and campus buildin ...

in 1930 and serves as a prominent example of collegiate Gothic architecture. It was renovated in 2010 thanks to a gift from Robert Biolchini and renamed to its current name. The Kresge Law Library is located in Biochini Hall, while most of the classrooms are in Eck Hall. Funding for the law library was provided by businessman S.S. Kresge, the founder of what is now Sears Holding Corporation. In 2004, the Kresge Law Library became one of the few academic law libraries to own more than 600,000 volumes. This was accomplished mainly under the tenure of the fifth law librarian, Roger Jacobs, who also served as head librarian of the Library of the

. Eck Hall was built in 2010. The $57-million, 85,000-square-foot building was connected to the original building through a suspended walkway that constitutes a common area. Eck includes both classrooms and faculty and administrative offices, as well as space for student services and activities. In addition to a 205-seat moot courtroom, the Patrick F. McCartan Courtroom, there are four lecture halls, five seminar rooms, and three skills training rooms available for classes and events. The construction of Eck and the connecting walkway to Biolchini also allowed for the creation of a new chapel dedicated to St. Thomas More. The building was named in honor of school graduate, benefactor, and advisor Frank E. Eck. The Law School also hosts a legal aid clinic in South Bend.

Notable alumni

Despite having smaller graduating classes than most of America's top law schools, Notre Dame's alumni roster includes a range of distinguished jurists, advocates, politicians, and business leaders. * Tae-Ung Baik – a legal scholar of international human rights law and Korean law; Professor of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law; former Prisoner of Conscience *

– associate justice of the

* William Beauchamp – former president of the

University of Portland , mottoeng = The truth will set you free , established = 1901 , type = Private university , religious_affiliation = Catholic (Congregation of Holy Cross) , endowment = $218 million , president = Robert D. Kelly , students = 3,731 (fall 20 ...

* G. Robert Blakey – author of the

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was en ...

* Joseph Cari Jr. – private equity investor, policy analyst, and philanthropist * Tom Clements –

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

coach for the Green Bay Packers * N. Patrick Crooks – Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court * John Crowley – biotechnology executive and inspiration for the film ''

Extraordinary Measures ''Extraordinary Measures'' is a 2010 American medical drama film starring Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford, and Keri Russell. It was the first film produced by CBS Films, the film division of CBS Corporation, who released the film on January 22, 20 ...

'' * Lucille Davy – Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education. * Samuel L. Devine – former

United States congressman The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

( R- OH) * John V. Diener – Mayor of Green Bay, Wisconsin * Andy Dillon – former speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, gubernatorial candidate, and former Michigan State Treasurer *

Larry Dolan Lawrence J. Dolan (born February 8, 1931) is an American retired attorney and the principal owner of the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). Education Dolan attended St. Ignatius High School and got his law degree from Universit ...

– owner and President of the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

Joe Donnelly Joseph Simon Donnelly Sr. (born September 29, 1955) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as a United States senator from Indiana from 2013 to 2019. Since 2022, he has served as the United States Ambassador to the Holy S ...

– former

United States senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

( D- IN) *

Clark Durant Wiliam Clark Durant III (born May 13, 1949) is an American businessman who is the co-founder and former CEO of the Cornerstone Schools, a group of charter and independent schools in the inner city of Detroit. Durant was a Republican politician ...

– CEO and founder of Cornerstone Schools (Michigan); political activist * David Campos Guaderrama –

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

for the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas *

Patricia Anne Gaughan Patricia Anne Gaughan (born October 21, 1953) is the Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Education and career Born in Lakewood, Ohio, Gaughan received a Bachelor of Arts deg ...

– United States district judge for the

United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

* John M. Gearin – former United States senator ( D- OR) * Mark Gimenez – author of legal thrillers (his book ''The Color of the Law'' was a ''New York Times'' bestseller) * William J. Granfield – former United States congressman ( D- MA) * Robert A. Grant – former United States congressman ( R- IN) and Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana * Michael Fansler – justice of the Indiana Supreme Court * José Reyes Ferriz – Mexican politician, affiliated to the

Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party ( es, Partido Revolucionario Institucional, ; abbr. PRI) is a political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 and held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000, first as the Nati ...

(PRI), former Municipal President (mayor) of Ciudad Juárez * Nora Barry Fischer – United States district judge for the

United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania The United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (in case citations, W.D. Pa.) is a federal trial court that sits in Pittsburgh, Erie, and Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It is composed of ten judges as authorized by federal ...

* Peter F. Flaherty – former mayor of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

and

deputy attorney general The Deputy Attorney General (DAG) is the second-highest-ranking official in a department of justice or of law, in various governments of the world. In those governments, the deputy attorney general oversees the day-to-day operation of the departme ...

in the Carter administration * Kevin Hasson – founder and President of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty * Donna Jean Hrinak – American diplomat, former U.S. Ambassador to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

(2002–2004),

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

(2000–2002), Bolivia (1997–2000), and the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

(1994–1997). * Harry Kelly – 39th

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

from 1943 to 1947 *

John Kilkenny John Francis Kilkenny (October 26, 1901 – February 17, 1995) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for ...

– former judge on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

* Peter King – United States Congressman ( R- NY) * David G. Larimer – a federal judge on the

United States District Court for the Western District of New York The United States District Court for the Western District of New York (in case citations, W.D.N.Y.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the western parts of Upstate New York. Appeals are taken to the Second Circuit (exce ...

* Edward Leavy – Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review * Paul M. Lewis – American diplomat (appointed by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

to serve as

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...

's Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure) * Brendan Loy – a blogger who gained fame for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina * Maureen Mahoney – former deputy solicitor general and well-known appellate lawyer, reported to have been among George W. Bush's Supreme Court candidates * Eduardo Malapit – Hawaiian politician,

Mayor of Kauai The Mayor of Kauai is the chief executive officer of the County of Kauai in the state of Hawaii. The mayor has municipal jurisdiction over the islands of Kauai and Ni’ihau. Derek Kawakami was elected on November 6, 2018, as the mayor of Kauai ...

(1974–1982), first

Filipino American Filipino Americans ( fil, Mga Pilipinong Amerikano) are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos and other Asian ethnicities in North America were first documented in the 16th century as slaves and prisoners on ships sailing to and from New ...

mayor of any United States municipality * John E. Martin – former chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court * Greg Marx – NFL player * Romano L. Mazzoli – former United States congressman ( D- KY) and immigration reform advocate * James McCament – senior policy advisor, U.S. Customs and Border Protection * Judith A. McMorrow – torts scholar and law professor at Boston College Law School * John Henry Merryman – Nelson Bowman Sweitzer and Marie B. Sweitzer Professor of Law at

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...

* Carol Ann Mooney – president of Saint Mary's College * Brian Moynihan – president and CEO of Bank of America Corporation * Joseph P. O'Hara – former United States congressman ( R- MN) * Graciela Olivarez – the first female and Latina graduate; Director of the Community Services Administration under

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...

* Clifford Patrick O'Sullivan – former judge

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District of ...

* Andrew Napolitano,

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

senior judicial analyst and former judge * Paul V. Niemeyer – Judge on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (in case citations, 4th Cir.) is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Maryland ...

* Jerry Pappert – United States district judge of the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (in case citations, E.D. Pa.) is one of the original 13 federal judiciary districts created by the Judiciary Act of 1789. It originally sat in Independence Hall in Phil ...

and former

Pennsylvania attorney general The Pennsylvania Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It became an elected office in 1980. The current Attorney General is Democrat Josh Shapiro. On August 15, 2016, then-Attorney General Kat ...

Renee Rabinowitz Renee Ginsberg Rabinowitz (1934 – May 19, 2020) was an American-Israeli psychologist and lawyer. She was born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Belgium, but fled with her family to the United States in 1941, following the outbreak of World ...

– psychologist and lawyer * Keith James Rothfus – former United States congressman ( R- PA) * Margaret A. Ryan – judge on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces The United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (in case citations, C.A.A.F. or USCAAF) is an Article I court that exercises worldwide appellate jurisdiction over members of the United States Armed Forces on active duty and other pers ...

* Yara Sallam – Egyptian feminist and human rights activist * Janis Lynn Sammartino – United States district judge for the

United States District Court for the Southern District of California The United States District Court for the Southern District of California (in case citations, S.D. Cal.) is a federal court in the Ninth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appe ...

* John F. Sandner – former chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange * Lisa M. Schenck – military law scholar and judge of United States Court of Military Commission Review *

Thomas D. Schroeder Thomas David Schroeder (born May 26, 1959) is the Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Education and career Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Schroeder received a Bachelor of ...

– United States district judge for the

United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina The United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina (in case citations, M.D.N.C.) is a United States district court with jurisdiction over 24 counties in the center of North Carolina. It consists of five divisions with a ...

* Thomas L. Shaffer – professor of legal ethics at Washington & Lee University and the

* Theresa Lazar Springmann – United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana * Michael A. Stepovich – former governor of Alaska * Luther Merritt Swygert – former judge on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts: * Central District of Illinois * Northern District of ...

* Martha Vázquez – United States district judge on the

United States District Court for the District of New Mexico The United States District Court for the District of New Mexico (in case citations, D.N.M.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the state of New Mexico. Court is held in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Las Vegas, Roswell, Santa ...

Pete Visclosky Peter John Visclosky ( ; born August 13, 1949) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 1985 until his retirement in 2021. He is a member of the Democratic Party and was the dean of the Indiana congressional d ...

– United States Congressman ( D- IN) *

Frank Comerford Walker Frank Comerford Walker (May 30, 1886 – September 13, 1959) was an American lawyer and politician. He was the United States Postmaster General from 1940 until 1945, and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1943 until 1944. Biog ...

– former

United States Postmaster General The United States Postmaster General (PMG) is the chief executive officer of the United States Postal Service (USPS). The PMG is responsible for managing and directing the day-to-day operations of the agency. The PMG is selected and appointed by ...

and chairman of the Democratic National Committee * Kevin Warren –

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

commissioner, former CEO of the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansi ...

and the highest-ranking African-American executive working on the business side for an NFL team *

Ann Claire Williams Ann Claire Williams (born August 16, 1949) is a retired United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern Di ...

– former judge on the

* Charles R. Wilson – judge on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (in case citations, 11th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following U.S. district courts: * Middle District of Alabama * Northern District of Alabama * ...

* Mary Wittenberg – president and CEO of

New York Road Runners New York Road Runners (NYRR) is a non-profit running organization based in New York City whose mission is to help and inspire people through running. It was founded in 1958 by Ted Corbitt with 47 members and has since grown to a membership of more ...

(NYRR) * Francis Parker Yockey – American attorney and far-right political philosopher * Mary Yu – justice of the

Washington Supreme Court The Washington Supreme Court is the highest court in the judiciary of the U.S. state of Washington. The court is composed of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Members of the court are elected to six-year terms. Justices must retir ...

* William J. Zloch – United States district judge for

United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (in case citations, S.D. Fla. or S.D. Fl.) is the federal United States district court with territorial jurisdiction over the southern part of the state of Florida.. Appeal ...

* Chris Zorich – former Notre Dame and Chicago Bears star Defensive lineman

Notable faculty

Notable current faculty include: *

John Finnis John Mitchell Finnis, , (born 28 July 1940) is an Australian legal philosopher, jurist and scholar specializing in jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. He is the Biolchini Family Professor of Law, emeritus, at Notre Dame Law School and a ...

– Australian philosopher, specializing in the

philosophy of law Philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy that examines the nature of law and law's relationship to other systems of norms, especially ethics and political philosophy. It asks questions like "What is law?", "What are the criteria for legal val ...

(also Professor of Law at

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...

) * Nicole Stelle Garnett – legal scholar specializing in the areas of real estate, land use, urban development, local government law, and education * Richard W. Garnett –

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

and criminal law scholar *

Jimmy Gurulé Jimmy Gurulé is an American attorney, academic and government official, who is a professor at Notre Dame Law School, teaching criminal law courses. He was the first Hispanic Assistant Attorney General in the United States. Gurulé was nominated ...

– former under secretary for enforcement,

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...

and former assistant attorney general for the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

* William K. Kelley – former White House deputy counsel *

Mary Ellen O'Connell Mary Ellen O'Connell is the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School and a research professor of international dispute resolution at Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace in Studies. Since j ...

– international law scholar *

Kenneth Francis Ripple Kenneth Francis Ripple (born May 19, 1943) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Education and career Ripple was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received an Artium Baccalaure ...

– senior circuit judge on the

– associate justice of the

Thomas Paprocki Thomas John Joseph Paprocki (born August 5, 1952) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois since 2010. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Arc ...

– American

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pre ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

who serves as bishop of the Diocese of Springfield,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

Notable former faculty include: * G. Robert Blakey – author of the

(RICO) (also an alumnus) * Anton-Hermann Chroust – German-American legal historian * John H. Garvey – a professor at the

University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law (MCL ...

and Dean of the Boston College Law School * Dan Flanagan – Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court * M. Cathleen Kaveny – a scholar of law and theology at Boston College *

Douglas Kmiec Douglas William Kmiec (; born September 24, 1951) is an American legal scholar, author, and former U.S. ambassador. He is the Caruso Family Chair and Professor of Constitutional Law at Pepperdine University School of Law. Kmiec came to prominence ...

– U.S. Ambassador (ret.), confirmed 2009; assistant attorney general of the United States, confirmed 1988,

White House fellow The White House Fellows program is a federal fellowship program established via Executive Order by President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson in October 1964, based upon a suggestion from John W. Gardner, then the president of Carnegie Corp ...

and special assistant to the secretary United States Department of Housing & Urban Development; dean and St. Thomas More Professor of Law, Catholic University of America * Thomas F. Konop – former U.S. representative from Wisconsin * Juan E. Méndez – human rights advocate known for work on behalf of political prisoners * Carol Ann Mooney – president of Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana * John T. Noonan Jr. – senior

United States federal judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...

on the

* Charles E. Rice – legal scholar specializing in Natural Law Theory * Thomas L. Shaffer – property law scholar * Patrick J. Schiltz –

of the

United States District Court for the District of Minnesota The United States District Court for the District of Minnesota (in case citations, D. Minn.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Minnesota. Its two primary courthouses are in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Cases are al ...

* Larry Soderquist – securities law scholar * Harris Wofford – former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and civil rights activist *

Dudley G. Wooten Dudley Goodall Wooten (June 19, 1860 – February 7, 1929) was a U.S. Representative from Texas. Early years Born near Springfield, Missouri, Wooten moved in infancy with his parents to Texas during the Civil War. Education He attended priva ...

– former U.S. representative from Texas.

Law journals

Notre Dame Law School publishes five student-run journals: *''

Notre Dame Law Review The ''Notre Dame Law Review'' is a law review published by an organization of students at the University of Notre Dame Law School in Indiana. History The ''Notre Dame Law Review'' was originally founded by a group of students in 1925 as the ''N ...

'' *'' Journal of Legislation'' *''Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy'' *'' Notre Dame Journal of International and Comparative Law'' * ''Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies''

References

External links

* {{authority control Catholic law schools in the United States Law schools in Indiana Educational institutions established in 1869 1869 establishments in Indiana