The Chattanooga College of Law was a

law school A law school (also known as a law centre/center, college of law, or faculty of law) is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for b ...

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

, from 1898 to 1942. The school began as the law department of Grant University (which later became the

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is part of the University of Tennessee System. History UTC was founde ...

). The first graduate of the school during its existence as a department was Nathan L. Bachman, who went on to become a United States Senator. In 1906 it was reported that "the new building of the Chattanooga College of Law is one of the finest buildings in the South, located on the block immediately opposite the United States Court House". In 1910, the university decided to discontinue its professional departments, and the dean of the law school, Charles R. Evans, persuaded the state to grant it a charter as an independent institution.Zella Armstrong, ''The History of Hamilton County and Chattanooga, Tennessee, Volume II'' (1940), p. 169-170. Evans died shortly thereafter, and the deanship was then assumed by local judge W. B. Swaney, who remained in that position for many years. The

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...

reported in 1912 that "the Chattanooga College of Law has fifteen instructors, and not one of the number devotes his entire time to the school", and a 1915 description noted that the faculty generally came "from the bench and bar of Chattanooga", and were active practitioners in the law. The school was never accredited by the American Bar Association, and ceased accepting new students in 1942, several years after legislation was passed by the state requiring increased standards for the admission of students to enter law schools in the state. A 1943 article noted that the school, though still in operation, "enters a new term soon, without a single first year student for the first time in its 45 years of operation"."Nary A Freshman", ''The Troy Record'' (December 14, 1943), p. 20. Other notable alumni of the school included T. Grady Head, who served as Attorney General of Georgia, and on the Georgia Supreme Court."Justice T. Grady Head Dies After Brain Surgery", ''The Atlanta Constitution'' (June 8, 1965), p. 1.

References

1898 establishments in Tennessee Defunct law schools 1942 disestablishments in Tennessee {{lawschool-stub