Judge Isaac Parker
Isaac Parker and the Founding of Harvard Law School
"On April 17, 1816, in his Harvard Hall inaugural speech as the first Royall Professor of Law, Judge Isaac Parker made an early suggestion of the establishment of what would become Harvard Law School..."
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Isaac Parker, The Original Royall
An excerpt from The Centennial History of Harvard Law School 1817-1917, published by the Harvard Law School Association in 1918.
Two professors, six students, three rooms
"Notice is hereby given that a law school is established at the University to commence on the first Wednesday in October next,” began the Aug. 9, 1817, advertisement in Boston’s Columbian Centinel, one of many newspapers and journals that touted the opening of a new law school, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It promised a program unlike any that had been offered in the nation before—bringing intellectual rigor to the study of law, “under the patronage of the University,” while still preparing graduates for practice in the profession.