History of the College

 

 Pedrick

Willard Pedrick
In 1964, the Arizona Board of Regents approved the establishment of a law school at Arizona State University.  ASU President Homer Durham launched a search for a dean for the school, wishing to find a “different kind” of person to serve as the first dean.  His search led him to Willard H. Pedrick, a highly respected law professor at Northwestern Law School.

After several trips to Arizona, Pedrick accepted Durham’s offer to be the first dean in 1965. 

 


 

Founding Faculty
Founding Faculty: Effland, Dahl, Havighurst, Pedrick, Canby, & Cleary.

 

Pedrick needed to build a faculty and did so by looking to the law schools he admired, searching for the innovative faculty that he wanted for the new school.  By 1966, he had assembled a fine group of scholars and leaders: William Canby, Edward W. Cleary, Richard Dahl, Richard Effland, and Harold Havighurst.

 

 

 

Class In Matthews library Late in the summer of 1967, Willard H. Pedrick and six faculty members welcomed the inaugural class of 117 students.  The class was diverse for the times, including women, Blacks, and Native Americans.  While the law school building was being constructed, classes were held in the Old Matthews Library near the center of the ASU campus.

 

Pedrick & Chief Justice Warren

Pedrick & Warren

 

In 1968, Armstrong Hall was dedicated with Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren in attendance.  The school received accreditation the very next year.

 

In 1970, the first class graduated from the new law school.  Many of these graduates became prominent attorneys, judges, and politicians in Arizona and across the nation.

 

Schroeder & Matheson early

Milt Schroeder & Alan Matheson


Several of the faculty appointed in the early years of the college are still teaching at the college, including: 

Alan Matheson, appointed 1967
Jonathan Rose, appointed 1968
Michael Berch, appointed 1969
Milton Schroeder, appointed 1969

 

Rose early   Berch early

Jon Rose

Michael Berch

 

 Matheson early

Alan Matheson

 

The college has benefited from the leadership from strong and progressive deans over the years:


Willard Pedrick, 1965-1974
Ernest Gellhorn, 1974-1977
Alan Matheson, 1977-1984, 1989, 1997-1998
Paul Bender, 1984-1989
Richard Morgan, 1989 – 1997
Patricia White, 1999 - 2008
Paul Schiff Berman 2008 - Present

 

 

Through the years, the college has seen many changes.  Some of the highlights are:

  • 1971 – The first clinic, the Prosecutor Clinic, was established.
  • 1976 – The law library was designated as a Government Documents Repository.
  • 1980 – The model courtroom was completed.
  • 1981 – The Pedrick Scholar Program was established.
               The Moot Court competition began.
  • 1984 – The Center for the Study of Law, Science, and Technology was approved.
  • 1988 – The Armstrong Hall building addition was dedicated.
               The Indian Law Program was approved.
  • 1992 – The law school celebrated its 25th Anniversary.
  • 1993 – The Ross-Blakley Law Library opened.
  • 2003 – The Ronald Jay Cohen Student Center was completed.
  • 2006 – The College of Law is renamed Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in honor of Justice O'Connor.

This portrait of retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, painted by renowned artist Michael Shane Neal, was given to the College of Law on Sept. 12, 2008, by four of her former law clerks, Arizona Supreme Court Justice Scott Bales; Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, David H. Levin Chair in Family Law at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law, University of Florida; Kent Syverud, Dean of the Washington University School of Law; and Gail Agrawal, Dean of the University of Kansas School of Law. (Photo by Tom Story)  O'Connor painting