After 100 Years, Law School Continues to Innovate with New Programs
The University of Connecticut School of Law is proud to offer the flexibility and opportunities of a large school with all the warmth, support and personal attention of a small one.
“Our small classes foster individual attention and engagement in the classroom, complementing a culture that emphasizes diversity, inclusion and wellness,” Dean Eboni S. Nelson said. “Students may design a unique and individual course of study from a wide array of courses and enrich it with certificates, clinics, and field placements to meet their own personal and professional goals.”
Founded in 1921 by George Lillard, an insurance lawyer and former FBI agent, and his wife, Caroline Lillard, as the Hartford College of Law, UConn Law is marking its centennial during the 2021-22 academic year. The school joined the state’s flagship university in 1948, becoming the University of Connecticut School of Law. In 1984, the law school moved from a building on Asylum Avenue in West Hartford to its current home on the former campus of the Hartford Seminary in the West End of Hartford.
Today, nearly 500 students are pursuing JD (Juris Doctor) degrees in addition to more than 70, representing a host of countries, studying for LLM (Master of Laws) degrees.
In an effort to meet a growing need for legally trained compliance officers, the school recently added an LLM (Master of Laws) degree in Governance, Risk Management and Compliance. The program is open to lawyers with a JD or foreign law degree. It complements the Corporate and Regulatory Compliance Certificate program, which is offered in conjunction with the UConn School of Business to law students, lawyers and business professionals interested in careers in compliance, ethics, internal monitoring, regulatory affairs and related areas.
Reflecting a determination to make an impact across many areas of law and society, the school unveiled the Center on Community Safety, Policing and Inequality last fall to focus on the transformation of policing. In addition, the Insurance Law Center created a series of online conversations known as “New Ideas in Insurance” to address cutting-edge developments in insurance law. The Animal Law Clinic, which trains law students to act as advocates for justice in animal abuse cases under a groundbreaking Connecticut law, embarked on a study to evaluate the law’s impact and support other states interested in passing similar legislation.
The UConn School of Law serves individual Connecticut residents directly and trains students in the practice of law through its many clinics, including the Tax Clinic, the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic, the Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship Law Clinic, and the Criminal Defense Clinic.
Nelson, who took office in 2020, has fostered many new initiatives while guiding the law school through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to establishing a philanthropic campaign to mark the law school’s centennial, Nelson set up the Constance Belton Green Diversity Fund to support diversity and racial and social justice initiatives. She has also overseen the establishment of the new LLM program, the opening of the policing center, and the redesign of the law school’s website.
“At the threshold of the UConn School of Law’s second century, we are engaging the law school community in a comprehensive strategic planning process to envision the school’s future and lay out the strategies to realize it,” Nelson said. “Building on a legacy of accessibility and affordability, the law school will seek to expand the diversity of its faculty, staff, and student body, strengthen its connections to the local community, and find new ways to advance equity and justice in Connecticut, the nation and world.”
