1886
Several law clerks receive tutorials in Appellate Judge Joseph M. Bailey’s chambers to prepare for the newly instituted Illinois bar examination. The evening sessions evolved into formal classes and, in 1888, the establishment of Chicago College of Law, the second law school in Illinois. Judge Bailey became the school’s first dean.

1891
Emma Baumann graduates from Chicago College of Law, becoming the first woman to earn a law degree from the school.

1894
Ida Platt graduates with honors from Chicago College of Law, and soon becomes the first black woman admitted to the Illinois bar--and only the second woman of color admitted to practice law in the United States. She later helped establish the Cook County Bar Association, the nation’s oldest African-American bar association.

1895
Appellate Judge Thomas A. Moran is named Chicago College of Law’s second dean. Judge Moran became the first dean of Chicago-Kent College of the Law in 1900, following the merger of Chicago College of Law and Kent College of Law.

1895
Marshall D. Ewell founds Kent College of Law, named for Chancellor James B. Kent, author of the influential Commentaries on American Law. Ewell serves as the school’s first and only dean.

1900
Chicago College of Law merges with Kent College of Law, to form Chicago-Kent College of Law. Thomas A. Moran of Chicago College of Law is named the new law school’s first dean.

1902
The founding chapter of Phi Alpha Delta (PAD) is established at Chicago-Kent. PAD, now the world’s largest law fraternity, has its roots in the charter chapters of Lambda Epsilon Fraternity at Kent College of Law and Chicago College of Law, which consolidated when the schools merged to form Chicago-Kent College of Law.

1903
Appellate Judge Edmund W. Burke is named Chicago-Kent College of Law’s second dean. Judge Burke’s son, Webster H. Burke, became dean following the elder Burke’s death in 1918, serving out what would become nearly 50 years of continual leadership by the Burke family.

1912
Chicago-Kent College of Law moves to rented space in the 116 North Michigan Avenue building, where it remains for the next 12 years.

1918
Webster H. Burke ’03 is named Chicago-Kent’s third dean. He becomes the first Chicago-Kent alum to serve as dean, upon the death of his predecessor and father, Edmund W. Burke.

1923
The Chicago Kent Review begins continuous publication under the direction of Dean Webster H. Burke. Several years later, it adopted its current name, the Chicago-Kent Law Review. The publication began as the Anthenaeum Law Bulletin, one of the nation’s first law reviews.

1924
Chicago-Kent purchases the building at 10 North Franklin Street, which serves as its home for the next 50 years.

1936
Chicago-Kent College of Law earns certification from the Section of Legal Education of the American Bar Association.

1942
The Student Bar Association, the law school’s student government, is organized and affiliated with the Illinois Law Student Association and the American Bar Association’s Law Student Division. Officers and student representatives are elected each year from the student body.

1949
Webster H. Burke steps down after nearly 30 years’ service as dean of the law school. Donald Campbell ’21 is named Chicago-Kent’s fourth dean.

1956
William F. Zacharias ’33 is named Chicago-Kent’s fifth dean. During his tenure, Chicago-Kent’s Alumni Association was re-formed and the law school building remodeled, expanded, and made handicapped accessible.

1969
Chicago-Kent merges with Illinois Institute of Technology, becoming one of the few U.S. law schools affiliated with a technical university.

1970
Fred F. Herzog is named Chicago-Kent’s sixth dean. During his tenure, the Chicago-Kent Law Review begins to publish an issue focusing on the work of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The Law Review continued this theme annually for nearly two decades.

1971
Chicago-Kent establishes its rigorous trial advocacy program. Students gain practical experience in litigation techniques under the tutelage of veteran judges and practicing attorneys, who lead small trial advocacy classes and coach student teams that compete in local, regional, and national trial competitions.

1974
Chicago-Kent faculty member Lew Collens is named Chicago-Kent’s seventh dean. Collens serves as dean for 16 years before being named president of Illinois Institute of Technology.

1976
Chicago-Kent moves from 10 North Franklin Street to 77 South Wacker Drive.

1976
Chicago-Kent starts the nation’s first in-house, fee-generating law school clinic, in which a faculty of practicing lawyers engage students to work on real cases under the discipline of actual practice conditions. In a typical year, clinical professors and students handle hundreds of cases in employment, criminal, health, and tax law.

1977
Chicago-Kent begins to offer continuing legal education programs to help members of the bar keep current on the state of the law. Chicago-Kent’s Office of Continuing Legal and Professional Education now offers programs in a wide variety of areas, from civil rights litigation to taxation to labor and employment law.

1977
The Charles E. Green Lecture in Law and Technology is established to address the impact of technology on society, on legal relationships, and on methods of the study and practice of law. The lecture was named for Charles Green ’15, who for served for many years as secretary and general counsel for Motorola Inc.

1978
The Kenneth M. Piper Memorial Lecture in Labor Law is established. The annual lecture brings together experts from labor, management, and academia to debate current topics in labor relations. The lecture was established by a gift from the widow of Kenneth Piper, a senior executive with Motorola Inc. and Bausch & Lomb Inc.

1978
Chicago-Kent pioneers the three-year legal research and writing program, which is now emulated at law schools across the nation. To ensure personal attention, most writing classes have fewer than 30 students.

1978
The Moot Court Honor Society is founded to provide practical skills training in the foundations of appellate advocacy: brief writing and oral argument. Chicago-Kent fields a number of moot court teams that compete at the national and international levels in a variety of subject areas.

1981
Chicago-Kent establishes the Graduate Program in Taxation and the Graduate Program in Financial Services Law, the first LL.M. program in financial services law in the United States.

1981
Chicago-Kent and IIT establish a dual J.D.-M.B.A. program. The law school now offers many dual-degree options for students seeking cross-disciplinary education.

1983
Chicago-Kent establishes the Center for Law and Computers, becoming the nation’s first law school to make the computer an integral part of the study of law. Many of the applications of technology now taken for granted in the law school classroom were pioneered at Chicago-Kent.

1983
The Library of International Relations, one of the nation’s most extensive
repositories of international documents, announces its affiliation with IIT and its relocation to Chicago-Kent.

1988
The Chicago-Kent trial advocacy team of Joel Daly ’88, Lauretta Higgins ’88, and Peter Roskam ’89 wins the national championship in the 13th annual National Trial Competition, held in Dallas, Texas. In addition to overall team honors, Peter Roskam was individually cited as Best Oral Advocate in the competition.

1989
Chicago-Kent establishes a chapter of the Order of the Coif, an honorary scholastic society that encourages excellence in legal education by fostering a spirit of careful study and recognizing students, lawyers, judges, and teachers for their scholarly or professional accomplishments.

1990
Chicago-Kent is named among the top “up and coming” law schools by U.S. News & World Report.

1990
The Paul Freehling Scholarship Fund is established to promote the writings of professors who are in the early stage of their career and have distinguished themselves through substantial and sustained scholarship.

1991
Richard A. Matasar, a federal jurisprudence scholar, is named Chicago-Kent’s eighth dean. At the time of his appointment, Dean Matasar was one of the youngest law school deans in the nation.

1992
Chicago-Kent opens the “law school of the future” at 565 West Adams Street in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood, making the state-of-the-art building its new home.

1992
The Library of International Relations dedicates its new facility in Chicago-Kent’s new building at 565 West Adams Street.

1992
The Governor Richard B. Ogilvie Auditorium, named for the 1949 alumnus, is dedicated at Chicago-Kent’s new building at 565 West Adams Street.

1992
The Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Courtroom, named in honor of the distinguished federal district judge and 1925 alumnus, is dedicated at Chicago-Kent’s new building at 565 West Adams Street.

1993
Homer J. Livingston Jr. ’66 becomes president and CEO of the Midwest Stock Exchange. Under Livingston’s leadership to revitalize the organization, the exchange quickly reinstated its original name, the Chicago Stock Exchange, to help enhance its visibility in national and international financial markets.

1996
Chicago-Kent is named Public Interest Law School of the Year by the Law Student Division of the American Bar Association. The award salutes Chicago-Kent students, representing more than 10 law school associations and program, for donating more than 31,000 hours of volunteer service during the 1995-96 academic year.

1997
Lester H. McKeever Jr. ’71 becomes chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, after serving two years on its board of directors. McKeever, who in 1960 became only the 61st African American in the country to be licensed as a CPA, held the post as board chairman for three years.

1997
Henry H. Perritt, Jr., an expert in information technology law, is named Chicago-Kent’s ninth dean. Dean Perritt increased the law school's international reach though numerous interprofessional student projects, often based on using technology to foster the rule of law in emerging democracies.

1997
Chicago-Kent receives the E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Award from the American Bar Association for its professionalism program--an annual symposium designed to provide second-year law students with an opportunity to learn about the professional demands of the workplace from practicing lawyers and judges.

1997
Chicago-Kent launches the Global Law and Policy Initiative, which spearheads programs designed to promote a better understanding of the evolving global environment and to strengthen democratic institutions worldwide.

1997
Chicago-Kent and other academic units of IIT create the Institute for Science, Law & Technology (ISLAT) to evaluate emerging technologies and their impact on society. Central to ISLAT’s mission: providing a forum for academics, practitioners,and policymakers at the intersection of science and law.

1998
Chicago-Kent launches the Honors Scholar Program to attract exceptionally talented and motivated law students who can influence and shape the profession’s direction. Honors Scholars participate in special seminars addressing new frontiers of the legal system and produce a major work of scholarship in their third year.

1998
Chicago-Kent is awarded The Illinois State Bar Association’s Access to Justice Special Recognition Award for initiatives that enhance access to the justice system for underserved and underrepresented populations.

2000
Chicago-Kent creates the Institute for Law and the Humanities. The institute’s mission is to facilitate, support, and encourage symposia, lectures, scholarship, and faculty discussion on the relationships between law and other humanistic disciplines.

2001
The law school reduces the size of its entering class from approximately 400 to 300 students, resulting in enhanced selectivity. The smaller enrollment makes it possible for faculty members to give more one-on-one attention to students.

2002
Chicago-Kent is awarded the 2002 Diversity Award by the Council on Legal Education Opportunity for the law school's continuing commitment to diversifying the legal profession.

2002
The newly established Illinois Technology Center for Law & the Public Interest begins operations at Chicago-Kent. The center develops Web-based initiatives to increase access to the justice system for underserved and underrepresented populations.

2003
Chicago-Kent alums head the National Lawyers Association, National Hispanic Prosecutors Association, Illinois State Bar Association, Chicago Bar Association, Women’s Bar Association of Illinois, Cook County Bar Association, Illinois Judges Association, and Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago.

2003
Chicago-Kent establishes the country’s first LL.M. program in international intellectual property law. The one-year program offers international and domestic lawyers an extensive education in all aspects of contemporary intellectual property practice.

2003
Harold J. Krent, an expert in administrative law, is named Chicago-Kent’s tenth dean after serving as associate dean for five years and interim dean for one year. His scholarship focuses on the legal aspects of individuals' interactions with government, including issues of privacy, sovereign immunity, and separation of powers.

2007
The Chicago-Kent trial advocacy team of Keya Rajput ’07 (Best Oral Advocate award) and Joshua Jones ’08 wins the 32nd annual National Trial Competition. In 2008, Joshua Jones went on to become the first student to win back-to-back National Trial Competition championship titles.

2008
The Chicago-Kent team of Joshua Jones ’08 (Best Oral Advocate award) and Mark Griffin ’08 wins the 33rd annual National Trial Competition. The victory, along with Chicago-Kent’s 2008 National Moot Court Competition championship, made Chicago-Kent the first school to win both competitions in the same year.

2008
The Chicago-Kent team of Lalania Gilkey-Johnson ’08, Joanna Brinkman ’09 and Rachel Moran ’08 (Best Oralist award) wins the 58th annual National Moot Court Competition. The win, along with Chicago-Kent’s 2008 National Trial Competition victory, made Chicago-Kent the first school to win both competitions in the same year.

2009
The Chicago-Kent team of Brody Dawson '09, Andrew Booth '09 and Betsy Gates '09 wins the 59th annual National Moot Court Competition. The 2009 victory, along with the law school’s 2008 championship, made Chicago-Kent the first law school in more than 30 years to win the competition two years in a row.

2009
Chicago-Kent establishes the Center for Open Government, a pro bono initiative where students and faculty work to help ensure transparency, accountability and responsibility in state and local government.