The Move to West Philadelphia

The issue of the Law School's 1874 move to the new University campus in West Philadelphia serves as a reminder of the novelty and fragility of the Law School program in its first decades. In 1872, when the College and Medical School left the old Ninth Street campus and occupied their new buildings, the thought that the Law School should follow was opposed from within. Professor E. Spencer Miller, who had succeeded Sharswood in 1868, argued that the students and faculty must be near the downtown courts and law offices in order to maintain the necessary balance between classroom instruction and clinical training.

Ticket of admittance to law school class: Proof of enrollment (and payment).

Considering that the buildings of the Ninth Street campus were soon to be demolished, Miller requested use of a University-owned building on Fifth Street. If the Trustees would extensively remodel the building, Miller would rent the lower floor for his private practice and conduct the Law School on the second floor. He would also open to the School's students the use of his own law library.

Miller's proposal split the faculty and the Philadelphia bar. After lengthy, formal consideration of the plan, the Trustees refused. Miller bitterly resigned his professorship. The lesson was clear: Many lawyers, including leaders of the Philadelphia bar such as Miller, were not yet prepared to part company with the apprenticeship system. The University, on the other hand, believed that it had established a respected and useful program of legal education fully capable of success even when removed from Center City.

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