When BU Law opened in 1872, most new lawyers did not attend any
formal classroom legal education. Professor Seipp's Part One of this
two-part presentation started with how lawyers learned the law before law
schools became the usual route into the profession. He told the story of BU's
founding and early decades in friendly rivalry with Harvard Law School across
the Charles River. We found out what Judge Dwight Foster said in 1875 when a
student interrupted his Equity lecture by shooting a pistol in the classroom.
And we heard how Justice Holmes set the agenda of twentieth century American
law in his "Path of the
Law" speech at the opening of BU's new law school building in
1897.