William Mitchell College-Law history

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, most of Hamline’s students joined the Union army; and, bereft of students, the legal studies program closed.

Mitchell Hamline traces its continuous history back to 1900, when five notable St Paul lawyers had an entirely new idea for legal education.

When the University of Minnesota began to consider discontinuing its part-time evening program in 1912, Young sensed an opportunity and stepped into the breach to provide a similar service.

Finally, from 1921 until after the merger, the law school occupied what was known as the Berkey Mansion, at Sixth and College Streets.

By 1928, the school had declared bankruptcy and its students transferred to the Minneapolis College of Law.

Similarly, the YMCA school ceased functioning in 1934, despite discussions of a formal merger with the Minnesota College of Law.

The college, with a first class of 20 students and a tuition of $60, eventually received ABA approval in 1938.

The Minnesota school had been the most solvent of the four, so the two surviving Minneapolis law schools became one, the Minneapolis-Minnesota College of Law. Its existence was dominated by funding issues, which were only alleviated by a formal merger with the Minnesota College of Law in 1940.

On April 1, 1951, Mitchell opened his own office in the Pyramid Building in downtown Little Rock — a place where most lawyers who were actively engaged in the full-time practice of law were located.

In 1952, Little Rock visionary Rodney Parham and his son invited Mitchell to share offices with them, which allowed him the luxury of a part-time secretary.

In 1953, Mitchell’s longtime friend Steele Hays graduated from George Washington University Law School and was working in the office of his father, Congressman Brooks Hays.

On January 1, 1954, the firm was created under the name Lasley, Spitzberg, Mitchell & Hays.

William Mitchell was the product of five predecessor schools, all in the Twin Cities, which ultimately merged in 1956.

In 1958, St Paul College of Law merged with the Minneapolis-Minnesota College of Law to become the William Mitchell College of Law School.

Fearing that their law school was not advancing toward ABA accreditation, the students met at the Normandy Inn in Minneapolis in December, 1972, to found a new law school built from the ground up.

William Mitchell continued to develop its emphasis on practice-ready legal education and created a clinical program in 1973, one of the first schools in the nation to do so.

Hamline’s second venture into legal education began in August 1974, when it became a home to a new law school organized by about three dozen law students attending the proprietary Metropolitan School of Law in Minneapolis.

In 1975, after encouragement by Hamline trustees such as Minnesota Supreme Court Justice James Otis, the law school became an official part of Hamline University; and it was provisionally accredited by the ABA in the same year.

By 1976, William Mitchell had outgrown the space at St Thomas and required larger facilities.

In 1979, Allan Gates, former law clerk to United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit Chief Judge Pat Mehaffy and United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Harry A. Blackmun, left an environmental law practice in Washington, D.C. to join Mitchell.

By 1980, William Mitchell began offering traditional daytime classes and the option of full-time enrollment.

MJF was incorporated in 1982 by a group of University of Minnesota law students who were concerned about serving their communities.

In 1991, the firm officially changed its name to Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard, P.L.L.C. as it is today.

In 1992, Ernie Lawrence of Bentonville, Arkansas, merged his practice with the firm, creating an office in Rogers, Arkansas.

Out of this committee, a working group called Law School Initiatives (LSI) formed in 1993.

In 1997, the merger of Ivester & Camp brought three additional lawyers, Hermann Ivester, Robbie Camp and Stan D. Smith.

In 1998, the firm moved its offices to the TCBY Tower, now known as the Simmons Bank Tower, and occupied the 17th, 18th and 19th floors where it is headquartered today.

In 2000, to celebrate its one hundred years of legal education, Governor Jesse Ventura declared November 19–25 "William Mitchell Centennial Week" throughout the state.

In 2007, the firm announced its first expansion into Texas with the opening of an office in Austin.

Continuing its tradition of attracting adjunct faculty from the state and federal bench, Donald Lay, Paul Magnuson, Donovan Frank, Edward Toussaint, Jr. and others have taught and continue teaching at WMCL. In 2010, William Mitchell launched an intellectual property law journal, Cybaris.

In 2013, the firm expanded further in Arkansas with the opening of the Jonesboro office.

In 2017, Mitchell Hamline established the Edward J. Devitt professorship in his honor, and it awards an Edward J. Devitt scholarship funded by family and friends to deserving law students.

© 2021 Mitchell Hamline School of Law in affiliation with Hamline University.