Cumberland School of Law

This institution is unrelated to the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky.

Cumberland School of Law is an ABA accredited law school located in Birmingham, Alabama. It was founded on July 29, 1847 in Lebanon, Tennessee at Cumberland University. It is now located at Samford University. At the end of 1847 only 15 law schools existed in the United States, making Cumberland one of the oldest in the country.

Samford University, formerly Howard College, is located in Homewood, just outside of Birmingham. Samford purchased the law school from Cumberland University in 1961.

As of 2005, the law school had approximately 500 students.

Institution

The law school emphasises practical skills and integrity. The current dean, former federal judge John L. Carroll (class of '74) states that:

"The prevailing philosophy is simple: Practical skill outweighs raw knowledge, and application transcends erudition. If the goal were to produce great law students, the tenets might be exactly the opposite. Our goal is to produce exceptional lawyers. That’s why Cumberland’s curriculum emphasizes the core competencies of legal practice: research, writing and persuasion."

In the 2006 edition of the Princeton Review Cumberland ranked 6th in the top 10 list rating faculty and 9th in the top 10 list for overall quality of life.

One of Cumberland's more notable graduates, Cordell Hull, served under Franklin Delano Roosevelt as Secretary of State and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945. At one point in his life he stated that:

"if this historic institution (Cumberland) had been located in any other section of the country instead of having been an unpretentious school in ^* unpretentious locality, its wonderful work would be as widely known and recognized as that of any educational institution of like age in any part of America." Fn.1.

Langum and Walthall summarize the history of Cumberland Law School as:

"From its very local, Tennessee origins in 1847, Cumberland School of Law soon emerged as a premier law school with a national status. It excelled in faculty, teaching methodology, and numbers of students. Following the American Civil War, Cumberland rebuilt itself and ultimately succeeded on a grand scale with its single-year curriculum." Fn.1

After witnessing the Civil War, the Depression, two world wars, and the Civil Rights Movement, Cumberland stands on a long, proud history, but now looks "to regain the premier status it once held."

Life at Cumberland

Cumberland students generally attend school for three years. The first year classes are preselected: Civil Procedure, Contracts, Property, Torts, Criminal Law, and Evidence. Students are divided into one of three sections, where the students remain together in their respective classes for the entire first year. First year students are also enrolled in even smaller sections for Lawyering and Legal Reasoning, a class that focuses on honing the students' ability to think and write like a lawyer.

Second and third year courses give students more choices and allow some degree of specialization. Cumberland offers a balance of traditional courses, such as Criminal Procedure, Family Law, and Basic Federal Income Tax, and practical courses, such as Basic and Advanced Trial Skills, ,Business Drafting, and Law Office Practice and Management.

Students are taught using the Socratic Method, typical of law school pedagogy.

Students must also take Professional Responsibility and the MPRE, which is an exam that is required to practice in addition to the Bar exam.

Cumberland offers numerous extra-curricular activities, in addition to the opportunities provided by Samford University. See below for a list of publications, research centers, and student organizations.

Housing for law students is not available on campus, but students typically rent apartments or buy houses in the surrounding community.

Competition for grades and rank can be aggressive but rarely personal, and there is a surprising degree of camaraderie amongst the students, which many students consider to be atypical of the environment on most law school campuses.

Bar passage and employment rates

The class of 2005 Alabama BAR passage rate for Cumberland graduate first-time takers was 94.1%.
93.7% of the Class of 2004 is currently employed, with 68.9% in private practice, 5.91% in judicial clerkships, 4.1% in business and industry, 11.1% in government, 1.5% in public interest, .7% in academics, and 6.7% pursued advanced degrees. ^*

Admissions

The Fall 2005 entering class had an average LSAT score of 156 and average undergraduate GPA of 3.23. The top quarter of the entering class had an LSAT score of 158 or higher and a GPA of 3.53 or higher. Candidates are selected based on "LSAT, undergraduate GPA, discipline of study, graduate work, undergraduate grade trends, employment, undergraduate institution, personal statement, and letters of recommendation." ^*

Joint degree programs

Cumberland offers 6 joint degree programs:

JD/Master of Accountancy, JD/Master of Business Administration, in conjunction with the Samford University School of Business,
JD/Master of Divinity, in conjunction with the Beeson Divinity School of Samford University,
JD/Master of Science in Environmental Management, in conjunction with the graduate school of Samford University,
JD/Master of Public Administration, in conjunction with the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences of the University of Alabama at Birmingham,
JD/Master of Public Health, in conjunction with the School of Public Health of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Foreign programs

Summer 2006 - Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, England;
Summer 2006 - Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil;
Summer 2006 - University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Programs Website

Organizations

Publications

The Cumberland Law Review ^* whose members are selected by write-on from the top 15% of the freshman class and,
The American Journal of Trial Advocacy ^*.

Research centers

Cumberland Law School's Center for Biotechnology, Law and Ethics;
The Center for Law & Church;
The Alabama Center for Law and Civic Education.

Student organizations

Alabama Defense Lawyer's Association ^*
The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy ^*
Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) ^*
Black Law Students Association ^*
Christian Legal Society ^*
Community Service Organization ^*
Cordell Hull Speakers Forum ^*
Cumberland Democrats ^*
Cumberland Republicans ^*
Cumberland Wildlife Society ^*
DRI – The Voice of the Defense Bar ^*
Environmental Law Society ^*
Federalist Society ^*
Henry Upson Sims Moot Court Board ^*
Honor Court ^*
Jewish Law Students’ Association ^*
Military Justice Society ^*
Phi Alpha Delta ^*
The Sports and Entertainment Law Society ^*
Pro Confesso On-line Newspaper ^*
Trial Advocacy Board ^*
Women in the Law ^*

History

This summary would be impossible but for a comprehensive study of the law school, which was done for the 150th anniversary of the school. It is entitled From Maverick to Mainstream. Much of this information is sourced from this excellent work (see note for citation below).

To give some perspective, establishing law schools was difficult in the early 1800s. Harvard only reestablished its law school in 1829 and Yale in 1826. So Cumberland appeared at a unique time in history and offered a unique educational option.

By 1860 only 21 university law schools existed in the country and in no documented case did the curriculum last over two years.

(WORKING)

Former Deans

	Dean	Tenure
1	Samuel Gilreath	acting dean 1947–1948
2	Arthur A. Weeks	1947–1952
3	Donald E. Corley	acting dean 1972–1973, dean 1974–1984
4	Brad Bishop	acting dean 1984–1985
5	Parham H. Williams	1985–1996
6	Barry A. Currier	1996–2000
7	Michael D. Floyd	acting dean 2000–01
8	John L. Carroll	2001–present

Miscellany and Source Information

Notable facts

Cumberland has trained: 2 United States Supreme Court Justices, 9 senators, a secretary of state, and numerous federal and state judges, representatives and governors.
Cumberland is the first law school to have been sold from one unversity to another.
Cumberland is well known in the Southeast for its focus on Trial Advocacy.
The school is composed of two buildings: the main classroom building, amusingly named the Memory Leake Robinson Hall, and the Lucille Stewart Beeson Law Library ^*.
Motto: "Where good people become exceptional lawyers."

External links

Source information

DAVID J. LANGUM & HOWARD P. WALTHALL: From Maverick to Mainstream: Cumberland School of Law, 1847-1997 (University of Georgia Press 1997).
Fn. 1 - p.253 (Langum & Walthall)
Fn. 2 - p.113 (Langum & Walthall) (quoting "Hull Calls for Consectration," Lebanon (Tenn.) Democrat, May 10, 1934, p.1.

Law schools in Alabama

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