Change is a prized tradition at Yale Law School. Eighty years ago, members of our faculty shook the foundations of legal education by vigorously questioning the notion of law as a set of abstract certainties. These legal realists reshaped the way American lawyers think about legal rules and the work of courts and judges. Thirty years later, innovators at the School led the way in constitutional law, commercial law, taxation, and antitrust. More recently, we have pioneered new ideas in corporate finance, gender studies, environmental law, international human rights, and clinical practice.

With our sights set on tomorrow, we are changing again. The profession of law is adapting to the new global market, and Yale Law students must be ready to shape the new legal systems that will arise. The architects of these systems, our students, will serve as not just American leaders, but global leaders.

Examine almost any Yale Law School class, and you will find a student who became a political revolutionary, a Supreme Court Justice, the dean of an acclaimed law school, or the founder of a remarkable law firm. The Law School has produced presidents, cabinet members, leaders of the bar, and prominent CEOs and general counsels. Our graduates have led organizations as diverse as Major League Baseball and Humana; they populate the faculty of the nation’s leading law schools and serve the least privileged members of our communities in courtrooms across the country.

In each of these various ways, Yale Law School graduates are guiding the legal profession and influencing the political landscape—as well as educating the next generation of leaders. They wield tremendous power over the future of our society. Yale Law School must therefore set goals that will address and satisfy the immense responsibility of producing Yale lawyers who are principled, empathetic, and equal to the tasks that lie ahead.

We will achieve this through foresight and preparation. To resolve questions of how transnational law will operate, we are modifying our programs and our curriculum, taking up issues of commerce, communication, and human rights at the global level. We are renewing our faculty, seeking greater diversity and depth while expanding our cross-disciplinary offerings. Building on decades of activism in the public interest sector, we are also strengthening our ties to the community and our commitment to public service. In short, we are preparing the School for the next 80 years of leadership.

With this campaign, we rededicate ourselves to education—and we recognize the fragility of excellence. It is time to invest in our students and faculty alike, providing them with the resources and tools their talent and ambitions deserve, in keeping with our traditions of intellectual rigor and progressive transformation.

I welcome your support, your ideas, and your friendship as we work together to secure the future of Yale Law School as the world’s leading institution in its field.

Sincerely,

Harold Koh
Dean and Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law