Collections : [University of Connecticut School of Law Archives and Special Collections]

The Law School has established Academic Centers which provide services to the community and offer practical experience to students entering the law profession. The Centers also bring scholars and industry experts together to discuss topics related to the areas they serve.

The collection was largely compiled by former staff in the Archives and includes documents, reports and photographs related to the various campuses and buildings the Law School inhabited since its inception in 1921. The majority of the print collection focuses on the move from 1800 Asylum to the former Hartford Seminary location on Elizabeth Street. Extensive renovation of the buildings was undertaken to make the buildings work for a law school with a full service library. An extensive collection of item-level cataloged photographs of the various buildings is included in the collection. Most of the images are of the Elizabeth Street campus but there are also many of the new library (Meskill Library), including construction photographs, and of the former campus at 1800 Asylum Street, West Hartford, Connecticut.

After graduating from Harvard Law School's LL.M. program and while serving as a Visiting Scholar and American Bar Foundation Fellow in Legal History at the Yale Law School, Charles C. Goetsch '76 began identifying and collecting the most important Litchfield Law School Notebooks. Goetsch traveled to university libraries and historical societies where he obtained copies of the most representative notebooks from the Early Period (1790-1798) when Tapping Reeve alone lectured, the Middle Period (1798-1820) when Reeve and James Gould lectured, and the Late Period (1820-1833) when Gould alone lectured. In 2001, Goetsch donated his photocopies of notebooks to the University of Connecticut School of Law where he had received his J.D. (see Graduate Report Fall 2000/Spring 2001 Giving Back story, p. 27). These photocopies and Goetsch's research materials make up this collection.

Six weeks before he was set to graduate from the United States Naval Academy, Joseph Steffan resigned. Thus started a seven year legal battle over this dismissal which was related to his homosexuality. In 1993, a three-hudge panel ruled in favaor of Steffa and order him reinstated. In 1994, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the dismissal. The papers document the lawsuit and outcomes.

The University of Connecticut School of Law, a pioneer in experiential legal education, allows students to choose from a broad and diverse range of options to engage in the real-world practice of law, to put their classroom learning into practice, and to develop their legal knowledge, skills and professional identities. These choices include 11 supervised in-house and partnership clinics and six field placement programs, all of which satisfy UConn Law's practice-based learning requirement. In addition, the associate dean for academic affairs may designate certain courses to satisfy this requirement. Through these programs, each student receives at least one intensive, carefully supervised live-lawyering experience before graduation, an essential supplement to classroom-based learning that helps prepare them to practice law competently and ethically. https://law.uconn.edu/academics/clinics-experiential-education/ retrieved July 7, 2023.

The Alumni Association records contain information on annual reunions, gatherings and dinners as well as on individual alumni. Alumni publications in the collection including News Bulletin (1944-1960), Starr Report (1969-1990) and the Graduate Report (1999-2014) are great resources of information on the Law School, faculty, students and alumni.

The University of Connecticut Law School Foundation, a non-profit corporation, existed as a standalone entity until 2017 when it combined with the main campus office, UConn Foundation. The purpose of the Foundation was to raise funds for the enhancement of legal education and research. The 23-member Board of Trustees was selected by the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association. Dean Philip Blumberg gave the first gift to the Foundation in 1974.

The Shirley R.Bysiewicz Papers reflect her time at the University of Connecticut School of Law from 1956 to 1989. Bysiewicz was the first woman tenured professor at the School of Law. From 1956-1983 she served as Director of the Law Library. Concurrently she was a professor of law and taught courses in Women and the Law, Juvenile Law, Elder Law, Legal Research and Writing, Judicial Clerkship Clinic, and Legislation.

This collection includes: Correspondence, Photographs, Fliers, maps (documents), Architectural drawings (visual works), Audiocassettes, Video recordings (physical artifacts), Born digital