The Law Library has released a new digital exhibit, “Tools of the Profession: Law Books and the History of Legal Education,” on the Library’s growing Digital Special Collections platform. The digital exhibit, a companion to the physical exhibit currently open in the Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center, showcases legal education across the ages, viewed through the lens of significant treatises, casebooks, student notebooks, and other archival items set in their historical contexts. 

Coinciding with the 135th anniversary of the Law School, the exhibit focuses on the history of legal education at the Universityof Minnesota. It features material from the Law School Archives from 1889 to 1978, the year the Law School moved to Mondale Hall. 

From the beginning, innovation has driven legal education at Minnesota Law. The oldest casebook in the exhibit, an 1896 work on contracts by Dean William S. Pattee, highlights the then-new case method of instruction introduced by C. C. Langdell at Harvard. Another early piece, a course bulletin from 1889, lists first-year courses still familiar to any student today.

During the first decades of the 20th century, the Law School gained a national reputation under the leadership of Deans William Vance and Everett Fraser. With the appointment of Dean Vance in 1911, the case method was fully adopted and a new emphasis was placed on legal practice and professionalism. In 1913, Vance established a relationship with the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis, creating one of the first clinical law programs in the country.

The Minnesota Plan 

During Dean Fraser’s 28-year tenure (1920-1948), the Law School became an influential national model for legal education. In 1930, Dean Fraser initiated the Minnesota Plan, a major reform requiring two years of undergraduate study followed by four years of law school education. Other American schools soon followed in Minnesota’s footsteps. Fraser's 1937 address to the Minnesota State Bar Association, featured in the exhibit, discusses the merits of the reform. Distinguished faculty, such as stellar Law School graduate Maynard Pirsig ’25, were also recruited. 

Although World War II brought severe disruption to legal education across the country, the post-war years saw a boom. At Minnesota Law, returning veterans helped increase enrollment by nearly 500%. In the late 1950s and 60s, new and outstanding faculty expanded course offerings and programs, and curricular changes reinvigorated the Law School. The Minnesota Plan yielded to a shorter, more intensive three-year law program, fully implemented in 1965. The clinical programs were also revitalized, with the Legal Aid Clinic opening in 1957. 

Trial Tools 

From the post-war period, the exhibit features a series of best-selling study guides by legendary professor Stanley Kinyon, a procedure manual from the Legal Aid Clinic, and Robert Oliphant’s 1978 work, “Trial Techniques with Irving Younger.” 

Oliphant, the Law School’s first full-time clinical professor, was instrumental in the development of the Law School’s nationally recognized program. He captured renowned lawyer (and later faculty member) Younger’s energetic, direct approach to best trial practices in a concise format. Through these and other items, the exhibit invites viewers to reflect on Minnesota Law’s extraordinary achievements in legal education in its first 100 years.

“Tools of the Profession: Law Books and the History of Legal Education,” is open in the Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center this spring and available in digital form.

The exhibit was curated by Ryan Greenwood, with the assistance of Library staff members Patrick Graybill, Lily Eisenthal, and Joy Brown. For more information, or to arrange a tour of the physical exhibit, please contact Ryan Greenwood at 612-625-7323; rgreenwo@umn.edu.