A New Chapter for Yale Law School

On September 20, 2018, Yale Law School dedicated the newly opened Robert C. and Christina Baker Hall, the School’s first permanent physical expansion since 1931 when the Sterling Law Building was completed.

Located just a block across the street from Sterling, Baker Hall serves as an academic, social, and residential hub for the Law School, creating a dynamic and immersive educational experience for the community. It adds more than 137,000 square feet to the Law School’s campus. The opening of Baker Hall returns residential living to the Law School experience in the form of modern and elegant apartment-style suites. The building includes numerous spaces for curricular and social activities, including a three-tiered student center, a two-tier lecture theater, and rooms for seminars, small groups, and the School’s innovative interdisciplinary centers and programs. 

In dedicating the building, Dean Heather K. Gerken acknowledged the years of planning that went into Baker Hall. “All of us at the Law School owe a debt of gratitude to my predecessors as dean, Robert C. Post ’77 and Harold Hongju Koh, for their vision and steadfast leadership during this project,” said Gerken. “To Robert and Christina Baker and so many other donors for their incredible support; and to the planners, architects, and builders for their dedication to innovative excellence.”

In 2013, Yale Law School announced that an extraordinary gift of $25 million from Robert C. and Christina Baker would allow the School to expand its campus for the first time since the completion of the Sterling Law Building in 1931.

Following the initial announcement, a successful fundraising campaign secured a total of more than $60 million, and in 2017 the Law School began construction to transform the building formerly known as 100 Tower Parkway into a modern extension of the Law School campus.

More information on the buildings of Yale Law School:

A Modern Expansion

Read more about the history of learning and living at Yale Law School since the completion of the Sterling Law Building in 1931.

A Living School
“

You can make a difference… The history of the last 40 years happened because people like you entered the fray and chipped away at problems that they were told were politically impossible to fix.”

Michael Posner

Honorary Doctor of Laws, 2014 Commencement Address