Office of the Dean

A Message from the Dean

At Yale Law School we educate lawyers and leaders in a fashion that is completely distinctive. We aim to train you for your last job, not just your first. Our graduates are broad-gauged, wide-ranging thinkers who blaze pathways in every sector of society. Their career paths are as varied and eclectic as they are. Some take a traditional lawyering path, while others work in Hollywood, Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley. Our graduates found companies and nonprofits. They work in the White House and on Wall Street. Their potential is limitless; their impact is powerful.

With our world-renowned faculty and remarkable student body, there is no better place to learn how to think. This is a place where ideas matter, and theory is taught at the highest level. Yale Law School houses the most sophisticated and eclectic faculty in the country, an unmatched faculty-student ratio, and an intellectual experience that is truly unparalleled.

The Law School is just as ambitious about practice. Our clinics do work of an unrivaled scope and ambition. Eighty percent of our students enroll in clinics, and an extraordinary number of our faculty either run clinics or do substantial experiential work. There are more than three dozen legal clinics who do cutting-edge work and dozens of innovative programs and centers serving their communities and effecting change across the country and throughout the world. Our students don’t just volunteer for organizations; they found them. Our community doesn’t sit on the sidelines; we make headlines.

There’s never been a better time to be a part of this community and ready yourself for the challenges ahead.

Sincerely,

Heather Gerken
Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law
Yale Law School