Celebrating 75 years of modern legal education at U of T

Snapshots from the gala event.

The modern law school at the University of Toronto was founded in 1949.

Building on the tradition of the academic study of law at U of T spearheaded by the first law school dean, W.P.M. Kennedy (1944-1949), Dean Cecil “Caesar” Wright (1949-1965) and his colleagues rejected the profession-led, apprenticeship-oriented model of legal training that prevailed in Ontario at the time and established U of T's Faculty of Law.

This re-conception of legal education has proven to be the key to the faculty's enduring success and has carried it to pre-eminence among law schools in Canada and into the ranks of the very best law schools in the world.

The Faculty of Law recently kicked off the 75^th anniversary of the modern faculty and its founding vision of academic legal education at a gala event. It was a celebration of the law school's distinctive scholarly ethos and approach to legal education, fuelled by rigorous, analytical, critical, cross-category and cross-disciplinary thinking, undergirded by a strong sense of community. 

Inspired by the "Law Follies" tradition – poking fun at the quirks of law school and the legal profession – students, alumni, professors and former deans took to the stage in what proved to be a night of uproarious laughter and nostalgic reflection. Distinguished alumnus Bob Rae (LLB 1977, Hon LLD 1999), Canada's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, served as the night's master of ceremonies.

The event was a unique celebration and unforgettable homage to the past, present and future of U of T Law.

Originally published by Faculty of Law