Cleveland–Marshall College of Law


Cleveland–Marshall College of Law is the law school of Cleveland State University, located on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The school traces its origins to Cleveland Law School, which merged in 1946 with the John Marshall School of Law to become Cleveland-Marshall Law School. When the school affiliated with Cleveland State University in 1969, it became Cleveland–Marshall College of Law.

History

Cleveland Law School, founded in 1897, was Ohio's first evening law school and also the first to admit women. John Marshall School of Law was established by Cleveland attorneys, and classes began in 1916 in the New Guardian Building on Euclid Avenue. Following an affiliation with Ohio Northern University, Marshall received authorization to confer degrees under its own name. In 1946, the two Cleveland schools merged to form Cleveland-Marshall Law School. From 1963 to 1967, C-M maintained a nominal relationship with Baldwin–Wallace College. After regaining independent status, Cleveland-Marshall began its full-time legal education program. C-M became a state institution affiliated with Cleveland State University in 1969, becoming the Cleveland–Marshall College of Law, the largest law college in Ohio at the time.
Cleveland-Marshall has a rich history of integrating women and minorities into the American legal field, including Carl Stokes, the first African-American mayor of a major city in the U.S., Mary Grossman, the first woman in Ohio elected to a Municipal Court Bench as well as one of the first female members of the American Bar Association, Genevieve Cline, the first woman appointed to the U.S. federal bench, and Lillian Walker Burke, the first African-American female judge in Ohio. Louis Stokes, older brother of Carl and Ohio's first elected African American to the House of Representatives. Louis Stokes also argued the landmark United States Supreme Court case of Terry v. Ohio first in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, then the United State Supreme Court.

Academics

In addition to the Juris Doctor and the Master of Laws degrees, Cleveland-Marshall also offers dual degrees, which include a J.D./M.B.A., a J.D./M.P.A., a J.D./M.U.P.D.D., a J.D./M.A.E.S., and a J.D./M.S.E.S. degree program.

Rankings

In 2016 U.S. News & World Report ranked Cleveland-Marshall's full-time J.D. program at 106. In 2014 Cleveland-Marshall was ranked 115th ; its part-time Juris Doctor program was ranked 56th in the nation. Cleveland-Marshall was previously ranked 119th in 2013 and 135th in 2012.
According to the law professor blog The Faculty Lounge, based on 2012 ABA data, only 48.9 percent of graduates obtained full-time, long term, bar admission required positions nine months after graduation, ranking 137th out of 197 law schools.
According to Cleveland–Marshall College of Law's official 2013 ABA-required disclosures, 44.7 percent of the Class of 2013 obtained full-time, long-term, bar passage-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners. 83.6 percent of the Class of 2013 was employed in some capacity while 15.1 percent were unemployed nine months after graduation.
Ohio was the main employment destination for 2013 Cleveland–Marshall College of Law graduates, with 87.2 percent of employed 2013 graduates working in the state.

Law library

The law library is a selective depository library as part of the Federal Depository Library Program under the Depository Library Act of 1962. In addition to the standard legal reference works, its collections include substantial coverage of constitutional law, employment and labor law, Jewish law, Islamic law, law careers, legal research and writing, Ohio law and practice, and urban law.
The library also houses the materials from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office relating to the prosecution of Sam Sheppard in the 1954 Marilyn Sheppard murder case. The collection comprises over 60 boxes of photographs, recordings, documents, and trial exhibits. The law school has cataloged and digitized the materials, many of which are available online.

Costs

The total cost of attendance at Cleveland–Marshall College of Law for the 2014-2015 academic year is $43,231 for Ohio residents and $52,518 for non-residents. Cleveland–Marshall College of Law's tuition and fees on average increased by about 9.2 percent annually over the past five years.
The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $168,538. The average indebtedness of the 73 percent of 2013 Cleveland–Marshall College of Law graduates who took out loans was $81,357.

Notable alumni

Many notable judges, politicians, and business leaders have graduated from Cleveland-Marshall. The late Tim Russert graduated from Cleveland-Marshall in 1976. Carl Stokes, the first African-American mayor of a major U.S. city, graduated from Cleveland-Marshall in 1956 and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1957. Frank G. Jackson, the current mayor of Cleveland, is also a graduate.