AALS shows and tells its 125-year history in coffee table book
The First 125 Years: An Illustrated History of the Association of American Law Schools is a coffee table book that shows while it tells the history of the group’s dedication to developing law students into lawyers.
In 2022, as it faced its significant anniversary, AALS leaders wanted to remind the legal education community of its mission to educate and train aspiring lawyers to ensure a civil democracy, says co-author Judith Areen, AALS executive director emeritus.
Austen L. Parrish, the dean at the University of California at Irvine School of Law and current AALS president, came up with the idea for a coffee table book.
“We don’t want another book that’s just going to end up on the shelf of the library,” Areen says.
Packed with historic photos, most provided by its member law schools’ archives, the 157-page large-format book walks the reader though the group’s origin story. During the 1900 ABA Annual Meeting in Saratoga Springs, New York, legal educators from 35 U.S. law schools banded together with the goal of focusing on the needs of students who would become the nation’s lawyers, lawmakers and judges.
Each of its six chapters focuses on a specific era and each spotlights a quote from a president of those times, says co-author Jean Waterman. The consistency of messaging surprised her.
“It was amazing that all six quotes speak in some way to the association’s critical role in serving justice according to law and ensuring civil democracy,” she says.
The photos help put the group’s actions during various decades into context. A photo researcher dug to find pictures of the leaders of the times, images of the law schools during different eras and copies of important documents, such as the original articles of assortation.
The beginning and end of the book “are a bit of a prayer for the future,” says Waterman, “for continued support for the AALS and quality law schools. They are essential to a civil democracy and the rule of law, which we pray will continue.”
A limited number of the books are available for purchase here.
