Antonin Scalia Law School
in Arlington, United StatesCategory: Attraction
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Hazel Hall, 3301 Fairfax Dr, Arlington, VA 22201, USA Print route »
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Antonin Scalia Law School, previously George Mason University School of Law, is the law school of George Mason University, a state university in Virginia, United States. The law school is located in Arlington, roughly fifteen miles east-northeast of the university's main campus in Fairfax.
George Mason University School of Law was authorized by the Virginia General Assembly in March 1979 and was founded on July 1, 1979. The American Bar Association provisionally approved the school in the fall of 1980 and granted full approval in 1986. The school had started as the International School of Law (ISL), which opened in 1972 in a classroom at the Federal Bar Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. In 1973, it moved into the home of former United States Chief Justice Douglas White on Rhode Island Avenue, and in 1975 purchased the old Kann's Department Store in Arlington. Despite growth, ISL could never obtain accreditation. In 1976 they first discussed a merger with George Mason University, which was interested in setting up a law school. In 1978, the Virginia State Council of Education denied GMU's proposal to start a law school and encourage a merger with ISL instead. Later that year, the Council advised against allowing that merger, but the Virginia state legislature voted for it anyway and it was signed into law in early March of 1979.As of 2017, the school had 525 students in its J.D., LL.M., JD/MBA, and JD/MPP programs. The median LSAT score among those offered admission to the full-time program for the fall 2017 entering J.D. class was 162 and the median GPA was 3.70. The passage rate for first-time takers of the Virginia bar exam in July 2017 was 80.33%, fifth among Virginia's eight law schools.On March 31, 2016, the Board of Visitors approved renaming the school after the late United States Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia. The name change followed gifts of $20 million from an anonymous donor and an additional $10 million from the Charles Koch Foundation conditioned on the renaming, and was announced as requiring approval by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. The name change became effective on May 17, 2016.
