Schulich School of Law

Founded in 1883, the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University is the oldest university-based common law school in the British Commonwealth. Formerly known as Dalhousie Law School, the school was renamed the Schulich School of Law in October 2009 after receiving a $20-million endowment from Canadian businessman and philanthropist Seymour Schulich.Today, the Schulich School of Law is the largest law school in Atlantic Canada. With 500 students enrolled each year (170 in first-year) and a faculty of Rhodes, Fulbright, and Trudeau scholars, the school promises “one of the most prestigious and comprehensive legal educations in North America.”HistoryLocated in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a maritime city on the east coast of Canada, the Schulich School of Law is rooted in the vision of its first Dean, Richard Chapman Weldon, who believed lawyers had a responsibility to contribute to their communities’ well-being.Unlike his contemporaries at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University (which was established in 1862 under the auspices of the Law Society of Upper Canada), Weldon aspired to treat the study of law as a full-time, liberal education. It was not, as Osgoode was, an outpost for the province's professional law society where law was seen as "merely a technical craft."