School of Law admitted to Order of the Coif in recognition of excellence in legal education

The University of Richmond School of Law has been admitted to Order of the Coif, an honorary scholastic society that recognizes excellence in legal education. Richmond Law is one of 82 law schools of 200 in the United States to have received a charter from the society. Order of the Coif has not admitted a law school since 2008, and Richmond Law was the only new member admitted during this application cycle.

Admittance to the order is highly selective and requires a demanding application process designed to ensure that member law schools offer a distinctly superior quality of education. Student eligibility for membership in their law school’s chapter is restricted to those in the top 10 percent of a graduating class. Faculty members also may be elected to chapter membership.

“This is a significant honor for the school and reflects the tremendous accomplishment of our faculty and students,” said Wendy Perdue, dean of the law school.

Some of the criteria for attaining a chapter include commitment to superior legal education, stimulating intellectual environment, dedicated teaching faculty who also produce quality research, instruction in both basic and new areas of the law, and rich and varied co-curricular activities, such as law journals, moot trial and appellate courts, and client counseling. Also, the school’s student body must have varied educational backgrounds and excellent academic credentials, and the staff of the law library must provide a high level of assistance to the teaching and scholarly activity of the school.

Modern-day Order of the Coif was organized in the United States in 1902 and takes its name from a medieval English society from which judges of the Court of Common Pleas were selected.

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