First in Law, First in Leadership: William & Mary

Graduates of William & Mary and its law school, founded during the American Revolution, played an outsized role in the success of the young nation. They filled the country's new executive, legislative, and judicial offices during a transformational time in United States history. Their votes were essential to the successful ratification of the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson, a William & Mary graduate, was tutored in the law by George Wythe, whom he appointed as America's first professor of law at the college. During his ten years at William & Mary, Wythe educated approximately two hundred students, many destined to become leaders of the nation, Virginia, and other states. United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, a graduate of Wythe's law school, served as one of the nation's most consequential chief justices, establishing the Constitution as the definitive law of the land. After the Constitution's ratification, the William & Mary Law School was the first in the country, and for many years the only school to teach constitutional law to future attorneys, judges, and lawmakers. A signer of the Declaration of Independence, champion of the Constitution, senior statesman, abolitionist, scholar, and Revolutionary patriot, George Wythe modeled for his students the ideal of the ethical Servant Leader and arguably ranks as the most influential teacher in American history.