One hundred and thirty years ago, Colorado Law opened its doors for the first time, housed in an old hospital building known as Kent Hall. We began with a humble class of 23 students, one full-time faculty member, and Colorado鈥檚 first U.S. District Court judge, Moses Hallert, serving as its first dean. It may be hard to imagine now, but in 1892 the law school library was merely a few shelves of materials.
Today, Colorado Law has awarded over 8,000 degrees and boasts a world-class faculty of 63 brilliant full-time scholars and teachers, not to mention our many outstanding adjuncts and fellows! We are the intellectual home for some of the most remarkable, practical, and inspired 鈥済et-things-done鈥� people in the country.
We now serve a student body of over 500 dedicated and ambitious future leaders of the bench, bar, policy, and in business. And the Wise Law Library now serves as a regional archive for federal government materials, is open to the public, and proudly calls itself the largest law library in the Rocky Mountain region.
Much has changed since those early years, both on campus and in the world at large. It was not so long ago鈥攊n the grand scheme of things鈥攖hat a nearly all white and male demographic dominated law schools and the practice of law in our country. With its ongoing commitment to diversity, Colorado Law is helping to change not only the face of the legal profession but the mind, heart, and soul of the endeavor. We are proud that close to a third of today鈥檚 Colorado Law student body are of diverse backgrounds. And we are also proud that our community has garnered a national reputation for offering our students a truly top-quality legal education along with top quality of life in one of the happiest, healthiest corners of the country. But at the same time that we are pleased with our progress, we recognize that there is yet much to be done, and we cannot rest on our laurels.
The pages of this issue capture nostalgia for times past, often bittersweet. In these pages, there is good and there is bad. There is more than can be eloquently expressed by a single voice. That鈥檚 why you will hear the voices of many鈥攆rom our alumni who graduated before the civil rights movement to those who only recently left our hallowed halls. This issue contains great optimism and ambition, dreams and plans for a future that we create using a framework of fairness and justice. We have much to be thankful for and much to strive toward. I invite you to join with us in remembering, imagining, and appreciating all that makes Colorado Law the exceptional institution that connects us today. Most importantly, I invite you to join with us in making Colorado Law an even greater institution.
Here鈥檚 to 130 more years, and beyond.
Lolita Buckner Inniss
Dean and Provost's Professor of Law