St. John’s University School of Law has traditionally viewed
itself as having three primary and distinctive goals. First, it has
the responsibility of producing students who are well qualified to
begin to practice law as a learned profession. Toward this end, the
Law School aims at imparting to its students competence in the
basic skills and techniques of the legal profession; a grasp of the
history and system of the common law as developed and modified by
the courts, legislatures, and administrative agencies in the United
States; and familiarity with some of the more important statutes
and decisions in federal and leading state jurisdictions. As part
of the instructional process, the faculty strives to promote a
values-oriented legal education, emphasizing the principles of
respect for all, responsibility to self and others, and positive
ethical and moral values. Such a valuesoriented legal education is
integral to the goals of the School of Law. The second of the Law
School’s goals is to furnish the community with lawyers who are
ready, willing and able to participate in all aspects of public
life including service as members of the executive, legislative and
judicial branches of government. The third of these goals is to
inculcate in every student a deep respect for the rule of law and
for the legal system, so that all students may serve as community
role models whether or not they choose the practice of law, the
teaching of law or public service.
The School of Law is an integral part of St. John’s University,
founded in 1870 by the Vincentian Community at the invitation of
the first Bishop of Brooklyn, John Loughlin, “for the purposes of
opening a day college where the youth of the city might find the
advantages of a solid education and where their minds might receive
the moral training necessary to maintain the credit of
Catholicity.” Non-Catholics were welcome, for Governor E. Louis
Lowe of Maryland, at the groundbreaking in 1868, hailed this
“college for the education of . . . youth. . . without distinction
of religious belief, political opinion, or social condition . . .”
Today, St. John’s continues to adhere to the purposes of its
founders as evidenced in its Mission Statement.