Lewis, William Draper, 1867-1949

William Draper Lewis was born in Philadelphia in 1867. In 1891 he received both a law degree and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He lectured in economics at Haverford College from 1890 to 1896, while also assuming the role of instructor in legal history at the Wharton School in 1891. In 1896 Lewis joined the law department at the University of Pennsylvania as dean of the school and professor of law. Under Lewis' leadership the law school flourished as he recruited new faculty, broadened the curriculum, and strengthened the library's collections. He also raised enough money to move the school ourt of the criminal court buildings in Independence Square and into its own facility and current West Philadelphia location near the rest of the University. Lewis served as Dean until 1914, and remained on the faculty until 1924. In 1923 Lewis became the founding director of the American Law Institute (ALI). The ALI had been conceived by a committee of distinguished lawyers, judges, and legal scholars, among them Elihu Root, George Woodward Wickersham, Harlan Fiske Stone, and Benjamin Nathan Cardozo. The ALI sought to combine the resources of all branches of the profession to produce a massive restatement of the common law. Under Lewis' directorship the ALI completed its first Restatement of the Law. Lewis served as director of the ALI until ill health forced his retirement in 1947. In addition to his teaching responsibilities and stewarship of the ALI, Lewis produced a number of scholarly works including his own edition of Blackstone's Commentaries (1897), casebooks on various topics, and an eight volume collection of essays on Great American Lawyers (1907-1909). With George Warton Pepper he prepared a twenty-three volume Digest of Decisions and Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Law, 1754-1898 (1898-1906). He also served as editor of the American law register. As a family man, educator, administrator, director, and political aspirant (an unsucessful candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania in the Bull Moose Party), Lewis inspired respect and deep affection in those around him. His earnestness, diligence and his warm personality were often mentioned by his colleagues as historically significant factors in the success of his professional projects. Lewis died after a long illness in 1949.

Scholar, law school dean, lawyer and politician; B.S., Haverford College, (1888), LL.B., Ph.D. and LL.D., U. of Pennsylvania, (1891 and hon-1926); faculty, Law School, U. of Pennsylvania (1896-1924) and dean, (1896-1914); chairman, platform committee, national Progressive Party (1912 and 1916); a founder and the director, American Law Institute (1923-1947); notable for his leadership in instituting revolutionary academic, organizational and physical facility improvements during his incumbency which brought the Law School into the first rank of such institutions in the U.S.; regarded as a pioneer in legal research in U.S. and for his scholarly contributions to the American Law Institute restatements of the common law, an authoritative compendium of American common law as it had developed under the decisions of American courts.