University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. School of Law.

The university established its first professorship of law in 1845. By 1894 the School of Law had become a fully integrated part of the university, and students who completed a prescribed program received the LL.B. degree. Between 1902 and 1908 the School was called the Law Department; thereafter its name reverted to School of Law.

On 12 December 1842, the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees authorized the establishment of a Law Professorship, and on 3 October 1845, Judge William Horn Battle was selected to fill that position as head of the university's Law Department. In 1843, Battle had opened a private law school in Chapel Hill, and from 1845 through January 1879, he taught the university's College Class as well as his Independent Class in the school. Battle's salary was provided from the tuition paid by his law students. University President Kemp Plummer Battle succeeded his father as Professor of Law in 1879 and served until 1881, when John Manning was elected to fill the professorship. Manning was successful in securing an Assistant Professorship for the department in 1898. In August 1899, the Board of Trustees resolved to fully incorporate the Law Department into the university as the School of Law, and James Cameron MacRae was chosen as Dean and Professor of Law.

Before 1907 the department/school was housed in various campus buildings. In 1907, with the removal of the Library to new quarters, Smith Hall became the home of the School of Law. In 1923, the school moved to the recently completed Manning Hall, which it occupied until 1968, when Van Hecke-Wettach Hall was completed.

For a more detailed history of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, see Robert H. Wettach, editor, A Century of Legal Education (Chapel Hill, 1947), as well as the Board of Trustee Minutes, President's Records, Chancellor's Records, Provost's Records, and the University of North Carolina Papers in the University Archives.