ALBANY LAW SCHOOL

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ALBANY LAW SCHOOL
FOUNDED APRIL 17, 1851.
FIRST CLASSES HELD HERE IN
EXCHANGE BUILDING. ONE OF
THE OLDEST INDEPENDENT
LAW SCHOOLS IN AMERICA.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2026

On April 17, 1851, the New York State Legislature passed an act to incorporate the University of Albany (Chapter 199). The act granted the Trustees the power to create departments of medicine, law, and any others they deemed necessary. The first classes for the new law school were held later that same year in the Albany Exchange Bank building, on the third floor. The initial classes were small with around 23 students in the first year. Classes were held here temporarily, as the nearby Albany Medical College offered space on their campus to be used for lectures a few years later.

The first years of the school were challenging, with little funding and no permanent space. Professors and Trustees of the school were known to personally fund the students lodging and expenses. In 1873 the school’s Trustees elected to join as part of Union University as it was formed along with Union College and Albany Medical College.

In November 1879, the law school purchased its own building to the northwest, further up State Street, in the block between S. Swan and Dove Streets. The school remained there until it moved a second time in 1929 to a location on New Scotland Avenue a few blocks west, where it still resides as of 2026. The school grew steadily, enrolling between 600-700 students as of 2026. It is technically still part of Union University, but operates independently with its own governing board. It is one of the nation’s oldest independent schools of law.