Yale Law School was established in 1824. The school's prestige and small size make its admissions process among the most selective of any United States law school. Yale has been ranked number one in the country by U.S. News and World Report in every year in which the magazine has published law school rankings.

The Yale Law School traces its origins to the earliest days of the 19th century, when law was learned by clerking as an apprentice in a lawyer's office. The first law schools, including the one that became Yale, developed out of this apprenticeship system and grew up inside law offices. The future Yale Law School formed in the office of New Haven lawyer Seth Staples, who owned an exceptional library (an attraction for students at a time when law books were scarce) and began training apprentices in the early 1800s.

The institution is known for its scholarly orientation; a relatively large number of its graduates choose careers in academia within five years of graduation，while a relatively low number choose to work in law firms. Another feature of Yale Law School's culture since the 1930s，among both faculty and student graduates, has been an emphasis on the importance of spending at least a few years in government service. Its 7.5-student-to-faculty ratio is the lowest among U.S. law schools.

Yale Law School does not have a traditional grading system. Instead, it grades first-semester first-year students on a simple Credit/No Credit system. For their remaining two and a half years，students are graded on an Honors/Pass/Low Pass/Fail system. Similarly, the school does not officially rank its students. It is also notable for having only a single semester of required classes, instead of the full year most U.S. schools require. Unusually, Yale Law allows first-year students to represent clients through one of its numerous clinics; other law schools typically offer this opportunity only to second- and third-year students.

Yale Law School is unique among law schools in that it produces leaders in all walks of life: distinguished deans and faculty members at law schools across the country and the world; industry CEOs and corporate counsels; founders of nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofit entities; entrepreneurs; government servants in federal, state, and local offices and the judiciary-just a few areas in which our alumni's talent and passion and dedication have made a difference. Among the School's graduates are U.S. Presidents and Supreme Court Justices.