Wayne State University Law School

01 / The story of this place

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The school opened in 1927 as Detroit City Law School, part of the City Colleges of Detroit, and earned full accreditation from the American Bar Association in 1939; it became Wayne State University Law School once the university took its current name in 1956. Cora Brown, who had already broken barriers as one of Detroit's first Black policewomen, studied law here from 1946 to 1948 and passed the state bar right after, a few years before she became the first Black woman elected to a state senate anywhere in the country. Bill Davidson, who later built Guardian Industries into a glass-making giant and owned the Detroit Pistons, earned his law degree here in 1949. Decades later Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans and Rocket Mortgage, studied law at the school in the 1980s and gave it a five-million-dollar gift in 2016. Jocelyn Benson, now Michigan's Secretary of State, taught here starting in 2005 and served as dean from 2012 to 2016.

1. Founded 1927 as Detroit City Law School
2. Cora Brown studied here, 1946–1948, before becoming the first Black woman elected to a U.S. state senate
3. Bill Davidson earned his law degree here in 1949
4. Dan Gilbert studied law here in the 1980s, later gave the school $5 million (2016)
5. Jocelyn Benson taught here from 2005 and was dean from 2012 to 2016