Publication
Minnesota Law Review
Volume
62
Page
1161
Year
1978
Abstract
The first two articles in this series described the development of the University of MinnesotaLaw School under Deans William S. Pattee' and William Reynolds Vance.2 Dean Pattee had provided thesteady andaccommodatingleadershipneeded to lay theground- work for the years of ascendancy under Dean Vance. During his eight-year tenure at Minnesota, the most important of the many improvements Dean Vance had made was in the quality of the fac- ulty. Withatalentforrecognizingtheearlymanifestationsofscho- lastic excellence, Vance had attracted to the law school professors who developed into some of the leading scholars of their day. The work of Vance and these professorsmade the stillyoung schoolinto one of the country's finest, but it alsoattractedthe attention of other fine institutions.The subsequent loss of these men and of the Dean who had attractedthem in the faculty raids by Yale University in the late teens imperiled the advances that had been made and caused many to fear that the school was headed toward an early demise. Yet, surprisingly, the school's reputation during the next several decades continued to advance. Vance's resignationsignaled not the end of an era of success but simply another stage in the school's continuingpursuitof excellence.
Recommended Citation
Robert Stein, In Pursuit of Excellence -- A History of the University of Minnesota Law School, Part III: The Fraser Years -- A Time of Excellence and Innovation, 62 Minn. L. Rev. 1161 (1978), available at https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_articles/434.
