Goals of the School

Tradition: The Forensic Club

The Charleston School of Law is rooted in tradition. In fact, its origins predate the formation of the oldest law school in the country.

In 1825, a group of Charleston attorneys chartered The Forensic Club, a place to provide lectures on the law.

In February 1826, The Forensic Club offered lectures in the law to begin what essentially was the South's earliest law school.

This 19th-century tradition of law continues today through the Charleston School of Law, which has been assigned an interest in the original Forensic Club.

The overriding goals of the Charleston School of Law are:

To teach students of high moral character and unquestioned personal integrity through a careful and refined study program;
To teach the practice of law as a profession, having as its chief aim providing public service;
To teach the law as a means of providing relief for those who suffer because they are helpless, weak, outnumbered, or because they are victims of prejudice;
To teach the law as a means of alleviating human misery and human suffering;
To teach the law as a means of making possible the continued processes of manufacture and commerce that bring realization to the twin goals of prosperity and peace in the world;
To institute and coordinate legal outreach programs to the South Carolina and American Bars, local, state, and federal governments, as well as to the general population; and
To encourage and foster legal reforms.

Additional goals

This entails additional goals of graduating students who will be successful in Bar passage, recruiting and retaining highly qualified and effective faculty, providing a law library that meets the needs of our educational program, and developing and maintaining technological capabilities reflective of the educational and professional needs of the legal field.

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