The Law School welcomed 204 first-year students on August 15. Members of the Class of 2008 were selected from 4,116 applicants. This amounts to 20 applicants for each of the 200 first-year seats.

     Class members possess a wealth of backgrounds and talents.

     More than half have full-time work experience. They have worked at law firms (as paralegals, legal assistants, office managers and project assistants), for the government (as a constituent services assistant, Special Assistant to the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Commerce and Trade, analyst in the U.S. Census Bureau, and research assistant in the Department of Justice), and in a wide variety of other fields.  Their numbers include, for example, an auditor and corporate accountant, a news reporter, a software engineer and technician, an associate producer for Fox Sports, a USA Today copy editor, a naval architect and a college math instructor.

     Fourteen are members of the U.S. military, including two each from the Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy and six from the Army. Six are attending law school under the auspices of the prestigious Funded Legal Education Program.

     Class members have played just about every sport at the collegiate level. In addition, many also have considerable musical and artistic talents. Their ranks include musicians, singers, dancers, a playwright and a former director of a theater company. Forty-eight have studied abroad.

     Many show promise as citizen lawyers as evidenced by their participation as volunteers for a wide range of organizations, such as, for example, Ronald McDonald House, Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Clubs, the Humane Society, and Meals on Wheels.

     In addition to the Class of 2008 J.D. candidates, 11 students have come to William & Mary for one year of study in the American Legal System Program as LL.M. degree candidates. They hail from China, England, Kazakhstan, Korea, and Uzbekistan.