District of Columbia -- Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America -- Accreditation: Full ABA -- Year Founded: 1897

The Columbus School of Law is the law school of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1897. Its name comes from ties to The Knights of Columbus. The law school was ranked 88th in the US News & World Report's annual "Best Graduate Schools" edition for 2008 and is consistently ranked within the nation's top 100 law schools. Professor Veryl Miles was elevated to dean of the law school in August, 2005. The school enjoys an exclusive exchange program with Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland.



The Catholic University of America, founded in 1887 by the U.S. Catholic bishops with the support of Pope Leo XIII, is the national university of the Catholic Church in the United States. Established as a graduate research center, the university began offering undergraduate education in 1904 and today is home to 12 schools and 21 research facilities. Catholic University is the only American university with ecclesiastical faculties granting canonical degrees in three disciplines.

The university’s verdant 193-acre campus, located just north of Capitol Hill, allows students easy access to the wide range of educational, cultural and political opportunities that Washington, D.C. has to offer.

The Columbus School of Law is home to a number of highly regarded institutes and special programs, including the Securities Law Program, the Institute for Communications Law Studies, the Comparative and International Law Institute, the Interdisciplinary Program on Law and Religion and the Law and Public Policy Program.

Its pioneering externship program has served as a model for many law schools across the nation. Columbus School of Law faculty members wrote the first and only textbook on externships in use today. The law school's legal clinic, Columbus Community Legal Services, is consistently ranked among the top dozen in the nation.

General Contact Information

The Catholic University of America
620 Michigan Ave., N.E.
Washington, DC 20064

Phone: 202-319-5000
www.cua.edu