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“One of the most amazing things, the first day of the first class I was to teach in law school. The course was, I believe, constitutional law. And it was because the law school was scattered out over buildings in the old campus. It was in the basement of Washington Hall. I arrived and there's no one there. I had misjudged the time of the class, so I... I missed my first class, which was not a very auspicious beginning, I must say. And especially if you knew Dean Whyte, there would be consequences for that sort of delinquency. But I got past it and went on from there. The first year was, you know that phrase drinking from a firehose? That’s what I did.” -- Tim Sullivan, Dean and President Emeritus, on joining the law school faculty
"Marshall-Wythe Hall circa 1970." Wolf Law Library Archives, PH.2006.001
Before moving to its current location on South Henry St in 1980, the Law School was housed on main campus in Marshall-Wythe Hall (pictured). To accommodate its growing size, the Law School held classes in various other places around campus as well. When Timothy Sullivan joined the law faculty in 1972, his first class assignment was in the basement of Washington Hall. After getting the time wrong and missing his first class, Sullivan said he then spent weeks contemplating what future, if any, he might have here. Ironically, Sullivan’s future at W&M included becoming Dean of the Law School and, later, President of the College.