Lawyers' Quadrangle, published in 1931 when the William W. Cook Legal Research Library was completed; Dedicatory Exercises, Law Quadrangle at the University of Michigan, a book of illustrations published in 1934; and Law Quadrangle, 1934, containing the notable addresses at the dedicatory exercises after Hutchins Hall was finished.
The Michigan Law Review. — Increasingly in recent years the most valuable contributions to the law and its procedure have been made by scholarly studies which have been published as articles in legal journals. The demand for suitable vehicles for bringing such studies to public attention has been met to a large extent by law journals supported by the law schools. The Harvard Law Review appeared in 1887, the Yale Law Journal in 1891, the Columbia Law Review in 1901, and the Michigan Law Review in 1902. The last-named was under the editorship of the late Floyd Russell Mechem (A.M. hon. '94, LL.D. '12), Professor of Law, and the author of notable standard texts on various subjects of the law. He was assisted by the members of the law faculty and by ten students from the third-year class who acted as editorial assistants. The purpose was to give expression to the legal scholarship of the University and to serve the profession and the public by timely discussion of legal problems and by noting important developments in the field of jurisprudence.
The Review was made up of leading articles, comment on important cases and interesting legal subjects, notes on recent cases, and reviews of books and legal literature. The aim was to be practical and scholarly, and not so academic as to be out of touch with the legal profession. The Law Review has been edited, in turn, by Professors Mechem, Brewster, Holbrook, Drake, Stoner, Aigler, Waite, and Shartel. Student editors chosen from the third-year classes on the basis of scholarship and proved aptitude for the work have written the comments and notes. The leading articles have been furnished not only by members of the faculty but also by law teachers from other schools and by scholars who are practicing lawyers, judges, and experts in various legal fields. Student editors have not infrequently produced work of such value as to be published as leading articles. More and more the contributions to the Review have been studied by lawyers and cited by judges. They have done much to lend impetus to the widespread present-day movements for the improvement of the law and of its practice and procedure.
Founder's Day. — Each year since the completion of the first unit of the William W. Cook Quadrangle, the Law School (in Mr. Cook's honor) has set aside a day in April as Founder's Day. To the exercises of this day members of the bar are invited as guests. In the afternoon the final argument in the case club contest for the Henry M. Campbell case club award is the chief feature. In the evening a dinner in the dining hall of the Lawyers Club is attended by students and large numbers of lawyers, most of whom are alumni of the Law School. The dinner is followed by an address on some legal subject by a distinguished member of the bench or bar.
Legal research. — Although research in law has always been an important field of work for members of the Law School faculty, the first definite and formal proposal to provide means for the systematic development of legal research was made in a letter to the Board of Regents, dated April 25, 1922, by a then anonymous donor who later was revealed as William W. Cook.
In that letter Mr. Cook stated that he proposed to erect a building to be known as the Lawyers Club. He said, further:
