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A Message from the Dean of Admissions

Photo of Nkonye Iwerebon, Dean of AdmissionsWelcome to the Columbia Law School community. We appreciate your interest in our Law School and look forward to assisting you as you plan your legal career. Columbia is a very special place to pursue a legal education; I would like to share three factors that make it a privilege for me to have attended and, now, work at the Law School—they are the exceptional legal training we provide, our remarkable students, and our incomparable location.

Throughout its storied history, Columbia Law School has remained committed to the pursuit of excellence and its command of academic vitality. Columbia offers a challenging, yet supportive environment where theory and practice converge; where coursework is both vast in scope and substantive in depth; where teaching by renowned scholars is the very cornerstone of the academic experience; and where opportunities to become immersed in the legal intricacies affecting our local neighborhood or the far reaches of the globe abound equally.

Our students are the perfect complement (and, perhaps, compliment) to our esteemed faculty—they are bright, engaged, and widely talented. Their varied backgrounds are the veritable hallmark of our Law School’s institutional character. Though the nature of each student’s journey to Columbia tends to be unique, more important is the genuine sense of community that is engendered on our campus from the moment our entering classes arrive in the fall. Equipped with the shared goals of engaging in superior legal scholarship and training, while also developing close friendships and professional relationships along the way, our students pride themselves on the reciprocal, dynamic process of learning from one another.

The Law School campus provides a comfortable and lively atmosphere for students, faculty, and administrators alike. But the larger campus extends beyond the immediate environs of Columbia to the broader setting of New York City—the international center of both public service and private interests. What an incredible opportunity to have the United Nations, Wall Street, Harlem, Broadway, and Greenwich Village as a backdrop for learning.

We invite you to learn more about our Law School by perusing our website, creating a personalized "My Columbia" Law School account, and, if you are able, touring our campus, attending classes, talking to our students, and attending one of our admission seminars, offered throughout the fall and early winter.

As you complete our application, I encourage you to also use this process as an opportunity to learn something about yourself—your strengths, your character, your ideals; you might even surprise yourself! We look forward to hearing from you.

Warm wishes,

Nkonye Iwerebon ’93
Dean of Admissions