About UF Law
UF Law Facilities Expansion and Renovation
Thanks to support from Levin College of Law alumni and friends, UF law faculty, staff and students now enjoy a legal learning setting second to none. The Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center is named in honor of the late 1955 UF law graduate, Florida governor and U.S. senator, and is the largest academic law library in the Southeast and among the top 20 of more than 180 such facilities in the U.S. in terms of space.
Located on the wooded western border of the UF campus, the law school is housed in state-of-the-art facilities that include a greatly expanded library and two new education towers with modern, comfortable classrooms, including the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom, which seats up to 160 for conferences, receptions and special sessions. Most classrooms offer technology such as wireless Internet access, outlets for laptop computers, and "smart podia" for presentations. Faculty members easily incorporate web-based or multi-media instruction into the classroom.
Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center
Renovating and expanding the college's library was the heart of a $25 million construction project completed in Summer 2005. Blending the tradition of the past with the technology of the future, the library offers rare books and historic displays alongside high speed data ports and ergonomic study areas.
The library is headed by Kathleen Price, former Law Librarian of Congress and director of law libraries at New York, Duke and Minnesota universities and now the Clarence J. TeSelle Professor of Law and associate dean for library and technology at UF.
As the laboratory and social heart of the law school, the Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center houses more than 600,000 volumes in open stack displays. Students also have access to 3.5 million-plus volumes in UF libraries and 43 million titles held by libraries throughout the world as well as databases that provide access to federal and state laws, periodicals, news articles and background materials. The information is accessible in all formats, with staff able to deliver it to the desktops of faculty and students. Features of the 100,000 square-foot library include:
- An archway that replicates the entrance to Bryan Hall, home to the UF law school from 1914-1969, and opens up to the spacious Stephen C. O'Connell Supreme Court Reading Room, named for the first UF law alumnus to serve as president of the University of Florida. The room offers leather arm chairs and floor-to ceiling views of azaleas and moss-draped oak trees.
- An open reserve area that gives students direct access to exams and study aids.
- Special facilties for tax students, including the Richard B. Stephens Tax Research Center - named for the co founder and first director of the school's nationally prominent Graduate Tax Program - 70 designated study carrels, a graduate lounge, meeting room, and offices for the Florida Tax Review.
- More than 300 individual study carrels equipped for wireless computer usage, with playback carrels available for review of taped classes, negotiations and trial skills.
- Seating for another 300 students throughout the facilities.
- Thirteen conference rooms that hold up to a dozen students for team study and research.
- A dedicated classroom for training students in new research databases and other computer instruction.
- A student production lab and faculty instructional technology lab for state-of-the-art media use.
- Displays of faculty writings and special collections in a paneled rare book room.
- A meditation/lactation room that recognizes personal needs of a diverse student body.