The three-year law degree began at Harvard in the 1870s

Evidence

Today, law school training takes, almost universally, three years. In 1850, the standard in many law schools was a course of study that lasted a single year. Later in the century, a two-​year program became more popular. The three-​year LLB. was a late innovation, which began at Harvard, during the deanship of Christopher Columbus Langdell; Boston University then adopted this program as well. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3495

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds the later chapter 46 discussion of weakening bar preparation and training standards in the nineteenth century.