Robert Reynold Merhige Jr.

Richmond is fortunate to have a wonderful faculty, a diverse group of superb lawyer-educators who pursue with genuine zeal their multi-faceted roles as teachers, researchers and civic servants. Our mission at Richmond is far more ambitious than the graduation of students able to pass a bar exam. Our mission is to instill in students the values that will help them lead good and meaningful lives and to inspire students to live lives guided by the highest traditions and aspirations of our profession.

Virginia is justly famous for its collegial environment that bonds students and faculty, and student satisfaction is consistently cited as among the highest in American law schools. Intellectual challenges are met in a spirit of cooperation. Small first-year sections promote individual inquiry while providing support and friendship. Students learn together, reading each other's work and freely sharing course outlines and other materials, confidently relying on the nation's oldest student-run Honor System to maintain the highest ethical standards.