Thomas Jefferson felt aspiring lawyers should be trained in a university amid the liberal arts to become leaders of their communities, states and nation. Educating new lawyers to be both skilled practitioners of law and servants of the public interest--educating citizen lawyers was Jefferson's goal when he persuaded the College of William & Mary to establish the first American law school in December 1779. Legal training began at the College in January 1780 under the direction of George Wythe, a renowned lawyer and legal scholar and Jefferson's own beloved law teacher. Over the course of his career, Wythe served in all three branches of Virginia's government and was at the forefront of the Revolutionary Generation. He was a member of the Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a framer of the United States Constitution. As a law teacher, Wythe educated an extrordinary number of American leaders including John Marshall the great chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. George Wythe, under whose leadership William & Mary's law school began, epitomized the citizen lawyer.

To this day, we vigorously pursue Jefferson's and Wythe's original intent for William & Mary Law School, that it educate good citizens and leaders for the public interest. In the Fall of 2005, we began a new program called the George Wythe Society of Citizen Lawyers, which focuses squarely on constructive citizenship. The program's participants receive an orientation to the ancient College of William & Mary, the City of Williamsburg, the history of citizen lawyers in nearby Colonial Williamsburg, and the civic, legal and service framework of these communities. They take a course in constructive citizenship and put thought into action through community service projects. They also participate in conferences at the Law School on citizen lawyers, and as third-year law students they help mentor the incoming class. In short, the George Wythe Society of Citizen Lawyers is an important force for giving concrete meaning in the 21st century to the original intent that Thomas Jefferson and George Wythe had for the William & Mary Law School at its creation.