Portia School of Law The Portia School of Law started informally in 1908 when Arthur W. MacLean (1880–1943), a graduate of the
Boston University School of Law and a professor at
Suffolk University Law School, agreed to tutor two young women who were studying for the
Massachusetts bar examination. At the time, few options were available to women seeking a legal education in New England. Soon afterwards, MacLean rented space at 88
Tremont Street, began admitting students, and took on a second faculty member. MacLean's wife, Bertha, named the school after the character Portia in Shakespeare's
The Merchant of Venice. In the play, Portia disguises herself as a young man and impersonates a judge; she also ruins Shylock, the moneylender. The Portia School of Law was the only law school in the country exclusively for women. The school was incorporated in 1918. By this time it had 91 students. The following year, the Massachusetts legislature granted the school the power to confer the degree of
Bachelor of Laws (LL.B), and the school was reincorporated as the Portia Law School. In 1920 the school awarded its first LL.B degrees to 39 women. The former site of the Portia Law School at 45 Mount Vernon Street is a stop on the
Boston Women's Heritage Trail. As the school entered the 1950s it saw its student body shift from a student body that had a majority female population to a predominantly male student body. 1963 saw Portia Law School begin the process of applying for
American Bar Association accreditation, As New England Law neared its 75th anniversary, new programs were started, the first was the creation of
Law Day in 1970 and then the opening of its clinical law services office in 1971. The clinical law services program is performed by the law students providing representation to those who did not have the economic means to seek paid legal assistance. New England Law also became a co-founder of the Consortium for Innovative Legal Education; which allows students to study abroad at countries throughout the world. In 2002, New England Law expanded its campus by buying adjacent buildings around the schools current location. In December 2020, long-time president John F. O'Brien stepped down and former United States Senator from Massachusetts and
U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand,
Scott P. Brown, was named the new president and dean of the school. Brown resigned in August 2021, citing a difference of vision from that of the board of directors. In January 2022, The Board of Trustees of New England Law Boston selected long-time professor Lisa R. Freudenheim to lead the law school as its next dean. ==Campus==