At Jefferson's urging, the governing board of visitors of William & Mary established a chair of law and appointed George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, and Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, its first holder.

Before filling the chair of law at William & Mary, Wythe tutored numerous students in the subject, including Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe.

John Marshall, who became Chief Justice of the United States in 1801, received his only formal legal education when he attended Wythe's lectures at William & Mary in 1780.

After William & Mary Law School was reopened early in the twentieth century (1921), it was moved around the main campus of the university to several different buildings in succession.

The former chancellor of William & Mary, Sandra Day O'Connor, delivered commencement remarks to the graduating class of the school in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

[8] According to William & Mary's official 2022 ABA-required disclosures, 92% of the Class of 2022 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD-advantaged, non-school funded employment nine months after graduation.