George Mason University School of Law was authorized by the Virginia General Assembly in March 1979 and was founded on July 1, 1979.

[5][6] In 1973, it moved into the home of former United States Chief Justice Edward Douglass White on Rhode Island Avenue, and in 1975 purchased the old Kann's Department Store in Arlington.

[7] In 1978, the Virginia State Council of Education denied GMU's proposal to start a law school and encouraged a merger with ISL instead.

[12] In 2016, the school received $30 million to rename itself for Antonin Scalia, the late United States Supreme Court justice.

[17] In 2019, the law school received a gift of $50 million, the largest ever received by the university, from the estate of Allison and Dorothy Rouse to "fund a chair or chairs that will promote the conservative principles of governance, statesmanship, high morals, civil and religious freedom and the study of the United States Constitution".

[23] In addition, the school offers in-residence and online LLMs that specialize in subjects such as cybersecurity, global antitrust, and intellectual property.

[24] In 2024, U.S. News & World Report ranked the George Mason University School of Law (Scalia) at 28th in the United States.

[28] The George Mason Law Library has a collection of electronic and print materials providing access to legal treatises, journals, and databases.

[2][3] In addition, the school is known for tilting towards conservative principles, a perception that increased with the renaming in 2016 to honor U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a constitutional originalist.

[38][2][3] A 2023 New York Times report detailed the school's effort to cultivate ties to the Republican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court justices.