These include the current Chief Justice of Canada Richard Wagner, and deans of several law schools.

[2] The faculty is very highly rated and maintains close links with the legal communities in Quebec, Ontario, and abroad.

[3] The law school was established in 1953 on the initiative of Gerald Fauteux, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

It began as an exclusively civil law faculty, designed to train lawyers who would enter the Quebec legal system, particularly in order to practice in the Outaouais region just across the Ottawa River.

During the 2006 fall semester, then-University of Ottawa president Gilles Patry announced that Fauteux Hall would undergo extensive renovations in 2009.

Construction of the Ian G. Scott Courtroom, a fully functional courtroom where sitting judges hear regular cases, was also completed in the Brooks Building, which is across the street from the main Faculty of Law building and houses extra classrooms, offices, and spaces for the Faculty of Law's various centres.

Successful applicants generally have an A− (3.70) undergraduate grade point average and a competitive LSAT score.

[7] The program also requires a personal statement and two reference letters, and claims to use a holistic admissions approach, taking into account a variety of factors including work experience, prior education, and other exceptional circumstances.

The French-language common law program, including the Programme de droit canadien, received 185 applications in 2019, of which 80 were admitted.

[9] In the Civil Law Section, which teaches the legal tradition practised in Quebec, applicants need only have obtained a Diploma of Collegial Studies (DEC) before applying.

In that evaluation, Ottawa's common law program was ranked 10th overall in Canada, scoring particularly well (3rd overall) in the category for Supreme Court clerkships.