According to Vanderbilt Law School's 2020 ABA-required disclosures, 84.44% of the Class of 2020 obtained full-time, long-term, bar examination passage-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo practitioners.

The law school offered a two-year departmental program, and changed locations between downtown Nashville and the Vanderbilt campus.

By 1941, it had expanded into the old chapel area of Kirkland Hall on the Vanderbilt campus, but faced very limited enrollment during World War II.

Facing overcrowding, in 1962, it moved out of Kirkland Hall and into a dedicated law school building on 21st Avenue South, where it is still located.

Since then, VLS has undergone a series of renovations and expansion, notably including a $24 million upgrade under then-dean Kent D. Syverud completed in 2002.

At this point, Vanderbilt had greatly solidified its regional prestige and was well on its way to aggressively developing a national reputation.

During Dean Rubin's tenure, Vanderbilt Law School significantly developed its Litigation & Dispute and Resolution Program (resulting from a $2.9 million endowment donation), established or formalized a number of academic programs, and increased its reputation in the field of Law and Economics by establishing a Ph.D.

In 2005, the Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution Program received a $2.9 million endowment through a cy pres settlement of a class action lawsuit.

[citation needed] The program, which is directed by economists W. Kip Viscusi and Joni Hersch, admitted its first class in fall 2007 and graduated its first student, Jennifer Bennett Shinall, in 2012.

[16] According to Vanderbilt Law School's official 2013 ABA-required disclosures, 85.9% of the Class of 2013 obtained full-time, long-term, bar passage-required employment nine months after graduation, excluding solo-practitioners.

[19] In 2017 and in 2018, recent Vanderbilt Law graduates have clerked for Justices Clarence Thomas[20] and Sonia Sotomayor[21] of the Supreme Court of the United States, respectively.