It Started in a Basement•••

The Justinian Volume 1977 Article 1 Issue 1 March 1977 The uJ stinian Follow this and additional works at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/justinian Recommended Citation (1977) "The usJ tinian," The Justinian: Vol. 1977 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/justinian/vol1977/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Collections at BrooklynWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in The usJ tinian by an authorized editor of BrooklynWorks. et al.: The Justinian JUSTINIAN extends its appreciation to the Local History Department at St. Francis College and the Brooklyn Public Library for their assistance in the preparation of this ~U!ittutau issue. VOL. XXXVII ~222 TUESDAY. MARCH 29. 1977 NO.7 It Started In A Basement • • • By MARCIA KNIGIN autonomous institution for the of the courses they felt should Appeals. By fall semester Dean first time. After disassociating be taught. Richardson then tore J erome Prince and Professor Brooklyn Law School began with the Heffley School, Brook the list in half and said to Milton Gershenson, then stu in 1901 as a department of the lyn Law School moved to the Easterday, "You teach these and dents at BLS, were both on the Heffley School of Business. third floor of a brownstone at I'll teach the rest." Unfortun Review. Dean William Payson Richard 187 Montague Street. The li ately, neither Easterday nor In 1943 St. Lawrence was be son, the first Dean of BLS, met brar y was situated in a bedroom Richardson felt equipped to sieged by financial difficulty and Norman P . Heffley, a New York measuring only 96 square feet. teach New York Practice since decided to sell the law school. businessman, at a convention Two classrooms were set up in they were both unfamiliar with Justice William Carswell, then a in Providence, R.I. Richardson larger front and rear bedrooms. New York Law. So they hired member of the Board of Trus had written a textbook on com A shingle hung from the window ano ther faculty member to teach tees of BLS, violently opposed mercial law, which had im announcing to the community the course. this action. He negotiated a sep pressed Heffley, and when they that Brooklyn Law School was Another Move aration between BLS and St. met, Heffley asked Richardson located there. Lawrence. Although Carswell In 1928 the school again if he would be interested in University Affiliation saved the school, this separa moved, this time to 375 Pearl starting a law school in Brook By 1903 the first class was tion left BLS with virtually no Street. This was the first build lyn. Heffley said he had been about to graduate. They were funds. In 1945 Dean William ing built specifically fo r Brook considering the idea for a while concerned about their fate in Payson Richardson died, and lyn Law School. The build and thought such a school would light of the fact that BLS had Carswell, still a sitting judge of ing still stands on Pearl be highly successful since there no degree - conferring power. the Appellate Division was ap Street bet wee n Willoughby were no other law schools in Richardson searched the state pointed Dean. Jerome Prince, Street and Myrtle Avenue and Brooklyn at the time. for a university that would be now Dean Emeritus, was ap NORMAN P. HEFFLEY was presently houses the Brooklyn Heffley became the President willing to affiliate with a brand pointed Vice Dean and later As a founder of Brooklyn Law Friends School. The building of the Board of Trustees and new law school. He learned that sociate Dean, and virtually ran School. He was born in Ber· when owned by BLS was called Richardson became the Dean. St. Lawrence University in Can the school while Carswell at lin. Pa. in 1854 and worked Richardson Hall, named after the In 1901 the first classes were ton, N.Y., had had a law school, tended to his duties in the for Standard Oil Co. from Dean. The library was consider held in the basement of the but it had been closed down. The Appellate Division. Prince set 1878-1889 until he assumed ed large at the time with 50,000 Heffley School building at 243 Dean negotiated with St. Law up a refresher course for charge of Pratt Institute. The volumes of reference books. (Our Ryerson Street. There were sev rence and entered into a contract veterans to attract business Heffley School. which started present library has over 120,000 en students in the first year of association between St. Law from those returning from the BLS in 1901. itself began as volumes.) class, one of whom was Francis rence and Brooklyn L aw School the commerce department of war. Prince and one other pro Wh en the United States enter X. Carmody, co-author of the which provided that Brooklyn Pratt Institute. In 1895 Hef· fessor taught all the courses for ed World War II in 1941, the Carmody-Wait treatise in New Law School students would be fley disassociated from Pratt virtually no salary, and funds school was practically decimat York Practice, who later became granted degrees from St. Law and set up his own school. collected in tuition served to get ed. There was a time during a member of the BLS faculty. rence University. which still exisfs as a secre the institution through the that period when there were The tuition was $80 a year, and In 1904 BLS again moved its tarial school on Montague financial crisis. only 30 students and three full a college degree was not a re headquarters to the Brooklyn Street in Brooklyn. Since its inception, Heffley quirement for admission. Candi Eagle Building on Washington time professors in the entire and Richardson owned the dates were required to pursue a and J ohnson Streets, the pres school, contrasted with a stu school as a proprietorship. Soon three-year course of study for ent site of the Surrogate's Brooklyn Eagle newspaper. dent body of over 1,500 before after its separation from St. admission to the Bar. The re Court. This building, one of the In that year Richardson con the war began . Lawrence, BLS became a non quirement could be fulfilled by most famous in Brooklyn, has tacted a fellow alumnus from The Justinian was first pub profit institution. Professor Rich attending classes or by work in sin ce been demolished. It housed the University of Maryland law lished in 1931. Law Review be ard J . Maloney became the a law office. College graduates BLS on the third, fourth and school, John Howar d Easterday, gan the following year. The first school's counsel when he drafted needed only to fill a two-year fifth floo rs for fourteen years. to help teach the subjects BLS volume was dedicated to B enja the agreement for the purchase requirement. The remaining floors were oc was to offer. The two men sat mi n Cardozo, then Chief Judge of th e BLS stock from Richard- In 1902 the school became an cupied by others, including the down and wrote a horizontal list of the New York State Court of (C01ltimted on Page 4) Jerome Prince: A legend Early BL S Ads By JOYCE BALABAN DAVID He worked at all sorts of menial mother was an incredibly jobs including in a gas station. charming, delightful woman, When you think of Dean Jer . .. While he was in law school very bright, and she was some H EFFLEY SCHOOL, ome Prince, you think of Brook he was working for an insur what active politically, in h er lyn Law School. He is Mr. BLS. ance company. area, bu t they were very poor. 243t 245 Ryerson Street, Brooklyn. His friends, colleagues, students "He came from a poor family, and former students all speak of "There were four brothers. a poor background. They lived him with the highest respect J erry had an older brother and Bookkeepi ng; Stenography, in Washington Heights. His and affection. there were two younger brothers. Typewriting, Preparatory, Dean Prince and his brother Ira Belfer, of Belfer and Bo Harold wrote mystery stories. High School, Regents, Law, gart, went through BLS with They could have had quite a Languages, Civil Engineering. Dean Prince and has been one career in it. It started originally of his closest friends ever since. after they wrote a story for Day and Evening. tc.~ tc.>~ Begin any Time. Mr. Belfer is also Vice Presi Ellery Queen magazine, which dent of the Alumni Association won a prize. They h ad devel NEW" BUILDING. at BLS. "He [Dean Prince] was oped a police inspector who was T elephone S'Q A Main. always a spectacular, brillia'1t a BLS graduate, a v ery inter Advertisement from "The Brooklyn Eagle" of 1901. The student. H e stood out so far in esting character. They began to advance of the rest of the class write a series of these detective "Law" department of the Heffley School later became BLS. that there was never any ques stories, and they were extreme tion that he was the leading ly well received. One of them student in the class. is in the archives of the Mu "He was working while going seum of Modern Art and was to school, as most of us were. done for television - The Man If you can imagine such a thing, in the Green Velvet Hat. Others Photo by Ken Sh iotani Advertisement from "The Brooklyn Eagle" of 1905. he went to high school at night.

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