Case method is introduced at Harvard Law School.

It is initiated by new dean Christopher Langdell. Other faculty members at this time include John Chipman Gray Jr., James Bradley Thayer, and James Barr Ames. According to John R. Galvin, students at the time would say, “If you wanted to know what the law was, you saw Mr. Gray; if you wanted to know what the law used to be, you saw Mr. Thayer; and if you wanted to know what the law ought to be, you saw Mr. Ames.”