Armistead M. Dobie succeeded William Minor Lile as Dean of the Law School in 1932, resigning when F.D.R. appointed him first as a U.S. District Court Judge in 1939 and in 1940 to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, where he served for over sixteen years. The Papers of Armistead M. Dobie span the years 1902 to 1963, with the bulk of the material covering 1939 to 1956, the years of Dobie's judgeship.