Collection Summary

Creator: Spies, Emerson G.
Title: The Papers of Emerson G. Spies, 1955-1990
Accession: MSS 91-6
Description: 31 boxes; 13 linear feet
Location: This collection is stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections before your visit to ensure your papers are available.
Photograph Collection: View 0 digitized photographs
Digitized Content: 0 objects
Use Restrictions: There are some restrictions. All appointments files are restricted.

Collection Description & Arrangement

The Papers of Emerson Spies consists of 31 boxes (13 linear feet) of material and spans 1955 to 1990. The collection is arranged in alphabetical order; however, it can be subdivided into three primary categories: Law School-related material, personal correspondence and lectures, and records concerning activity outside the realm of the Law School.

Included among materials related to the Law School are records from Spies' time as Dean of Admissions and his involvement with the Admissions Committee. Also included are materials stemming from his service on the Appointments Committee with are sparse in places but cover 1966 to 1983. Spies' involvement with the Law School Foundation and Alumni Council is documented for his years of service after leaving the deanship, from 1980 to 1990. The collection contains 13 folders of personal correspondence. Lecture notes are also included, primarily for speeches given outside the Law School. The third subdivision of this collection is a variety of materials documenting Spies' involvement with associations outside of the Law School. There are materials from the American Association of Law Schools, particularly concerning the Nominations and Pre-Legal Education Committees. There is an extensive amount of material concerning the Law School Admission Council and the development and administration of the Law School Admission Test. Finally in this category is material concerning the American Bar Association and the Virginia State Bar.

Spies' deanship is documented in the Records of the Dean's Office, RG 100-88.


Biographical & Historical Information

Emerson George Spies was born November 6, 1914 in Akron, New York. He attended Hobart College where he excelled as a scholar and athlete and graduated summa cum laude in 1936. As a Rhodes Scholar, he studied law at Brasenose College, Oxford University, earned a Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence in 1938 and a Bachelor of Civil Law in 1939, and was awarded the academic honor of "double first." When he returned to the United States, Spies spent two years at the University of Chicago Law School as a Tutorial Fellow, and in 1941 moved to New York City to practice with the firm of Mudge, Stern, Williams and Tucker. He joined the U.S. Army in 1943, and after receiving a commission at the Judge Advocate General's School at the University of Michigan, he stayed on to become an instructor. While there he became acquainted with Lt. Col. Jack Ritchie, head of the School of Military Justice and professor on leave from the University of Virginia School of Law. Ritchie was largely responsible for Spies' joining the law faculty at Virginia after the war was over.

Spies was hired as assistant professor in 1946 and was appointed associate professor in 1947 and professor in 1950. He held the Joseph M. Hartfield Professorship from 1967 to 1976, and the Mary and Daniel Loughran Professorship from 1976 to 1985. A specialist in real property and real estate finance, from 1947 through 1961 he taught property to every first-year law student, and from that time on to retirement, taught at least one first-year section of property. At the time of his death it was noted that Spies had taught half of the Law School's 13,000 graduates. He was a dynamic, caring teacher who was loved and fondly remembered by his students.

As soon as he joined the faculty, Spies was asked to help with the admissions program at the Law School. With characteristic energy and enthusiasm he became deeply involved in the admissions process and conducted it almost singlehandedly for twenty years while teaching a full course load.

Accompanying his work in admissions at Virginia was Spies' involvement in the development of the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). In 1947 he along with representatives of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Pennsylvania formed the Law School Admissions Council which spawned the LSAT. From 1963 to 1966 Spies was head of the council and served on its Board of Trustees until the year of his death. In addition he served on the Association of American Law Schools' Committee on Pre-Legal Education and Admissions, the Accreditation Committee, and the Committee on Admissions to the Bar.

Spies exerted strong leadership at the Law School in other ways. For ten years he served as chair of the Appointments Committee which attracted a number of outstanding faculty members. Over the years he sponsored many student organizations and journals. In 1976 he became acting dean at the Law School and later that year was appointed dean, a position he held until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 in 1980. During his deanship, Walter L. Brown Hall or Phase II of the North Grounds building was completed, funded entirely by private money. As dean he strengthened the school's ties with its alumni and exerted strong leadership in fund-raising for faculty research and scholarships.

In 1984 in recognition of his many contributions to the Law School and University, but especially for his excellence in teaching, Spies was presented the University's Thomas Jefferson Award. Upon his retirement from teaching in 1985 the alumni created the Emerson G. Spies Professorship which was first held by John Calvin Jeffries, Jr., beloved student and later colleague and close friend of Spies.

Spies married his first wife, Mary Ethel Bell, in 1940, and they had three children, Sally, Richard, and Margaret. Mary Ethel died of cancer in 1966, and in 1972, Spies married Julia Field Sobbott, who brought to the marriage her four young children, Richard, Laura, Daniel, and Wes. In addition to his devotion to his large family and to the Law School, Spies was an avid tennis player and gardener. He planned, selected the plants, planted and tended a woodland garden at the Law School which was later named for him. He died of complications of heart disease on September 24, 1990.

Acquisition Information

Date Received 1991
Donor Information These files were transferred to the archives from storage ca 1989-1991.

Content List

Box 1:

  • 1975-76; Administration
  • 1980-90; Admissions: Law School [2 folders]
  • 1973; Admissions: Talk to Alumni
  • 1969-73; Admissions Committee
  • 1980-88; American Bar Association (ABA)
  • 1980-88; ABA: Virginia Fellows
  • 1981-84; Anglo-American Property Institute

Box 2:

  • 1968-69; Association of American Law Schools (AALS): Appointments
  • 1987-88; AALS: Financial Statements and Independent Auditors' Report
  • 1985-88; AALS: Investment Policy Materials [2 folders]
  • 1979-83; AALS: Nominations Committee

Box 3:

  • 1982-85, AALS: Pre-Legal Education Committee

Boxes 3-9:

  • Restricted Files

 Box 9:

  • 1983; Bar Examiners: Alaska
  • 1982-88; Bar Examiners: California
  • 1967-88; Bar Examiners: Minnesota
  • 1980-90; Bar Examiners: Virginia
  • 1970-74; Committee on FF

Box 10:

  • 1957-62; Continuing Legal Education
  • 1975-76; Correspondence: Miscellaneous
  • 1988; Dean's Day: Law Day Week
  • 1970; Dean's Report
  • 1968-69; Ebenstein Litigation [2 folders]
  • 1968; Ebenstein Litigation: Dillard
  • 1975, 1976; Educational Policy Committee [2 folders]

Box 11:

  • 1980-81; Employment Opportunities for Students
  • 1978-80; Energy Proposal
  • 1984-85; Financial Resources and Institutional Planning Committee
  • 1980-89; Foundation and Alumni Council [2 folders]

Boxes 11-12:

  • 1987-90; Foundation and Alumni Council: Law School [3 folders]

Box 12:

  • 1982-88; Foundation Board of Trustees
  • 1985-87; Foundation: Harrison Foundation [2 folders]

Box 13:

  • 1974; Gary Gannon
  • 1974-77; General
  • 1968-71; Grade Committee [2 folders]
  • 1963-65; Gregory, Charles v. Highway Department
  • 1969-70; Hobart College [2 folders]

Box 14:

  • 1970-72; Hobart College Committee File
  • 1983-85; Honor System Committee (Ad Hoc)
  • 1936-46; Jag Papers
  • 1981; Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. Fund
  • 1974-76; Stacy Juul-Nielsen
  • 1979-92; Judiciary Graduate Degree Program (LLM) [2 folders]

Box 15:

  • 1990; LLM Thesis: Joseph Doyle [2 folders]
  • 1984; Law School Admission Council (LSAC): Annual Business Meeting
  • 1983; LSAC: Annual Report

Boxes 16-17:

  • 1980-85; LSAC: Correspondence [9 folders]

Box 18:

  • 1983, 1984; LSAC: Finance Committee Meeting [2 folders]
  • 1966; Law School Admission Test (LSAT): Ad Hoc Committee
  • 1963; LSAT: Admissions Seminar
  • 1963-66, 1968; LSAT: Annual Council Meeting [5 folders]

Box 19:

  • 1968; LSAT: Annual Council Report
  • 1979-81; LSAT: Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Admission to the Bar
  • 1970; LSAT: AALS Bar Exam Study Project
  • 1962-64; LSAT: AALS Committee
  • 1969-70; LSAT: AALS Pre-Legal Education and Admission
  • 1976-81; LSAT: Bar Examinations

Box 20:

  • 1969-73; LSAT: Board of Trustees
  • 1969-71; LSAT: Collens Bar Review
  • 1964-66; LSAT: Council [2 folders]
  • 1963-64; LSAT: Council, Educational Testing Service (ETS)
  • 1962-65; LSAT: Development and Research Committee
  • 1963-65; LSAT: ETS Executive Committee

Box 21:

  • 1967-71; LSAT: ETS Finance Committee [5 folders]
  • 1965-66; LSAT: ETS General File
  • 1963-64; LSAT: ETS Miscellaneous Correspondence
  • 1964; LSAT: ETS Statistical Reports

Box 22:

  • 1965; LSAT: Executive Committee
  • 1963-65; LSAT: Finance Council
  • 1965; LSAT: Greenbriar Conference
  • 1965-68; LSAT: Miscellaneous [2 folders]
  • 1963-65; LSAT: Miscellaneous Correspondence, Committee Meetings
  • 1963-66; LSAT: Services Committee [2 folders]

Box 23:

  • 1959-64; LSAT: Symposium Planning Committee
  • 1968-73; LSAT: Virginia Board Bar Examiners
  • 1975-76; Law Day

Boxex 23-24:

  • 1983-90; Law School: Miscellaneous [7 folders]

Box 24:

  • 1977; Law School: Mission and Financial Requirements
  • 1971; Law Reform
  • 1966; Lecture: Continuing Legal Education
  • 1965; Lecture: Eminent Domain
  • 1969; Lecture: Introductory Property
  • 1957; Lecture: Jointly Owned Property

Box 25:

  • 1959; Lecture: Roanoke Bar Association
  • 1981; Lecture: Samford University
  • 1976-77; Lecture: Speech File
  • 1990; Letters of condolence sent to the Law School by former students, colleagues and friends of EGS
  • 1978; Loughran Foundation Seminar
  • 1975; Miscellaneous

Boxes 25-27:

  • 1966-85; Personal Correspondence [13 folders]

Boxes 27-29:

  • 1979-82; Professional Correspondence: Miscellaneous [5 folders]

Box 29:

  • 1968-70; Property Reform
  • 1980-81; Rare Book Conference Room: Class of 1950 [2 folders]
  • 1966-69; Real Estate Textbook
  • 1978; Recent Cases
  • 1980-88; Recommendations for Students
  • 1979-82; Research Assistants
  • 1984-85; Self-Study: University of Virginia

Box 30:

  • 1973; Speech to the State Bar
  • 1983-84; Summer School for Lawyers Committee
  • 1981; Tax Program: University of Virginia and Oxford
  • 1963-64; Tax Study Committee: Albemarle County
  • 1969-72; Teaching Clinic: Strong [2 folders]
  • 1975; Tenure Report: Duren

Box 31:

  • 1976-87; Thomas Jefferson Award Committee [2 folders]
  • 1988; Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Award in Law: Edward Muskie
  • 1987; Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Award in Law: Sandra Day O'Connor
  • 1986; Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Award in Law: William H. Webster
  • 1981; Touro Law School Materials
  • 1974-76; University Athletic Committee
  • 1965; Virginia State Bar: Committee on Estates and Property
  • 1966; Virginia State Bar: Committee on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar
  • 1980-82; Virginia State Bar: Legal Education and Admission to the Bar
  • 1955; Virginia State Bar: Report of Law School Committee

 

Associated People

Use Policy

Access There are some restrictions.
Use Restrictions There are some restrictions. All appointments files are restricted.
Preferred Citation

Papers of Emerson G. Spies, MSS 91-6, Box Number, Special Collections, University of Virginia Law Library
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