What is the Order of the Coif?
The Order of the Coif is an honor society for high-achievers in the legal field. Membership in the Order is awarded to exceptionally talented legal students, practicing lawyers, judges, and instructors of law. As with other honor associations, the Order of the Coif has a charter which dictates the standards of admission, along with a staff of officers to enforce the rules and run the order. Membership in this order is considered to be a mark of high distinction in the legal community. Among law students, participating law schools typically nominate the top 10% of any graduating class for the Order of the Coif, although some students may be omitted from a nomination list due to concerns about their characters or fitness for the Order. Lawyers, judges, and instructors can be nominated for the order by their contemporaries. Schools which have active chapters of the Order of the Coif include the University of Chicago, Duke University, the University of California, Berkeley, Yale, Stanford
