The Law Library was established as part of the University of Michigan Law School in 1859 and is currently maintained and administered as a part of the instructional and research operation of the Law School. The collection contains documentation related to administrative matters within the Law Library, including financial documentation, correspondence, director files, and documentation on the building expansion of the library. The collection also contains some of the material removed from the collections at the library, as well as documentation related to the Law School, which was also previously housed in the library collections.
The material included in the Law Library records are primarily the files of the library directors and of Professor Hobart R. Coffey and Esther Betz. The material included in the Law Library records are divided into five series: Administration, Collections, Law School, Audio Visual Material, and William Cook Papers.