lawyer, professor, law school dean, b. Osceola, Iowa. He graduated from the State Univ. of Iowa (Ph.D., 1892), and Harvard Univ. (LL.B., 1895). He practiced law in Ottumwa, Iowa (1895-1898), and from 1898 to 1903 was professor of law at the State Univ. of Iowa. In 1903 he came to the Univ. of Wisconsin, where he was dean of the law school until his death. In this capacity he made significant contributions to the law school during a critical period in its growth. He was instrumental in raising admission standards, and in effecting closer relations between the law school and the school of letters and science; he also made important modifications in the law curriculum, including the extension of the case method of teaching, and the addition of courses in the history of jurisprudence. Richards was a founder and president (1914-1915) of the Association of American Law Schools, and headed committees on legal education for both the American and state bar associations. He was the author of Cases on Private Corporations (1912-1925) and Legal Education in Great Britain (1915). Who's Who in Amer., 15 (1928); M. Curti and V. Carstensen, Univ. of Wis. (2 vols., Madison, 1949); Madison Wis. State Journal, Apr. 22, 1929.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]