| 1886 | - Cornell University Trustees purchase the 4,000 volume library of Merritt King, an Ithaca lawyer, which included Atherley's A Practical Treatise on the Law of Marriage and Other Family Settlements, signed by Chancellor James Kent with his personal notes.
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| 1887 | - Cornell Law School opens with three professors and 55 students.
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| 1890 | - The first student law librarian from the entering class, Edward Cornell (LL.B. 1889, LL.M. 1890), continues on as Cornell Law Librarian after receiving his Master of Law degree.
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| 1892 | - The Law Library moves to the newly-built Boardman Hall with accommodations for 30,000 volumes and 300 students.
- The library totals 10,000 volumes, which include 500 volumes from Judge Douglas Boardman's personal collection.
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| 1893 | - Alexander Hugh Ross Fraser is appointed the first library-trained Law Librarian.
- Mrs. Boardman and her daughter purchase the library of Mr. Nathaniel C. Moak, consisting of 12,415 volumes, as a memorial to Judge Boardman. The collection includes one of ten existing copies of the Lizzie Borden case.
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| 1908 | - Earl J. Bennett (LL.B. 1901) establishes a fund devoted to the collection of all U.S. and territorial session laws in existence.
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| 1911 | - Edward Ecker Willever is appointed Cornell Law Librarian.
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| 1929 | - Earl J. Bennett endows the Bennett Collection for its perpetual development.
- The Law Library becomes a depository for the U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs.
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| 1930 | - Myron C. Taylor (LL.B. 1894) supplies library funds to make current, catalogue, and preserve the League of Nations publications.
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| 1932 | - The Library moves more than 70,000 volumes into the new Myron Taylor Hall.
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| 1935 | - Lewis W. Morse (LL.B. 1928) is appointed Law Librarian after having served as Assistant Librarian since 1931.
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| 1942 | - Library collection reaches 100,000 volumes.
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| 1965 | - Harry Bitner becomes Law Librarian.
- Samuel Leibowitz (LL.B. 1915) donates his Scottsboro Trial documents to the library.
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| 1966 | - Class of 1941 establishes a fund for "Dean Emeritus Robert S. Stevens (Professor 1919-1937; Dean 1927-1954) Collection on Corporations, Equity, and Taxation."
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| 1968 | - "Class of 1942 William Harsh Farnham Book Collection" (LL.B., 1922; Professor 1924-1964) is established at its 25th reunion.
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| 1974 | - The collection reaches 300,000 volumes.
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| 1975 | - The Mary Heagen Cuccia Memorial Fund is established by Francis P. Cuccia (LL.B. 1912) in memory of his wife to purchase books for the law library.
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| 1976 | - Jane L. Hammond becomes Law Librarian.
- Computerized cataloging is introduced.
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| 1977 | - LEXIS is installed in the library.
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| 1978 | - The Law Library becomes a depository for U.S. government publications.
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| 1979 | - The library purchases the Thorne collection from legal historian, Professor Samuel Thorne.
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| 1981 | - The Judge Alfred J. Loew (LL.B. 1912) Memorial Fund is established by his family.
- Rare Book Room created with climate control and increased security.
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| 1983 | - WESTLAW is installed in the library.
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| 1984 | - The Kurt W. Hanslowe Memorial Fund (Professor 1959-1983) is established by his widow.
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| 1985 | - Rare Book Room dedicated as the Edwin S. Dawson Rare Book Room, a gift of Donato A. Evangelista (J.D. 1957) in memory of his father-in-law.
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| 1986 | - Five computers in the library are connected by a local area network.
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| 1988 | - The Law Library expands into the Jane Foster Addition of the law school.
- Law Librarian position is endowed as the Edward Cornell Law Librarian, a gift of his son and daughter-in-law, George D. and Harriet W. Cornell.
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| 1989 | - Reading Room dedicated as the Gould Reading Room in honor of Eleanor and Milton S. Gould (A.B. 1930, LL.B. 1933) in recognition of their extraordinary service and support.
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| 1991 | - The collection reaches 400,000 volumes.
- Clifford R. Weidberg (J.D. 1972) endows the squash court.
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| 1992 | - Casual Study Room is endowed by Donald E. Claudy (AB 1948, LL.B. 1952).
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| 1993 | - Claire M. Germain becomes Edward Cornell Law Librarian.
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| 1995 | - Cornell Law Library creates its first award winning web site.
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| 1996 | - Law Library partners with International Court of Justice to create the first ICJ web site.
- First issue of InSITE distributed.
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| 1998 | - Henry H. Korn (Cornell 1963) and Ellen Schaum Korn (Cornell 1963) donate the Donovan Nuremberg Trials Collection, consisting of General William Donovan's personal archive of the Nuremberg Trial Transcripts.
- Library partners with International Labour Organization and creates the official ILO mirror site.
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| 1999 | - Law Library partners with Hein Digital Journals Project, hosted by CIT at heinonline.org, and begins digitization of Cornell Law Quarterly from its inception, to be made available online and fully searchable.
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| 2000 | - Jack G. Clarke (LL.B.1952) Comparative Law Book Fund endowment is established for the acquisition of foreign and international law materials.
- Sheppard A. Guryan (J.D. 1967) Law Library Endowment is established for the acquisition of materials on the History of Jurisprudence and American Legal Thought.
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| 2001 | - Attorney General and Secretary of State William P. Rogers (J.D. 1937) and Adele Langston Rogers (J.D. 1936) memorabilia donated to the Law Library by the Rogers family.
- Harry Bitner Research Stipend Fund established by Richard Gilden (J.D. 1971) and Lorraine Bitner Gilden.
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| 2004 | - From the Donovan Nuremberg Trials collection, Analysis of the Personality of Adolf Hitler by Dr. Murray, is digitized and made freely available online.
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| 2005 | - The 700,000th volume is added to the Cornell Law Library.
- The Arthur H. Rosenbloom (LL.B. 1959) Law Library Endowment is created for the purchase of Israeli books.
- Cornell Law Library becomes the first U.S. law library in the country to subscribe to Wangfang Data and Isino Law, online databases of Chinese and Japanese law respectively.
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| 2006 | - Law Library purchases and catalogs each individual title contained in The Making of Modern Law, an online collection of over 10 million pages of U.S. and British historical treatises.
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