After 30 years with the law school, Lewis founded the American Law Institute in 1925, which was seated in the law school and was chaired by Lewis himself. The ALI was later chaired by another of Penn Law's Deans, Herbert Funk Goodrich. Two years before Goodrich was named dean, the law school graduated with a J.D. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, who was the first African-American woman to (1) graduate Penn Law, (2) be admitted to practice law in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and (3) receive a Ph.D. in the United States (also from the University of Pennsylvania, in economics).