Harvard University allowed this production only three days of filming on their campus. The administration had been very dissatisfied with Love Story (1970), which had been filmed there. As such, most of the campus scenes were shot at the University of Toronto.
The "hairy hand" case that Hart is asked to describe in class is a classic in contract law. It is based on a 1929 case in New Hampshire, Hawkins vs. McGee. Dr. McGee promised Hawkins a perfect hand after a skin graft. McGee botched it, and the court awarded Hawkins what they thought would be the difference between the promised perfect hand and the hairy palm he wound up with.
In his autobiography, John Houseman said of his Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination and win that "my first reaction was one of incredulity and vague pleasure, followed by a sense of embarrassment at the realization that for most actors of my age, an Academy Award or even a nomination comes as the hard-earned culmination of a long and dedicated career; mine was the reward for ten agreeable days spent with a friend in Toronto!"
Actors James Mason, Gregory Peck, Melvyn Douglas, Sir John Gielgud, Paul Scofield, and Edward G. Robinson were offered the role of Professor Kingsfield by director James Bridges. In the end, John Houseman was cast. Although Houseman had appeared in a small, but important, role in the movie Seven Days in May (1964), he previously had been known primarily as a producer of radio (The Mercury Theatre of the Air's "The War of the Worlds" (1938)), stage (Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre), and film (Julius Caesar (1953)). This movie was his first major film role, and the part won him the 1973 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
John Jay Osborn Jr. wrote the film's source novel, "The Paper Chase" (1970), while he was a third-year law student at the Harvard University Law School.