Using documentary data, we investigate the evolution of legal education in China from 1949 to 2012. During this period, legal education evolved from an illegitimate practice to a legitimate practice over three distinct periods of nullification, reconstruction, and rationalization. Textual data suggest that the legitimization of legal education has been constituted and driven by three social forces: organizational ecology, the domestic institutional environment, and world culture. Their functioning and interplay have shaped the institutionalization of legal education in China. Our analysis indicates that the legitimacy granted to legal education by the state is the key force in driving institutionalization, that the world society provides models for imitation, and that the influence of organizational ecology is derived largely from state initiatives. The findings point to a more holistic picture of the diffusion of educational practices operating at multiple levels in a socialist society.