SMU Dedman School of Law, commonly referred to as SMU Law School or Dedman School of Law is a

law school A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

located in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. It was founded in February 1925. SMU Law School is located on the campus of its parent institution,

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

. SMU’s Law School was renamed SMU Dedman School of Law in February 2001 in honor of its late benefactors, Robert H. Dedman Sr. and his wife, Nancy Dedman. SMU Law School was the only law school in Dallas until

UNT The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School," ...

opened its law school in 2014, and it is one of ten law schools in Texas. The current dean of the law school is Jason P. Nance.

Academic profile

SMU Dedman School of Law offers

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

, and Doctor of Juridical Science degrees. The school offers two joint degree programs, a J.D./M.A. in Economics and a J.D./M.B.A. The J.D./M.A. in Economics is offered in connection with the SMU Department of Economics in

Dedman College Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences is the school of liberal arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth- ...

and the J.D./M.B.A. is offered in connection with the

Cox School of Business The Edwin L. Cox School of Business is an American business school, part of Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. The SMU Cox School of Business is headquartered in four buildings on SMU's 210-acre main campus five miles north ...

The class that enrolled in the fall of 2019 has a median LSAT score of 161 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.7. LSAT/UGPA medians were calculated by the Law School Admission Council based on matriculant lists provided by the law school to the American Bar Association. Each JD student must complete 87 credit hours. Thirty-one of these hours comprise the mandatory first-year curriculum. After the first year, students must complete a course in professional responsibility, two upper-level writing courses (including an edited writing seminar in which an extensive scholarly, expository writing project is reviewed and critiqued by the professor), Constitutional Law II, and a practical skills course. All students are required to perform 30 hours of public service before graduating.

Programs and resources

Dedman Law is home to four independent

law journals A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also pr ...

: ''The SMU Law Review'', ''Journal of Air Law and Commerce'', ''

The International Lawyer ''The International Lawyer'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed law journal and the official publication of the American Bar Association's (ABA) Section of International Law and Practice. It was established in 1966 and has been based at Southern Methodi ...

'', and the ''SMU Science & Technology Law Review''. Dedman Law offers several

law clinic A legal clinic (also law clinic or law school clinic) is a legal aid or law school program providing services to various clients and often hands-on-legal experience to law school students. Clinics are usually directed by clinical professors. Le ...

s for upper-division students. The law clinics include: the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Child Advocacy Clinic, Civil Clinic, Criminal Justice Clinic, Family Immigration Detention Clinic, Federal Taxpayers Clinic, First Amendment Clinic, Consumer Advocacy Project, Small Business Clinic & Trademark Clinic, Judge Elmo B. Hunter Legal Center for Victims of Crimes Against Women, Innocence Clinic, Patent Law Clinic, and Vansickle Family Law Clinic. Dedman Law offers a summer program at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in Oxford, England, numerous international programs, and Underwood Law Library. Underwood Library

Underwood Law Library

SMU’s Underwood Law Library is the largest private academic law library west of the Mississippi River . Its collections include approximately 662,465 law-related volumes and equivalents, ranking the library among the top 20% of all law libraries in the United States.

Rankings

In 2020, SMU Dedman School of Law was ranked No. 56 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

Employment

According to SMU's official 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 80% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. SMU's

Law School Transparency Law School Transparency (LST) is a nonprofit consumer advocacy and education organization concerning the legal profession in the United States. LST was founded by Vanderbilt Law School graduates Kyle McEntee and Patrick Lynch. LST describes its m ...

under-employment score is 10.8%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2018 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at SMU for the 2020-2021 academic year is $83,464. The average amount borrowed for law school by members of the 2014 graduating class was $124,617.38.

Notable faculty

Bryan Garner Bryan Andrew Garner (born 1958) is an American lawyer, lexicographer, and teacher who has written more than two dozen books about English usage and style such as ''Garner's Modern English Usage'' for a general audience, and others for legal profe ...

Paul Hardin III Paul Hardin III (June 11, 1931 – July 1, 2017) was an American academic administrator who spent 27 years as a leader in higher education. He was the chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1988 to 1995, president ...

A. Kenneth Pye August Kenneth Pye (August 21, 1931 – July 11, 1994) was the President of Southern Methodist University from 1987 to 1994. Biography August Kenneth Pye was born in New York City in 1931. He graduated from the University at Buffalo with a B.A ...

Dale Carpenter Dale Carpenter (born December 27, 1966) is an American legal commentator and Professor of Law at the SMU Dedman School of Law. He formerly served as the Earl R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law at the University of Minneso ...

Notable alumni

Keith Bergelt Keith Daniel Bergelt (born September 11, 1958) is an American corporate executive and former U.S. diplomat. He is CEO of Open Invention Network where he is responsible for coordinating the establishment and maintenance of a patent ‘‘no-f ...

, former U.S. Diplomat and CEO of Open Invention Network * Michael Boone, founder of

Haynes and Boone, LLP Haynes may refer to: People *Haynes (surname) Places In Australia: * Haynes, Western Australia In Canada: * Haynes, Alberta In the United Kingdom: *Haynes, Bedfordshire ** Haynes Church End In the United States: *Haynes, Arkansas * Haynes, Nort ...

Jane J. Boyle Jane Ellen Jackson Boyle (born December 15, 1954) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Early life and education Born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, Boyle graduated from the Univers ...

is a district judge for the

United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (in case citations, N.D. Tex.) is a United States district court. Its first judge, Andrew Phelps McCormick, was appointed to the court on April 10, 1879. The court convenes in D ...

Angela Braly Angela Fick Braly (born July 2, 1961, in Dallas, Texas) is an American executive. She served as president and chief executive officer of WellPoint (now Anthem), a large U.S.-based provider of health insurance, and was a member of the company's bo ...

, former President and Chief Executive Officer for WellPoint (now

Anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...

) * Raleigh Brown, member of the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abou ...

; Texas State District Court judge in Abilene *

Jeff Cox Jeffrey Lindon Cox (born November 9, 1955) is a former Major League Baseball third base coach for the Chicago White Sox. He is currently a baserunning specialist for the Detroit Tigers. Previously, Cox was a second baseman for the Oakland Athle ...

(Legal Law Masters in Taxation), judge since 2005 of the Louisiana 26th Judicial District Court of Bossier and Webster parishes *

Catherine Crier Catherine Jean Crier is an American journalist and author of ''A Deadly Game'' and ''The Case Against Lawyers''. She was the youngest elected state judge in Texas history at age thirty and served as a Texas State District Judge for the 162nd Dis ...

, Dallas County District Judge, investigative journalist * Robert H. Dedman Jr., former CEO of ClubCorp * Robert H. Dedman Sr., founder of private club network ClubCorp, Inc. and the law school’s co-benefactor * Craig T. Enoch, former associate justice of the

Texas Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX) is the supreme court, court of last resort for civil matters (including juvenile delinquency cases, which are categorized as civil under the Texas Family Code) in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court, the ...

Gerald J. Ford Gerald J. Ford (born 1944) is an American attorney and businessman.

, noted Texas banker and businessman *

David C. Godbey David Charles Godbey (born September 17, 1957) is the United States federal judge, Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Education and career Godbey was born in Temple, Texas, ...

, federal judge * Rusty Hardin, an American attorney and head of the Houston law firm Rusty Hardin & Associates, P.C * O. H. "Ike" Harris,

Texas State Senator The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per cons ...

Nathan Hecht Nathan Lincoln Hecht (born August 15, 1949) is the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas. A Republican from Dallas, Hecht was first elected to the Supreme Court in 1988 and was reelected to six-year terms in 1994, 2000 and 2006. He secured ...

, Chief Justice of the

Todd Ames Hunter Todd Ames Hunter (born August 26, 1953) is an American politician and lawyer from Corpus Christi, Texas, serving as a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 32 in Nueces County. From 1993 to 1997, as a Democrat, ...

, Texas State Representative * Ray Hutchison (B.A. '57, J.D. '59), former Texas state representative *

Jerry Jones Jr. Jerral Wayne Jones Jr. (born September 27, 1969) is the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of the Dallas Cowboys. Jones Jr. was the president and general manager of the Dallas Desperados when it was founded by his father ...

, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

* S. M. Krishna, Minister of External Affairs of India and Former

Chief Minister of Karnataka The chief minister of Karnataka, formerly known as the chief minister of Mysore, is the chief executive officer of the government of the Indian state of Karnataka. As per the Constitution of India, the governor of Karnataka is the state's ''de j ...

Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. Stephen Nathaniel Limbaugh Jr. (born January 25, 1952) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. From 1992 to 2008, he served as a Judge on the Supreme Court of Missouri. E ...

, Justice, Supreme Court of Missouri * Barbara M. Lynn, Judge,

* Robert B. Maloney, federal judge *

Bagir Manan Bagir Manan (born 6 October 1941) is an Indonesian jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Indonesia from 2001 to 2008. and chairman of the between 2010 and 2016. and 2013–2016. He is a professor of constitutional law at Pad ...

, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Indonesia * Robert Mosbacher Jr., an American businessman, founder of BizCorps *

Harriet Miers Harriet Ellan Miers (born August 10, 1945) is an American lawyer who served as White House Counsel to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007. A member of the Republican Party since 1988, she previously served as White House Staff Secretary f ...

, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, White House Counsel for

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

John Ratcliffe John Ratcliffe or John Ratcliff may refer to: Politicians *John Ratcliffe (American politician), former Director of National Intelligence, former congressman in Texas' 4th Congressional District, and former U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of ...

, American politician who is the 6th

Director of National Intelligence The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a senior, cabinet-level United States government official, required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Commu ...

and served as the Congressman for Texas's 4th congressional district from 2015 to 2020. * Trevor Rees-Jones, founder and chairman of Chief Oil & Gas *

Robert Rowling Robert B. Rowling (born 1953) is an American billionaire businessman, and the Founder of TRT Holdings, the holding company of Omni Hotels. Early life A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, Rowling has an undergraduate degree from the University of Te ...

, founder of TRT Holdings, the holding company of

Omni Hotels & Resorts Omni Hotels & Resorts is an American privately held, international luxury hotel company based in Dallas, Texas. The company was founded in 1958 as Dunfey Hotels, and operates 50 properties in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, totaling over 2 ...

and Gold's Gym *

Edward B. Rust Jr. Edward Barry Rust Jr. (born August 3, 1950) was chairman of the board of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Bloomington, Illinois. He is a former President and Chief Executive Officer of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company a ...

, chairman and chief executive officer of

State Farm State Farm Insurance is a large group of mutual insurance companies throughout the United States with corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois. Overview State Farm is the largest property and casualty insurance provider, and the la ...

Mutual Automobile Insurance Company *

Rick Scott Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers, born December 1, 1952) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Florida since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019. Scott ...

, American businessman, politician and junior

United States senator The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bica ...

from

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. He served as 45th

Governor of Florida A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...

from 2011 to 2019. * Kenneth Sheets (J.D. 2004), Dallas attorney and Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 107 in Dallas County since 2011 *

Lamar S. Smith Lamar Seeligson Smith (born November 19, 1947) is an American politician and lobbyist who served in the United States House of Representatives for for 16 terms, a district including most of the wealthier sections of San Antonio and Austin, as ...

, the former

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

for

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Helmut Sohmen Helmut Sohmen (born 10 December 1939 in Linz, Austria) is an Austrian lawyer and businessman in Hong Kong. He was chairman of BW Group and a former Hong Kong legislator. He was formerly managing director of Dragon Air. In 2010 he was on th ...

, chairman of BW Group and a former Hong Kong legislator *

William Steger William Merritt Steger (August 22, 1920 – June 4, 2006) was an American politician and United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Education and career Born on August 22, 1920, in Dallas, ...

, Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas *

Tsai Hong-tu Tsai Hong-tu (; born 1 August 1952) is a Taiwanese businessman and banker. He is a son of Tsai Wan-lin, the former richest person of Taiwan who died in 2004. Business career Tsai Hong-tu is the chairman of the board of Cathay Financial Holdings ...

, a Taiwanese businessman and banker *

Lamar White Lamar White Jr. (born 1982) is an American publisher, investigative journalist, political blogger, and civil rights activist from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the founder and publisher of ''The Bayou Brief'' a non-profit, Louisiana-based news an ...

, investigative journalist known for his work on racism and political corruption in the Deep South *

James A. Baker James Addison Baker III (born April 28, 1930) is an American attorney, diplomat and statesman. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 10th White House Chief of Staff and 67th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President ...

, Justice of the Texas Supreme Court *

David Godbey David Charles Godbey (born September 17, 1957) is the Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Education and career Godbey was born in Temple, Texas. He received a Bachelor of S ...

, federal judge *

,Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice * Yukio Horigome, Justice, Supreme Court of Japan * James Latane Noel Jr., Attorney General of Texas *

Gillian Triggs Gillian Doreen Triggs (born 30 October 1945) is an Australian academic specialising in public international law. In 2019, she was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Natio ...

, President of the Australian Human Rights Commission *

, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Indonesia *

Paul Hart Paul Anthony Hart (born 4 May 1953) is an English association football, football manager, coach, and former professional player who made 567 appearances in the English Football League, Football League as a Defender (association football), def ...

, General Counsel for Mark Cuban

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dedman School Of Law Law, Dedman School of Law schools in Texas Educational institutions established in 1925 1925 establishments in Texas