The University of Houston Law Center is the
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, ...
of the
University of Houston
The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...
in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
,
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 ...
. Founded in 1947, the Law Center is one of 12 colleges of the University of Houston, a
state university
A state university system in the United States is a group of public universities supported by an individual state, territory or federal district. These systems constitute the majority of public-funded universities in the country.
State univers ...
. It is accredited by the
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...
and is a member of the
Association of American Law Schools
The Association of American Law Schools (AALS), formed in 1900, is a non-profit organization of 176 law schools in the United States. An additional 19 schools pay a fee to receive services but are not members. AALS incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non ...
. The law school's facilities are located on the university's 667-acre campus in southeast Houston.
The Law Center awards the
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 ...
(J.D.) and
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 ...
(LL.M.) degrees. The law school ranked 56th in the 2018 ''
U.S. News & World Report''
law school rankings
Law school rankings are a specific subset of college and university rankings dealing specifically with law schools. Like college and university rankings, law school rankings can be based on empirical data, subjectively-perceived qualitative dat ...
.
According to UHLC's official 2021
ABA-required disclosures, 92.06% of the Class of 2021 was employed and 84.58% obtained full-time, long-term, Bar Admission Required or JD-required employment 10 months after graduation.
The
dean
Dean may refer to:
People
* Dean (given name)
* Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin
* Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk
* Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean
Titles
* ...
of the Law Center is Leonard M. Baynes.
History
The University of Houston Law Center was founded in 1947 as the University of Houston College of Law, with an inaugural class consisting of 28 students and a single professor. The law school was housed in several locations on campus in its first few years—including temporary classrooms and the basement of the
M.D. Anderson Library. The College of Law moved into its current facilities—located at the northeast corner of campus—shortly following its groundbreaking in 1969.
In 1969, the college was renamed the Bates College of Law for Col. William B. Bates, former member of the
University of Houston System
The University of Houston System is a public university system in Texas, comprising four separate and distinct universities. It also owns and holds broadcasting licenses to a public television station (KUHT) and a public radio station (KUHF).
Th ...
Board of Regents and College of Law founding committee. Since 1982, the College of Law has been commonly referred to as the University of Houston Law Center.
In 2005, the University of Houston Law Center opened its facilities to
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law is a private law school in New Orleans, Louisiana affiliated with Loyola University New Orleans. Loyola's law school opened in 1914 and is now located on the Broadway Campus of the university in the hi ...
after it was severely damaged in
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
, hosting 320 of the Loyola's 800 students taught by 31 Loyola law professors, allowing the Loyola students' education to continue uninterrupted.
Rankings
The law school was tied for 50th in the 2016 ''U.S. News & World Report'' law school rankings. ''U.S. News'' also ranks the school in three specialties: second for health care law, seventh for
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
law, and sixth among part-time programs.
In 2010, the school ranked 34th for number of alumni included on the ''Super Lawyers'' list. The ''
National Law Journal
''The National Law Journal'' (NLJ) is an American legal periodical founded in 1978. The NLJ was created by Jerry Finkelstein, who envisioned it as a "sibling newspaper" of the ''New York Law Journal''.
Originally a tabloid-sized weekly newspape ...
'' reported that the Law Center ranked 29th for the percentage of its graduates hired as first-year associates at the
nation's 250 largest law firms in 2013. In 2013, the influential law blog "
Above the Law" ranked the school 35th on its "Above the Law Top 50 Law Schools List."
The 2021 US News & World Report rankings named the University of Houston Law Center the 56th best law school in the United States.
Facts
As of fall 2014, the law school reported a total enrollment of 732 students, and employs a total of 273 full- and part-time faculty on staff.
For the class of 2016, the school received 2,208 applications, with 231 full-time and part-time students matriculating. The median undergraduate GPA among all students at the school is 3.47, and the median
LSAT
The Law School Admission Test (LSAT; ) is a standardized test administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) for prospective law school candidates. It is designed to assess reading comprehension as well as logical and verbal rea ...
score was 159. The class of 2016 is 63.6 percent white and 43.9% female.
Of the 2013 graduating class, 62% work in
law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to r ...
s, 23% in business and industry, 8% in government, 3% in public interest, and 2% as
judicial clerks. The average school
bar examination
A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction.
Australia
Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar associ ...
passage rate for the July 2013 was 88.02%.
Annual tuition for the 2015–2016 full-time program is $29,784 for Texas residents and $43,044 for non-Texas residents. Annual tuition for the part-time program is $26,541 for Texas residents and $38,961 for non-Texas residents.
Academics
The J.D. program is 90 semester hours. Entering classes are generally divided into three full-time day sessions of some 60 students each and one part-time evening section of some 35 students for first-year courses.
The Law Center has eight special programs and institutes:
* Blakely Advocacy Institute
* Center for Children, Law & Policy
* Center for Consumer Law
* Criminal Justice Institute
* The Environment, Energy, & Natural Resource Center
* Health Law & Policy Institute
* Institute for Higher Education Law & Governance
* Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law
The Law Center 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. L ...
s for upper-division students: the Civil Clinic, Civil Practice Clinic, Criminal Practice Clinic, Consumer Law Clinic, Domestic Violence Clinic, Immigration Clinic, Juvenile Defense Clinic, Mediation Clinic, and Transactional Clinic.
O'Quinn Law Library
The O'Quinn Law Library is the school's
law library
A law library is a special library used by law students, lawyers, judges and their law clerks, historians and other scholars of legal history in order to research the law. Law libraries are also used by people who draft or advocate for new la ...
. The director of the library is Amanda Watson. The library has some 435,000 volumes.
The library has three special collections:
* The Frankel Rare Books Collection is a closed-stack collection of
rare and out of print books and documents as well as publications of the Law Center faculty.
* The Judge Brown Admiralty Collection is an
admiralty and maritime law collection. Established mainly from an endowment by Houston admiralty lawyers, the collection is named in honor of Judge
John Robert Brown, a Houston admiralty attorney who served on the
Fifth Circuit. The entire collection was lost during
Tropical Storm Allison
Tropical Storm Allison was a tropical storm that devastated southeast Texas in June of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season. An arguable example of the " brown ocean effect", Allison lasted unusually long for a June storm, remaining tropical or s ...
, but was rebuilt through the Albertus book replacement project, completed in 2007.
* The Foreign & International Law Collection, which includes books and other documents on Mexican law.
Tropical Storm Allison flooded the library's lower level with eight feet of water in June 2001, destroying 174,000 books and the microfiche collection. The
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...
(FEMA) gave $21.4 million to rebuild the library collection, which was 75 percent of the replacement cost. The collection has since been rebuilt.
Journals and publications
The Law Center publishes five
law journals. The ''
Houston Law Review
The ''Houston Law Review'' is a law review published by the University of Houston Law Center
The University of Houston Law Center is the law school of the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1947, the Law Center is one of 12 col ...
'', established in 1963, is the school's main law journal.
The four specialty journals are the ''Houston Business and Tax Law Journal'' (
business law,
tax law
Tax law or revenue law is an area of legal study in which public or sanctioned authorities, such as federal, state and municipal governments (as in the case of the US) use a body of rules and procedures (laws) to assess and collect taxes in a ...
; founded in 2001), the ''Houston Journal of Health Law and Policy'' (health care law), the ''
Houston Journal of International Law'' (
international law
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
), and the ''Journal of Consumer & Commercial Law'' (
commercial law
Commercial law, also known as mercantile law or trade law, is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of persons and business engaged in commerce, merchandising, trade, and sales. It is often considered to be a branc ...
).
Employment
According to UHLC's official 2021 ABA-required disclosures, 92.06% of the Class of 2021 was employed and 84.58% obtained full-time, long-term, Bar Admission Required or JD-required employment 10 months after graduation.
Costs
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at UHLC for the 2013–2014 academic year is $48,478 for a resident and $58,699 for a nonresident. The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $197,267 for residents and $239,808 for nonresidents.
Notable alumni
*
Fortunato Benavides, judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
*
Jeff Brown, justice of the
Texas Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX) is the 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 Texas Court of ...
*Nandita Berry, former
secretary of state of Texas and Houston lawyer
*
Joseph S. Cage Jr. former
US Attorney
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...
for the district of western Louisiana
*
Anne Clutterbuck, lawyer and politician
*
David Cobb, social activist lawyer, U.S. Green Party candidate
*
Marcia A. Crone, judge for the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (in case citations, E.D. Tex.) is a federal court in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Fifth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. ...
*
William F. Downes, federal judge
*
Eni Faleomavaega
Eni Fa'aua'a Hunkin Faleomavaega Jr. (; August 15, 1943 – February 22, 2017) was an American Samoan politician and attorney who served as the territory's lieutenant governor (1985-1989) and non-voting delegate to the United States House of Repr ...
, non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives from
American Samoa's At-large congressional district
American Samoa's at-large congressional district encompasses the entire U.S. territorial region of American Samoa. The territory does not have a voting member of Congress but does elect a delegate who can participate in debates and vote in commi ...
.
*
Gene Green
Raymond Eugene Green (born October 17, 1947) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for , serving for 13 terms. He is a member of the Democratic Party. His district included most of eastern Houston, including portion ...
,
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 ...
*
Vanessa Gilmore, Judge
*
Richard "Racehorse" Haynes, famous criminal defense attorney
*
Randy Hendricks, attorney and sports agent
*
Donald Holmquest
Donald Lee Holmquest (born April 7, 1939) is an American lawyer, physician, electrical engineer, and former NASA astronaut. He was the CEO of the California Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO).
Biography Early life and educatio ...
, lawyer and former
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
astronaut
*
Jolanda Jones
Jolanda Felicia Jones (born November 6, 1965) is an American attorney, politician, and television personality, as well as a former city councilor and heptathlete. Jones is currently a member of the Texas House of Representatives, representing th ...
, former
Houston City Council
The Houston City Council is a city council for the city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas.
Currently, there are sixteen members, 11 elected from council districts and five at-large. The members of the Council are elected every four years, w ...
member and ''
Survivor'' contestant
*
I. D. McMaster, former District Judge for the 179th Criminal Court
*
John O'Quinn
John Maurice O'Quinn (September 4, 1941 – October 29, 2009) was a Texas trial lawyer and founding partner of The O'Quinn Law Firm (formerly known as O'Quinn & Laminack). His firm made its business handling plaintiff's litigation, includi ...
, highest paid attorney in Texas and founding partner of The O'Quinn Law Firm
*
Daylin Leach
Daylin Leach (born June 23, 1961) is a former American politician and lawyer, who was a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 17th senatorial district from 2009 until 2020. He was previously a member of the Pennsylvania House of Rep ...
State Senator for Pennsylvania
*
Gray H. Miller, judge
*
John Moores, entrepreneur and philanthropist, and the owner of the San Diego Padres
*
David Newell
David Alexander Newell (born November 24, 1938) is an American television actor known primarily for his portrayal of Mr. McFeely, the delivery man on ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood''. He also worked in the public relations department of Fred R ...
, judge
*
Frances Northcutt, technical staff on NASA's
Apollo Program, women’s and
abortion rights
Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pre ...
advocate
*
Dora Olivo, former state representative
*
Larry Phillips, Republican 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 ...
since 2003 from
Sherman
Sherman most commonly refers to:
*Sherman (name), a surname and given name (and list of persons with the name)
** William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891), American Civil War General
*M4 Sherman, a tank
Sherman may also refer to:
Places United St ...
*
Ted Poe
Lloyd Theodore Poe (born September 10, 1948) is an American politician who represented Texas's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2005 to 2019. Poe was the first Republican to represent the 2nd district. ...
, Congressman
*
Michael H. Schneider Sr., judge
*
Ruby Kless Sondock, first female
Texas Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX) is the 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 Texas Court of ...
Justice
*
Star Jones
Starlet Marie Jones (born March 24, 1962), better known as Star Jones, is an American lawyer, journalist, television personality, fashion designer, author, and women's and diversity advocate. She is best known as one of the first co-hosts on the ...
, television personality, lawyer and author; former co-host, ''
The View'', former Assistant District Attorney in New York
*
Olen Underwood, Judge
*
Richard Waites, President/CEO of The Advocates, an international trial consulting firm
*
Royce West
Royce Barry West (born September 26, 1952)
is an American politician who serves as a member of the Texas Senate, representing the Dallas-based 23rd District.
Early life and education
West was born in Annapolis, Maryland. He earned a Bachelo ...
, state senator
*
Randa Williams
Randa Williams (née Duncan, born 1960/1961), is an American billionaire heir to the Duncan family fortune (through Enterprise Products, which remains under family control). She and her 3 siblings each hold an 8% stake in the family business.
Bio ...
, billionaire
*
John Whitmire
John Harris Whitmire (born August 13, 1949) is an American attorney and politician who is the longest-serving current member of the Texas State Senate. Since 1983, he has represented District 15, which includes much of northern Houston, Texas ...
, state senator
*
Samuel F. Wright, Washington DC-based attorney active in veterans issues; lobbied on behalf of the fraudulent
U.S. Navy Veterans Association
*
Juan F. Vasquez, judge at
United States Tax Court
The United States Tax Court (in case citations, T.C.) is a federal trial court of record established by Congress under Article I of the U.S. Constitution, section 8 of which provides (in part) that the Congress has the power to "constitute Trib ...
*
Philip D. Zelikow, executive director of the 9/11 Commission and
Counselor of the United States Department of State
The Counselor of the United States Department of State is a position within the United States Department of State that serves the Secretary of State as a special advisor and consultant on major problems of foreign policy and who provides guidanc ...
*
Tony Buzbee
Anthony Glenn Buzbee is an American lawyer and politician. In 2019, Buzbee ran for mayor of Houston, Texas, but lost to incumbent Sylvester Turner.
Early life and education
Buzbee grew up in Atlanta, Texas, on a farm with his parents and three ...
, Houston trial attorney, and member of the
Texas A&M University System Board of Regents
*
Phyllis Frye
Phyllis Randolph Frye is an Associate Judge for the Municipal Courts in the US city of Houston, Texas. Frye is the first openly transgender judge appointed in the world.
Biography
Phyllis Frye, born circa 1946, is a transgender woman. She ...
, the first transgender judge in the United States
*
Cody Vasut
Cody Thane Vasut (born August 13, 1987) is an American politician. He has represented the 25th District in the Texas House of Representatives since 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Vasut also works as an attorney.
Early life, education, ...
, state representative
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houston Law Center, University Of
Law schools in Texas
Law Center
Educational institutions established in 1947
1947 establishments in Texas