South Texas College of Law â€" Houston, is a private American Bar Association (ABA) accredited law school and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). Located in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States it was founded in 1923â€"the oldest law school in Houston and the third-oldest in Texas.12
South Texas College of Law Houston has a faculty of 59 full-time professors and 40 adjunct professors.
US News consistently ranks the South Texas trial advocacy program in the top ten; in 2010, South Texas advocacy was ranked third in the country by U.S. News in Trial Advocacy. South Texas College of Law Houston holds over 121 National and International Advocacy Championships, more than any other law school in the nation, with the second most titles held by a law school with less than 40 National Championships.
According to South Texas' 2013 ABA-required disclosures, 61.2% of the Class of 2013 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation.
Student programs
South Texas offers a "3 and 3" program with Texas A&M University. This program makes it possible to obtain a bachelor's degree and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) in six years. South Texas College of Law is also part of a consortium of four independent ABA and AALS accredited American law schoolsâ€"California Western School of Law, New England School of Law, and William Mitchell College of Law. The Consortium for Innovative Legal Education (CILE), combines resources designed to enhance and strengthen the educational mission of each school separately and all of them collectively. This partnership provides access to educational programs on a national and international basis. Students at South Texas can study abroad in London, Ireland, Malta, the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Turkey, Chile and Mexico.
Rankings
In 2005, U.S. News & World Report ranked the Trial Advocacy Program at South Texas number one in the nation, and it consistently ranks among the top 10 every year.3 4 In 2006, South Texas won the Association of Trial Lawyers of America national mock trial competition, beating over 260 schools. In 2007, South Texas won the National White Collar Crime Invitational Mock Trial Competition hosted by Georgetown Law School. As of August 2011, South Texas has won 108 national titles. The school's most recent win was at the Judge John R. Brown Admiralty Moot Court Tournament in 2011.
As of 2016, South Texas College of Law Houston's rank is unpublished in the US News Rankings of Best Law Schools.
South Texas College of Law Houston publishes several student-edited journals of legal scholarship, including Corporate Counsel Review, Currents: International Trade Law Journal, and South Texas Law Review. It is currently not ranked on the U.S. News Report for Best Law Schools in the nation.
Employment
According to South Texas' official 2013 ABA-required disclosures, 61.2% of the Class of 2013 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. South Texas' Law School Transparency under-employment score is 13.6%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2013 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 South Texas for the 2013-2014 academic year is $50,010. The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $186,530.
Average student loan debt
The average Class of 2009 graduate had $104,862 of student loan debt.
Community resources
South Texas sponsors the "Direct Representation Clinics," which provide legal representation to low-income residents of Harris County, Texas in the areas of family law, probate, estate planning, and guardianship cases. South Texas is also the first Texas law school to provide $400 each month toward student-loan indebtedness for its alumni working for non-profit legal-aid organizations that provide services to the poor.
Appeals courts
The Texas First Court of Appeals and the Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals were located in the 1307 San Jacinto Building on the campus of the South Texas College of Law; the first court occupied the 10th floor while the 14th court occupied the 11th floor. Since September 3, 2011, the courts are now located in the 1911 Harris County courthouse.
Attempt to merge with Texas A&M University
In 1998, Texas A&M University tried to merge with South Texas College of Law Houston (at that time, called South Texas College of Law) under a public/private partnership. Under the proposal, the law school would have remained a private school, but would have been branded as the Texas A&M Law Center and would have awarded law degrees under the A&M seal. The deal went sour after a lengthy legal fight with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the governing body of the state's public institutions. The courts ruled that the schools had failed to obtain the Board's approval before entering into the agreement. The University of Houston and other institutions voiced concern about the partnership. In 2013, Texas A&M University entered into a similar arrangement with the Texas Wesleyan School of Law in Fort Worth, Texas, thereby creating the Texas A&M University School of Law.
Litigation over name change
Until mid-2016, the law school was called "South Texas College of Law." On June 22, 2016, the day on which South Texas College of Law announced a name change to "Houston College of Law," the University of Houston (which has its College of Law within the University of Houston Law Center) announced that the University was "concerned about the significant confusion this creates in the marketplace and will take any and all appropriate legal actions to protect the interests of our institution, our brand and our standing in the communities we serve." The University of Houston System filed a lawsuit on June 27, 2016, in U.S. Federal district court in Houston. On October 14, 2016, the U.S. District Court issued a preliminary injunction requiring that South Texas College of law stop using the name "Houston College of Law," pending further developments in the case.
On November 7, 2016, the dean of the law school announced that the name would be changed to "South Texas College of Law Houston."
Notable alumni
- Richard Anderson, CEO of Amtrak, former CEO of Delta Airlines
- Chris Bell, former US Congressman
- Briscoe Cain, incoming Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 128 in Harris County; attorney in Deer Park, Texas
- Robert R. Casey, former US Congressman
- John Culberson, US Congressman
- John P. Devine, Texas Supreme Court Justice, Place 4, since 2013
- Robert Eckels, former state representative and Harris County county judge
- Brian Eppes, former television actor
- Joseph Gutheinz, attorney who has investigated stolen and missing moon rocks
- Eva Guzman, Texas Supreme Court Justice
- Charles Holcomb, judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, 2001 to 2010
- Joan Huffman, member of the Texas State Senate from Harris County since 2008; former state district court judge
- Patrica R. "Pat" Lykos, former Harris County District Attorney
- David M. Medina, former Texas Supreme Court Justice
- Sam Nuchia, former Chief of the Houston Police Department
- Reed O'Connor, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas
- Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Founder of American Atheists
- Dan Rather, former CBS News anchor (Did not graduate)
- Leighton Schubert, member of the Texas House of Representatives since 2015 for District 13; attorney in Caldwell, Texas
- Jim Sharp, state court judge in Houston, 2009-2014
- Robert Talton, member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1993 to 2009; candidate for Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court in Republican primary on March 4, 2014
- Austin Walton, certified NBA agent and owner of Walton Sports Management Group
- Kelly Siegler, former prominent Harris County Prosecutor and star of "Cold Justice" on Oxygen Network
Notes
- ^1 Source: Cambridge Study Abroad Program
- ^2 Source: The Handbook of Texas Online
- ^3 Source: South Texas College of Law, "News and Events"
- ^4 Source: U.S. News and World Report: Americas Best Graduate Schools: Law Specialties: Trial Advocacy
References
External links
- Official website
- Digital Collections at The Fred Parks Law Library