| University of Houston Law Center | |
| Motto | "Lex" Latin: "Law"[1] |
|---|---|
| Parent school | University of Houston |
| Established | 1947 |
| School type | Public |
| Dean | Raymond T. Nimmer |
| Location | Houston, Texas, United States |
| Enrollment | 948[2] |
| Faculty | 157[3] |
| USNWR ranking | 56 |
| Bar pass rate | 91.34%[4] |
| Annual tuition | Resident full-time: $21,029 Resident part-time: $15,125 Non-resident full-time: $28,439 Non-resident part-time: $20,065[5] |
| Website | law.uh.edu |
The University of Houston Law Center is the law school of the University of Houston in Houston, Houston. Founded in 1947, the Law Center is one of 12 colleges of the University of Houston, a state university. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. The law school's facilities are located on the university's 667-acre campus in southeast Houston.
The Law Center awards the Juris Doctor (J.D.) and Master of Laws (LL.M) degrees. The law school ranks 56th in the 2011 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings.[6]
The dean of the center is Raymond T. Nimmer.
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The University of Houston Law Center was founded in 1947 as the University of Houston School of Law, with an inaugural class consisting of 28 students and a single professor.[7] 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.[7] The College of Law moved into its current facilities—located at the northeast corner of campus—shortly following its groundbreaking in 1969.[7]
In 2005, the University of Houston Law Center opened its facilities to Loyola University New Orleans College of Law after it was severely damaged in Hurricane Katrina, hosting 320 of the Loyola's 800 students taught by 31 Loyola law professors, allowing the Loyola students' education to continue uninterrupted.[8]
The law school ranks 56th in the 2011 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. [9] U.S. News also ranks the school in three specialties: sixth for health care law, sixth for intellectual property law, and eighth among part-time programs.[10]
In 2010, the school ranked 34th for number of alumni included on the Super Lawyers list.[11] The National Law Journal reported that the Law Center ranked 37th for the percentage of its graduates hired as first-year associates at the nation's 250 largest law firms in 2009.[12]
According to the 2011 ABA-LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools published by the American Bar Association and Law School Admissions Council, the law school reported a total enrollment of 948 students.[13] The law school employs 157 faculty and administrators: 50 full-time; 11 "other full-time"; four deans, librarians, and others who teach; and 82 part-time.[14]
The school received 3,652 applications and made 903 offers of admission, with 256 matriculating. The median undergraduate GPA among all students at the school is 3.34, with the 25th percentile at 3.08 and 75th percentile at 3.62. The median LSAT score among all students was 161, with the 25th percentile at 159 and the 75th percentile at 163.[15]
Of the most recent graduating class, nine months after graduation some 96.0 percent employed, 1.0 percent were pursuing other graduate degrees, and 2.3 percent were unemployed. Of those employed, 57.6 percent work in law firms, 21.2 percent in business and industry, 10.1 percent in government, 4.2 percent in public interest, 3.8 percent as judicial clerks, and 2.1 percent in academia.[16] Some 90.6 percent of graduates were employed in Texas, while the remainder were employed in 14 other states or in other countries (0.7 percent).[17] The average school bar examination passage rate among those reporting was 91.34 percent, which is 6.80 percent higher than the state average.[18]
Of the 948 students, 467 (49.3 percent) received some grant funds. The median grant amount was $5,000.[19] The student body was 69.3 percent white, 10.2 percent Asian American, 8.0 African American, 5.2 percent Mexican American, 4.2 percent other Hispanic, 1.4 percent from foreign nations, 0.4 percent American Indian, 0.2 percent Puerto Rican, and 0.8 percent unknown.[20]
Annual tuition for the full-time program is $21,029 for Texas residents and $28,439 for non-Texas residents. Annual tuition for the part-time program is $15,125 for Texas residents and $20,065 for non-Texas residents.[21][22]
The J.D. program is 90 semester hours. Entering classes are generally divided into three full-time day sessions of some 70 students each and one part-time evening section of some 55 students for first-year courses.[23]
The Law Center includes six LL.M. programs[24]
The Law Center offers seven combined and concurrent degree programs in conjunction with other schools: the J.D./M.D. (with the Baylor College of Medicine), the J.D./M.B.A. (with the University of Houston's C. T. Bauer College of Business), the J.D./M.A. in History (with the University of Houston Department of History); the J.D./M.S.W. (with the University of Houston's Graduate School of Social Work); the J.D./M.P.H. (with the University of Texas School of Public Health); and the J.D./Ph.D. in Medical Humanities (with the University of Texas Medical Branch).[26]
The Law Center has eight special programs and institutes:[27]
Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law
The Law Center offers several law clinics 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.[28]
The O'Quinn Law Library is the school's law library.[29] The director of the library is Spencer Simons.[30] The library has some 435,000 volumes.[31] The library has three special collections:[32]
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 (FEMA) gave $21.4 million to rebuilt the libraries collection, which was 75 percent of the replacement cost, and the collection has since been rebuilt.[36][37]
The Law Center publishes six law journals.[38] The Houston Law Review, established in 1963, is the school's main law journal.[39]
The five specialty journals are the Environmental and Energy Law and Policy Journal (environmental law, energy law; founded in 2005),[40] the Houston Business and Tax Law Journal (business law, tax law; founded in 2001),[41] the Houston Journal of Health Law and Policy (health care law),[42] the Houston Journal of International Law (international law),[43] and the Journal of Consumer & Commercial Law (commercial law).[44]