Law School News

A new report from the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice finds that Austin’s Latinx construction workers have suffered outsized consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic because of the city’s economic growth and related political decisions, including a mandate to allow construction work to continue during the coronavirus pandemic’s outset. According to […]

Magda Herrera is joining Texas Law as Chief Development Officer starting on January 4, 2021. It’s a true homecoming for the Double Longhorn who graduated from Texas Law in 2005 after earning her Bachelor of Arts from UT Austin in 2002, majoring in Government. She was a Public Interest Law Fellow in 2003 and 2004, […]

(UPDATE: Gifts may be made to the Judge Thomas M. Reavley Endowed Presidential Scholarship.) The Hon. Thomas M. Reavley, who sat on the Texas Supreme Court before his appointment to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States, and who also found time for three separate stints as an Adjunct Professor at Texas Law, […]

Julius Whittier—a larger-than-life trailblazer as Texas’ first Black letterman, a member of the 1970 National Championship team, a Texas Law alum, and a triple Longhorn—has been honored with a larger-than-life bronze statue in the north end of Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. The 12-and-a-half-foot tall bronze sculpture, depicting Whittier from his playing days with his […]

Lee Kovarsky joins the Texas Law faculty as the Bryant Smith Chair in Law. A leading scholar of the death penalty and habeas corpus, his teaching and writing focus on civil and criminal procedure, criminal justice, federal jurisdiction, and conflicts of law. A native Texan, Prof. Kovarsky received his B.A. in Political Science and Economics […]

The American Bar Association is asking law schools and law students to take time this week to focus on mental well-being, self-care, and discussion of issues known to cause emotional distress for many. In that spirit, they’ve announced a series of events, starting on Thursday, October 8, to commemorate Law Student Mental Health Day, a […]

New clinical professor Steve Collis joins the Texas Law faculty as the founding director of the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center and the school’s new Law and Religion Clinic. His expertise on religion and the law has made him a sought-after speaker for both academic and lay audiences all across the United States, including diplomats from […]

John Wells Fainter, a double longhorn who dedicated over fifty years of service to Texas, passed away on August 29, 2020. He received his B.A. in 1962 and graduated from Texas Law in 1963. Fainter has served the state as an investigator for the State Securities Board, an Assistant Attorney General, the First Assistant Attorney […]

The story begins on a Tuesday: February 26, 1946, when Heman Marion Sweatt appeared at the Office of the Registrar of The University of Texas at Austin, seeking admission to the School of Law. Sweatt, a native of Houston’s Third Ward, had been a standout student at Wiley College, the historically black, private college in […]

On the eve of the unofficial start of the academic year—Freshlaw Orientation, when all new students first arrive on campus to meet one another and see what law school’s all about—there was the usual excitement that attends this annual ritual. “It’s always my favorite time,” said Brandi Welch, Texas Law’s Director of Academic Advising and […]