Category: Law School News

  • Portrait of Lei Zhang, wearing glasses and a blue shirt with a gray jacket and striped tie.
    Tarlton Law Library Director Barbara Bintliff is used to monitoring the churn of daily news for stories about the law and the American legal system. That’s because, when a topic reaches the front-page headlines of major news outlets, it’s predictable that Tarlton’s librarians will start getting inquiries—from students, faculty, and even the general public—wanting to […]
  • Portrait of Cynthia Akatugba, wearing a pink shirt with a bow on it.
    The 2020 Mentor of the Year is Cynthia Akatugba ’13, an Assistant Attorney General with the General Litigation Division of the Texas Attorney General’s office. Ms. Akatugba, whose name was put forth by her mentee Anais Stevens ’22, was selected from a group of nearly three dozen nominees. “Every year, we receive the most incredible, […]
  • A mentor and mentee laughing together at the mentoring program Reception in 2017.
    Six years ago, Texas Law Dean Ward Farnsworth asked Rémi Ratliff, a Class of ’95 alumna with fourteen years of experience in the school’s career services office, to head up the new mentoring program he was going to establish. His charge to her, she recalls, was, “just make our mentoring program the best in the […]
  • Prof. Richard Albert, wearing a blue and white striped tie
    Richard Albert, the William Stamps Farish Professor in Law as well as a Professor of Government, is taking on an additional role: Director of the Program of Constitutional Studies. The Program brings together scholars across the University in the world’s leading center for the study of constitutionalism, which Prof. Albert describes below as “a multidisciplinary, […]
  • Archive of a passport that was issued less than a year after the birth of the Republic of Texas.
    Did you know that October is National Archives Month? Organized by the National Archives—the official keeper of our nation’s most important documents and materials—this month of activities is designed to connect citizens to history, and to build the habit of exploring amazing collections in archives of all kinds. Nowhere is the celebration ringing truer than […]
  • Portrait of Prof. Lee Kovarsky
    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 […]
  • Graphic of the American Bar Association's Mental Health Day, showing a silhouetted head in blue and a ribbon in green
    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 […]
  • Jessica Cisneros, Texas Law Class of 2018, speaking at the 2018 Latinx Graduation
    Texas Law is a proud part of The University of Texas at Austin, and that’s why we’re pleased to share the news that the university has received the coveted Seal of Excelencia from Excelencia in Education, the premier “authority in efforts related to Latino student success.” The news was announced by U.T. Austin president Jay […]
  • Portrait of Prof. Steve Collis
    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 […]
  • Portrait of John Wells Fainter
    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 […]
  • Archival image of Heman Sweatt
    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 […]
  • Two computer screens, one showing a Zoom screen, and one showing the Freshlaw Orientation slide, in a room full of students at orientation.
    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 […]