Category: Law School News

  • 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 […]
  • Portrait of Prof. Steve Collis
    The University of Texas School of Law is opening the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center, dedicated to advancing discussion, education, and scholarship on the First Amendment. Among the center’s main projects will be a new experiential education opportunity, the Law and Religion Clinic. It is the first clinic at a university in the state dedicated to representing […]
  • Portrait of Robert Manley Parker
    The legal community and Texas Law are mourning the loss of Judge Robert Manley Parker ’64. Judge Parker was a double Longhorn, earning his B.B.A. in 1961 and his law degree in 1964. After graduating from Texas Law and spending a year in Washington D.C., Parker returned to East Texas to begin his legendary career […]