According to UHLC's official 2022 ABA-required disclosures, 92.2% of the Class of 2022 was employed and 86.34% obtained full-time, long-term, bar admission required or JD-required employment 10 months after graduation.[4]
The University of Houston Law Center was founded in 1947 as the University of Houston College of Law, with an inaugural class consisting of 28 students and a single professor. 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. The College of Law moved to the northeast corner of campus—shortly following its groundbreaking in 1969[5] and relocated to the newly established five-story, 180,000- square-foot John M. O'Quinn Law Building in the summer of 2022. [6]
In 1969, the college was renamed the Bates College of Law for Col. William B. Bates, former member of the University of Houston System Board of Regents and College of Law founding committee.[7] Since 1982, the College of Law has been commonly referred to as the University of Houston Law Center.[8]
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.[9]
Rankingsedit
In 2024, Law.com named UHLC as #23 Go-To Law School in the nation based on graduates gaining employment in the top 100 law firms in the country. [10]
PreLaw magazine recognized UHLC in nine categories in 2023: Best Value Law School, top Business Law School, Top School for Criminal Law, Top School for Family Law, Top School for Health Law, Top School for Alternative Dispute Resolution, Top School for Intellectual Property, Top School for Advocacy and among the Most Diverse Law Schools.[11]
Factsedit
As of fall 2022, the law school reported a total enrollment of 617 students and employs a total of 273 full- and part-time faculty on staff. The student-faculty ratio is 6.2:1.
For the class of 2023, the school received 3,291 applications, with 233 full-time and 29
part-time students matriculating. The median undergraduate GPA among all students at the school is 3.72, and the median LSAT score was 161, the highest to date. The class of 2023 is composed of 44.3% minority and 53% female. [12]
Annual tuition for the 2023–2024 full-time program is $34,942 for Texas residents and $50,132 for non-Texas residents. Annual tuition for the part-time program is $31,079 for Texas residents and $44,309 for non-Texas residents. [13]
Academicsedit
The J.D. program is 90 semester hours. Entering classes are generally divided into three full-time day sessions of some 60 students each and one part-time evening section of some 35 students for first-year courses.[14]
The Law Center has special programs and institutes[15]
Blakely Advocacy Institute
Center for Children, Law & Policy
Criminal Justice Institute
The Environment, Energy, & Natural Resource Center
Health Law & Policy Institute
Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law
The Law Center offers several law clinics for upper-division students: the Appellate Civil Rights Clinic, Civil Justice Clinic, Military Justice Clinic, Entertainment Law Clinic, Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic, Immigration Clinic, Mediation Clinic and the Texas Innocence Network.[16]
University of Houston Law Libraryedit
The director of the law library is Amanda Watson.[17] The library has some 435,000 volumes.[15] The library has three special collections:[18]
The Frankel Rare Books Collection is a closed-stack collection of rare and out of print books and documents as well as publications of the Law Center faculty.[19]
The Judge Brown Admiralty Collection is an admiralty and maritime law collection. Established mainly from an endowment by Houston admiralty lawyers, the collection is named in honor of Judge John Robert Brown, a Houston admiralty attorney who served on the Fifth Circuit. The entire collection was lost during Tropical Storm Allison, but was rebuilt through the Albertus book replacement project, completed in 2007.[20]
The Foreign & International Law Collection, which includes books and other documents on Mexican law.[21]
Tropical Storm Allison flooded the library's former location 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 rebuild the library collection, which was 75 percent of the replacement cost. The collection has since been rebuilt.[22][23]
According to UHLC's official 2022 ABA-required disclosures, 92.2% of the class of 2022 was employed and 86.34% obtained full-time, long-term, bar admission required or JD-required employment 10 months after graduation.[30]
Costsedit
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at UHLC for the 2022–2023 academic year is $54,633.86 for a resident living on campus and $69,451.86 for a nonresident.[38] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $197,267 for residents and $239,808 for nonresidents.
Notable alumniedit
Fortunato Benavides, judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
^"University of Houston Through Time". University of Houston Library.
^"UH Law Center welcomes back students in Texas' newly established law school building". University of Houston Law Center.
^Perin, Monica (May 11, 1997). "UH Law Center looks back at 50 years of accomplishment". Houston Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Archived from the original on March 21, 2004. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
^Banks, Gabrielle (August 26, 2016). "Courtroom showdown: Houston law schools battle over name". Houston Chronicle.
^Willhoft, Ray (2006-01-06). "The Compassion of Neighbors, The Devotion of Community: Exiled School of Law Thrives During Challenging Times". Loyola University New Orleans. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
^"UH Law Center among top 25 Go-To Law Schools for Big Law jobs". UH Law Center.
^"National Jurist's preLaw Magazine Winter 2024 edition". National Jurist.
^"University of Houston Law Center: Law School J. D. Program Overview". University of Houston Law Center.
^ ab"About the University of Houston Law Center". University of Houston Law Center.
^"Discover the Clinics at University of Houston Law". University of Houston Law Center.
^"University of Houston Law Center Faculty". University of Houston Law Center.
^"O'Quinn Law Library". University of Houston Law Center.
^"Frankel Rare Books Collection". University of Houston Law Library.
^"Judge Brown Admiralty Collection". University of Houston Law Library.
^"Foreign & International Law Research Guides and Bibliographies". University of Houston Law Center.
^"University Of Houston O'Quinn Law Library Eligible For $21.4 Million In FEMA Funds To Replace Books" (Press release). Federal Emergency Management Agency. 2001-11-26. Archived from the original on 2012-02-18. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
^Kopatic, Alex (2002). "O'Quinn Law Library Cracks The Books on $42 Million Albertus Project" (PDF). University of Houston Law Center. [permanent dead link]
^"Journals and Publications". University of Houston Law Center.