Law School Strategic Plan
Strategic Priority 1: Educate and Empower a Dynamic Student Body
Law School Goals:
- Increase the academic credentials of the incoming class through dynamic recruitment, outreach, and expanded scholarship opportunities.
- Strengthen student success and well-being supports, including enhanced academic support, mentoring programs, mental-health and wellness services, and enriched bar preparation programming.
- Expand experiential and practice-ready learning opportunities, including clinics, externships, and skills-based coursework that foster readiness for the legal profession.
- Integrate emerging technologies, including generative artificial intelligence, into the curriculum and broader law school experience to ensure students develop the competence to use such tools efficiently and ethically in legal practice.
- Cultivate a professional community grounded in ethics and professionalism, fostering a supportive and respectful environment for students, faculty, and staff.
- Provide meaningful professional development for students, including networking with alumni and guided career-development pathways.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
The Law School aspires to:
- Increase median LSAT and GPA of entering classes while maintaining access and affordability.
- Increase first-time bar passage rate and maintain performance above the statewide average for Texas law schools.
- Increase ultimate (two-year) bar passage rate.
- Improve 10-month post-graduation employment outcomes.
- Increase participation in experiential learning opportunities (clinics, externships, advocacy, and skills courses).
- Expand student wellness, mentoring, and professional development programming.
High-Impact Practices
- Clinics and Externships Program
The Law School’s clinics and externships provide immersive, supervised practice experiences that integrate doctrinal learning with real-world legal problem-solving while serving unmet legal needs in the region. - First-Year Legal Practice Program
A required, multi-semester curriculum focused on legal research, writing, analysis, professionalism, and advocacy that ensures every student develops foundational lawyering competencies early in their legal education. - Advocacy and Skills Training Programs
Nationally recognized advocacy and legal writing programs that provide high-level experiential learning through competitions, simulations, and skills-based instruction.
Highlighted Initiatives
- Enhanced Bar Preparation Program
A comprehensive bar success framework that integrates academic support, data-informed interventions, and individualized preparation strategies throughout the curriculum. - Student Wellness and Professional Development
Expanded wellness programming, mentoring, and professionalism initiatives designed to support student success, resilience, and ethical lawyering. - Responsible Integration of Generative AI
Curricular and co-curricular initiatives that introduce students to the ethical and effective use of emerging legal technologies, including generative artificial intelligence, in modern legal practice.
Strategic Priority 2: Develop, Catalyze, and Promote Innovative Research & Creative Activities
(Adapted from TTU Priority 2 with emphasis on legal scholarship and faculty development)
Law School Goals:
- Recruit, support, and retain an excellent faculty with a wide range of experience and expertise, including strategic hiring and professional development that promote scholarly influence and teaching excellence.
- Advance the quality, reach, and impact of faculty scholarship by increasing faculty publications and presentations of scholarly work.
- Strengthen the resources and systems that promote faculty research and scholarly productivity, including an increase in faculty scholarship funding, robust professional development, and effective communication of faculty achievements.
- Promote a scholarly culture that values doctrinal, theoretical, empirical, interdisciplinary, and practice-oriented legal research, aligning with both AAU-relevant definitions and the unique contributions of legal academia.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
The Law School aspires to:
- Increase the percentage of faculty publishing annually.
- Increase the number of faculty publications, including high-prestige law review placements.
- Increase citations to faculty scholarship.
- Increase funding for faculty grants and scholarship bonuses.
- Increase faculty participation in scholarly presentations at regional, national, and international conferences.
High-Impact Practices
- Faculty Scholarship Support and Development
Structured support for scholarly productivity, including increased funding, and mentoring and professional development aligned with legal academia’s research models. - Scholarly Symposia and Conferences
Faculty-led symposia and workshops that convene scholars, practitioners, and judges to advance discourse on critical legal and policy issues.
Highlighted Initiatives
- Faculty Research Visibility and Communication Strategy
Targeted efforts to amplify faculty scholarship through institutional communications, digital platforms, and engagement with the bench, bar, and public audiences. - Interdisciplinary and Practice-Engaged Scholarship
Encouragement and recognition of doctrinal, empirical, interdisciplinary, and practice-oriented research that aligns with the Law School’s mission and institutional priorities.
Strategic Priority 3: Transform Lives & Communities through Outreach & Engaged Scholarship
(Aligned with TTU Priority 3 but tailored to legal education and service)
Law School Goals:
- Expand student participation in community-engaged legal service, including pro bono initiatives, clinics, and community-partner collaborations focused on unmet legal needs in West Texas.
- Grow mutually beneficial partnerships with courts, law firms, government agencies, nonprofits, and bar associations to provide student opportunities and advance community legal needs.
- Promote faculty and student leadership in the legal profession, supporting service on committees, boards, and bar organizations at the local, state, and national levels.
- Showcase the Law School’s contributions to legal reform, community leadership, and public service through strategic communications and outreach events.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
The Law School aspires to:
- Increase student participation in pro bono and community-engaged legal service.
- Increase the number of community partnerships supporting clinics, externships, and service initiatives.
- Increase faculty service and leadership in the legal profession at the local, state, and national levels.
- Track and report community-engaged programs and events annually.
High-Impact Practices
- Pro Bono and Community Legal Service
Structured opportunities for students to provide meaningful legal assistance to underserved populations while developing professional responsibility and civic identity. - Professional Leadership and Bar Engagement
Faculty and student leadership in bar associations, courts, and professional organizations that extend the Law School’s impact beyond campus.
Highlighted Initiatives
- West Texas Community Legal Partnerships
Collaborations with courts, legal aid organizations, nonprofits, and governmental entities that expand access to justice and experiential learning opportunities. - Law Reform-Focused Public Programming
Lectures, panels, and outreach events that showcase the Law School’s commitment to public service, ethics, and the rule of law.
Strategic Priority 4: Strengthen Institutional Reputation, Resources & Operational Excellence
Law School Goals:
- Enhance the law school’s regional and national reputation, including improved bar passage, employment outcomes, and U.S. News metrics.
- Expand financial resources, including increased private fundraising, scholarship endowments, and strategic use of budgetary allocations to support mission-critical initiatives.
- Strengthen alumni relations, promoting sustained engagement and support that benefits students, faculty, and institutional growth.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
The Law School aspires to:
- Improve national reputation indicators, including U.S. News metrics.
- Increase private fundraising and scholarship endowments.
- Increase alumni engagement and participation.
- Sustain strong faculty and staff retention and operational effectiveness.
High-Impact Practices
- Alumni Engagement and Professional Networks
Ongoing alumni involvement in mentoring, recruitment, career placement, and institutional advancement. - Data-Informed Strategic Planning and Assessment
Continuous assessment practices that use internal data to guide decision-making, resource allocation, and program improvement.
Highlighted Initiatives
- Targeted Fundraising and Scholarship Expansion
Focused efforts to increase scholarship support and align donor priorities with student success and institutional goals. - Strategic Communications and Reputation Building
Coordinated storytelling and outreach that highlight student success, faculty achievement, and the Law School’s contributions to the profession and community.
School of Law
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Address
Texas Tech University School of Law, 3311 18th Street, Lubbock, Texas 79409-0004 -
Phone
806.742.3791 -
Email
law@ttu.edu