Mission Statement

There are two separate but interrelated components to this primary mission. First, the School of Law endeavors to enable intellectually gifted men and women to develop fully their theoretical and practical knowledge of the law, and their capabilities for significant leadership roles in the legal profession, in business and industry, in government service, and in the larger human community. Second, the School of Law seeks to develop in its students a capacity for critical ethical and moral judgment, and a lifelong commitment to action in the service of others with a view toward improving the administration of justice and the well being of all persons in our society.

Throughout the process of implementing these two components of its primary mission, the School of Law endeavors to develop in the lives of its students, its faculty, and its staff, an attitude of openness toward ideas, a scholarly spirit of genuine intellectual inquiry, and a welcoming affirmation of and support for the diversity of ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, religious, and political viewpoints encountered in our academic community, our nation, and throughout the world.

To accomplish this primary mission the School of Law provides an outstanding faculty and places heavy emphasis on excellence in teaching, so that our students will be thoroughly trained in basic legal doctrine, substantive law, effective legal analysis, and those advocacy skills that are required for the effective practice of law. Beyond endeavoring to provide mere technical proficiency in the law, however, our faculty members actively seek to impart to our students the conviction that our nation needs the services of persons of the highest intellectual and moral character in the legal profession, and the expectation that our graduates will be the persons of that nature who will use their skills for the improvement of society.

It is a secondary, but critically important, mission of the School of Law to engage in productive, effective scholarship both within our own academic community and in the larger academic community throughout our state and nation. The School of Law is committed to the study of law as one intellectual discipline among many in the University, and our faculty seeks continuing involvement in scholarly research, publication, and interdisciplinary work throughout the entire range of intellectual pursuits.

Individual law faculty members engage in teaching, research, and publication with faculty members in other colleges and schools within the University, including the School of Medicine, the College of Education, the College of Business Administration, the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, and the Graduate School at Texas Tech University. The School of Law, in cooperation with other colleges and schools of the University, offers joint degree programs leading to the degrees of Doctor of Jurisprudence and Master of Business Administration, Doctor of Jurisprudence and Master of Science in Agricultural Economics, Doctor of Jurisprudence and Master of Public Administration, and Doctor of Jurisprudence and Master of Science in Taxation. In addition, law faculty members regularly serve on doctoral dissertation committees with faculty members from other colleges and schools in the University, and thus contribute to the intellectual work and scholarship of other academic disciplines while improving and expanding their own knowledge.

The School of Law is involved in several international programs, including our ABA approved summer law institute at the Universidad de Guanajuato, México, and our summer law institute at the Universidad de Guadalajara, México. In addition, we will also be involved in a continuing legal education program in Mexico with the Universidad Autónoma de México. The faculty of the School of Law is fully committed to active participation in programs and possibilities available in the international legal community.

Finally, it is a part of the mission of the School of Law to render public service. In a variety of ways the School of Law makes its resources available to courts, government agencies, public interest entities, and other groups in the community on a regular ongoing basis. Law faculty members are involved in rendering legal assistance to the poor and in providing pro bono representation in public interest lawsuits. The School of Law participates in and is a part of The Institute of Environmental and Human Health (TIEHH), a joint venture of Texas Tech University and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center to assess toxic chemical impacts on the environment and on humans. Participation in the work of the institute enables law faculty members to render significant public service of regional, national, and international importance in the areas of environmental protection law and technology. Law faculty members have organized and participated in institutes and seminars for the training of municipal and county judges in the State of Texas, and have authored and published materials for those institutes and seminars. In addition, law faculty members and administrators also hold elective and appointive positions in the State Bar of Texas, participate regularly in the work of the American Bar Association, and hold membership in and serve with the American Law Institute. In all of these ways the School of Law implements its commitment to public service and the use of knowledge for the improvement of the administration of justice and the improvement of the human condition. By its involvement in public service, the School of Law also demonstrates for our students the importance of this aspect of a lawyer's professional functioning, and endeavors to impart to them an appreciation of the lawyer's obligation to render public service for the betterment of the community throughout his or her professional life.

These missions of the School of Law are based upon our conviction that legal education can be a significant resource for the improvement of the lives of all members of our society, and the concomitant belief that our vocation of providing high quality legal education to men and women who are committed to public service and the betterment of our society is one of the most worthy tasks in which legal scholars and academic institutions can be engaged.