The Law School

University Board of Regents, who saw a need for a state-supported law school in the West Texas area. The Board appointed the Law School's first dean in 1966, and in 1967 the first class of 72 entering students enrolled. In the fall of 1998 total enrollment was 619.

The Law School was approved by the American Bar Association in August 1970 and is fully accredited by the Supreme Court of Texas (1968) and by the Association of American Law Schools 1969).

The objective of the faculty is to train men and women for the practice of law anywhere in the United States, whether as advocate, counselor, judge, or law teacher, in accordance with the highest traditions of professional responsibility. At the same time, the use of law as a stepping-stone to a career in government, politics, or business is recognized. The curriculum and the instruction methods are designed to develop in the students their highest potential, whatever their reasons for studying the law.

In addition to classrooms and seminar rooms, the Law School building has an expansive law library, courtroom, computer laboratory, office of career services, lounge area, snack area, locker room, student organization offices, and faculty and administrative offices.

The law library features a 13,000 square foot underground addition and a number of student carrels fitted for computer terminals.

The Law Library

Law libraries figure prominently in legal education, and the facilities of the Texas Tech Law Library provide students wide-ranging access to legal information resources. Over 200 study carrels in the library give law students access to computer equipment and facilities unparalleled in the nation. From one location, a student may perform legal research, word processing, e-mail, Internet-based research and design, and a number of other tasks in an office-like setting.

The Law Library subscribes to LEXIS and WESTLAW, computer-assisted legal research databases. These services feature access to federal and state cases, statutes, and administrative agency regulations and decisions, as well as selected foreign and international law. The databases also include legal periodical articles, treatises, newsletters, indexes, and case citators. Apart from LEXIS and WESTLAW, the Law Library subscribes to CIS Congressional Universe, an excellent source for U.S. Congressional publications, and the InterAm Database provided by the National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade. In addition, law students have access to law-related databases through the University Library's electronic database subscriptions. Training in the use of computer-assisted legal research systems is an essential part of the first-year curriculum.

These superior computer facilities complement the substantial collection of other materials available in the Law Library. The collection contains over 200,000 books, multi-volume treatises, loose-leaf services, periodicals, microforms, government documents, and CD-ROMs. In addition, the Law Library houses the reported cases of federal and state courts, federal and state statutes, and federal and Texas state agency rules and decisions. The Law Library is a designated selective U.S. Government Documents Depository and collects a wide array of government documents relating to the law. Easy access to the Regional Depository collection at the University Library means that the substantial information resources published by the U.S. Government Printing Office are readily available to law students.

An online catalog provides author, title, subject, and keyword access to the Law Library's collection. In addition, the staff of the Law Library can locate resources in other library collections through a national network of libraries sharing bibliographic information.

Staffing the Law Library are knowledgeable and experienced librarians and paraprofessionals who understand the importance of providing quality service to students and faculty. Six members of the staff have professional library education; the director and associate director also have law degrees.

The Law Library physical plant includes a classroom used for bibliographic instruction and student meetings, conference rooms for student study groups, a computer lab, and LEXIS and WESTLAW labs.

For more information about the Law Library, access the Web page at <www.law.ttu.edu/lawlibrary>.

Law School Computing

The Law School computer network is designed to meet the specific needs of the students, faculty, and staff of the Law School. The network consists of nearly 300 computers. The students have access to 220 computers located in student study carrels and 12 computers located in the school computer lab. These are augmented to two six-station computer labs dedicated to legal research (LEXIS and WESTLAW).

Two computers equipped with high-speed CD-ROM drives are located in the main section of the Law Library. These computers allow students to quickly search the school's collection of compact disks (CDs) on a variety of subjects.

The network computers are configured to provide each student with the tools needed to complete course requirements and become familiar with the standard software used in the legal profession. All networked computers are configured with Windows 95, WordPerfect 7.0, e-mail access, Internet browsers, and have direct access to LEXIS and WESTLAW legal research sites. TechPAC (the on-line library catalog system) and connection to the campus main computer system are also available from any computer on the school network.

The low computer-to-student ratio assures that each student can access the resources needed without scheduling or time restriction problems. This also allows freedom to the students in configuring their carrel computers to meet their individual needs.

The computer lab is equipped for full multi-media viewing and production. These Pentium class computers are equipped with CD ROMs, sound cards, and presentation software. Two of the computers have View Cams for visual communications over the Internet. There is also a special computer set up with a full-page scanner and optical character recognition software, as well as a read-write CD ROM for mastering individual CDs. The capability to convert video tape to digitized video files is also available, and a digital camera may be checked out by students.

There are two high-speed, high-capacity laser printers located in the computer lab. These laser printers can be accessed from any computer on the network, providing reliable, high-quality printing to all students.

The Law School maintains its own Web site <www.law.ttu.edu>. This site contains the latest information on Law School classes, events, etc. In addition to the primary Web site, a Web server is maintained for exclusive use by the Law in Cyberspace class. This gives Cyberclass students freedom to experiment with the various Web-based resources shaping the future of the legal community.

All classrooms are wired for network and Internet connections. Presently, there are two classrooms set up for full multi-media presentations, and the school's courtroom is multi-media capable. The largest classroom is also set up as a distance learning center. All classrooms will eventually be fully multi-media capable.

The School of Law stays abreast of the technologies affecting the legal industry, thereby providing students with the computing resources needed to complete their course work and prepare them for the technologies of the legal profession.

Texas Tech Law School Foundation

The Texas Tech Law School Foundation was established in 1967 to assist in expanding Law School programs and in funding activities not supported by state funds. Since its creation, the foundation has provided funds for scholarships, travel expenses for student organizations and student competitive teams, promotion of alumni activities and bar relations, continuing legal education, placement activities for its graduates, and for other purposes directly benefiting the school, its students, and its alumni.

Financial support for the foundation has been provided by alumni, law firms, corporations, foundations, and individuals interested in supporting the Law School.

The foundation conducts an annual giving program through which alumni and friends of the Law School may contribute to the scholarship fund or the general fund by becoming members of the Dean's Inner-Circle.

The Texas Tech Law School Association, which consists of alumni and friends of the school, functions as an important auxiliary of the foundation. District directors located throughout Texas (as well as out-of-state) coordinate the activities of the association in their individual areas. Texas Tech law alumni have formed local chapters in every major city in Texas.

Office of Career Services

The Office of Career Services at the Texas Tech School of Law offers a wide range of services to students and alumni of the Law School. The Office of Career Services provides currently enrolled students with a forum for interviewing with prospective employers from throughout Texas. Law firms seek second-year students for summer clerkship positions which lead to offers for associate positions after graduation. This process, called "On-Campus Interviewing," is one of the services offered by the Office of Career Services. Other interviewing opportunities are provided by the following off-campus recruitment programs: Texas-In-Washington, Sunbelt Minority, Public Interest, Spring Minority, Texas Young Lawyers Association Off-Campus Recruitment Program, and the Texas on Tour program held in five Texas cities in 1997-98.

During the academic year, the Office of Career Services conducts workshops which focus upon résumé writing, interviewing skills, and individualized job search strategies. A career information series, presented by attorneys who practice in a number of settings, introduces students to the many ways in which a law degree may be used. The resource library of the Office of Career Services contains law firm and corporate resumes, employer directories, computer employer databases, and other materials useful in a personalized job search.

As a member of the National Association of Law Placement, the Law School is involved with other schools, bar associations, and firms in a national forum for exchanging information on law placement and recruitment.

Graduates of the Texas Tech Law School have a variety of areas in which to practice law. Traditionally, a majority of our graduates have entered private practice in Texas as associates of established law firms or as solo practitioners. Graduates may also choose to practice as government attorneys at the local, state, or national level. Corporate positions are the choice of some graduates and all branches of the military employ attorneys in their Judge Advocate General Corps.

The Office of Career Services is committed to an equal opportunity program on behalf of the students.

Legal Practice Skills

Law students have significant opportunities to develop lawyering skills that play an important role in the making of a competent practitioner and advocate. Courses are offered covering skills such as client interviewing and counseling, trial and appellate advocacy, negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. These courses are designed to bridge the gap between the law student's theoretical education and the practice of the law. They usually have small enrollments, permitting participation by all students and "hands-on" training. Use of videotape equipment, along with the videotape library, gives students an opportunity for self-analysis and for learning from the techniques of skilled practitioners.

Students may also participate in intraschool competitions in moot court, mock trial, client counseling, and negotiation. These competitions, administered by the Board of Barristers, allow students to polish their skills in simulated practice settings.

The School of Law's active participation in interscholastic competitions gives students the opportunity to compete in a wide variety of state and national competitions. Texas Tech boasts one of the best records in the nation for outstanding performance in regional and national competitions. In 1998-99, Law School teams placed as follows: A.B.A. National Appellate Advocacy TeamChampions; Texas Young Lawyers Association State Moot Court TeamSemifinalist; A.B.A. NAACRegional Champions and National Semifinalists; Client Counseling TeamRegional Finalists.

Internships

Students may take an internship for credit in which they work under the supervision of a lawyer or a judge. The internship course includes a classroom component, and students meet with faculty members to discuss the relation of their experiences to their classroom studies.

Honors and Awards

The Order of the Coif

The Law School was elected to The Order of the Coif (the only national legal honor society in the United States) in 1974. Institutional membership in this prestigious society is currently offered to only one-third of the nation's law schools. Individual members are elected annually from students graduating in the highest ten percent of the class whose character and activities in legal education indicate their worthiness for membership in The Order of the Coif.

The Order of Barristers

Students selected as members of the national Order of Barristers have exhibited excellence and achieved honor through the art of courtroom advocacy.

Awards

ABA Book Award (Land Use)

ABA Book Award (Government)

1979-80 Board of Editors Award

Charles P. Bubany Outstanding Service to the Board of Barristers Award (given by Foundation Press)

Kenneth H. Burns Award

CALI Excellence for the Future Award (given by the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction)

Clifford, Field, Krier, Manning, Stone & Wilkerson Taxation Award (Lubbock)

Corpus Juris Secundum Award (given by West Publishing Company)

Cotton, Bledsoe, Tighe & Dawson Advocacy Award (Midland)

Cowles & Thompson Law Review Award (Dallas)

Crenshaw, Dupree & Milam Law Review Award (Lubbock)

Geo. W. and Sarah H. Dupree Award

J. Hadley Edgar Trial Excellence Award (given by Samuel Boyd, '77, Dallas)

Estate Planning Award (given by Maddox Law Firm, Hobbs, N.M.)

Excellence in Service Award (given by Donna Courville, '94, Lubbock, and Lee Ann Reno, '94, Amarillo)

Gibson, Ochsner & Adkins Law Review Award (Amarillo)

Judge Meade F. Griffin Award (given by former briefing attorneys)

Haynes and Boone Law Review Award (Dallas)

Murray Hensley Award (given by class of 1994 members Anna Kingsley, Ft. Worth; Ted A. Liggett, Lubbock; Kenneth Netardus, Wichita Falls; and Alex Stelly, Jr., Beaumont)

Hicks & Lucky Law Review Award (El Paso)

Hinkle, Cox, Eaton, Coffield & Hensley Oil and Gas Award (Midland)

Donald M. Hunt Outstanding Barrister Award (given by Samuel Boyd, '77, Dallas)

International Academy of Trial Lawyers Award

Jackson Walker Law Review Award (Dallas)

Jurisprudence Award for Superior Academic Achievement

Kelly, Hart & Hallman Law Review Award (Ft. Worth)

Martin Luther King, Jr., Award

Krafsur, Gordon, Mott, Davis & Woody Law Review Award

(El Paso)

John E. Krahmer Award (given by Wallace "Al'' Watkins, '86, Birmingham and Karl Wayne Vancil, '87, Ballinger)

M. Penn L. Law Review Award

McWhorter, Cobb & Johnson Board of Barristers Outstanding Member Award (Lubbock)

McWhorter, Cobb & Johnson Law Review Award (Lubbock)

Mock Trial Scholarship Award

Moot Court Scholarship Award

William R. Moss Trial Advocacy Award (Lubbock)

Mullin, Hoard & Brown Law Review Award (Amarillo)

Munsch, Hardt, Kopf & Harr Law Review Award (Dallas)

Frank R. Murray Award (given by West Texas Bankruptcy Bar Association)

The Order of Barristers Award (given by Carr, Hunt, Wolfe & Joy, Lubbock)

Orgain, Bell & Tucker Award (Beaumont)

Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Book Award (given by West Publishing Company)

Outstanding Student in Tax Award (given by Maxwell MacMillan Pergamon Publishing Company)

Scribes Award (given by Cozen and O'Connor, Dallas)

Judge Ken G. Spencer Award

Sprouse, Smith & Rowley Law Review Award (Amarillo)

U.S. Law Week Award

Beckmann Dunlap Woody Law Review Award (given by Darren '85 and Maria Woody, El Paso)

Endowed Professorships

The Commercial and Banking Law Professorships

The Texas Tech Law School Foundation, with the cooperation of the Texas Association of Bank Counsel (TABC), established a Fund for Banking and Commercial Law Studies in 1987. This fund provides support for students and faculty engaged in research and writing in the areas of banking and commercial law, particularly as related to the monthly publication of The Texas Bank Lawyer (TBL). This publication is written and edited by students of the Texas Tech School of Law under the supervision of a faculty editor and is distributed as a membership service to members of the TABC. Professor John Krahmer is the current faculty editor of the TBL and has been the Professor of Commercial Law since 1988.

The J. Hadley Edgar Professorship of Law

This professorship honors Professor Emeritus J. Hadley Edgar who retired in 1991 after twenty years of service on the faculty as a teacher of torts, procedure, and trial advocacy. This endowed professorship was made possible by contributions from former students and friends in response to a major challenge grant provided by Richard C. Hile of Austin and Martin W. Dies of Orange. Professor Emeritus Edgar, the first holder of the Robert H. Bean Professorship, is a recognized scholar in Texas tort law and Texas procedure. Former Professor Robert William Piatt, Jr., held the professorship from 1995 until 1998. Professor Jayne Zanglein was named the J. Hadley Edgar Professor of Law in 1999.

The Maddox Professorship of Law

The Maddox Professorship of Law was made possible by a $200,000 endowment from the J F Maddox Foundation of Hobbs, New Mexico, in 1982. The endowment is named for the late Jack Maddox, a 1929 Texas Tech graduate in textile engineering. Professor Bruce Kramer, named in 1992, is the Maddox Professor of Law.

The George Herman Mahon Professorship in Law

In March 1981, an endowed professorship in law honoring the late Congressman George H. Mahon was established with a gift from Charles Bates Thornton and Flora Laney Thornton.

The first holder of the George Herman Mahon Professorship in Law was Corwin W. Johnson, the Baker and Botts Professor of Law at the University of Texas Law School, who was a visiting professor during 1984-85. Professor Emeritus W. Reed Quilliam, Jr., the first member of the permanent faculty to hold the Mahon Professorship, was named to this honor in 1989. The current George Herman Mahon Professor of Law, named in 1995, is Charles Bubany.

The Alvin R. Allison Professorship in Law

The Alvin R. Allison Professorship of Law was endowed in April 1991. This professorship honors the late Levelland attorney Alvin R. Allison, affectionately known as the "Father of the Law School." Mr. Allison worked tirelessly to bring about the creation of the Texas Tech University School of Law and chaired the original Texas Tech Law School Foundation Board of Trustees. Former Professor Thomas E. Baker held the professorship from 1991 to 1993. William R. Casto, selected in 1999, is the current Alvin R. Allison Professor of Law.

The Robert H. Bean Professorship in Law

Donations from local attorneys and a settlement obtained from an anti-trust suit made possible the creation of the Robert H. Bean Professorship. Judge Bean was a Lubbock County judge who served with distinction. The professorship's primary objective is to provide excellence in teaching civil procedure and advocacy. Professor Emeritus J. Hadley Edgar held the professorship from 1988 until 1992. Professor Marilyn Phelan, named in 1993, currently holds the position.

The Charles B. Thornton Professorship in Law

In November 1993, an endowed professorship in law honoring the late Charles B. Thornton was established with a gift from the estate of Charles B. Thornton and his son, Charles B. Thornton, Jr.

Charles B. Thornton was a firm believer in civic and charitable work who served as a director of many leading corporations. He devoted himself to public service, receiving the Horatio Alger Award (1964), the National Industry Leader of B'Nai B'rith (1967), and Big Brother of the Year (1975). On October 9, 1981, President Reagan conferred on him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian decoration. The citation for the Medal of Freedom concluded that "Tex Thornton has never failed to give generously of his boundless energy, his unfailing courage, and his deep love of country."

The first holder of the Charles B. Thornton Professorship in Law is Rodric B. Schoen.

The George W. McCleskey Professorship in

Water Law

An endowed professorship in water law was made possible in March 1998 by generous contributions from friends and family honoring the late George W. McCleskey. Mr. McCleskey was a pioneer and expert in water law as it applied to Texas and this region of the state. He was a staunch supporter of his community and worked tirelessly on local, state, and national water issues, serving for 12 years on the Texas Water Development Board. The primary objective of the professorship is to equip others to carry on the tradition of excellence and furtherance of water law knowledge.

In March 1999, Professor Frank Skillern was named the inaugural George W. McCleskey Professor of Water Law.

Housing

Law students may select from a variety of on-campus or off-campus housing. Residence hall and apartment facilities primarily for graduate students are available in Gordon Hall and Gaston Hall Apartments. Inquiries and correspondence regarding room reservations in the residence halls on campus should be addressed to the Housing Office, Texas Tech University, Box 41141, Lubbock, TX 79409 (806) 742-2661.

Because the campus is bounded on three sides by residential areas, off-campus living quarters of all types, including private dormitories, are conveniently available. A housing guide may be obtained in person from the University Student Association office.

Affirmative Action

The faculty and administration of the Law School recognize the need for increasing the number of minority group members in the legal profession. The school therefore encourages applications from minority students.

The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) and the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO) sponsor programs designed to increase the number of minority law students. Those interested in information on these programs should write to CLEO, 1800 M Street, N. W., Suite 290, Washington, DC 20036.

The Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) provides financial assistance to Hispanic students applying to law school. Applications may be obtained by writing to MALDEF, 634 South Spring Street, 11th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90014.

Statement on Nondiscrimination

It is the policy of Texas Tech University School of Law not to discriminate on the basis of sex, age, disability, race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, or sexual orientation in its educational programs, admissions policies, employment policies, financial aid, and other school-administered programs. This policy is enforced by federal law under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Inquiries regarding compliance with these statutes may be directed to Dr. Robert H. Ewalt, Office of Student Affairs, 213 Administration Building, telephone (806) 742-2131.

It is the policy and practice of the Law School to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and state and local requirements regarding students and applicants with disabilities. Under these laws, a qualified individual with a disability shall not be denied access to or participation in services, programs, and activities of the Law School and the University campus programming.

We recognize that disabilities include mobility, sensory, health, psychological, and learning. We will provide reasonable accommodations to these disabilities but we cannot make accommodations that are unduly burdensome or that fundamentally alter the nature of the program. While our legal obligation relates to disabilities of a substantial and long-term nature, we also provide accommodations when possible to temporary disabilities.

All floors are accessible by elevator and accessible rest rooms are distributed throughout the building, including the library. Classrooms on the second floor are accessible by elevator. The main entrance to the building and the entrance to the library are equipped with automatic openers.

Any disabled students needing special services or accommodations should advise the law school after acceptance.