Category: Education

Open Records Reveal Personality Clashes, Power Struggle at Thurgood Marshall

One of Texas’s public law schools has reeled during the past year under the stress of a censure from the nation’s law school accreditor, exacerbated by personality clashes between leaders of the law school and central university. A series of bad publicity has unveiled problems within Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law. The …

Justice Sotomayor Visiting Houston to Discuss Legal Education

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is visiting Houston on Jan. 26 to answer law students’ questions about her life story and sit down with a law professor for a talk about the role of legal education. Sotomayor’s visit to the University of Houston Law Center will put her face to face with law and …

Texas Law School Enrollment Outpaces National Percentage Growth

The size of this year’s entering class at Texas law schools rose by 4 percent this year compared to last, but total enrollment numbers for 2017 still dropped by 0.3 percent. Legal educators closely watch the size of the first-year class, since it has financial implications for a law school for the next three years. …

UC Irvine School of Law Gets New Dean

Starting on New Year’s Day, California’s newest public law school will welcome its second dean since its founding. L. Song Richardson on Jan. 1 will become dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, which became the first public law school in California in nearly 50 years when it opened in 2009. Richardson …

Law School Enrollment Edges Up, with Surprise Spike in Non-JD Programs

Enrollment in law school J.D. programs dipped a tad this year, but some unexpected good news provided a counterbalance. While J.D. enrollment fell by 0.7 percent compared with last year, the numbers of non-J.D. students—studying for LL.M., masters or certificate degrees—grew by a whopping 20.5 percent, compared with last year, according to data from the …

As Law Students Enter Finals, Schools Find Ways to Help With the Stress

The most intense stress of Ali Mosser’s life came during her first round of law school final exams. Before exam day, Mosser, a second-year student at Baylor University School of Law, had a cloud over her head, and she feared that she would never complete everything on her long to-do list. Her anxiety kicked in …

Students From Elite Law Schools Vow to Combat Mental Health Suffering on Campuses

The student leaders from 13 of the nation’s top law schools have pledged to broaden mental health initiatives on their campuses and to fight the stigma of seeking treatment. The pledge comes at a time that law schools nationwide have launched initiatives to address students’ mental health struggles, in the wake of several eye-popping studies …

Can the GRE Cure What Ails Law Schools?

As more law schools accept a new admissions test from aspiring law students, debate about their motives and whether they’ll meet their goals of diversifying the applicant pool has swirled behind the scenes. Law deans hope to recruit a new type of law student by accepting applications that use Graduate Record Examination scores, rather than …