Should You Go to Law School in Texas?
With its booming economy, expanding industries, and rich cultural fabric, Texas offers a myriad of benefits to students of law. Those who choose to attend law school in Texas can expect to encounter a corner of the world that is uniquely diverse, and an environment that is consistently evolutionizing with each new opportunity. While the Lone Star State is perhaps best known for its cattle ranching and oil industries, in recent years many new businesses have made their way into Texas’s growing "Go To" cities. This is especially true in Houston, a major business center that ranks first in the nation for job growth. In addition, Dallas, which is seen as another rapidly growing hub, boasts such companies as AT&T, American Airlines, and Texas Instruments. The city is also home to the offices of dozens of Fortune 500 companies. And Austin is home to many of Texas’ innovative start-ups, due largely to its host of research institutions and skilled workforce. Yet it’s not just the entrenched companies that offer opportunities to law students . Texas’s diversity means that it plays host to many cutting-edge businesses in all areas of law. From entertainment law firms to energy-industry law firms, and everything in between, law students have access to all kinds of opportunities when it comes time for internships and jobs. And with the state set for continuing growth through 2016, these opportunities will be there for law students long after they graduate. Students are not just benefitting from Texas’s economy. They are also gaining from the state’s rich cultural diversity. In addition to Texas’s many major cities, which attract the best and brightest in the world, the state also has a large population that can trace its roots back to Mexico. According to the 2010 census, 37.6 percent of the state’s population was of Latino or Hispanic origin. This diversity gives law students the opportunity to expand their worldview beyond what they are accustomed to. The result: Texas is a dynamic place for law students to study and find work.
How We Chose the Best Law Schools
In order to rank the top law schools in Texas, we have analyzed a number of different factors. While we value those different factors differently, we have considered: 1) academic reputation; 2) bar passage; 3) employment rates; 4) employment in professional jobs after graduation; and 5) faculty credentials.
Academic reputation and bar passage are important because the better schools prepare more students for passing the bar and starting law firms. Employment in professional jobs after graduation is important because it shows that in the gulf region having a law degree allows law students to be employed in other jobs as well. Faculty credentials are important because once again it shows that the better law schools provide better teachers. Bar passage rates were calculated by comparing the first time or overall Texas bar passage rates for both all Texas and all non-Texas law school applicants. Employment rates were calculated by comparing various percentages in employment for each law school. Employment in professional jobs was calculated similarly. We focused on employment before the bar exam compared to employment after the bar exam.
The University of Texas School of Law
One of the highest ranked law schools in Texas is the University of Texas at Austin School of Law. Founded in 1883, the school offers its students specialized programs in various aspects of the legal field, including business law and the legal foundations of entrepreneurial growth. Through its legal writing – named the best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report – and well-respected clinical programs, the school helps to prepare its students to become competent, successful attorneys in their field of choice.
The school offers its students the chance to participate in a number of student organizations, including several national and international trial advocacy programs. These are considered among the best such programs in the country, under the direction of highly trained faculty members and judges who teach the courses on-site. Students also participate in 15 nationally recognized legal journals, which give those students a head start when it comes to practicing before various courts and tribunals across the country.
Alumni of the University of Texas School of Law include dozens of high-ranking federal and state judges, senators and other legislators, governors, CEOs of FORTUNE 500 companies and other leaders in the private sector.
The Baylor University School of Law
Baylor University School of Law, Waco
Baylor Law is known for its practical legal education which is woven throughout the entire curriculum. It is a nationally recognized, practice-intensive learning program which emphasizes the art of practical lawyering skills. In federal appellate court rankings, Baylor Law also ranks in the top tier of law schools nationwide. Although it is a smaller law school, Baylor Law offers more courses in trial advocacy than any other school in the country. The highly selective Baylor Law Trial Advocacy program has won both state and national championships and is consistently ranked among the top ten programs in the country. Students graduate after completing a demanding three-year curriculum designed to challenge and teach skills to college students aspiring to be great attorneys. In the final year of law school, students can choose to enroll in either the Family Law or the Estate Planning Certificate programs, which provide hands-on client experience.
The SMU Dedman School of Law
The SMU Dedman School of Law is located in the heart of Dallas, giving students a front row seat to the burgeoning legal market in Texas. Dallas has experienced considerable growth in its labor market, and is home to more than 50 Fortune 1000 companies. In addition to its strong showing in energy law, the law school also has preeminent programs in intellectual property and international business law. The Career Services Office also thrives at Dedman, as their recruiting results show that more than 80% of its students will clerk between the second and third year of law school.
In ranking the top ten law schools in Texas, the Lathrop Gage team focused on student outcomes, including bar passage rates and median GPAs for the most recent entering class. To get a better understanding of median LSAT scores, we used those from the entering class in 2014 (the class of 2018) since final admission statistics have not yet been released for the entering class of 2015.
The University of Houston Law Center
The University of Houston Law Center is considered one of the top Texas law schools. In addition, Energy and Environmental Law are among the University of Houston Law Center’s diverse and plentiful programs of study. The University of Houston Law Center is also one of the very few public law schools that has a concentration on securities law. However, the University Houston law center boasts consistent and high bar passage rates, arguably greater than most other law schools in the country.
The University of Houston Law Center is currently ranked 56th among U.S. law schools. However, such rankings are approximate. U.S. News and World Report is one of the major publications that ranks law schools. However, such rankings vary year by year and from publication to publication. When looking at a publication’s rankings, prospective law students should realize that such varies yearly from publication to publication. Therefore, such ranking should be viewed cautiously.
The Texas A&M University School of Law
Texas A&M University School of Law in Fort Worth is making a name for itself as one of the fastest growing law schools in the nation, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The school hit the 545-student enrollment mark in September 2013—its highest level since it first opened in 1969. The Texas A&M board of regents (and former Texas Gov. Mark White) agreed in 2012 to merge Texas A&M University and Texas Wesleyan University, including the law school . Though the two will remain separate in some respects, the law school will be able to take advantage of the resources in College Station, such as help with capital campaigns. Texas A&M also is expanding its reputation by taking legal tech seriously. It’s now home to the Institute for Law and Technology, which held its first conference in spring 2013. And the law school is the only one in the nation that offers a Certificate in Law Practice Management. The 12-credit online certificate focuses on issues firms face such as legal project management and strategic planning.
The South Texas College of Law Houston
South Texas earned the highest bar exam passage rate for the Class of 2018 among all Texas law schools and was the second-highest non-U.S. News-ranked school in Texas, coming in just behind Baylor. It also is ranked the fifth best law school in Texas by The National Jurist magazine. Its law library is the largest in Houston and one of the largest in the U.S.
South Texas provides a wide range of experiential learning opportunities for its students, including externships, clinics and legal writing competitions. In addition, it has the top-ranked competitive moot court program in Texas. Through its Advocacy Program, students provide legal assistance to clients with indigent criminal cases.
The Texas Tech University School of Law
Located in Lubbock, just a few miles past the Texas-New Mexico border, Texas Tech University School of Law was established in 1967 and offers both J.D. and LL.M. programs. Texas Tech University School of Law, which is ranked #62 nationally according to U.S. News’s The Best Graduate Schools and Top Schools for Criminal Justice in the Nation by the National Jurist (Fall 2011), has integrated a new Mandarin program into its global initiatives, teaching law to Chinese attorneys and judges.
Admissions are competitive, with an acceptance rate of 32.33% and an average LSAT score and GPA of 159 and 3.5, respectively. Texas Tech University School of Law received 1,553 applicants and enrolled 370 students, 244 with full scholarships.
The cost of attending Texas Tech University School of Law is estimated at $14,460 for residents and $28,620 for non-residents, or $6,535 and $22,7774 for commuter students, respectively. The employment rate nine months after graduation is 80.8%, with over 33% being employed in business and industry, while over half of graduates work in private practice. 55% of graduates are employed in Texas while over 75% stay within the Southwest and West regions. The school offers a number of clinical services such as defense, prosecution and transactional work, as well as opportunities in patent law, family law, estate planning, water and agriculture law, trial and appellate advocacy and negotiation.
The St. Mary’s University School of Law
St. Mary’s University School of Law is located just west of Downtown San Antonio, Texas, just south of Interstate Highway I-10 and east of Highway 90 in Bexar County. Look for the St. Mary’s University campus bordered by Camden, Pleasanton, and Olmos.
Endowed since 1970 as a law school and institution of higher education in San Antonio, St. Mary’s University has a well-established reputation and strong history. Lawyers get licensed in Texas statewide, and international attorneys are admitted to local, state, and federal courts yearly through this law firm’s advocacy program, which specializes in bar course preparation and attorney examination preparation as well as the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) to Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) course and tutorial services. The school also offers bar course preparation and exam services to local, state, and federal courts in Phoenix AZ, Los Angeles CA, New York NY, Austin TX, Houston TX, Dallas TX, Huntsville AL, St. Louis MO, Denver CO, Baltimore MD, San Diego CA, Fort Worth TX, Indianapolis IN, and Seattle WA. Among its unique attributes, St. Mary’s University School of Law features the largest advocacy program in the United States, boasting over 250 internal and external competitions since 1961.
St. Mary’s University School of Law is the third-largest school in the broad state system and only three miles away from downtown San Antonio. The campus itself spans some 138 acres that is mostly covered in trees with limestone buildings and structures that come alive during the spring and fall with seasonal flower blossoms and foliage. Law students enjoy the state-of-the-art library onsite for ease of access to materials and resources.
Applicants can apply via the official website application. Deadlines for August 1st for priority status and April 1st for ad hoc or case by case basis consideration. International applicants may take time to complete some of the documentation and processing for visas, for example, which could delay an application submission. There is no fee to submit your application so long as you haven’t already been denied once before by the law school.
Texas has 9 total ABA-accredited law schools.
St. Mary’s University School of Law – San Antonio, Texas (first class 1967), Juris Doctor (JD), Master of Jurisprudence (MJ) (for non-lawyer professionals), Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD), Master of Laws (LLM), Professional Certificate programs, J.D./M.A., J.D./MBA, J.D./M.A./MSW, J.D./M.P.A.F.
The Thurgood Marshall School of Law
Thurgood Marshall School of Law (TMSL) is a private law school located in Houston, Texas. It was founded in 1946 as the Texas Southern University College of Law, with the mission of furthering education and enhancing the social standing within the African-American community. As part of Texas Southern University, it operates as a public institution. In 2004, the college changed its name to Thurgood Marshall School of Law as it is known today.
TMSL is one of eight law schools in Texas that are accredited by the American Bar Association. It is a member of the Association of American Law Schools, a national organization dedicated to promoting excellence in legal education .
Thurgood Marshall School of Law offers both full-time and part-time JD programs, as well as other degree programs including an LLM in Immigration Law and an LLM in Intellectual Property Law and Creative Innovation.
The school has a strong focus on social justice and civil rights. It incorporates this focus throughout the curriculum by providing students with varying pro bono projects in collaboration with local non-profit organizations and legal aid clinics. The school also conducts workshops and conferences related to law and civil rights aimed at both students and the community at large.
TMSL also prides itself on being one of the most diverse law schools in the nation. The current student body represents all racial and ethnic categories recognized by the United States Census and the school actively recruits students from a wide variety of backgrounds.