Talk:University of Texas School of Law

Experiential Learning Clinics
Based on what other major law schools in the US have on their Wikipedia pages, I believe that Texas Law should have a section with small blurbs about the Experiential Learning Clinics.

Experiential Learning: Clinics | Texas Law

Actual Innocence Clinic “Students screen and investigate claims by inmates that they are actually innocent of the offenses for which they are incarcerated. While investigating cases, students typically interview witnesses, research cases, review trial transcripts, and visit inmates in prison. The weekly clinic class addresses topics relevant to actual innocence law and procedure.”

Capital Punishment Clinic “Students work closely with experienced attorneys in the representation of indigent defendants charged with or convicted of capital offenses. The death penalty cases are at the trial, appellate, and post-conviction stages of litigation. Students perform tasks integral to effective representation, including visiting clients, interviewing witnesses, conducting field investigations, drafting pleadings, and assisting with preparation for trials, evidentiary hearings, and appellate arguments.”

Children’s Rights Clinic “Students represent children in Travis County District Court as student attorneys ad litem in cases in which the state seeks custody or termination of parental rights based on allegations of abuse and neglect. Although the supervising attorneys sign pleadings drafted by the students and accompany the students to formal proceedings, the student attorneys sit “first chair” at hearings, depositions, mediations, and trial appearances, and they research and prepare cases as the primary attorneys.”

Civil Rights Clinic “Students in the Civil Rights Clinic represent low-income clients in a range of civil rights matters relating to, for example, abusive law enforcement practices, prisoners’ rights, discrimination in housing, employment or public accommodations, and freedoms of speech, religion, and association.”

Criminal Defense Clinic “The Criminal Defense Clinic (CDC) provides representation for people charged with misdemeanors in Travis County who cannot afford a lawyer. Student-attorneys are licensed by the State Bar of Texas and appear in court under the supervision of experienced faculty members. Clinic students investigate crime scenes, interview clients and witnesses, litigate pretrial issues, negotiate with prosecutors, and work with judges and court staff. At times, students may assist in securing a client’s release from jail, as well. In short, our students serve as lead counsel at all stages of the representation, including any jury trials, and maintain primary responsibility for working with clients to develop case strategies. The Clinic’s supervising attorneys assist with each representation by holding weekly supervision meetings, reviewing preparation, engaging in additional supervision as needed to ensure high-quality advocacy, and attending court appearances to provide further guidance whenever necessary.”

Domestic Violence Clinic “Students represent victims of domestic violence with a variety of civil legal problems including custody, divorce, visitation, housing, consumer, public assistance, and procurement of protective orders. Students sit “first chair,” and are responsible for all tasks associated with their cases. They meet with clients, draft pleadings, interview witnesses, draft and respond to discovery, take depositions, negotiate settlements, and conduct trials.”

Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic “The ECDC provides transactional business law representation to entrepreneurs, nonprofit organizations, and community groups. Our clients are strengthening their communities through job creation, the production and preservation of affordable housing, asset building strategies for low-income individuals, and the provision of innovative and valuable goods and services for their communities.”

Environmental Clinic “Students in the Environmental Clinic work with underserved communities throughout Texas to advocate for solutions to today’s pressing environmental problems, including environmental injustice and climate change. Students develop creative legal solutions to protect and improve environmental quality and public health. They also gain practical experience with factual investigation and analysis, client counseling and community education, administrative research and advocacy before regulatory agencies, and legal drafting and litigation support. The Environmental Clinic’s clients include individuals, neighborhood associations, nonprofits and local governments. We frequently partner with Texas legal services organizations and with national environmental non-governmental organizations on our cases and projects.”

Housing Clinic “Students represent low-income families in their housing-related legal problems. Many clients are single parents and many are disabled. The primary focus is helping clients (1) avoid homelessness, and (2) gain access to affordable housing. Thus Clinic work often involves representing clients in threatened evictions; in denials of public housing, subsidized housing, and Section 8 housing; and in other aspects of landlord-tenant law. Some opportunity also exists for real-estate-related work on behalf of individuals and community-based nonprofit groups. Students interview clients, investigate cases, research issues, negotiate with opposing parties, draft pleadings and discovery, and represent clients in administrative hearings and in court. Court appearances may be limited due to students successfully settling their cases. The Clinic is based at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.”

Human Rights Clinic “The Human Rights Clinic brings together an interdisciplinary group of law and graduate students in a course that incorporates both classroom study and hands-on participation in human rights projects and cases.”

Immigration Clinic “Students in the Immigration Clinic represent vulnerable low-income immigrants from all over the world before the immigration and federal courts and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Students gain hands-on experience by taking on the primary responsibility and decision-making authority for their cases, under the mentorship of the clinic directors.”

Juvenile Justice Clinic “Students serve as student attorneys with the Travis County Juvenile Public Defender. Clients are indigent juveniles, aged ten to seventeen, charged with criminal offenses ranging from Class B misdemeanors to first-degree felonies. The Clinic provides an opportunity for students to learn juvenile law, interact with clients, advocate in court proceedings, and participate in educating children about the law. Student attorneys are assigned cases for which they have primary responsibility under the supervision of an experienced attorney in the public defender’s office. Students perform all investigation, interviews, discovery, negotiation, and litigation functions on their cases.”

Supreme Court Clinic “Students work closely with faculty members on cases before the United States Supreme Court. Students assist in representing clients who are seeking review of lower court decisions or who have cases before the Supreme Court following grants of certiorari. Students conduct in-depth research and draft briefs such as petitions for certiorari, briefs in opposition, reply briefs, amicus briefs, and merits briefs. Through introductory classes and casework, students gain firsthand knowledge of Supreme Court procedures and practice.”

Transnational Worker Rights Clinic “Students represent low-income transnational migrant workers in cases to recover unpaid wages, and also engage in advocacy projects asserting the rights of workers here and abroad. The Clinic gives students experience with civil litigation, employment law, public interest practice and the emerging field of transnational migrant worker rights. Students serve as legal counsel representing migrant workers in wage rights litigation, administrative actions, community-based enforcement strategies, and claims filed for criminal prosecution on wage fraud charges. Depending on the case, students interview and advise clients, investigate facts, develop strategy, negotiate with opposing parties, prepare legal documents, manage litigation, research issues, and represent clients in court proceedings.”

Programs and Centers
Based on what other major law schools in the US have on their Wikipedia pages, I believe that Texas Law should have a section with small blurbs about the various programs and centers the law school boasts.

Programs and Centers | Texas Law | Academics

Advocacy Program “The University of Texas School of Law has a nationally recognized Advocacy Program that links the academic and competitive aspects of advocacy. The program focuses on all areas of advocacy by building on the rich tradition already established and assisting students in developing a core set of skills that will make them persuasive advocates no matter who their audience.”

Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice “The Rapoport Center serves as a focal point for critical, interdisciplinary analysis and practice of human rights and social justice. Its growing network of affiliated faculty from various disciplines provides the center with the academic energy and ideas to advance human rights work, and its graduate scholars and undergraduate interns support the center through their varied contributions to its programs.”

Budd Innocence Center “The Budd Innocence Center was created in 2017 to improve the criminal justice system by helping prevent injustice and protect the innocent. The Center sponsors events to highlight issues related to wrongful convictions and, as its main project, supports the education of students through the Actual Innocence Clinic.”

Capital Punishment Center “The Capital Punishment Center brings together scholars, students and practitioners interested in the death penalty and its administration. The law school has long been committed to educating students about capital punishment. The Capital Punishment Clinic has been offered every semester since the fall of 1987, and the center was created in 2006 to expand the law school’s academic focus on the issue.”

Center for Law, Business and Economics “The Center for Law, Business and Economics at The University of Texas School of Law fosters research and study on a variety of topics at the intersections among law, business and economics. Center faculty teach and write in many areas of the law, including copyright and patent law, bankruptcy, commercial law, corporations, antitrust, international trade and civil procedure. The most prominent focal points of the Center’s work are empirical studies and transactional studies.”

Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution “The Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution provides effective conflict resolution assistance and services including education and training. The center is a nonprofit organization of professionals who focus on state and local government and are dedicated to the stewardship of conflict resolution in state and local government, the UT community and the public. The center seeks to bridge resolution with conflict using alternative dispute resolution methods.”

Center for Women in Law “The Center for Women in Law is the premier educational institution devoted to the success of the entire spectrum of women in law, from first-year law students to the most experienced and accomplished attorneys. It combines theory with practice, identifying and addressing the persistent issues facing individual women and the profession as a whole. The center serves as a national resource to convene leaders, generate ideas and lead change.”

Center on Lawyers, Civil Justice and the Media “The Center on Lawyers, Civil Justice, and the Media was established in 2002 to encourage the creation and broad dissemination of rigorous empirical studies of civil litigation and related subjects.”

David J. Beck Center for Legal Research, Writing and Appellate Advocacy “The Beck Center provides all students at The University of Texas School of Law with a foundation for excellence in legal research, oral presentation, oral argument and, most importantly, legal writing. The center is the organizational focal point for the required first-year courses in legal research and legal writing as well as advanced courses available to upper-class students. In addition, the Beck Center sponsors the law school’s interscholastic moot court teams, which travel to national and international competitions.”

Institute for Transnational Law “The Institute for Transnational Law was established by the University of Texas School of Law to enhance the teaching of international and comparative law, to support research into international and comparative law, to build international contacts for the law school, and to increase student exchanges between Texas Law and the best foreign law schools around the world.”

Integrated Watershed Science Graduate Portfolio Program “The Integrated Watershed Studies Graduate Portfolio Program provides graduate students at The University of Texas at Austin the opportunity to supplement their current degree program with an interdisciplinary study of watershed issues. In the program, students complete requirements comprised of coursework, field experience and a research paper and presentation all focused on integrated watershed challenges.”

Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law and Business “The KBH Center’s mission is to be the pre-eminent energy center at the intersection of energy, policy, law and business. As a joint endeavor of the University of Texas School of Law and the McCombs School of Business, the KBH Center will achieve this mission by leveraging the resources and talents of the two schools and by collaborating with the many other schools, centers and areas of study that comprise the unparalleled collection of energy-related talent, expertise and knowledge at the University of Texas.” "The Center will: Strengthen the business and legal education of future leaders in the energy industry Convene leaders and experts for discussion, study and analysis of the business, economic and legal issues surrounding the production, transportation, distribution, and consumption of energy Create professional networks for effective collaboration among energy professionals, scholars, and government officials, and connect University of Texas students to such networks"

Law and Philosophy Program “The Law and Philosophy Program (LPP) is a joint endeavor of the School of Law and Department of Philosophy at The University of Texas at Austin. The university established LPP as a combined J.D. and Ph.D. degree program that is designed to be completed in seven years. Students in LPP may count two law courses towards the Ph.D. requirements and four philosophy courses towards the J.D. requirements, and in this way they can save roughly a year’s worth of work towards the two degrees.”

Richard and Ginni Mithoff Pro Bono Program “The vision for the Richard and Ginni Mithoff Pro Bono Program at Texas Law is that students will engage in pro bono work to increase access to justice, build their lawyering skills and develop a lifetime commitment to providing legal services to those in need.”

Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law “The Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law integrates expertise from across The University of Texas at Austin, as well as from the private and public sectors, in pursuit of practical solutions to emerging international challenges. Towards that end, the center sponsors a wide array of research programs and educational initiatives.”

William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law “The University of Texas School of Law joined with Judge William Wayne Justice’s former law clerks and many admirers in 2004 to create the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law in his honor. A resource for students, faculty, alumni and the community, the Justice Center promotes equal justice for all through legal education, scholarship and public service.”

Notable Professors
Current Faculty


 * Philip Bobbitt – Until 2007, Bobbitt held the A.W. Walker Centennial Chair at the University of Texas, where he taught constitutional law. He remains Distinguished Senior Lecturer at the University of Texas Law School and Senior Fellow in the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas.
 * Robert M. Chesney – the Charles I. Francis Professor in Law at The University of Texas School of Law, where he serves as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and teaches courses relating to U.S. national security and constitutional law. Co-founder of Lawfare blog a prominent blog on national security law sponsored by the Brookings Institution.
 * Michele Deitch - Distinguished Senior Lecturer, specializing in correctional institutions, prison and jail safety issues, management of youth in custody, and juveniles in the adult criminal justice system.
 * Karen Engle - Holds the Minerva House Drysdale Regents Chair in Law and is the Founder and Co-director of the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice.
 * Ward Farnsworth – current dean of University of Texas School of Law and the John Jeffers Research Chair in Law
 * Sanford Levinson – an American legal scholar, best known for his writings on constitutional law and is the W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law
 * Linda Mullenix - Holds the Rita and Morris Atlas Chair in Advocacy, and specializes in mass tort litigation, federal civil procedure and civil justice reform, and more.
 * Lawrence G. Sager – former dean of University of Texas School of Law and the Alice Jane Drysdale Sheffield Regents Chair
 * Wendy Wagner - Holds the Richard Dale Endowed Chair in Law, and is a leading authority on the use of science by environmental policy-makers.
 * Heather Way - Director of the Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic, and the founder of the UT Opportunity Forum, specializing in affordable housing, gentrification and displacement, problem properties, and more.
 * Stephen Vladeck- The A. Dalton Cross Professor in Law. He specializes in the study of the Constitution, federal courts, and national security law, especially with relation to the prosecution of war crimes.

Former Faculty


 * Mitchell Berman, Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
 * Ted Cruz –  U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate; adjunct professor of Constitutional Law
 * Bryan A. Garner – returned to the University of Texas School of Law as a visiting associate professor and was named director of the short-lived Texas/Oxford Center for Legal Lexicography, while teaching writing and editing seminars at the law school. In 1990, he left the university to found LawProse, Inc., a Dallas company that provides seminars on clear writing for lawyers and judges
 * Julius Getman – Leading professor and activist in Labor and Employment law. Pioneer in the use of data research in the areas of employment law and policy.
 * Lino Graglia – the Dalton Cross Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law specializing in antitrust litigation
 * Leon A. Green – was an American legal realist and long-tenured dean of Northwestern University School of Law (1929–1947). He also served as professor at Yale Law School * (1926–1929) and the University of Texas School of Law (1915–1918, 1920–1926, and 1947–1977)
 * W. Page Keeton – was an attorney and dean of the University of Texas School of Law for a quarter century. Keeton served as president of the Association of American Law Schools; national chair of the Council of Legal Education Opportunity; and was presented the Torch of Liberty Award of the Anti-Defamation League. The City of Austin renamed 26th Street so that The University of Texas School of Law is now located at 727 Dean Keeton Street. Keeton was a prolific writer and one of the foremost authorities on the law of torts. He was co-author of the most-cited work in Tort law, Prosser & Keeton on Torts
 * William Powers, Jr. – former dean of University of Texas School of Law and former President of the University of Texas at Austin
 * Daniel B. Rodriguez –  noted expert of Administrative Law who later became Dean of Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
 * Elizabeth Warren – U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate; She taught at the University of Texas School of Law as visiting associate professor in 1981, and as a full professor (1983–87)
 * Charles Alan Wright – was an American constitutional lawyer widely considered to be the foremost authority in the United States on constitutional law and federal procedure, and was the coauthor of the 54-volume treatise, Federal Practice and Procedure with Arthur Miller and Kenneth W. Graham, Jr., among others. He taught at the University of Texas School of Law from 1955 until his death in 2000.
 * Mark Yudof – long serving faculty member who later became President of the University of California System; Chancellor of the University of Texas System; President of the University of Minnesota

Tarlton Law Library
The Tarlton Law Library is one of the largest academic law libraries in the country, with a physical collection of more than a million volumes and extensive electronic resources. In addition to a comprehensive collection of United States primary and secondary legal materials in print and digital formats, Tarlton has a broad interdisciplinary collection from the social sciences and humanities. Special collections at Tarlton include significant foreign and international law resources; the papers of former United States Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark; feature films and fiction related to law and popular culture; and the Gavel Archive, a collection of feature films, TV shows, and fiction related to law and popular culture, all candidates for and winners of the American Bar Association’s prestigious Silver Gavel Award. Tarlton is a depository for United States, European Union, and Canadian government documents. Its extensive collection of rare and antiquarian law books includes noted collections of early legal dictionaries, Texas law, and the works of John Selden. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.78.126.55 (talk) 18:15, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

School Logo
May we add the official law school logo to the page? It seems to be missing and every other law school page has it. Asdf1238390 (talk) 20:31, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
 * You're welcome to upload the school's logo and add it to the article.
 * But your use of "we" is a bit concerning - Wikipedia editors cannot share their accounts with others. And editors who have an association with a subject are also required to abide by the project's conflict of interest policies and practices. ElKevbo (talk) 21:16, 7 April 2024 (UTC)