The University of Houston Law Center is the law school of the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1947, the Law Center is one of 12 colleges of the University of Houston, a state university. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. The law school's facilities are located on the university's 667-acre campus in southeast Houston. The Law Center awards the Juris Doctor (J.D.) and Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees. The law school ranked tied at 68th in the 2024 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, No. 6 in intellectual property law, No. 6 in part-time law and No. 9 in health law. According to UHLC's official 2023 ABA-required disclosures, 92.2% of the Class of 2023 was employed in some capacity, 85% obtained full-time, long-term, bar admission required employment (as attorneys), and 6.25% obtained JD-required employment 10 months after graduation. The dean of the Law Center is Leonard M. Baynes.

History

The University of Houston Law Center was founded in 1947 as the University of Houston College of Law, with an inaugural class consisting of 28 students and a single professor. The law school was housed in several locations on campus in its first few years—including temporary classrooms and the basement of the M.D. Anderson Library. The College of Law moved to the northeast corner of campus—shortly following its groundbreaking in 1969 and relocated to the newly established five-story, 180,000 square-foot John M. O'Quinn Law Building in the summer of 2022. In 1969, the college was renamed the Bates College of Law for Col. William B. Bates, former member of the University of Houston System Board of Regents and College of Law founding committee. Since 1982, the College of Law has been commonly referred to as the University of Houston Law Center. In 2005, the University of Houston Law Center opened its facilities to Loyola University New Orleans College of Law after it was severely damaged in Hurricane Katrina, hosting 320 of the Loyola's 800 students taught by 31 Loyola law professors, allowing the Loyola students' education to continue uninterrupted.

Rankings

In 2024, U.S. News & World Report ranked UHLC tied for the 68th best law school. In 2024, Law.com named UHLC as No. 23 Go-To Law School in the nation based on graduates gaining employment in the top 100 law firms in the country. PreLaw magazine recognized UHLC in nine categories in 2023: Best Value Law School, top Business Law School, Top School for Criminal Law, Top School for Family Law, Top School for Health Law, Top School for Alternative Dispute Resolution, Top School for Intellectual Property, Top School for Advocacy and among the Most Diverse Law Schools.

Facts

As of fall 2023, the law school reported a total enrollment of 792 students and employed a total of 56 full-time and 178 part-time faculty on staff.

Admissions

For the class of 2023, the school received 3,232 applications and accepted 32.27% of applicants, with 24.83% of those accepted enrolling (233 full-time and 29 part-time students). The median undergraduate GPA among all students at the school was 3.72, and the median LSAT score was 161. The class of 2023 is composed of 44.3% minority and 53% female.

Tuition

Annual tuition for the 2023–2024 full-time program is $34,942 for Texas residents and $50,132 for non-Texas residents. Annual tuition for the part-time program is $31,079 for Texas residents and $44,309 for non-Texas residents.

Academics

The J.D. program is 90 semester hours. Entering classes are generally divided into three full-time day sessions of some 60 students each and one part-time evening section of some 35 students for first-year courses. The Law Center has special programs and institutes The Law Center offers several law clinics for upper-division students: the Appellate Civil Rights Clinic, Civil Justice Clinic, Military Justice Clinic, Entertainment Law Clinic, Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic, Immigration Clinic, Mediation Clinic and the Texas Innocence Network.

University of Houston Law Library

The director of the law library is Amanda Watson. The library has some 435,000 volumes. The library has three special collections: Tropical Storm Allison flooded the library's former location with eight feet of water in June 2001, destroying 174,000 books and the microfiche collection. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) gave $21.4 million to rebuild the library collection, which was 75 percent of the replacement cost. The collection has since been rebuilt.

Journals and publications

The Law Center publishes five law journals. The Houston Law Review, established in 1963, is the school's main law journal. The four specialty journals are the Houston Business and Tax Law Journal (business law, tax law; founded in 2001), the Houston Journal of Health Law and Policy (health care law), the Houston Journal of International Law (international law), and the Journal of Consumer & Commercial Law (commercial law).

Employment

According to UHLC's official 2023 ABA-required disclosures, 92.2% of the Class of 2023 was employed in some capacity, 85% obtained full-time, long-term, bar admission required employment (as attorneys), and 6.25% obtained JD-required employment 10 months after graduation.

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at UHLC for the 2022–2023 academic year is $54,633.86 for a resident living on campus and $69,451.86 for a nonresident.[38] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $197,267 for residents and $239,808 for nonresidents.

Notable alumni