SMU Dedman School of Law, commonly referred to as SMU Law School or Dedman School of Law, is a

law school A law school (also known as a law centre/center, college of law, or faculty of law) is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for b ...

located in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Jason P. Nance Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece is featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea, t ...

serves as its current dean. Founded in February 1925, the school located is on the

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

campus. In February 2001, it was renamed SMU Dedman School of Law in honor of benefactors Robert H. Dedman Sr. and his wife Nancy Dedman. One of ten law schools in Texas, it was the only one in the city of Dallas until the University of North Texas at Dallas (

UNT UNT or University of North Texas is a state university in Denton, Texas. UNT or Unt may refer to: * Unt (surname), an Estonian-language surname * Unt (album), ''Unt'' (album), a 2024 album by Pinhead Gunpowder * ("A New Era"), a political party in ...

) opened its

in 2014.

Admissions

Statistics

SMU has a 1L class size of 226. Out of the 2,334 people who applied, 780 were offered admission. 224 out of 780 applicants offered admission were accepted, meaning that 28.72% of those offered admission ended up attending the school. The median LSAT at SMU is 163, and the 25th percentile LSAT is 158. The median GPA is 3.76, and the 25th percentile GPA is 3.43.

Academic profile

SMU Dedman School of Law offers

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is a postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in another subject. In many jurisdi ...

, and

Doctor of Juridical Science A Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD; ), or a Doctor of the Science of Law (JSD; ), is a research doctorate degree in law that is equivalent to a Ph.D. degree. In most countries, it is the most advanced law degree that can be earned. Australia ...

degrees. The school offers two joint degree programs, a J.D./M.A. in Economics and a J.D./M.B.A. The J.D./M.A. in Economics is offered in connection with the SMU Department of Economics in Dedman College, and the J.D./M.B.A. is offered in connection with the

Cox School of Business The Edwin L. Cox School of Business is an American business school that is part of Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. The SMU Cox School of Business is headquartered in four buildings on SMU's 210-acre main campus five miles ...

at SMU.

The class that enrolled in the fall of 2019 has a median LSAT score of 161 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.7. LSAT/UGPA medians were calculated by the Law School Admission Council based on matriculant lists provided by the law school to the American Bar Association. Each JD student must complete 87 credit hours. Thirty-one of these hours comprise the mandatory first-year curriculum. After the first year, students must complete a course in professional responsibility, two upper-level writing courses (including an edited writing seminar in which an extensive scholarly, expository writing project is reviewed and critiqued by the professor), Constitutional Law II, and a practical skills course. All students are required to perform 30 hours of public service before graduating.

Programs and resources

Dedman Law is home to four independent

law journals A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also provid ...

: ''The SMU Law Review'', ''

Journal of Air Law and Commerce The ''Journal of Air Law and Commerce'', founded as the ''Journal of Air Law'', is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the study of aviation law. It is published by Southern Methodist University (SMU) in conjunction with the university's Ded ...

'', ''

The International Lawyer ''The International Lawyer'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed law journal and the official publication of the American Bar Association's (ABA) Section of International Law and Practice. It was established in 1966 and has been based at Southern Methodi ...

'', and the ''SMU Science & Technology Law Review''. Dedman Law offers several

law clinic A legal clinic (also law clinic or law-school clinic) is a legal aid or law-school program providing services to various clients and often hands-on legal experience to law students. Clinics are usually directed by clinical professors. Legal cl ...

s for upper-division students. The law clinics include: the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Child Advocacy Clinic, Civil Clinic, Criminal Justice Clinic, Family Immigration Detention Clinic, Federal Taxpayers Clinic, First Amendment Clinic, Consumer Advocacy Project, Small Business Clinic & Trademark Clinic, Judge Elmo B. Hunter Legal Center for Victims of Crimes Against Women, Innocence Clinic, Patent Law Clinic, and Vansickle Family Law Clinic. Dedman Law offers a summer program at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Oxford, England Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, numerous international programs, and Underwood Law Library. Underwood Library

Underwood Law Library

SMU's Underwood Law Library is the largest private academic law library west of the Mississippi River. Its collections include approximately 666,498 law-related volumes and equivalents, ranking the library among the top 20% of all law libraries in the United States.

Rankings

In 2024, SMU Dedman School of Law was ranked No. 42 in the nation by '' U.S. News & World Report.''

Employment

According to SMU's official 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 80% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. SMU's

Law School Transparency Law School Transparency (LST) is a nonprofit consumer advocacy and education organization concerning the legal profession in the United States. LST was founded by Vanderbilt Law School graduates Kyle McEntee and Patrick Lynch. LST describes its ...

under-employment score is 10.8%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2018 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at SMU for the 2020–2021 academic year is $83,464. The average amount borrowed for law school by members of the 2014 graduating class was $124,617.38.

Notable faculty

Bryan Garner Bryan Andrew Garner (born November 17, 1958) is an American legal scholar and lexicographer. He has written more than two dozen books about English usage and style such as ''Garner's Modern English Usage'' for a general audience, and others for l ...

Paul Hardin III Paul Hardin III (June 11, 1931 – July 1, 2017) was an American academic administrator who spent 27 years as a leader in higher education. He was the chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1988 to 1995, president ...

* A. Kenneth Pye *

Dale Carpenter Dale Carpenter (born December 27, 1966) is an American legal commentator and professor of law at the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. He formerly served as the Earl R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law at ...

Notable alumni

* James A. Baker, Justice of the Texas Supreme Court * Keith Bergelt, former U.S. Diplomat and CEO of

Open Invention Network Open Invention Network (OIN) is an intellectual property rights company based in Durham, United States. It operates as an entity specialising in the acquisition of patents, subsequently granting royalty-free licenses to its community members. T ...

* Jane J. Boyle is a district judge for the

United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (in case citations, N.D. Tex.) is a United States district court. Its first judge, Andrew Phelps McCormick, was appointed to the court on April 10, 1879. The court convenes in ...

* Dan Branch, former member Texas House of Representatives * Angela Braly, former president and chief executive officer for WellPoint (now

Anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to sho ...

) * Raleigh Brown, member of the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. There are no Term limits in the United States, term limits. The ...

; Texas State District Court judge in Abilene * Jeff Cox (Legal Law Masters in Taxation), judge since 2005 of the Louisiana 26th Judicial District Court of Bossier and Webster parishes *

Catherine Crier Catherine Jean Crier is an American journalist and author of ''A Deadly Game'' and ''The Case Against Lawyers''. She was the youngest elected state judge in Texas history at age thirty and served as a Texas State District Judge for the 162nd Di ...

, Dallas County District Judge, investigative journalist * Robert H. Dedman Jr., former CEO of

ClubCorp ClubCorp (formerly ClubCorp Holdings, Inc) is an American corporation based in Dallas. It owns and operates more than 200 golf country clubs, businesses, sports and alumni clubs worldwide. Located in 26 states, the District of Columbia, and 2 cou ...

* Robert H. Dedman Sr., founder of private club network

, Inc. and the law school's co-benefactor *

Craig T. Enoch Craig Trively Enoch (born April 3, 1950) is a former justice of the Texas Supreme Court, having served from 1993 until his retirement in 2003. Career Before service on the Supreme Court, he was chief justice of the Texas state Fifth District Cou ...

, former associate justice of the

Texas Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX) is the court of last resort for civil matters (including juvenile delinquency cases, which are categorized as civil under the Texas Family Code) in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court o ...

* Gerald J. Ford, noted Texas banker and businessman * David C. Godbey, federal judge *

Rusty Hardin Russell "Rusty" Hardin Jr. (born October 6, 1941) is an American attorney and head of the Houston law firm Rusty Hardin & Associates, P.C. which he established in 1996. Early life Hardin attended a private military academy in Chattanooga, Tennes ...

, an American attorney and head of the Houston law firm Rusty Hardin & Associates, P.C *

Nathan Hecht Nathan Lincoln Hecht (born August 15, 1949) is an American lawyer who served as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas from 2013 until his mandatory retirement December 31, 2024. A Republican from Dallas, Hecht was first elected to the ...

, Chief Justice of the

* Yukio Horigome, Justice, Supreme Court of Japan * Todd Ames Hunter, Texas State Representative * Jerry Jones Jr., Chief Sales and Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

* S. M. Krishna, Minister of External Affairs of India and Former

Chief Minister of Karnataka The Chief minister (India), chief minister of Karnataka is the Head of government, chief executive officer of the Government of Karnataka, government of the Indian state of Karnataka. As per the Constitution of India, the governor of Karnatak ...

* Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr., Justice,

Supreme Court of Missouri The Supreme Court of Missouri (SCOMO) is the highest court in the state of Missouri. It was established in 1820 and is located at 207 West High Street in Jefferson City, Missouri. Missouri voters have approved changes in the state's constituti ...

* Barbara M. Lynn, Judge,

* Robert B. Maloney, federal judge *

Bagir Manan Bagir Manan (born 6 October 1941) is an Indonesian jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Indonesia from 2001 to 2008. and chairman of the Press Council between 2010 and 2016. and 2013–2016. He is a professor of constituti ...

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Harriet Miers Harriet Ellan Miers (born August 10, 1945) is an American lawyer who served as White House counsel to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007. A member of the Republican Party since 1988, she previously served as White House staff secretary ...

, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, White House Counsel for

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

* Getoar Mjeku, Deputy Minister of Economy of

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

* Robert Mosbacher Jr., an American businessman, founder of BizCorps * James Latane Noel Jr., Attorney General of Texas *

Irma Carrillo Ramirez Irma Carrillo Ramirez (born 1964) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States federal judge, United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She previously served as a United States magist ...

, circuit judge of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: ...

since 2023 *

John Ratcliffe John Lee Ratcliffe (born October 20, 1965) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the ninth director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since 2025. He previously served as the sixth director of national intelligence from ...

, American politician who is the 6th

Director of National Intelligence The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a Cabinet of the United States#Current Cabinet and Cabinet-rank officials, cabinet-level Federal government of the United States, United States government intelligence and security official. The p ...

and served as the Congressman for

Texas's 4th congressional district Texas's 4th congressional district of the United States House of Representatives is in an area of Northeast Texas, that includes some counties along the Red River northeast of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, as well as some outer eastern su ...

from 2015 to 2020. * Trevor Rees-Jones, founder and chairman of Chief Oil & Gas * Robert Rowling, founder of TRT Holdings, the holding company of

Omni Hotels & Resorts Omni Hotels & Resorts is an American privately held, international hotel company based in Dallas, Texas. The company was founded in 1958 as Dunfey Hotels, and operates 51 properties in the United States and Canada, totaling over 20,010 rooms and ...

and

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* Edward B. Rust Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of

State Farm State Farm Insurance is a group of mutual insurance companies throughout the United States with corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois. Founded in 1922, it is the largest property and casualty insurance, property, casualty and auto i ...

Mutual Automobile Insurance Company *

Rick Scott Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers; born December 1, 1952) is an American attorney, businessman, politician, and United States Navy, Navy veteran serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of F ...

, American businessman, politician and

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

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from

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. He served as 45th

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from 2011 to 2019. *

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, the former

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for

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* Helmut Sohmen, chairman of

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and a former Hong Kong legislator *

William Steger William Merritt Steger (August 22, 1920 – June 4, 2006) was an American politician and United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Education and career Born on August 22, 1920, in Dallas, ...

, Judge,

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (in case citations, E.D. Tex.) is a federal court in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Fifth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. ...

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, President of the

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* Tsai Hong-tu, a Taiwanese businessman and banker * Lamar White, investigative journalist known for his work on racism and political corruption in the Deep South

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dedman School Of Law Law, Dedman School of Law schools in Texas Universities and colleges established in 1925 1925 establishments in Texas