The University of Houston Law Center is the

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 ...

of the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, Texas. Founded in 1947, the Law Center is one of 12 colleges of the University of Houston, a

state university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

. It is accredited by the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...

and is a member of the

Association of American Law Schools The Association of American Law Schools (AALS), formed in 1900, is a non-profit organization of 175 law schools in the United States. An additional 19 schools pay a fee to receive services but are not members. AALS incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non- ...

. The law school's facilities are located on the university's 667-acre campus in southeast Houston. The Law Center awards the

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 ...

(J.D.) and

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 ...

(LL.M.) degrees. The law school ranked tied at 63rd in the 2025 '' U.S. News & World Report'' law school rankings, No. 12 in intellectual property law, No. 5 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 Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

, hosting 320 of the Loyola's 800 students taught by 31 Loyola law professors, allowing the Loyola students' education to continue uninterrupted.

Rankings

In 2025, '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranked UHLC tied for the 63rd 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 largest 100 law firms in the country. In 2024, PreLaw magazine recognized UHLC in Trial Advocacy, being one of 20 "A" schools on an "A+" to "A-" scale.

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 Grading in education is the application of standardized measurements to evaluate different levels of student achievement in a course. Grades can be expressed as letters (usually A to F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), percentages, or as num ...

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 * Blakely Advocacy Institute * Center for Children, Law & Policy * Criminal Justice Institute * The Environment, Energy, & Natural Resource Center * Health Law & Policy Institute * Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law 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: * The Frankel Rare Books Collection is a closed-stack collection of rare and out of print books and documents as well as publications of the Law Center faculty. * The Judge Brown Admiralty Collection is an admiralty and maritime law collection. Established mainly from an endowment by Houston admiralty lawyers, the collection is named in honor of Judge John Robert Brown, a Houston admiralty attorney who served on the Fifth Circuit. The entire collection was lost during Tropical Storm Allison, but was rebuilt through the Albertus book replacement project, completed in 2007. * The Foreign & International Law Collection, which includes books and other documents on Mexican law. 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 The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...

(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 journal 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 provi ...

s. The ''

Houston Law Review The ''Houston Law Review'' is a law review published by the University of Houston Law Center. The journal is edited and published by students in one volume, divided into five issues, each academic year. The journal was founded in 1963. In additi ...

'', established in 1963, is the school's main law journal. The four specialty journals are the ''Houston Business and Tax Law Journal'' (

business law Commercial law (or business law), which is also known by other names such as mercantile law or trade law depending on jurisdiction; is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of persons and organizations engaged in ...

tax law Tax law or revenue law is an area of legal study in which public or sanctioned authorities, such as federal, state and municipal governments (as in the case of the US) use a body of rules and procedures (laws) to assess and collect taxes in a ...

; founded in 2001), the ''Houston Journal of Health Law and Policy'' (health care law), the '' Houston Journal of International Law'' (

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

), and the ''Journal of Consumer & Commercial Law'' (

commercial law Commercial law (or business law), which is also known by other names such as mercantile law or trade law depending on jurisdiction; is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of Legal person, persons and organizations ...

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. 8The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $197,267 for residents and $239,808 for nonresidents.

Notable alumni

* Fortunato Benavides (deceased), former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit *Kathy Britton, billionaire, owner of Perry Homes * Jeff Brown, 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 ...

* Joseph S. Cage Jr. former US Attorney for the district of western Louisiana * Anne Clutterbuck, lawyer and politician * David Cobb, social activist lawyer, U.S. Green Party candidate * Jasmine Crockett, congresswoman * Marcia A. Crone, judge for the

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. ...

* William F. Downes, federal judge *

Eni Faleomavaega Eni Fa'aua'a Hunkin Faleomavaega Jr. ( ; August 15, 1943 – February 22, 2017) was an American Samoan politician and attorney who served as the territory's third lieutenant governor, from 1985 to 1989 and non-voting delegate to the United State ...

, non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives from American Samoa's at-large congressional district. * Gene Green,

U.S. representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

* Vanessa Gilmore, Judge * Richard "Racehorse" Haynes, famous criminal defense attorney * Randy Hendricks, attorney and sports agent * Donald Holmquest, lawyer and former

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

astronaut * Jolanda Jones, former

Houston City Council The Houston City Council is a city council for the city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas. The Council has sixteen members: eleven from council districts and five elected at-large. The members of the Council are elected every four years, wi ...

member and ''

Survivor Survivor(s) may refer to: * one who survives Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Survivors, characters in the 1997 KKnD series#Armies, ''KKnD'' video-game series * ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Foundation'', a fictional ...

'' contestant * I. D. McMaster, former District Judge for the 179th Criminal Court * John O'Quinn, highest paid attorney in Texas and founding partner of The O'Quinn Law Firm * Daylin Leach former State Senator for Pennsylvania * Gray H. Miller, judge * John Moores, entrepreneur and philanthropist, and former owner of the San Diego Padres * David Newell, judge * Frances Northcutt, technical staff on NASA's

Apollo Program The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...

, women's and

abortion rights Abortion-rights movements, also self-styled as pro-choice movements, are movements that advocate for legal access to induced abortion services, including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their p ...

advocate * Dora Olivo, former state representative * Larry Phillips, judge, Republican former 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 ...

from Sherman *

Ted Poe Lloyd Theodore Poe (born September 10, 1948) is an American politician who represented Texas's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2005 to 2019. Poe was the first Republican Party (United States), Republi ...

, Congressman * Michael H. Schneider Sr., judge * Ruby Kless Sondock, first female

Justice * Star Jones, television personality, lawyer and author; former co-host, '' The View'', former Assistant District Attorney in New York * Mini Timmaraju, J.D. 1999, president of

NARAL Pro-Choice America Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America and commonly known as simply NARAL ( ), is a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization in the United States that engages in lobbying, politics, political action, and advocacy efforts to op ...

* Olen Underwood, Judge * Richard Waites, President/CEO of The Advocates, an international trial consulting firm * Brent Webster, acting Texas Attorney General *

Royce West Royce Barry West (born September 26, 1952) is an American politician who serves as a member of the Texas Senate, representing the Dallas-based Texas Senate, District 23, 23rd District. Early life and education West was born in Annapolis, Ma ...

, state senator * Randa Williams, billionaire *

John Whitmire John Harris Whitmire (born August 13, 1949) is an American attorney and politician who has served as the List of mayors of Houston, 63rd mayor of Houston, Texas, since 2024. Whitmire was previously a Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ...

, mayor of Houston, former state senator * Samuel F. Wright, Washington DC–based attorney active in veterans issues; lobbied on behalf of the fraudulent U.S. Navy Veterans Association * Juan F. Vasquez, judge at

United States Tax Court The United States Tax Court (in case citations, T.C.) is a Federal judiciary of the United States, federal trial court court of record, of record established by US Congress, Congress under Article One of the United States Constitution, Article ...

* Philip D. Zelikow, executive director of the 9/11 Commission and

Counselor of the United States Department of State The counselor of the United States Department of State is a position within the United States Department of State that serves the secretary of state as a special advisor and consultant on major problems of foreign policy and who provides guidanc ...

* Tony Buzbee, Houston trial attorney, and member of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents * Phyllis Frye, the first transgender judge in the United States * Cody Vasut, state representative * Krystal LaPorte, voice actress

Notable faculty

* Raymond Nimmer, professor, dean *

Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren (née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A mem ...

, professor 1978–1983

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Houston Law Center, University Of Law schools in Texas Law Center Universities and colleges established in 1947 1947 establishments in Texas