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Message from the Dean
Greetings! Thank you for visiting our website. Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School
of Law welcomes students from all backgrounds to explore one of the most diverse law
schools in the country.
Our goal. The goal of our law school is to prepare students for professional excellence and
to protect, improve, and pass on our legacy of social progress. We want students who
share our vision and strive to attract them with transition programs and merit scholarship
awards.
Our history. Established over seven decades ago during a crucial period of American civil rights
history, the school was a critical factor in a Supreme Court decision regarding equal
protection and equal rights. We proudly carry the renowned name of Thurgood Marshall,
whose distinguished career as a civil rights attorney during turbulent times was followed
by appointment to the United States Supreme Court. The school was honored to have
Justice Marshall participate in our 1978 formal naming ceremony.
Our diversification. Since its founding, our law school has been an engine for diversification of the
legal profession as well as governing bodies in both Texas and the nation. Thurgood
Marshall School of Law is a national leader in educating minority lawyers. We are
currently firmly established as one of the nation’s most diverse law schools, ranking
in each of the last ten years among the top three law schools on national index of
diversity published by U.S. News and World Report. Currently, our students represent a dynamic mix of African-American, Hispanic, Asian,
and Anglo cultures and perspectives. In the five-year period ending in 2012, forty-three
percent of newly licensed Texas attorneys of African-American lineage who graduated
from Texas law schools were Thurgood Marshall graduates.
Our programs. We empower our students with high quality academics and experiential learning programs.
Our academic courses are designed to enable our matriculants to become excellent critical
thinkers, evidence evaluators, rulemakers, problem solvers, and authors of well-crafted
legal documents. To enable our students to experience 21st century legal practice,
we sponsor clinics, externships, institute scholars, and inter-school mock and moot
court competition training, and other experiential learning opportunities. We have
instituted procedures to measure improvement in student acquisition of lawyer-related
skills and student learning outcomes.
Our faculty. Thurgood Marshall faculty members are invested in both teaching and scholarship. They
provide high quality legal instruction, devoting considerable time and creative energy
on intentional teaching and meaningful assessment of student learning outcomes. Their
teaching covers not only doctrinal legal subjects –from basic law courses to specialized
topical seminars—but also preparation of pleadings, briefs, memoranda, and other standard
legal documents.
Our faculty members make wide ranging scholarly contributions to the local, state,
national, and international conversations on legal doctrine and policy, often taking
controversial positions on race, class, and the scope of government authority. A common
subject of our faculty’s scholarship is promotion of legal policies that aim to bring
people together and uplift the disenfranchised. Current faculty scholarship reflects
recent and significant increases in both the quality and quantity of our research
and its influence. Faculty members also work with practicing attorneys in developing
theories for representation of clients in complex cases and in formulating solutions
for frequently recurring legal problems.
Our alumni. Law School Alumni represent the best traditions of equal justice under law throughout
the nation, the State of Texas, and the region. Our alumni include office holders
at all levels -- members of Congress, both branches of the Texas Legislature, and
administrative and local government positions. Many alumni have served as judges,
federal and state, at various levels of the judiciary. Our alumni who actively practice
law include partners and associates in major law firms and founders of their own thriving
law firms. The legal services TMSL alumni provide for their clients cover a wide range,
including corporate, real estate, criminal, and family law. Some of our alums serve
as agents for sports and other celebrities.
Our commitment. At Thurgood Marshall School of Law, we are committed to doing what is academically
and administratively necessary to remain competitive amongst area law schools within
the city of Houston, around the state of Texas, United States and abroad. As of August
2022, our Law School’s implementation of its full-scale, institutional relationship
with BarBri Bar Review® program has yielded unparalleled, online resources for our
students, to include instructional aids, lectures, workshops, customized study plans,
and simulated bar exam questions, starting as early as the summer preceding the first-year
academic program, transcending across the second and third-year law school curriculum,
with additional bar prep resources leading up to the bar exam. Thurgood Marshall Law’s
partnership with BarBri® and our school’s persistence in revitalizing our curricula
and institutional programming, remain at the forefront of our annual strategic planning
such that academic success and bar performance by our students continue to thrive.
With such efforts, it is our belief we not only increase career options for our students,
but enhance and enrich their lives, both personally and professionally.
McKen V. Carrington
Acting Dean and Professor of Law