University of Texas Law School: Looking for a Few Good Human Beings

The dean of the University of Texas Law School, Lawrence Sager, decided to weigh in on the mess created by three of his 1L students. He kind of had to. For over a week, the legal world has been questioning the worth of a UT Law degree.
But Sager is a man with a marvelous wit, so you just knew that when he decided to light up the 1Ls pissing on his school’s reputation, it was going to be good. Sager penned his response in the Daily Texan:

I am writing in response to the opinion piece written by three students which appeared in The Daily Texan on March 4 under the title, “Law students need a practical education.”

A little more than halfway through their first year of law school, the authors of this call for practicality have not yet confronted the law school’s extraordinary array of courses, ranging from Admiralty Law to Wind Power Law.

Ouch — laying down the black-letter smackdown. Dean Sager’s going to blow these 1Ls out of the water….


Most of Sager’s op-ed touts UT’s various clinical practical programs. But he doesn’t waste opportunities to take subtle shots at the 1Ls still trying to read through all of UT Law’s course offerings:

Nor have the authors encountered our legal clinics (educational programs in which students deal with the real problems of real clients), our Advocacy Program or our clerkship and fellowship programs. We have 17 clinics ranging in areas including criminal law, environmental law, transnational worker rights, children’s rights, national security, community development, legislative lawyering, domestic violence, immigration law and Supreme Court litigation. …
Terry Tottenham, the president-elect of the State Bar of Texas, took umbrage at The Daily Texan piece; he has taught all phases of litigation to our students for the last 20 years and is only one of 41 adjuncts presently teaching in the Advocacy Program. Hundreds of students participate in the program each year, and many more participate in various interscholastic advocacy competitions.

It’s worth noting that while Dean Sager talks a lot about UT’s practical law training, he doesn’t address the 1Ls charge of rampant grade inflation at UT Law. Of course, why should UT Law faculty have to deal with grade inflation when it’s a problem at many other schools as well?
Beyond grades and course offerings, I think Dean Sager was trying to get across a more important point to the three 1Ls responsible for the article:

Good lawyers in our time need a good deal more than familiarity with legal doctrine and traditional legal skills. And at UT Law, it is our ambition to graduate not just good lawyers but good citizens — good human beings — prepared to take on the world with its manifold problems and promise.

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At least these 1Ls got on their dean’s radar. So long as they work on the “good human beings” thing, they should get along fine.
The Firing Line: UT School of Law’s dean speaks out on a practical legal education [Daily Texan]
Earlier: UT Law Fallout: Professors, Students Scramble
University of Texas Law Students Warn Employers to Stay Away from UT
Would You Give This Man $200 Million? Texas Is Counting On It.

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