Founded in 1967, Texas Tech University School of Law boasts a rich history. In the 1930s, Alvin R. Allison, a self-described “country lawyer from Levelland,” could not afford to attend one of the three American Bar Association-accredited law schools in Texas. Instead of attending law school, he earned his law license by apprenticing under a local attorney for two years and passing the Texas Bar Examination in 1934.
His struggle to become a lawyer inspired his quest to establish a law school in West Texas at his alma mater, Texas Technological College. The Texas Tech Board of Directors hired Richard B. Amandes as the School of Law’s first dean in 1966, and in 1967, the first class, comprised of 72 students, enrolled at Texas Tech Law. The ABA granted accreditation to the school in August 1970, which followed accreditation from the Supreme Court of Texas in 1968. In 1969, Texas Tech Law gained membership to the Association of American Law Schools, and in 1974, was elected to the Order of the Coif, a qualification shared by less than half of the nation’s law schools.
Since opening, the School of Law has graduated more than 8,000 students, including the first woman to head a major federal-law enforcement agency, the Army’s highest-ranking legal officer, general counsels of corporations, elected officials, state and federal judges, and some of the nation’s top litigators.
Texas Tech Law offers a robust clinical program, three academic centers, 10 dual-degree programs, three concentration programs, a regional-externship program, a recognized legal-practice program, a public-service graduation requirement, and a nationally competitive advocacy program that boasts 43 national and international championships. The advocacy program has earned a “Top 10 Blakely Advocacy Institute ranking for the past nine years.
Texas Tech Law attracts professors who are passionate about teaching. In fact, Texas Tech Law has won the University’s Departmental Excellence in Teaching Award three times in recent years, four professors have been recognized with the Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Teaching Award since Fall 2013, and seven professors are elected members of the prestigious American Law Institute. Texas Tech Law is also the only law school in the country to have had an entire court—the Seventh Court of Appeals in Amarillo—teach a full-year course.
With quality students, talented faculty, and devoted staff, the School of Law continues to produce gifted attorneys who practice across the state, region, and country.
For more information visit www.law.ttu.edu
Mission Statement
The mission of the Texas Tech University School of Law is to prepare individuals for the effective and ethical practice of law in a rapidly changing, diverse, and interconnected world; to engage in a meaningful scholarship; and to foster a culture of public service.
Strategic Plan
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