South Texas College of Law

South Texas College of Law Houston provides a diverse body of students with the opportunity to obtain an exceptional legal education, preparing graduates to serve their community and the profession with distinction.

South Texas College of Law Houston attracts smart people who make smart choices. Our supportive learning environment is designed to extend the classroom experience, whether through extracurricular and co-curricular activities or opportunities to learn abroad, in a courtroom, in a corporate office, or in a clinic. And because South Texas College of Law Houston is surrounded by law firms, courthouses, corporations, and legal service providers in downtown Houston, our students and our graduates find many opportunities to transition seamlessly from their legal education to a successful career.

Students at South Texas College of Law Houston receive the best legal education available. Whether you plan to practice law, enhance your performance at your current job, manage a business, or enter government service, the goal of the faculty and staff at South Texas College of Law Houston is to make certain you are prepared and confident as you enter the workforce after graduation.

South Texas College of Law Houston is strategically located in the heart of one of the largest legal and international business communities in the country. Houston, the fourth-largest city in the United States, offers you opportunities to learn in the classroom and in the workplace while interning, clerking, or volunteering, all within blocks of the law school’s campus. We offer students the chance to start classes full-time or part-time in either the fall or spring and to take classes during the day or evening, as best suits your schedule.

South Texas College of Law Houston encourages you to take advantage of our many co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities while pursuing your legal studies. You may study abroad, in a number of countries, for a month or a semester. You can challenge yourself to participate in the best advocacy program in the country or direct your educational focus through the Frank Evans Center for Conflict Resolution or the Transactional Practice Center. You can work with real clients, handling real cases for those most in need in our community, through the Randall O. Sorrels Legal Clinics.

outh Texas College of Law Houston strives to offer a rigorous program of legal education designed to teach its graduates the knowledge, skills, and professionalism needed for the practice of law and to prepare them for admission to law practice. The law school’s goal is to educate its graduates to become responsible members of the legal profession dedicated to providing highly competent, effective, and ethical legal representation for their clients.

Taken together, these Learning Outcomes describe the faculty’s expectations for the knowledge, skills, and professionalism South Texas College of Law Houston students should have when they graduate. Every course in the law school curriculum is designed to contribute to the attainment of some, but not all, of these Learning Outcomes, and each course will emphasize a particular subset of them.

The history of South Texas College of Law Houston dates back to 1886, when the local YMCA drafted its constitution, which called for the organization to engage in educational endeavors. In 1923, the YMCA made the decision to establish a law school with a focus on offering night classes for working professionals. So began a tradition of educational excellence and relevant career preparation that has now spanned almost a century.

South Texas School of Law, as it was then known, opened its doors on Sept. 24, 1923, with seven part-time instructors and a first class of 34 students. Classes were held in a single room in the basement of the YMCA, with wooden fans suspended from the ceiling and chairs with arms that served as desks. But by 1945, when it changed its name to South Texas College of Law Houston, enrollment had surpassed the University of Texas School of Law for the first time.

In 2009, Donald J. Guter was announced as the new President and Dean of the College. He was selected after a nationwide search, leaving the faculty of Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh, where he also served as dean from 2005 through 2008.

Under Dean Guter’s leadership, the College has further strengthened its tradition of developing some of the best-prepared lawyers in the state and nation. Students consistently outperform the five-year average bar pass rate for Texas, and graduates maintain one of the state’s highest employment rates. Beyond that, they enter the workforce with less debt than their counterparts at other private law schools.

In fall of 2016, the school continued to receive national recognition, and was named the #1 BEST of the DECADE in Moot Court competitions, holding the most national championships of any public or private law school in the U.S., as recognized by PreLaw Magazine.