Baylor Law School is the oldest law school in Texas. Baylor Law School is affiliated with Baylor University and located in Waco, Texas. The school has been accredited by the American Bar Association since 1931 and has been a member of the Association of American Law Schools since 1938. The program offers training in all facets of law, including theoretical analysis, practical application, legal writing, advocacy, professional responsibility, and negotiation and counseling skills.
History
Established in 1857, Baylor Law School was the first law school in Texas and the second law school west of the Mississippi River. Law classes continued until 1883 when the school was discontinued. In 1920, the Board of Trustees reestablished the law school (called the Law Department at that time) under the direction of Dean Allen G. Flowers. The school was temporarily suspended from 1943–1946 as a result of World War II.
Bradley J.B. Toben has served as Dean of the Law School since 1991. He is the longest serving dean in the nation among the 200 ABA accredited law schools.
Academics
Admissions
For the classes entering in 2022, Baylor Law School accepted 23.8% of applicants and 17.57% of those accepted enrolled with the average enrollee having a 163 LSAT score and 3.72 undergraduate GPA.
Class structure
The school operates on a quarter system and has four graduating classes per year. Each matriculate class has a separate application pool and applicants are required to apply to the quarter in which they would like to begin.
A typical academic year consists of three quarters, with students choosing to take off the fourth quarter of the year to complete a clerkship or internship; however, students may elect to complete the program in only 27 months by attending every quarter. The school's curriculum focuses more on the positive state of the law than a normative one and on actual practice in the court system.
Degrees
In addition to the standard Juris Doctor degree, Baylor Law students can obtain a combined JD with either the Master of Business Administration (both traditional and with an emphasis in healthcare administration), the Master of Taxation, the Master of Public Policy and Administration, or the Master of Divinity degree.
First-year program
First-year students are required to take the following courses and satisfactory completion is required before moving to upper-level courses. The required courses are: Civil Procedure Constitutional Law: Structure, Power and Legislation (4) Contracts Contracts 1 Contracts 2 Criminal Law Criminal Procedure Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) LARC 1 -- Introduction to Legal Writing LARC 2 -- Introduction to Legal Research LARC 3 -- Persuasive Communications Property Property 1 Property 2 Torts Torts 1 Torts 2
Upper Class Required Courses
The following courses are mandatory upper-class courses for all student (Practice Court classes are shown separately): Business Organizations I Constitutional Law: Individual Liberties Legal Analysis, Research, and Communication (LARC) LARC 4 -- Transactional Drafting LARC 5 -- Litigation Drafting Professional Responsibility Remedies Taxation and Accounting Principles for Lawyers Trusts and Estates
Practice Court
The hallmark of the law school curriculum is its Practice Court program. Practice Court traces its roots to the original school; it was returned in 1922 shortly after the school was reinstituted. Though practice court is designed primarily for students who will practice law before Texas trial courts, it is mandatory for all students.
The program consists of three courses. Students should plan to be available to participate in course work from 1:00 PM onward each week day (1:20 PM for Practice Court 3) and should expect to work late into the evenings:
Practice Court 1: Pre-Trial Practice & Procedure
Practice Court 2: Trial Evidence, Procedure & Practice
Practice Court 3: Trial and Post-Trial Practice, Procedure & Evidence (this includes the "Big Trial", whereby students are assigned to represent a party; the students must file pleadings, engage in discovery, conduct jury selection, argue their case, and engage in post-trial motion practice to secure their judgment).