University of Memphis School of Law 2024-25 Viewbook

THIS IS

MEMPHIS UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS CECIL C. HUMPHREYS SCHOOL OF LAW

2024-25 VIEWBOOK

Over its 62-year histor y, Memphis Law has offered a high- qualit y legal education at one of the most affordable prices in the nation for both in-state and out- of-state students.”

WHERE EDUCATION EQUALS

EXPERIENCE AND EMPLOYMENT

The University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law offers a clear path to practice and success with a curriculum that hones critical thinking and analytical abilities, while strengthening problem solving and advocacy skills essential to today’s legal landscape. All of that is enhanced by the hands-on experience that Memphis Law’s Top 35 ranked Experiential Learning & Clinical Training Program provides to our students, allowing them to do more than just learn the law. It provides a unique blend of legal advocacy and hands-on intensive training.

Through Memphis Law, you’ll get the experience you need to succeed.

When you choose to attend law school at the University of Memphis, you’ll join a diverse network of more than 6,000 alumni at leading law firms, government agencies, private-sector corporations and non-profit organizations across the country.

“Our exceptional faculty provides students with intellectually rigorous classes and one-on-one access through an open-door policy. Importantly, our extensive alumni network helps our graduates achieve a high job placement rate.

And, because we are the only law school in a large city, we offer students some of the most varied real-world learning opportunities in the entire region. Being within walking distance from numerous government offices, law firms, hospitals and the courts allows our students to gain incredible hands-on experience throughout law school and as they move into their legal careers upon graduation. And all this occurs in the best law school building in the nation.”

JIM STRICKLAND Dean and Professor of Prac tice Universit y of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law

THIS IS

MEMPHIS LAW TOP 35

#1

- U.S. News & World Report

- PreLaw Magazine/National Jurist Magazine

#25

A BEST

- U.S. News & World Report

- PreLaw Magazine

Experiential Learning & Clinical Training Program

Legal Writing Program Among Public Universities

Best Law School Building & Facility in the Nation

Law School for Trial Advocacy

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ACADEMICS Memphis Law provides an affordable, intellectually rigorous, and practiceoriented education while promoting student success, research, community engagement, inclusion and professional responsibility.

In addition to our traditional, full-time JD program, we offer a part-time program for a limited number of students as well. The law school also proudly offers a number of professional certificate programs, co-curricular opportunities, dual degree programs, joint degree programs and 3+3 degree programs for students to take advantage of in order to find the right academic recipe for their individual success.

DEDICATED

FACULTY

“Memphis Law provides students with an incredibly unique set of opportunities to learn about the law in real-world settings that you cannot easily find elsewhere. Our experiential learning program is active, engaging and helps to bring another layer of meaning to our students’ legal education.

You can learn about the law while seeing the immediate impact of its application in the community.”

Daniel Schaffzin Associate Professor of Law Cecil C. Humphreys Professor Director, Neighborhood Preservation Clinic

12:1 Student to Faculty Ratio

57

Full-time and Adjunct Faculty

18

Academic Scholarship Pieces Published by Faculty in the Last Year

DEGREE PROGRAMS 3+3 Programs

Dual and Joint Degrees

Certificate Programs

Juris Doctor (JD)

- JD/MA in Political

- Business Law

- Part-time

- 3+3 Accelerated

Science

- Health Law

Legal Studies

- JD/MPH

- Tax Law

Program

- Fast Track MPH

- 3+3 Philosophy,

Accelerated BA/JD Program

- 3+3 Program with Austin Peay University

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- JD/MBA

- Advocacy

- Full-time

“Memphis Law shines as a student-centered environment that provides an excellent and affordable legal education. Our dedicated faculty members are available and committed to student success, and our diverse and determined students graduate with practical legal experience and strong connections to our engaged legal community.”

Regina L. Hillman Assistant Professor of Law

Memphis Law faculty is composed of committed scholars and practitioners in various fields of practice.

These professors are mentors and teachers who use their career expertise and networks to help students both in and outside of the classroom. From helping students find placements, internships, externships, judicial clerkships, publication opportunities, or employment opportunities after law school, our faculty members are dedicated to going the extra mile.

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EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING Memphis Law is dedicated to ensuring that our students are prepared for success in the real world after law school and we go to great lengths to emphasize the practical skills and experience that employers look for upon graduation.

A great legal education must involve more than statutes, regulations and case law. Students must also gain the type of hands-on experience that is key to leaving law school ready to practice. The knowledge and practice skills gained in these immersive experiential environments are essential in today’s legal industry. Our Top 35 ranked Experiential Learning & Clinical Training Programs help our students develop those skills by stepping outside of the traditional classroom via our variety of externships or innovative legal clinics. These opportunities help them to learn by conducting hands-on legal work in real-world settings, and develops essential communication, research, writing and problemsolving abilities in the same types of legal environments they’ll find themselves in throughout their careers.

And beginning in 2026, the new NextGen Bar Exam will begin to be administered and our students could not be better suited for this new Bar format. The NextGen Bar will test takers’ practical lawyering skills and with our nationallyranked Experiential Learning program excelling at just this sort of real-world application, Memphis Law students will be uniquely well-prepared to excel on the new exam.

4 Memphis Law

“My externship with the Law Office of the Shelby County Public Defender afforded me a one-of-a-kind experience. Not only did I get one of the most practical previews of what actual criminal litigation looks like while still in law school, I got to be involved in it. I drafted motions, interacted with clients and potential witnesses, and was trusted to strategize defenses and work through discovery.”

Mirna Toma, Class of 2023

LEGAL CLINICS NEIGHBORHOOD PRESERVATION CLINIC This innovative Clinic represents the City of Memphis in public nuisance lawsuits seeking recourse against the owners of badly neglected, vacant and abandoned properties. Clinic students investigate property ownership and conditions; communicate with field code enforcement officers; and research, prepare, and file civil cases alleging claims arising under the Tennessee Neighborhood Preservation Act (NPA).

EXPUNGEMENT & RESTORATION OF RIGHTS CLINIC This clinic introduces students to the theoretical and practical aspects of representing clients with legal needs arising from the collateral consequences of prior arrests and convictions.

“Although we have supervision from our bosses, we’re the ones presenting the cases, we’re the ones doing all the work behind them. The Neighborhood Preservation Clinic has been extremely beneficial in advancing my abilities to be an advocate. It’s an eyeopener, and it makes it more real.”

Hunter Martin, Class of 2023, Past Neighborhood Preservation Clinic Participant

MEDICAL-LEGAL PARTNERSHIP (MLP) CLINIC This first-of-its-kind partnership and Clinic sees Memphis Law students representing low-income pediatric patients and their families at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. Students address the legal and social issues that impact child and family health through direct legal services, education and systemic advocacy.

MEDIATION CLINIC In this Clinic, Memphis Law students study mediation from the inside-out, analyzing in detail the communicative, strategic and ethical dimensions of specific interventions that mediators make in the context of particular cases.

Memphis Law 5

Stepping outside of the traditional classroom, our students placed in externships learn by doing and observing, which enables them to further develop essential research and writing skills, communication abilities and problem-solving techniques in real-world legal environments they’ll find themselves in throughout their careers. All of this is under the direction of a robust and long-established network of judges and attorneys across a wide variety of legal fields and industries.

EXAMPLES OF RECENT

EXTERN

SHIPS

EXTERNSHIP PLACEMENTS Judicial Placements

• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee • U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Tennessee • U.S. Immigration Court • Tennessee Supreme Court • Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals • Shelby County Circuit Court

Criminal Practice Placements

• U.S. Attorney’s Office for Western District of Tennessee • Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee • Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office • Shelby County Public Defender’s Office • State of Tennessee Office of the Attorney General

Government/Administrative Agency Placements

• U.S. Department of Homeland Security • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission • City of Memphis Attorney’s Office – Litigation and Transactonal Units • Memphis Shelby County Airport Authority • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers • U.S. Navy JAG Corps 6 Memphis Law

Health Practice Placements

• Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corporation • Medtronic Corporation • Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare • St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital • Regional One Health

Social Justice/Community Law Office Placements

• Advocates for Immigrants Rights • Bass, Berry, Sims Pro Bono Internship Program • Disability Rights Tennessee • Community Legal Center • Florida Department of Children and Families Child Services • Legal Aid of Arkansas • Memphis Area Legal Services • Mid-South Immigration Advocates • Neighborhood Preservation, Inc. • Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence • West Tennessee Legal Services

In-House Counsel Placements • Ducks Unlimited • FedEx Corporation • FedEx Express, Inc. • FedEx Logistics, Inc. • University of Memphis – Office of Legal Counsel

Memphis Law 7

LOCATION:

Being a student at Memphis Law means you’ll be located in the middle of the Memphis legal community. You’ll be within walking distance of state and federal courts, an array of law firms, as well as the majority of government offices. Our location also affords us the ability to form unique partnerships with many nearby entities, such as the City of Memphis, the Memphis Bar Association, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, the Shelby County Health Department and many more.

PROXIMITY TO EXPERIENCE

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Juvenile Court

1.0 mi

1.0 mi

U.S. District Court 0.6 mi Memphis City Hall 0.4 mi

Memphis City Court 0.6 mi Shelby County Courthouse 0.4 mi

CECIL C. HUMPHREYS SCHOOL OF LAW

Memphis Bar Association 0.3 mi

Methodist Le Bonheur

Memphis Area Legal Services

Shelby County Health Department

0.4 mi

1.5 mi

1.5 mi Memphis Housing Authority 1.2 mi

8 Memphis Law

Memphis Law 9

PREPARED FOR

PRACTICE

Leaving law school prepared to practice and successfully find employment are two of the most important things to a law student. That is why Memphis Law puts such an emphasis on helping our students find career success before they even leave the classroom. In addition to what you learn in your law school classes and commercial bar review courses, Memphis Law offers an expansive bar preparation program to help prepare you for success in the next stage of your legal career. We offer workshops and various programming designed to help you assess and practice the skills necessary to pass the bar. Our curriculum also includes a required upper-level bar preparation course for graduation to help our students prepare and review how to navigate multiple-choice, essay and Multistate Performance Test questions.

CAREER SERVICES Our Career Services Office helps our students find the career that best suits them. The office helps them develop their job search skills and assist with faculty and alumni relationships that lead to real-world employment.

The office also offers a wide range of career development assistance and opportunities for our students, such as:

“As the new format of the Bar Exam takes effect, Memphis Law students will be ahead of the curve when it comes to being tested on real-world skills. We are hard at work evaluating our curriculum to ensure our students are prepared. And the focus on practice-ready skills and experience is something we’re uniquely prepared for thanks to our deeply rooted and innovative experiential learning program.”

10 Memphis Law

DeShun Harris Assistant Professor of Clinical Law Director of Bar Preparation

• Individual Counseling Sessions

• Job Postings

• Mock Interview Training

• Job Fairs

• Seminars and Events

• On-campus recruitment

• Career Resource Center

interviews and events

CLASS OF 2023

AREAS OF EMPLOYMENT

6%

Judicial Clerkships

7% Public Interest

8%

Business & Industry

18%

Government

60% Law Firms

Memphis Law 11

I SEE ME IN

MEMPHIS

“My primary goal in life and law is to make a difference and be a force for good by doing my part to make the world a better place for my daughter. And Memphis Law has given me the wide range of experiences and relationships to already make an impact.”

LUPITA MARTINEZ

“I think my experiences as an educator prior to law school, combined with everything I learned at Memphis Law, put me in a good position to influence things in educational equity and policy issues. I’ve been a part of the community here in Memphis and in law school and I believe it will help me be a better attorney going forward.”

EVAN JOHNSON

“I feel incredibly ready to step out into the legal world to practice after my time here. The work you are doing at Memphis Law really is practical work. As a student enrolled in a legal clinic, I am a practicing (student) attorney, and I have been able to already have the experience of standing in front of a judge every week, building upon the knowledge gained from the different cases I’m working on.”

TARIK J. TERRY

STUDENT LIFE 26+ STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS 128 STUDENTS ENROLLED IN A CLINIC OR EXTERNSHIP IN 2023-24 12 Memphis Law

Two of the most valuable resources students find at Memphis Law are the people they meet and the relationships they make with them. Our students are at the center of a vibrant legal and downtown community, and whether it’s interacting with a wide range of diverse student organizations or amongst our extremely engaged alumni community, life at Memphis Law gives students the opportunity to forge relationships that will prove fruitful, both personally and professionally for years to come.

Memphis Law 13

ACCESS & INCLUSION We have a number of access and pipeline initiatives to help ensure prospective students from historically underrepresented backgrounds have access to information about the legal profession, the law school, our admissions process and financial aid opportunities.

MEMPHIS LAW has been nationally recognized for our accessibility & inclusion efforts, which is appropriate in a city like Memphis with a diverse citizenry. We

are also one of the MOST affordable law schools for students from any background to attend. The law school and our Office of Access & Multicultural Affairs collaborate with a number of different offices and community businesses and organizations to ensure an inclusive law school environment. These collaborations allow us to develop and implement initiatives that increase the access, admission, retention and graduation of a wide array of students.

14 Memphis Law

- Diversity and Pre-Law Day - Tennessee Institute for Pre-Law (TIP) Admissions by Performance Program

- Summer Law Intern Program (SLIP) with Memphis Bar Association - Summer Trial & Advocacy Institute (STAI) for high school students

Within the Top 10 Best Law Schools for Diversity in the country according to PreLaw Magazine.

30% of our current student body are FirstGeneration College Students.

Listed as a

More than 60% of our professors are Female.

“Most Diverse School” by PreLaw

Magazine.

Memphis Law 15

APPLICATION TIMELINE

ADMISSIONS PROCESS

CHECKLIST

Our online application is available through LSAC. Applicants to the University of Memphis School of Law will receive an email with a link to our website and a code to establish an account to check the status of their application. From that point on, applicants can check their application status online. Applicants also will receive an email once the application is complete. Once a decision has been rendered, the online status will read: decision rendered.

Final decisions are emailed to the applicant’s primary email address in the application. Most decisions are made between January and April. After being admitted, a non-refundable seat deposit of $250 is due by mid-April or two weeks after notice of admission, whichever is the later date.

FINANCIAL AID AND SCHOLARSHIP

CHECKLIST

CONTACT

APPLY FOR AN FSA ID at studentaid.gov.

University of Memphis School of Law 1 North Front Street Memphis, TN 38103 901.678.5403 901.678.0741 (fax) lawadmissions@memphis.edu memphis.edu/law

COMPLETE THE FAFSA at studentaid.gov, beginning in December for the next academic year.

USE PRIOR YEAR’S INCOME TAX For example, the 2025-26 FAFSA will require 2023 income tax information.

USE UofM’S FEDERAL SCHOOL CODE List the University of Memphis’ 6-digit federal school code: 003509

Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) 215.968.1001 lsac.org

APPLICATION (REQUIRED) The application may be accessed through

LSAC. Be sure to complete all questions accurately. Include your name and LSAC account number on any addenda. The non-binding Early Admission deadline is December 1. The priority deadline is April 1. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, with June LSAT administration being the last test considered.

CREDENTIAL ASSEMBLY SERVICE (CAS) (REQUIRED)

Applicants are encouraged to submit up to four letters of recommendation addressing their potential for academic success. When possible, letters should come from professors if you are currently in college or have recently graduated. The letters should be sent to LSAC to be included with your CAS report. If a file is complete by April 1, file review will not be delayed if letters have not been received.

All JD candidates are required to utilize LSAC services to set up a CAS account, regardless of which standardized test they take. Candidates must submit all academic undergraduate, graduate, and professional transcripts to LSAC. LSAC will provide a summary of all undergraduate work in the candidate’s CAS report. LSAC will not release a CAS report until they have received original transcript(s) from every undergraduate institution attended, including summer sessions and study abroad programs. It is the applicant’s responsibility to monitor the status of their LSAC account to ensure a complete CAS is sent to the law school.

TIP STATEMENT (REQUIRED FOR ALL TIP APPLICANTS)

PERSONAL STATEMENT (REQUIRED)

STANDARDIZED TEST SCORE INFORMATION (REQUIRED)

Each applicant is required to submit a personal statement. This statement provides the opportunity to describe your background and any unique experiences, characteristics, or circumstances you want the admissions committee to consider. You should explain your desire to study law, why you believe you will be a successful law student, and what you plan to do with your law degree. You are encouraged to explain your interest in attending our law school and may discuss any information not otherwise apparent from your application.

ADMONITORY ACTION EXPLANATION (IF APPLICABLE)

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LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION (OPTIONAL)

The University of Memphis School of Law operates the Tennessee Institute for PreLaw (TIP) summer program for Tennessee residents and border-county residents from underrepresented backgrounds who are not admitted through the regular process, but who show potential for the study of law. The following are border counties: Arkansas = Crittendon, Mississippi = Desoto, Marshall, Tate, Tunica. If you are interested in being considered for the TIP program, you must complete the TIP application question.

Applicants for the next entering class must have a valid reportable LSAT or GRE score.

A valid reportable score must be received directly from LSAC or ETS. Scores more than 5 years old are not acceptable.

SUPPLEMENTAL ESSAY(S) (OPTIONAL)

If you feel you have additional relevant information to share that will provide the admissions committee a more in-depth understanding of your background, interests, and goals, we encourage you to provide an additional essay using the prompts provided.

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memphis.edu/law 901.678.5403

The University of Memphis is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action University.

It is committed to the education of a non-racially identifiable student bodyUOM010/FY2425/5M PAULSEN