Katrina Dewey

St. Mary’s School of Law makes one of the more compelling cases for not measuring all schools by the same yardstick. A deeply Catholic school, it caters to the large Hispanic and military population in San Antonio Southward, many of whom attend law school here to return to the Border and help immigrant families or join the judiciary or power base of South Texas.

They do things big in Texas. So when the state’s largest public university decided to enter the legal education fray, it did so on a scale intended to succeed. It acquired the former Texas Wesleyan Law School for $73M in 2013, and has invested tremendous resources in the Ft. Worth-based school since, peeling back the typically diffuse law school focus and lasering instead on international law, intellectual property and dispute resolution.

The University of Texas Law School at Austin should be on every prospective student’s ‘consider’ list. The school is head and shoulders the best for more than 1,000 miles in every direction, with a passionate alumni base, academics, leadership, cost-effectiveness and job pipeline that are second to none. It also happens to be in a state that is #2 in corporate headquarters and a city that is booming like almost nowhere else. We’re hooked.

Texas Tech Law School was the dream of a country lawyer who had to apprentice for the bar because he couldn’t afford the high-falutin’ city schools in Texas approved by the ABA. The school has remained true to that philosophy, offering more affordable education…