Facilities

The School of Law, then the Department of Law, opened along with the Department of Literature, Science, and Arts in 1883. The two departments occupied one building until the session of 1908-1909, when the Law Building was completed. This building served the needs of the School of Law until the completion in 1953 of Townes Hall, named for Judge John Charles Townes, dean of the school from 1907 through 1923. The enrollment, about six hundred in 1953, increased each year thereafter, necessitating additions to Townes Hall in 1964 and 1980. The 1980 addition is named Jesse H. Jones Hall in honor of the Houston philanthropist. These two connected buildings house the Joseph D. Jamail Center for Legal Research, the Stephen D. Susman Academic Center, and classrooms, offices, and support facilities for the faculty, staff, and students of the School of Law. The John B. Connally Center for the Administration of Justice, completed in 2000, houses a working courtroom and some of the finest facilities in the country for clinical education and advocacy skills training. All law school classrooms are equipped with modern educational technology.