From the Dean
I said I would come back to the first element, a great physical facility. As you know, our new law building, the Robert C. Khayat Law Center, is under construction and is scheduled for occupancy in fall 2010. The class that enters in fall 2010 will be the first to spend all three of their years of study in the new building. It will be a beautiful building, reminiscent of the Lyceum and the Greek Revival architectural style of the rest of campus. It also will feature state-of-the-art instructional technology in the classrooms, seminar rooms and courtrooms. We are extremely excited about our new building, which represents the dawn of a new era in legal education at The University of Mississippi and in the state of Mississippi. When you are on campus next, please go by and see this amazing new building for yourselves.
Speaking of students, we began a new school year Aug. 19 with our orientation for first-year students. The James O. Dukes Orientation to Professionalism was held the next day, marking the 11th anniversary of this outstanding program. Lawyers and judges representing the very best of our profession came together to give of their time and their wealth of experience in meeting with law students in small groups to discuss important issues of professionalism, civility and ethics. I continue to be impressed with the support of this program shown by the lawyers and judges of our state, and I am deeply appreciative of the efforts of the Bar and its individual members in making the program such a huge success.
The fall 2009 entering class is an outstanding group. We had 1,169 applicants; 173 of them enrolled this fall. The class is 49 percent female and 51 percent male. Twenty-six minority students constitute 15 percent of the class. The students come from 17 states, representing 48 undergraduate schools. The median LSAT is 154, and the median GPA is 3.5. Four of our first-year students, demonstrating the diversity and strength of this class, are featured in a story, “True Grit,” in this issue. I commend it to your reading.
In the past, I have written about the many extraordinary teachers we have been blessed to have over the years. One that I did not have the privilege of knowing or having as a professor was the famous, or infamous, John Fox. I have heard so many John Fox stories over the years (not all of them, I am sure) that it occurred to me that someone ought to collect these stories and publish them. I will take on that task, but I need your help. Please send me your John Fox stories. Do not assume someone else will do it. Do it yourself! I do not mind if I receive 11 different versions of the same story. In fact, that will add to the collection rather than detract from it. These stories will be a treasure trove in the great Southern literary style, and they should be preserved for all time.
Finally, I want to note a couple of significant achievements for the law school.
You will notice in this issue that in its annual “Best Value” rankings, The National Jurist ranked us fifth in the country among all law schools in terms of the quality of legal education for the money.
I also saw that in the 2010 Super Lawyers rankings of U.S. law schools, we ranked 85th out of 180 law schools in terms of the number of our graduates named in Super Lawyers for 2009. In addition, in the most recent issue of Mid-South Super Lawyers, our law school was recognized for producing the most lawyers (199) on this year’s list.
All three of these rankings speak well not only of the quality of legal education one receives at our law school but also of the quality of expertise and professional achievement of our graduates as they excel in their careers.
I am humbled and blessed to serve as your dean as I near the midpoint of my 13th year. All of you are part of our law school family, and I count it an honor and a privilege to be a part of this great family.
FOX TALES WANTED!
Please send me your John Fox stories. These stories need to be collected and published, or they will be lost forever with the passage of time. I promise that once I have all of the stories collected, I will seek to publish them, with recognition of the sources and with appropriate commentary and connecting material, photos, etc., in a form that will be a tribute to this legendary law professor.
