From the Dean

Fall is always an exciting time at the law school. It is a time of new beginnings, the start of a new school year. The members of this fall’s entering class are bright, enthusiastic and highly personable. The class is 173 strong—108 of them Mississippi residents and 65 who are nonresidents. Twenty states are represented in the class, and the new students attended 60 different undergraduate schools. Ninety-seven are male, and 76 are female. Minority students number 27, or 16 percent of the class. The average LSAT score for the class is 155, and the average GPA is an impressive 3.52.

First-year orientation was on Wednesday, Aug. 15, and the James O. Dukes Orientation to Professionalism Program was held on Thursday, Aug. 16. I am very pleased to tell you that one of our first-year students is Will Dukes, Jimmy and Leslie’s son. The Professionalism Orientation, now in its ninth year, was a huge success with some 52 outstanding lawyers and judges participating as moderators for the small discussion groups. I continue to be impressed—but not surprised—at the number of our judges and lawyers who devote their time and effort to participating in the education of these fledgling lawyers.

Although I did not make it to all, I tried to sit in for a few minutes at many of the sessions, and I found all of them to be very animated and energetic in their discussion of ethical and professionalism issues. Lawyers and judges—as well as the students themselves—told me afterward how much they valued the experience.

We “lost” two faculty members this year. Longtime professor Tim Hall left us to become president of Austin Peay State University in Tennessee. Professor Kali Murray left to join the faculty of another law school. At the same time, I am happy to tell you that we added two new faculty members this year. David Case joined our faculty as associate professor. David, who some of you may recall was with the old Ott and Purdy law firm in Jackson, came to us from the University of Memphis law school. Ben Cooper joined our faculty as assistant professor. Ben came to us from private practice in Philadelphia, Pa.

The School of Law Campaign is going well. Of the $35 million that we need to raise in private funds for the new building, we now stand at $28.3 million, leaving $6.7 million to go to reach our goal. As you read this, demolition of the old Village will have begun and possibly may have been completed.

We are still anticipating that groundbreaking for the new facility will take place very early in 2008. What once seemed a long way off has now begun, and we are approaching the reality of a new law school building, one that will be beautiful and that will look as if it belongs on the Ole Miss campus. All of us—and, I hope, you—are very excited about the new building.

Another exciting development this fall is the creation of the Mississippi Innocence Project, housed here at the School of Law. Tucker Carrington, who came to us from Georgetown University School of Law, is the new director. This project, like others around the country, will assist state prisoners in cases in which irrefutable evidence (e.g., DNA evidence) proves their innocence.

I completed my 10th year as dean on July 1. It seems to me more like half that time. Regardless of real time or imagined time, one thing is certain: I continue to count my being dean of this law school a blessing and a privilege, and I appreciate all the support you have given me over the years to enable us to be an even better law school.

Samuel M. Davis (JD 69)
Dean and Jamie L. Whitten Chair
of Law and Government