For this edition of Texas Law’s Student Spotlight series, meet 3L Montgomery Flores! Why did you choose Texas Law? I chose Texas Law because I wanted a top-tier legal education, and it was important for me to stay in Texas. As a third-generation Longhorn, attending the University of Texas was always my dream. My grandfather was in one of the first classes of Hispanics at The University of Texas; following in his legacy is one of the greatest honors of my life.  Can you share a special memory of an experience related to some organization/club/internship have you participated in while at T ..read more

Members of PALS with Dean Bobby Chesney and attorneys from Arnold & Itkin. Photo by Brian Birzer A stroll through Texas Law offers plentiful evidence of the school’s long history of plaintiff-side giants.  For starters, the school is located at 727 East Dean Keeton Street, named for the legendary former dean W. Page Keeton, who literally wrote the book on tort law, “Prosser and Keeton on Torts.” Keeton is also immortalized in a statue just outside of the school’s in-house dining establishment, George’s Café, named for George Fleming ’71, a partner at Fleming Nolen Jez ..read more

President Jay Hartzell presents Professor Stephen Vladeck with the 2024 President’s Research Impact Award An expert on the federal courts and constitutional law and the creator of a code to predict hurricane storm surges have been named the 2024 recipients of The University of Texas at Austin President’s Research Impact Award. Stephen Vladeck, the Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts at the School of Law, and Clint Dawson, the Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering #2 and director of the Computational Hydraulics Group at the Oden Institute, were recently presented with the award ..read more

Graduates who pursue a career in public service will now receive even greater financial support from Texas Law. The school has announced an increase to the benchmarks used in its Loan Repayment Assistance Program. By providing additional grants to offset student loan paybacks, the change will benefit even more current and future students who would like to choose a career in public service but face financial barriers created by student loan debt. Dean Bobby Chesney disclosed the new benchmarks in two addresses earlier this month, one at the annual Excellence in Public Interest Awards, a ceremo ..read more

For this edition of Texas Law’s Student Spotlight series, meet 1L Zach Gilstrap! Before starting law school, you were a litigation paralegal at Weil. How did that experience inspire you to get where you are now? I was a paralegal at Weil in Dallas for a year (July 2022-August 2023). It was incredible to experience what the day-to-day environment was like in a law firm. I worked under two incredible paralegals who taught me the ins and outs of complex commercial litigation, including pretrial motion drafting and e-filing. I worked primarily on bankruptcy cases, but I also got to work on a larg ..read more

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson has been announced as commencement speaker for the 2024 Sunflower Ceremony. Watson will share wisdom gleaned from over three decades of public service with the class of 2024 before they walk the stage on May 11, 2024. The ceremony begins at 3:30 p.m. and will be held at Gregory Gym. “I’m thrilled to be part of the Texas Law commencement ceremony and share time with these graduates as they set out to make their lives as lawyers,” says Watson. “I have loved being a lawyer and I can still remember the excitement and anticipation I had at graduation for all the adventures ..read more

Paul Alexander, who was paralyzed at age 6 by polio and confined for decades to an iron lung—a mechanical respirator enclosing the entire body from the neck down—but nonetheless earned his undergraduate degree from The University of Texas at Austin in 1978 and his Juris Doctor from Texas Law in 1984, died on March 11 in Dallas. No cause of death was given, but Alexander had recently battled Covid. Alexander’s life story was already well-known around the globe when he published his memoir in 2020. That book, “Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung,” described his life of setbacks and ..read more

In a new book that promises to take readers “from the courtroom to the living room,” three Texas Law alumnae and one adjunct professor are offering firsthand accounts of pursuing a life in the law alongside the full-time challenges of parenthood. The book, “Law Moms: Juggling Motherhood, Ambition, and Personal Fulfillment,” was published this month by Sulit Press. Susan Arenella ’98, Nadia Bettac, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch ’08, Amy Mitchell ’04. Eight authors each contributed a chapter on a different topic. But all share themes of resilience in the face of struggle and the tenacity to push beyond ..read more

Members of the 2023-24 Thurgood Marshall Legal Society The National Black Law Students Association has honored the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society with its award for the country’s best medium-sized chapter. The award was announced March 9 at NBLSA’s national convention in Houston. Six members of TMLS were present to accept the award, including President Natalya Baptiste and Vice President Tionna Ryan, both ’25. TMLS had earlier been named NBLSA’s southwest region chapter of the year. The NBLSA medium-sized chapter of the year was chosen from the six regional winners in the “medium” chapter cat ..read more

Consider them Rookies of the Year. 1Ls Jaron Petreas and Hixon Frank The Texas Law team of 1Ls Jaron Petreas and Hixon Frank took top honors at the 2024 Fordham National Basketball Negotiation Competition in New York City on March 8-9. In addition, Petreas won the individual title of “Best Advocate” at the event. The competition featured 44 teams, but Petreas and Frank were the only 1Ls competing at the event; the other teams were comprised of 2Ls and 3Ls.  Fordham University’s NBNC simulates National Basketball Association negotiations. Law students act as lawyers, managing a series ..read more