No other school in the United States can claim a winning record close to that of South Texas. No lawyering skill is more important than the ability to communicate effectively. Lawyers must know how to completely research and present a legal issue both orally and in writing. The full-time legal research and writing professors teach students how to think critically and evaluate every aspect of a legal problem while learning to write statutory analysis, client letters, pleadings and briefs. After the first year of required courses, students may elect from a broad array of lawyering skills development classes including direct representation of actual clients, off-site supervised field placements and mock trial and moot court simulation courses.
Students apply legal principles to real-life situations in the general civil clinic.
Varied legal services are provided to the poor who are in need of help in everything from divorce and child custody problems, and fair housing, to assistance settling billing disputes or obtaining health care. Students working in these clinics experience the actual practice of law and use insights garnered on the job as the context for clinical classroom discussions. South Texas' location also allows it to take full advantage of a strong cadre of local jurists and leading practitioners in its simulation courses. Students are challenged to expand their mediation, pretrial and trial level skills through courses which combine lectures, demonstrations, role play activities and professor critiques. Dispute resolution's importance in the legal profession increases constantly as more courts require these methods as a way to avoid more adversarial processes and relieve docket clogging.