The University of Mississippi School of Law, also known as Ole Miss Law, is an ABA-accredited law school located on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. The School of Law offers the only dedicated aerospace law curriculum in the United States from an ABA-accredited school. The University of Mississippi School of Law is also the only school in the United States, and one of only a handful in the world, to offer a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Air and Space Law.[3]
The School of Law opened in 1854 and is the fourth-oldest state-supported law school in the country. Susan Duncan was hired as the new Dean in the spring of 2017.[4]
The University of Mississippi School of Law was founded in 1854 by the state legislature after recognizing a need for formal law instruction in the state of Mississippi. The "Department of Law," as it was then referred to, consisted of seven students and one professor. The School of Law has had seven homes over the course of its history. Classes were originally held in the Lyceum, the oldest building on the University of Mississippi campus. Shortly before the Civil War, the then-Department of Law was relocated to a building close to Oxford Square. The university agreed to lease the building in order to prevent the owner from filing from bankruptcy. This agreement lasted until the start of the Civil War in 1861 when most of the law school's students volunteered to serve in the Confederate military. When the school reopened in 1866, it was again relocated to a building that occupied the current site of Peabody Hall. The law school closed a second time in 1876, as there were no law students during the latter years of Reconstruction. In 1911, classes were moved to Ventress Hall, which was then known as Lamar Hall, named after famed Mississippian and former professor of law L.Q.C. Lamar. The "Department of Law" officially became the "School of Law" in 1921. Ten years later, the law school moved to the building now known as Farley Hall. It remained here until 1978 when it was moved to Lamar Law Center. In January 2011, the School of Law moved a sixth time to the newly constructed Robert C. Khayat Law Center.[5]
The School of Law has a faculty of 34 full-time and adjunct professors with expertise in various areas of practice. The student-faculty ratio is 18.2:1.[6] The School of Law moved into a newly constructed building (the Robert C. Khayat Law Center) in January 2011.[7][8]
Programs
The law school is home to five auxiliary law programs: Center for Air and Space Law, the National Center for Justice and the Rule of Law, the Mississippi Innocence Project, the Mississippi Law Research Institute, and the Mississippi Judicial College. The law school also offers a number of clinical programs, including clinics in Child Advocacy, Criminal Appeals, Elder Law, Housing, Mediation Practicum, Legislation & Policy, Tax Practicum, Street Law, and Transactional Law. The MacArthur Justice Clinic, a branch of the program at Northwestern University School of Law, opened in the fall of 2014.
Employment
According to Ole Miss' official 2016 ABA-required disclosures, 60.3% of the Class of 2016 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation.[9] Ole Miss' Law School Transparency under-employment score is 18.9%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2013 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.[10]
Ranking
In 2009, National Jurist Magazine rated the University of Mississippi School of Law among the top five "best value law schools" in the United States.[11]U.S. News ranks Ole Miss Law as tied for number 98 in the country.[12]
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