Dean Ahdieh expresses gratitude to the Texas A&M Law family

Posted by Texas A&M School of Law on Nov 25, 2020 10:46:37 PM

Thanksgiving this year, to make an obvious understatement, is unusual — just as nearly all of 2020 has been. The ongoing pandemic and recent spikes in cases have many of us doing something we never would have imagined just a year ago: hosting or attending virtual gatherings at a distance.

This year has not only been strange and inconvenient, in many cases it's been heartbreaking.

However, in the midst of it all, we as a Texas A&M Law community, have much to be grateful for.

Here are a few of the things I am most grateful for this Thanksgiving:

  • First and most importantly, the good health of the immediate community of our faculty, staff, and students, through the Covid-19 pandemic to date;

  • The strong and diverse cohort of engaged 1L’s we welcomed to our (one-way) hallways this fall

  • The broad and deep interest in our Master’s degree programs as opportunities for professionals to acquire critical knowledge and to distinguish themselves in consequential ways

  • The incredible success of our most recent graduates on the bar exam — even under distinctly trying circumstances — resulting in the second highest pass rate in Texas, including Jenna Johnson ‘20, earning the highest passing score among all takers

  • Perhaps unsurprisingly, given those results, employers express continued and growing demand for our students.

  • The successful navigation of twelve weeks of face-to-face, hybrid, and online classes, as well as in-person exams

  • The striking achievements of our clinics over the course of the entire year-to-date — not just in spite of the surrounding conditions, but in response to them

  • Texas A&M Law’s important contributions to the Covid-19 pandemic response, including the incredible webinar series initiated by Gabriel Eckstein, with the support of Kirsten Evans

  • The incredible awards and other recognitions bestowed on our faculty — Professor Thomas Mitchell’s receipt of a MacArthur “Genius” Grant; important University distinctions bestowed on Professors Susan Fortney, Glynn Lunney, Tim Mulvaney, and Peter Yu; the election of Huyen Pham, Nancy Welsh, and Peter Yu to the American Law Institute; and Michael Green’s appointment as a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators; and many others

  • The continued appreciation for the caliber of our work and what we produce, as evidenced by external rankings.

More than any particular achievements, I am especially grateful for all the faculty, staff, students, and community partners that make Texas A&M School of Law such an exciting and vibrant place to learn and work.

Thank you. I hope you all have a very happy and safe Thanksgiving.

Bobby

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About Texas A&M School of Law

Texas A&M School of Law is an American Bar Association-accredited institution located in downtown Fort Worth. Since integrating with Texas A&M University in 2013, the law school has sustained a remarkable upward trajectory — dramatically increasing entering class credentials; improving U.S. News and World Report rankings; hiring more than 30 new faculty members; and adding more than 10 clinics and six global field study destinations. In the past several years the law school has greatly expanded its academic programs to serve the needs of non-lawyer professionals in a variety of complex and highly regulated industries such as cybersecurity, energy and natural resources, finance, and healthcare.

For more information, visit law.tamu.edu.

About Texas A&M University

Texas A&M, established in 1876 as the first public university in Texas, is one of the nation’s largest universities with more than 66,000 students and more than 440,000 living alumni residing in over 150 countries around the world. A tier-one university, Texas A&M holds the rare triple land-, sea- and space-grant designation. Research conducted at Texas A&M represented annual expenditures of more than $905.4 million in fiscal year 2017. Texas A&M’s research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental and applied contributions resulting, in many cases, in economic benefits to the state, nation and world.

About Research at Texas A&M University

As one of the world's leading research institutions, Texas A&M is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery, including that of science and technology. Research conducted at Texas A&M represented annual expenditures of more than $905.4 million in fiscal year 2017. Texas A&M ranked in the top 20 of the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development survey (2016), based on expenditures of more than $892.7 million in fiscal year 2016. Texas A&M’s research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental and applied contributions resulting, in many cases, in economic benefits to the state, nation and world.

To learn more, visit http://research.tamu.edu.