(Frost Brown Todd, February 2021)

A record number of students from a record number of schools applied for Frost Brown Todd’s (FBT) 10th annual Diversity and Inclusion Scholarships. Of the nearly 100 applications, FBT’s Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship committee selected the six students who best demonstrated academic excellence and a commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in their communities.

This year’s recipients include students from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, Texas A&M University School of Law, Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law, and Northern Kentucky University Chase School of Law. One recipient was born in Israel and another grew up in Mexico. Recipients also come from Pennsylvania, Alabama, Ohio and Texas. For more information, visit FBT’s Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship.

Terry Bentley Hill ’08 has been selected to receive the Texas Bar Foundation’s 2021 Terry Lee Grantham Memorial Award at the event’s annual awards dinner this summer. The award was endowed through the Texas Bar Foundation in 2014 by Grantham family and friends. 

The Texas A&M School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic joined forces with several other organizations to file a lawsuit on behalf of women who suffered medical abuse in U.S. Immigration and Consensus Enforcement (ICE) custody at the Irwin County Detention Center. The complaint alleges a pattern of unnecessary and non-consensual medical procedures, including unwanted gynecological surgeries.

“These non-consensual medical interventions are shocking," said Fatma Marouf, director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic. "Our Clinic helped prepare detailed declarations by the women about their experiences, obtained evaluations by independent medical experts and submitted requests for release.”

Texas A&M School of Law's advocacy program is pleased to announce that moot and mock court teams have advanced to the national finals in March.

Howdy! I’m honored to serve as the president of your law school’s alumni board of directors. As you are well aware, COVID has changed our world dramatically and made everything – including alumni relations – incredibly challenging. It was a pleasure to see those of you who joined us for the Dean’s Briefing last month. During the event, I was able to provide an update on the accomplishments of the alumni board.

Back in August, we sent a little love and encouragement to the 2020 Bar exam takers in the form of an Aggie Law business card holder for their future desk. We also included a letter letting them know that those who had gone before them were sending their support.

In the Fall, we hosted a fun, historical webinar about Hell’s Half Acre for alumni and the rest of the law school community. Starting in the 1870s, this was the name for the portion of Fort Worth where the law school now sits. It was known for saloons, brothels and other vice dens into the early 1900s.

We have also partnered with the law school’s career services department to provide alumni mentors to students.  It has been particularly helpful as both the classes of ’20 and ’21 have or will be entering the workforce during a pandemic.

The board is also in the process of finalizing details on an alumni legacy awards program that will feature a way to honor our exceptional graduates during a yearly signature event, which will hopefully begin in the fall of ’21.  The board is also working to create a panel webinar for recent graduates to learn more about the pathways to different law careers.

Texas A&M School of Law grad Serech Kissire ’20 was searching for a job after graduation, and he reached out to Travis Patterson (UT Law ’12) and asked him to pass on his resume. Patterson was happy to advocate for Kissire as Patterson and his colleague Tennessee Walker ’05 (Baylor Law ’08) had served as adjunct faculty members for a class that Kissire had taken at the law school.   Not long after the conversation, Patterson’s and Walker’s firm, the Patterson Law Group in Fort Worth realized they had a need to add an additional lawyer to the firm. They looked no further as they knew that Kissire was the one for the job. He asked great questions, and they knew his dedication to his craft as a student. There was no doubt that he would be a great fit for the firm.  Rumor has it that Kissire didn’t have to sit for an interview, and some say that no one has actually seen his resume. Kissire’s track record as a student spoke for itself and he was hired.  

Each commencement, in recognition of our students’ hard work, the law school presents the Equal Justice Award (EJA) to a deserving student who has performed pro bono legal work in an extraordinary way. The 2020 EJA recipient is Claire Brown, an exceptional student whose commitment, ambition, and dedication is evident in all that she does. She dedicated numerous hours volunteering in the public interest sector, completing 529.4 hours of pro bono.

FELLOWSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT – Winter 2021

Texas A&M Law students Chloe Barker, Katie Kruisselbrink and Madison Kuczynski, under the guidance of Professor Irene Calboli, present at a workshop coordinated by the  World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in October.

Students and faculty at the Texas A&M School of Law tackle real-world cases in the pursuits of justice.