Advancing tomorrow’s legal leaders
Dedman School of Law
Empowering excellence
Dedman Law empowers our law school community by providing a rich educational experience for its students, pro bono legal representation for underserved clients through its clinical program, and a robust resource for the legal and business sectors. Our alumni lead international law firms, serve as CEOs and general counsels to some of the nation’s largest corporations, and serve as judges and public servants across the globe. Our faculty members are award-winning professors and instructors, nationally recognized attorneys and legal scholars engaged in influential, cutting-edge research, committed to their students’ success.
SMU Fund for Dedman Law
When you give to the SMU fund for Dedman Law you help support our most urgent priorities and our highest-impact initiatives. Joining other generous donors, you are investing in the future of legal education for our nation and world. Consider providing the unrestricted resources required to address current funding needs, including the Association for Public Interest Law (APIL), the Board of Advocates and judicial and public interest externships.
Make an impact
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Your support for scholarships
strategically positions Dedman Law to effectively attract and compete for the best and brightest students. Whether you choose to make a current gift, establish an endowment or combine both for maximum impact, your giving helps us reduce the heavy debt burdens our students face when starting their careers. With your help, we are seeing the results as more and more highly qualified students are choosing to study law at SMU.
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Legal clinics
expand and deepen the impact of Dedman Law in the Dallas community and beyond. Your support is essential to the success of 11 high-demand legal clinics that target specific legal areas, including civil, criminal, family, patent, small business and trademark – and our newest clinic is focused on the First Amendment. Our philosophy of legal education extends far beyond the classroom – we give our students real-world, practical experience through the clinics, our public service requirement, our robust legal externship programs and our award-winning moot court program.
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Enhance the learning experience
The classroom is the heart of the learning experience at SMU, and the most effective facilities enhance the instructional environment – where students develop the necessary skills to analyze difficult legal problems, advocate for their clients and commit to advancing the cause of justice. Built in 1924, Florence Hall no longer serves the instructional needs of a 21st-century student. Therefore, SMU is moving forward with plans to construct a new, digitally equipped classroom facility that will position Dedman Law to compete effectively with other top law schools in Texas, the United States and around the globe. This technologically empowered facility will serve as a signature feature of SMU’s main Dallas campus.
As the premier private university in North Texas, SMU exists to shape future leaders who transform communities and organizations through ingenuity and thoughtful problem-solving. Building on our history of excellence, we now embark on SMU Ignited: Boldly Shaping Tomorrow – our multiyear, $1.5 billion campaign to attract and support outstanding students and faculty, to explore new fields and cutting-edge technologies, and to positively impact Dallas and the world beyond. We invite you to join us and empower the bold, the curious and the creative to better their professions and their communities.
Blaze a new path
Anne Beard
Director of Development
Dedman School of Law
agbeard@smu.edu or 214-768-4527