75 Years of Legal Education in San Antonio

Since its founding by the bar association in 1927 as the San Antonio Law School, the institution now known as St. Mary’s University School of Law has achieved a measure of success.

Alumni have become members of Congress, justices of the Texas Supreme Court, presidents of the state bar, leaders of law firms and champions of the poor.

Eight current members of the law faculty have authored casebooks, five have been elected to the American Law Institute, and many have served as Fulbright Scholars or held prestigious fellowships.

The clinical education program is nationally known. And five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have recently taught in the school’s annual program on international law held at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.

However, the law school and its graduates did not reach these heights because the road was easy.

Originally offering only evening classes, the law school’s day division was not established until 1936. But World War II intervened shortly thereafter. The day program was suspended, and the school again became a part-time law school. During that period Dixon Gulley, Leslie Merrem, and Judge Raymond Gerhardt taught practically all of the law courses with only slight remuneration to keep the school from closing.

A newsletter reported in 1975 that “From 1946 until 1965 the School of Law was in dire financial straits and [Dean Ernest A. Raba], together with Paul Casseb, Judge James Norvell, Sol Casseb, Charles Smith, and James Castleberry beat the pavement and called on all the law firms to help make up the budgetary deficit because tuition did not pay the cost of operation.”

Circumstances dramatically improved in 1968 when the School of Law moved from downtown to three beautiful new law buildings that were part of a multimillion dollar expansion at the main campus. But there were still many challenges: too many students, not enough faculty and inadequate library facilities. These were later addressed effectively under Castleberry when the faculty was substantially expanded in the 1980s and a generous grant of $7.5 million permitted construction of the outstanding Sarita Kenedy East Law Library.

Under Dean Barbara Aldave, the considerable expansion of the clinical program was capped by the opening of the law school’s fifth building in 1995, the Center for Legal and Social Justice, the largest clinical facility in the country.

Since 1998, Dean Bill Piatt has led the effort to focus the law school’s energies on the continuing pursuit of academic excellence within the context of a strong institutional commitment to service in the public interest.

Among recent achievements, a $1.7 million gift in 1999 led to the establishment of a distinguished professorship and a student loan program.

But, even more important, there are still enough challenges left to call for and inspire the best efforts of students, faculty and alumni in the years ahead.