Prospective Students

The University of Arkansas School of Law, located in Fayetteville, Ark., strives to be a student-centered community promoting professionalism, civility, and leadership.

With more than 80 years of experience and a diverse faculty, we pride ourselves on being responsive to the needs and interests of our students. We have a superb faculty-to-student ratio, a wireless computer network, excellent career placement percentages, and a new 64,000 square-foot state-of-the-art building equipped with a new courtroom, high-tech computer classrooms, and reading rooms in the newly renovated Young Law Library.

We invite you to read more about our Law School or call our Office of Admissions at (479) 575-3102.

History

The University of Arkansas School of Law was established in 1924 by the late Dean Julian S. Waterman, a native of Pine Bluff, Ark., who graduated at the top of his class at the University of Chicago Law School. Dean Waterman served as the Law School's first dean until his death in 1943. The Law School was approved by the American Bar Association in 1926, and the first class of 10 graduated in 1927. Since 1927, the Law School has been a member of the Association of American Law Schools.

Prominent People

The School of Law is proud to brag about some of our well-known graduates, including former U.S. Ambassador to Gambia George Haley, '52; U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, '88; former Arkansas Gov. and U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers, LL.D., '99; former Arkansas Gov. and U.S. Sen. David Pryor, '64, LL.D., '97; former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater, '80; current Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, '72; and many more.

On our faculty we have had such notable professors as former President Bill Clinton, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the late U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright, and the late U.S. Sen. Claude Pepper.

Some of our well-known distinguished lecturers and visitors in the recent past include civil-rights activist Daisy Bates, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Lord Robin Butler, Cabinet Secretary under Prime Ministers Thatcher, Major, and Blair.

Catalog of Studies

For more information about the University of Arkansas School of Law, check out the 2007-08 Catalog of Studies, in pdf below.

Licensing Requirements

The "Rules Governing Admission to the Bar of Arkansas" may be found at http://courts.state.ar.us/opp/bar_admission.cfm. In addition to other requirements, a significant part of the licensing requirement rests on a finding of "good character and fitness." For information about the character and fitness aspect of attorney licensing requirements in Arkansas, see the pdf below. For information on other states, see http://www.ncbex.org/fileadmin/mediafiles/downloads/Comp_Guide/2007CompGuide.pdf or check with that state's supreme court or Board of Law Examiners.

University of Arkansas

The University of Arkansas serves about 18,000 students and is the state land-grant university. The campus rests on a former hilltop farm overlooking the Ozark Mountains to the south. At the University of Arkansas founding in 1871, the site was described as “second to none in the state of Arkansas.”

The campus includes more than 130 buildings on 345 acres and offers nearly 200 academic programs. The Leflar Law Center is located in the heart of campus, next to the student union and Mullins Library.

The School of Law is located in Fayetteville, a thriving college town in Northwest Arkansas with a population of more than 66,000. Featured in the April 2006 New York Times “Escapes,” Fayetteville is home to the Arkansas Razorbacks and the 72,000-seat Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Fayetteville was ranked seventh on Forbes 2005 list for “Best Places for Business and Careers,” and Money Magazine named it one of the “Best Places to Live in America.” It was the home to architects Edward Durrell Stone and E. Fay Jones, the golfer John Daly, and it is the current home of writer Ellen Gilchrist.

Some of Fayetteville's unique qualities include a town square with a regular Farmer's Market and, a few blocks away, the Fayetteville Public Library, which was built in 2004 and named Library of the Year in 2005 by the Thomson Gale Library Journal.