The Strategic Planning Process
As the university seeks to create the Division of Access, Opportunity, and Community Engagement, the School of Law is evaluating and updating its strategic plans. The review is to ensure alignment with the goals of fostering partnerships, access, and engagement that strengthen our sense of community, enrich learning and development, enhance research, and ensure opportunities for all. The School of Law will share additional details once the review process and updates are finalized.
The Law School Strategic Planning Steering Committee has conducted listening sessions with faculty, staff, students, and alumni to develop the new 2030 Strategic Plan. The first phase of the strategic planning process has been completed with the adoption of the School of Law’s Strategic Priorities (below).
The School of Law will share additional details of the 2030 Strategic Plan once the review process and updates are finalized.
Implementation and Assessment of the Strategic Plan
The implementation and assessment of the strategic plan is the ultimate responsibility of the Dean’s Office. The Dean will designate personnel (e.g., an associate dean, advisory group, or committee) to assist with implementation and assessment. The Dean will also ensure that regular progress reports are made to faculty and staff each semester by appropriate personnel. The Law School will follow this strategic plan through the year 2030 or until revised.
Mission
As an outstanding public law school, the University of Mississippi School of Law leads, excels, and inspires by preparing students for the practice of law in a changing global marketplace, expanding the horizons of legal knowledge through scholarly research, and serving diverse communities in the state, region, nation, and world. As it pursues its mission, the Law School also has a special responsibility to the State of Mississippi as the State’s only public law school and a central component of its flagship university.
The Law School graduates innovative, practice-ready lawyers who enhance the legal profession, promote the cause of justice, and serve the public. The Law School empowers students to reach their highest potential through a curriculum centered on doctrinal courses, legal research and writing, skills training, clinical instruction, externships, and professional ethics. As a state school, the Law School has a special commitment to educate state residents and train lawyers who will serve the needs of the State of Mississippi.
The Law School advances legal knowledge through the publication and presentation of original scholarly research. The Law School’s support for scholarship and a vibrant culture of inquiry provides a crucial foundation for the teaching and service components of the Law School’s mission—in addition to the intrinsic value of the expansion of knowledge.
The Law School serves diverse communities through its programs and personnel in order to transform lives and promote access to justice, legal professionalism, progress, reform, and the public interest. The Law School’s clinics, centers, institutes, and programs are essential to the Law School’s service mission, which has a special emphasis on Mississippi communities.
Strategic Priorities
As an outstanding public law school, the University of Mississippi School of Law leads, excels, and inspires by preparing students for the practice of law in a changing global marketplace, expanding the horizons of legal knowledge through scholarly research, and serving diverse communities in the state, region, nation, and world. As it pursues its mission, the Law School also has a special responsibility to the State of Mississippi as the State’s only public law school and a central component of its flagship university. The Law School is committed to creating and nurturing an academic environment where all people are welcome, all voices are heard, and where together, we undertake the serious pursuit of knowledge and growth. This strategic plan offers a roadmap to achieving those goals.
1. Admissions & Student Recruitment
We recognize that our students are future lawyers and leaders, who will shape policy and bring a commitment to justice at the local, national, and global levels. The Law School is committed to recruiting a student body that is both academically strong and diverse. Moreover, as a state institution, the Law School has a particular responsibility to educate residents who will serve the State of Mississippi. The Law School is also committed to growing the number of law students who are the first in their family to graduate college as well as ensuring that our student population is made up of students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Our goal is to increase the number, quality, and diversity of applicants to the Law School, with particular emphasis on Mississippi residents.
2. Student Employment & Bar Passage
We recognize that student employment and bar passage are foundational to the Law School’s mission as a professional school. The Law School is dedicated to ensuring that students pass the bar and obtain rewarding employment. In particular, we are committed to securing employment opportunities for our students in a wide variety of settings, including private law firms, public interest organizations, government, and business, and in all locations—within the State of Mississippi, across the nation, and beyond. We are committed to increasing our bar passage rate and striving towards even greater success in our student employment numbers. In addition to employment and bar passage rate, the Law School will work to help students interested in pursuing further graduate studies after law school with graduate program placement.
3. Academic Excellence
The Law School is committed to a “students-first” philosophy of education and empowerment. Our goal is to prepare students for the practice of law and enable them to compete in a changing global marketplace. Towards that end, we aim to ensure that every student cultivates the right path to achieve their vision of success. We intend for our graduates to enhance the legal profession, promote justice, and serve the public. To support student learning, the Law School is dedicated to a rigorous curriculum built around doctrinal courses, legal research and writing, skills training, clinical instruction, externships, and professional ethics. We are also committed to providing a strong academic success program to ensure that all students are given the tools necessary to achieve the academic excellence that marks our institution.
It is not only our curricular offerings that make us academically excellent. We are also committed to supporting the academic pursuits of faculty and staff that enhance the academic excellence of our community, whether it is the pursuit of advanced degrees, engagement with the broader community in further learning opportunities, or the development of innovative pedagogical approaches.
4. Access, Opportunity & Engagement
The University of Mississippi School of Law is committed to creating an educational experience that affirms equal opportunity and an inclusive community for all regardless of race, color, ethnicity, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, age, disability, military status, protected veteran status or genetic information. This is not only required by law, but is consistent with our deep commitment to the University’s core values and overall philosophy as reflected in the UM Creed. We are committed to welcoming students who are the first generation in their family to graduate college, as well as students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. We welcome the contributions of a diverse student body, faculty, and staff, whose perspectives and different backgrounds, and experiences help create a more inclusive community for everyone.
Exposure to a diverse community of people from different backgrounds and experiences allows students to strengthen their critical thinking, legal reasoning, and creative problem-solving skills. These competencies are essential to a quality legal education and allow our graduates to become better attorneys. To create the inclusive and diverse community of students, faculty, staff, and administration necessary for the success of our institution, we are committed to pursuing initiatives to build greater community engagement.
5. Research & Intellectual Life
We recognize that legal scholarship is of crucial importance because it expands the horizons of legal knowledge and is integral to the Law School’s teaching and service missions. We are therefore committed to the publication and presentation of scholarly research and to the development and support of research and intellectual efforts. To promote this end, the Law School seeks to foster a culture of scholarship and intellectual inquiry not only amongst our faculty but also with respect to our students and staff.
6. Alumni Relations & Development
We view our alumni as family, and we know that they immeasurably benefit our students and add tremendously to the life of the Law School. We are therefore committed to renewing a greater sense of community with our alumni and reinvigorating a culture of giving. In particular, the Law School acknowledges the importance of private financial support for our students and our programs as student debt increases and state funding diminishes. New scholarships for our students are of special importance. We also recognize the crucial role alumni play in the recruitment and placement of students and the immense value their mentorship provides. Our alumni are uniquely positioned to support and guide our law students through their law school journeys and beyond. To this end, we will work towards expanding initiatives that create opportunities for alumni outreach and development.
7. Service & Community Engagement
We recognize that the Law School’s service to a diverse range of communities transforms lives and makes the world a better place. In particular, the Law School’s clinics, centers, institutes, and student organizations are essential to the success of the Law School’s service mission, which has a special emphasis on Mississippi communities. Through community engagement, our programs and personnel use their professional expertise to advance the public interest and promote reform, progress, professionalism, and access to justice.
Community engagement does not only mean engagement with external communities but with our internal Law School community as well. We strive to create a welcoming community for all members of our Law School: students, staff, faculty, and administration, and in pursuit of that goal are committed to developing initiatives that will enhance well-being and contribute to fostering joy and positivity.
The University of Mississippi Creed
The University of Mississippi is a community of learning dedicated to nurturing excellence in intellectual inquiry and personal character in an open and diverse environment. As a voluntary member of this community:
I believe in respect for the dignity of each person.
I believe in fairness and civility.
I believe in personal and professional integrity.
I believe in academic honesty.
I believe in academic freedom.
I believe in good stewardship of our resources.
I pledge to uphold these values and encourage others to follow my example.
Programs and Personnel
The Law School encompasses a wide range of components that form a mutually supportive, interdependent, and overlapping set of programs and personnel, all of which contribute to the mission and values of the Law School. The Law School’s components include students, staff, faculty, the Dean’s Office, administrative offices, faculty and staff committees, the Grisham Law Library, the clinical programs, the advocacy programs, the Academic Workshop Program, law journals, student organizations, the Cambridge Program, the Business Law Institute, the Mississippi Law Research Institute, the National Sea Grant Law Center, the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program, the Mississippi Judicial College, and the LL.M. and non-J.D. Certificate Programs in Air and Space Law.
Stakeholders
The Law School affirms its deep commitment to its stakeholders: students, alumni, staff, faculty, the University, bench and bar, and the State of Mississippi.