Thomas Goode Jones School of Law

Thomas Goode Jones School of Law
Motto	Macto Deus
Parent school	Faulkner University (since 1983)
Established	1928
School type	Private
Endowment	US$ 18.5 million
Dean	Charles I. Nelson
Location	Montgomery, Alabama, USA 32.383°N 86.218°W / 32.383; -86.218
Enrollment	304
Faculty	48
USNWR ranking	Tier 4
Bar pass rate	94%
Annual tuition	$30,870
Website	www.faulkner.edu/law
ABA profile	Jones Profile

The Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, also known as Jones Law, JLS or JSL, is one of the professional graduate schools of Faulkner University, located in Montgomery, Alabama.

History

Jones School of Law was founded in 1928 by Montgomery County Circuit Judge Walter B. Jones. The law school is named after Judge Walter B. Jones' father, Thomas Goode Jones, an alumnus of the Virginia Military Institute, veteran of the Civil War, and Governor of Alabama for two terms. He was also appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to serve as the United States District Judge for the Northern and Middle Districts of Alabama. Thomas Goode Jones authored the Alabama Code of Ethics, a document that served as a model for the American Bar Association's 1908 Canons of Professional Ethics.

Faulkner University acquired Jones School of Law in 1983.

ABA status

Thomas Goode Jones School of Law is fully accredited by the American Bar Association.

Current status

Bar exam

Graduates from the law school perform extremely well on the bar exam. The bar passage rate for first time takers of the February 2010 was 100%. The July 2007 Alabama State Bar exam was 92.7. Statistics for first time takers from the previous two July exams were 97.2% (2006) and 90% (2005). Graduates have a bar passage rate above 90% on out-of-state bar exams for first time takers. The bar passage rate for first time takers on the February Alabama bar exam are as follows: 91.7% (2008), 87.5% (2007), 83.3% (2006) and 100% (2005).^{[citation needed]}

Institution

In addition to a rigorous curriculum, the law school has three clinics and an externship program, which provide students more hands on experience and real world legal experience. Students may participate in the school's Mediation Clinic, the Family Violence Clinic and the school's Elder Law Clinic. The law school recently received a federal grant which provides funding for the school's Elder Law Clinic. The Elder Law Clinic allows students to counsel and provide legal advice to elderly citizens in the middle Alabama region.^{[citation needed]}

The law school's professors are engaged in important scholarly pursuits. Among those journals in which the school's faculty have recently published articles are the Northwestern Law Review, the Connecticut Law Review, the Tennessee Law Review, and the Harvard Journal of Legislation. Aron Ping D'Souza, in the October 2009 edition of The Journal Jurisprudence, observed that the "depth of jurisprudential scholarship by" Faulkner's law professors "positions Faulkner University among the bourgeoning centres of contemporary, passionate jurisprudential scholarship."

Competitions

Advocacy Programs are a vibrant part of the law school. Students compete in national competitions in appellate advocacy and trial advocacy.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, members of the law school's Black Law Students Association won the National Championship at the Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition in Detroit, Michigan. In the same year, one of the school's trial advocacy teams took third place at the National Trial Competition (NTC) in Austin, Texas. The NTC is sponsored by the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Texas Young Lawyers Association. More than 1,000 law students from nearly 300 teams representing 147 U.S. law schools participated in this tournament. Another trial advocacy team placed third at the Buffalo-Niagara Mock Trial Competition. One of the school's appellate advocacy teams took home top brief honors (first and second place) at the St. Louis Regional of the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007, one of the school's appellate advocacy teams finished as national semi-finalists at the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition. In 2009, a team from the school made it to the national finals of that competition. In 2009, the school's National Moot Court team won Region VII, defeating teams from Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Ole Miss, and Samford University's Cumberland School of Law along the way. These are just a few highlights from many successes in the school's Advocacy Programs. In addition to participating in national competitions, the law school hosts two intra-school competitions: The Greg Allen Mock Trial Competition and the 1L Moot Court Competition.^{[citation needed]}

Notable alumni

• Durell Peaden, former member of the Florida Senate and the Florida House of Representatives

External links

• Thomas Goode Jones School of Law