Dedman School of Law

Southern Methodist University, chartered in 1911 and opened in 1915, founded the SMU School of Law on February 10, 1925. The most vocal proponent of establishing the school was Dallas Judge Joseph E. Cockrell. Cockrell served as a member of the SMU Board of Trustees, worked as the President of the Dallas Bar Association, and advocated the establishment of a law school at the new university since 1919.

SMU had limited funds to devote to the creation of another school (an engineering school was also established in 1925), and the university agreed to establish the school as long as it could be done with outside funding. Enough money was raised to enable the school to open in September 1925. The school’s two full-time instructors were Professor W.A. Rhea and Robert B. Holland. H.H. Guice of SMU’s Department of Government, Hobert Price, and Lawrence H. Rhea (both of the Dallas Bar Association) worked as part-time instructors.

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