Dean, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen
Distinguished Chair, and Professor of Law
Leonard M. Baynes, currently the longest serving law dean in Texas, is the ninth dean of the University of Houston Law Center and a nationally recognized communications law scholar with expertise in business and FCC regulation. He leads the Law Center, overseeing nearly 800 J.D. and LL.M. students, almost 60 full-time faculty, 150 adjunct professors, and more than 100 staff members, as well as 14 centers, institutes, programs, and over 11 clinical programs.
Dean Baynes made history when he was appointed the UH Law Center’s first dean of African descent in 2014. He is a first-generation college student whose parents immigrated to the U.S from St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Under his leadership, the Law Center raised $93 million for the ultramodern John M. O’Quinn Law Building. The 180,000-square-foot, five-story facility is the newest law school building in Texas and among the newest in the nation, featuring modern amenities and spaces named in honor of alumni from every background and geographic region.
Dean Baynes emphasizes the importance of high academic admissions standards at the Law Center. The 2025 entering class set the record for the highest median undergraduate GPA at 3.79 and the highest median LSAT of 163 in the school’s history. He established Dean’s List and launched a first-year reception celebrating students in the top 30% of the class after the first semester.
A strong advocate for alumni and community engagement, Dean Baynes regularly hosts receptions with law alumni worldwide—from Houston, other major U.S. cities, Mexico City, and Calgary. He has strengthened connections with the legal community by partnering with the Houston Bar Association on programs, showcasing the Law Center’s accomplishments through presentations, and engaging law firm partners and corporate counsel in meaningful dialogue.
Dean Baynes also launched a Community Service Program during orientation, giving first-year students the opportunity to get to know each other, connect with Houston and the UH Law Center community, and address community needs. He has increased opportunities for school-funded, public service internships both at home and abroad, and revamped the "Sondock Jurist in Residence" program, bringing in judges and others legal leaders to campus to lecture, lead classroom discussions, and inspire students.
Committed to expanding access to legal education, Dean Baynes oversaw several innovations in Law Center admissions, including the 3+3 Program with UH Honors College, the UH Law Express Program and the acceptance of GRE scores as an alternative to the LSAT. Under his guidance, the UH Law Center also created a joint J.D.-LL.M. program that allows students to receive both degrees in less time than if pursued separately. He also initiated the race neutral, ethnically neutral, and gender neutral award-winning UHLC Pre-Law Pipeline Programs that help prepare first-generation and low-income students for law school. Students who participate in the UHLC Pre-Law Pipeline Programs experience, on average, median LSAT score increases of 6 to14 points.
During his deanship, 20 new tenure track faculty and 11 promotion-eligible non-tenure track faculty have been added. Twenty faculty members were published in the top 30 law reviews in the last three years, and approximately 15 faculty are members of the prestigious American Law Institute. Baynes created the position of assistant dean for faculty development to provide mentorship opportunities and support for faculty. He also launched during his tenure, Briefcase, weekly one-minute radio segments on KUHF News 88.7 FM, highlighting timely legal issues while amplifying UH Law Center faculty expertise to listeners across the community.
To expand the Law Center’s global reach, Dean Baynes established the position of Executive Director of Global and Graduate Programs, appointed a director for the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law, and hired two tenure-track faculty specializing in international economic and human rights law. Under his leadership, the Law Center forged partnerships with several international institutions, including Universidad Anáhuac in Mexico and Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University in Saudi Arabia. These efforts earned the UH Law Center recognition for “Achievement in Global Legal Skills Education” at the Fourteenth Global Legal Skills Conference in Arizona in 2019.
Under Dean Baynes, the University of Houston Law Center has earned numerous awards and honors, including the National Bar Association's Presidential Leadership Award and eight consecutive HEED awards. The Law Center Pre-Law Pipeline Program received the ABA Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Award in 2019 and the CLEO EDGE Award in 2018.
Dean Baynes too has been widely recognized for his leadership and impact, including being named one of the nation’s 100 most influential lawyers of color, receiving the Houston Lawyer Association’s Roberson L. King Excellence in Education Award, the Association of American Law Schools’ Clyde Ferguson Award, and Columbia Law School’s 2022 Paul Robeson Award and the National Black Pre-Law Conference John Mercer Langston Legal Education Leadership Award in 2019. He has also been inducted into the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council Hall of Fame and honored by the New York Bar Association and the ABA for his work in legal education. He is serving a three-year term on the AALS’ Executive Committee.
He previously served as Professor of Law and the inaugural director of the Ronald H. Brown Center at St. John's University School of Law. He was also scholar-in-residence at the Federal Communications Commission, in-house counsel at NYNEX Corp, and an associate at the Wall Street office of Gaston and Snow LLP. He is admitted to practice in New York and Massachusetts.
A prolific scholar, Baynes co-authored the casebook "Telecommunications Law: Convergence and Competition" published by Wolters Kluwer and has authored more than 25 law review articles and book chapters on corporate law, communications law, and other topics. He has also served as an expert witness for the FCC Federal Advisory Committee on broadcast ownership.
Dean Baynes earned his B.S. from New York University and J.D. and M.B.A. from Columbia University, where he received the Earl Warren Scholarship and the COGME Fellowship and served as associate editor of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review.
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
HIPLA College Professor of Law
Co-Director, Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law
gvetter@uh.edu
As Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Greg Vetter works with the Dean, other senior administrators, faculty, and students of the Law Center, on issues dealing with curriculum, course scheduling, interdisciplinary programs, accreditation, academic advising, full-time faculty, adjunct faculty, and student rights and responsibilities. The Associate Dean also assists the Dean in strategic planning with respect to the Law Center, serves as liaison among the faculty and staff, serves as liaison with the University and other government entities, and acts on behalf of the Law Center with respect to emergencies that may arise until such time as the Dean is available to address them. The Associate Dean also has the following direct reports: the Assistant Dean for Faculty Development, the Director of the O'Quinn Law Library, the Director of Metropolitan Programs, and the Director of Outcomes and Assessments.
Sondra TennesseeAssociate Dean of Alumni and Community Relations
stennessee@uh.edu
(713)743-2079
Sondra R. Tennessee is the Associate Dean of Alumni and Community Relations. Her areas of responsibility include the following: alumni engagement, community and business relations, admissions, career development, and scholarships. In addition, she works strategically with a broad group of offices on the University of Houston campus. Prior to assuming her current position, she served as the Assistant Dean for Admissions and Associate Dean for Student Affairs at the UH Law Center. Before joining the UH Law Center, she worked at the University of Oklahoma College of Law and Washington University School of Law.
Active in legal education nationally, Associate Dean Tennessee served on the board of the Law School Admissions Council and was the chair of the Diversity Committee. She is a member of the American Bar Association Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs.
Graduating from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and from Washington University in St. Louis with a law degree, Associate Dean Tennessee has used her education to help others achieve their goals. She has worked with a wide range of prospective students and law students. She is excited about working with alumni whom she counseled early in their careers.
Carrie CriadoAssistant Dean of Communications and Marketing
cacriado@Central.UH.EDU
(713)743-2184
Carrie Criado is Assistant Dean of Communications and Marketing at the University of Houston Law Center. Criado directs a comprehensive communications and marketing program and serves as primary media contact for the University of Houston Law Center and its centers and institutes.
Previously, she has served as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for USLegal, Inc. and was Communications Director for The Climate Project founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Assistant Dean Criado has also worked for KVII-TV, KEYT-TV, KUHT-TV, and The First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University.
Assistant Dean Criado also has taught communications law and journalism courses at Southern Methodist University and Middle Tennessee State University.
She was a law clerk for the Federal Communications Commission and an intern at CNN's Washington, DC bureau.
Assistant Dean Criado received a B.A. in Journalism from The University of Texas at Austin and earned her J.D. at the University of Houston Law Center.
Emily BermanAssistant Dean for Faculty Development
Professor of Law
William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law
eberman@central.uh.edu
Professor Emily Berman is a constitutional scholar with expertise in executive power and national security law. Her scholarship identifies areas of law where executive power is subject to inadequate restraints and proposes novel mechanisms for imposing checks and balances and democratic accountability on the executive branch. Berman teaches National Security Law and Constitutional Law.
Pilar Mensah, J.D.Assistant Dean for Admissions
lpmensah@Central.UH.EDU
(713)743-2280
Pilar Mensah is the Assistant Dean for Admissions at the University of Houston Law Center. She oversees the application and admissions process to include recruitment, admissions decisions, and the awarding of merit-based scholarships. She directs the daily activities of the Office and manages a staff of 5 admissions professionals.
Assistant Dean Mensah is dedicated to diversifying legal education and the legal profession. She is a committee member of the University of Houston Law Center's Pre-Law Pipeline Program, designed to increase diversity of law school applicants by providing law school preparatory resources to college students who are from either low-income, first-generation, or underrepresented backgrounds. She is also an active participant in the Law School Admission Council's Discover Law Months, hosting a biannual Discover Law Day for students who come from ethnically or racially diverse backgrounds.
She graduated magna cum laude from the University of San Diego with a degree in Business Administration and then went on to earn her J.D. from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to assuming her current role, Assistant Dean Mensah practiced civil litigation in Arizona for several years before moving to Houston and joining the Office of Admissions. She has been with the University of Houston Law Center's Office of Admissions for 7 years.
Monica MensahAssistant Dean for Student Affairs
mebuckne@Central.UH.EDU
(713)743-6247
Monica, a native Houstonian, graduated from Rice University with a B.A. in Philosophy and a B.A. in Sociology. She earned her J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center. As the Assistant Dean, Monica oversees student enrollment and records, course registration, scholarships and financial aid, bar preparation, student counseling and advising, study abroad programs, and student programming and events. In addition, she works strategically with a broad group of offices on the University of Houston campus. Prior to joining the Office of Student Affairs, Monica practiced as a civil rights and employment law attorney.
Tiffany J. Tucker Assistant Dean for Career Development
tjtucke2@central.uh.edu
(713)743-2090
Tiffany J. Tucker is the Assistant Dean for Career Development for the University of Houston Law Center. She joined the Career Development Office after practicing transactional intellectual property and general corporate law in New York at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and is a member of the New York Bar. Assistant Dean Tucker holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in both Psychology and Sociology from Grambling State University, a Master of Education in Counselor Education from Florida A&M University, and a Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law. A native Texan, Tiffany is a former mental health counselor and professional development specialist.
As the Assistant Dean for Career Development, Tiffany supervises the Law Center's Career Development Office (CDO), consisting of seven J.D. professionals (Director of Employer Relations and Development, Director of Internship & Externship Programs, Associate Director of Career Counseling, three Senior Career Development Specialists, and Graduate Employment Statistics Consultant) and two programming professionals (Program Manager and Program Coordinator).
The CDO equips students and graduates with the resources and skills necessary to successfully generate and take advantage of professional opportunities. Through one-on-one, tailored career advising, the CDO guides J.D. students and alumni in the use of tools and strategies for successful job searches, interviewing, salary negotiations, and on-the-job professional and career development. The CDO also hosts numerous programs and events designed to help students explore career options and develop vital job search skills, such as the Passport to Success Professional Development Series, the Mock Interview Program, Lunch/Dinner with a Lawyer, and the Upper Level Mentoring Program. The CDO also assists employers in their recruitment efforts by providing a variety of on-campus recruiting avenues to access our career-minded student and alumni populations, including Fall and Spring On-Campus Interview (OCI) Programs, Small & Midsize Firm Open House, Government and Public Interest Table Talk, Alternative Career/In-House Legal Table Talk, Apprentice Program, and Job Bank Database.
J Anna CabotClinical Associate Professor, Immigration Clinic Director, and Assistant Dean of Clinical Programs
jacabot@central.uh.edu
Prior to teaching at the UH Law Center, Professor Cabot was the Practitioner in Residence in the Gender Justice Clinic at American University Washington College of Law. There she taught and supervised students representing clients with cases spanning immigration, housing, family law, domestic violence protection, wills, and name-and-gender change. Additionally, from 2014 to 2018, Professor Cabot was the William Davis Clinical Teaching Fellow at the University of Connecticut School of Law, teaching in the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic.
Professor Cabot’s research interests include the intersections of gender and cultural difference with global migration, immigration laws, and international law, and crisis-responsive clinical pedagogy. Most recently, Professor Cabot wrote a chapter for a book discussing expert country conditions testimony in fear-of-return immigration claims: Understanding the Legal Framework for Asylum: A Guide for Expert Witnesses in Practicing Asylum: A Handbook on Expert Witnesses in Latin American Domestic Violence, LGBTI, and Mother/Child Cases (Kimberly Gaudermann ed.) (forthcoming).
In addition to teaching, Professor Cabot has experience practicing immigration law. She was a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (CGRS). In that position, she conducted appellate litigation before the US Courts of Appeal and the Board of Immigration Appeals, worked on litigation teams challenging immigration policies in the US District Courts, and represented clients in asylum cases involving gender-based and gang-based violence.
Professor Cabot also served the Managing Attorney as Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, Texas. She represented clients in a wide variety of immigration claims in immigration court, before the Board of Immigration Appeals, and before the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). Prior to her work at the border, Professor Cabot was the Legal Services Coordinator at Asylum Access Refugee Solutions in Tanzania.
Professor Cabot received her J.D. from American University Washington College of Law in 2009 and her B.A. from Amherst College in 2003. Professor Cabot graduated from college with a degree in physics and received a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Chennai, India.
Grace RosanesExecutive Director Business Services
grosanes@central.uh.edu
(713)743-0443
Grace Rosanes is the Executive Director for Business Operations at the UH Law Center. She oversees the college's day-to-day operations, including facilities management, information technology, business services, and the Law Foundation.
Grace joined the Law Center in March 2024, however, she has worked for UH since 1997. She began her professional career as an application developer and later as an accountant in the UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM). In 2013, she joined the UH Division of Research (DOR) as a developer, but her understanding of both the financial management and technical sides of DOR’s business operations eventually led to her becoming the Director of Research Financial Services (RFS), overseeing billing, financial reporting, and effort reporting for sponsored projects.
In 2019, she received the University of Houston President’s Innovation Award, which recognized her work streamlining and simplifying RFS business processes and the PI Portal. The PI Portal is a web-based application that pulls information from PeopleSoft Grants and Finance to allow principal investigators to access important information necessary to manage their awards.
Tommy Abraham, MBA Director of Information Technology
tabraham5@uh.edu
(713)743-6682
Tommy Abraham serves as the Director of Information Technology at the University of Houston Law Center, where he oversees the strategic planning and management of all technology operations, including academic and administrative computing, data security, media services, and user support. He plays a key role in aligning IT strategy with the Law Center’s academic and institutional goals.
He holds a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.B.A. from Texas Woman’s University. With over 20 years of IT leadership experience, Tommy has a strong background in information security, having developed policies, managed compliance, and led audit initiatives.
A career highlight includes overseeing the implementation of Houston’s first electronic medical records (EMR) system—advancing digital infrastructure and operational efficiency. His experience spans higher education and healthcare, with a consistent focus on innovation, security, and service excellence
Meredith DuncanAlumnae College Professor of Law, Assistant Dean for Opportunities, Pedagogy, and Community Engagement
mjduncan@Central.UH.EDU
(713)743-2019
Professor Meredith J. Duncan is the Alumnae College Professor of Law and the Assistant Dean for Opportunities, Pedagogy, and Community Engagement at the University of Houston Law Center. Her areas of expertise include legal ethics, criminal law, and torts. As Assistant Dean for Opportunities, Pedagogy, and Community Engagement, Duncan oversees the Law Center’s award-winning Pre-Law Pipeline Programs, which are race-neutral, gender-neutral, and ethnic-neutral preparatory initiatives designed to equip first-generation undergraduate students, aspiring first-generation law students, and individuals from low-income backgrounds with essential information, tools, and training to develop a successful law school application.
Professor Duncan teaches Torts, Criminal Law, Professional Responsibility, and other related courses at the Law Center. She has been honored with several teaching awards, including the University of Houston’s highest teaching honor, UH’s Distinguished Leadership in Teaching Excellence Award. She is one of only 26 law professors studied nationwide in the Harvard University Press book What the Best Law Teachers Do, a study of the “methods, strategies, and personal traits of professors whose students achieve exceptional learning.” She has been selected numerous times by the Law Center’s Student Bar Association as the Outstanding Professor of the Year and by the graduating law students as their “hooder” at commencement. She has also been selected by the graduates as their faculty commencement speaker.
Duncan graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from Northwestern University and earned her law degree from the University of Houston Law Center. Upon graduation from the Law Center, she clerked for the Honorable Edith H. Jones, Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and was an associate at Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P. She is the co-author of Tort Law: A Contemporary Approach, published by West Academic, and Advanced Torts: A Lawyer’s Perspective, published by Carolina Academic Press. She has published articles in leading legal publications, such as the Georgia Law Review, the Wake Forest Law Review, the Brooklyn Law Review, and the American Criminal Law Review. She is a member of the prestigious American Law Institute and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Duncan is a member of the Texas Bar Association, and she sits on West Academic’s Advisory Board.
Renee Knake Jefferson Assistant Dean Outcomes, Assessments, and Strategies,
Professor of Law and the Larry and Joanne Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics
rknake@central.uh.edu
Professor Knake is the Director of Outcomes and Assessments. In this capacity, she leads development and implementation of the Law Center's compliance with American Bar Association (ABA) Standards 302 (Learning Outcomes), 314 (Assessment of Student Learning), and 315 (Evaluation of Program of Legal Education, Learning Outcomes, and Assessment Methods). She also works to advance the Law Center's Strategic Vision as approved by the faculty.
Prior to joining the University of Houston faculty in 2016, Professor Knake served as the Foster Swift Professor of Legal Ethics and co-director of the Kelley Institute of Ethics and the Legal Profession at Michigan State University College of Law, where she taught for a decade. In 2015, she was a scholar-in-residence at Stanford Law School's Center on the Legal Profession and a visiting scholar at the American Bar Foundation.
Professor Knake is an internationally recognized expert on professional responsibility and legal ethics, and has been invited to speak throughout the United States and internationally in countries such as Canada, England, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates. She is an author of the casebook "Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach" (West Publishing, 3rd Edition 2017) and more than 20 scholarly articles including publications in the Fordham Law Review, Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Ohio State Law Journal, and Washington & Lee Law Review. Her work has been cited in briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court, prestigious law reviews such as the Yale Law Journal, and a range of media including the Christian Science Monitor, CNN Money, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, the ABA Journal, Bloomberg Law, and the American Lawyer.
She has been selected for a range of leadership roles nationally and internationally. Professor Knake is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. She currently is Treasurer for the AALS Section on Professional Responsibility. She was appointed as the Reporter for the American Bar Association Presidential Commission on the Future of Legal Services from 2014-16. She served as a delegate to the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Justice (2014-16) and Rule of Law (2013-14).
Karen L. Jones, JD, MAExecutive Director of Global and Graduate Programs
kjones15@Central.UH.EDU
(713)743-5750
Karen L. Jones, J.D., M.A. is the Executive Director of Global and Graduate Programs at the University of Houston Law Center (UHLC). She is also part of the adjunct faculty teaching Negotiation in Sports and is a judge and coach for mediation and negotiation competition teams at UHLC.
She was previously part of the faculty in sport management at Rice University, head of the sport law concentration, and started and edited the Rice Sport Law Review (RSLR). She also teaches sports law, ethics and sports negotiation with Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam, and international and comparative sports law in an online course with John Marshall Law School Chicago. She holds several degrees and certificates including a bachelor’s degree in communications/theater arts (Columbia College Chicago), master’s in sociology (DePaul University, Chicago, IL), a juris doctorate (law degree - Southern Methodist University Law School, Dallas, TX), certificate in mediation from the Center for Conflict Resolution (Chicago, IL), certificate towards an LL.M. in International Business and Trade Law (John Marshall Law School Chicago) and certificate in Advanced Studies in European Sports Law and Policy (KU Leuven University, Belgium).
She is the former Program Coordinator for the International Sports Law Centre at T.M.C. Asser Instituut (part of University of Amsterdam) in The Hague, The Netherlands, where she developed the first ever summer program in international sports law, started a quarterly Lunch & Learn series, established academic cooperatives, a wide international network and managed and edited the International Sports Law Journal (ISLJ) moving it from an in-house publication to Springer Publishing, widely expanding its viewership.
With more than 17 years leading global fortune 500 corporations in program development/improvement, contracts negotiation, vendor management, procurement, compliance and risk management, she used her skills to establish a small consulting business, Mission2Transition LLC, offering operations management, mediation, and legal support services to clients.
She has published (author/editor) articles and book chapters on legal and management related topics as well as being an invited speaker at international conferences in countries including China, Russia, Italy (CONI), Singapore (INTERPOL), and others.
She loves live theater, is a health enthusiast, member of several professional associations, serves on boards and volunteers with service organizations.
Alyson DrakeAssistant Professor of Law
Director, Law Library
Assistant Dean for Legal Research Services
Director, Initiative for Evidence-Based Legal Education
adrake2@central.uh.edu
B.A., Nazareth College
M.L.I.S., University of Maryland, College Park
J.D., William & Mary Law School
Alyson Drake is an Assistant Professor of Law, the Assistant Dean for Legal Research Services, and the Founding Director of the Initiative for Evidence-Based Legal Education at the University of Houston Law Center. Her areas of expertise include evidence-based legal education, cognitive science, and experiential education. As Assistant Dean for Legal Research Services, Drake directs the daily operations of the University of Houston Law Center Library. As Founding Director of the Initiative for Evidence-Based Legal Education, Drake leads a team of educators and scholars nationwide as they work to research and advance the use of evidence-based teaching strategies in legal education.
Professor Drake teaches Intermediate Legal Research at the Law Center and coordinates with the Lawyering Skills & Strategies faculty to teach legal research to first-year law students. This research program won a 2024 Bloomberg Law School Innovation Program Honorable Mention for Changing Pedagogy.
Before joining the University of Houston Law Center, Professor Drake served as the Instructional Services Librarian at Fordham University, the Assistant Director of Operations & Educational Programs at Texas Tech University, and Reference Librarian at the University of South Carolina and taught courses including Foreign, Comparative, & International Legal Research, Advanced Legal Research, Public Interest Legal Research, and more. At Texas Tech, Drake was awarded the Black Law Students Association Professor of the Year, the Hispanic Law Student Professor of the Year, and was selected as a fellow for the Institute of Inclusive Excellence.
Drake has published articles and chapters in leading legal and law librarianship journals and publications, such as Law Library Journal, Buffalo Law Review, and the award-winning Integrating Doctrine and Diversity series from Carolina Academic Press. Drake is a member of the American Association of Law Libraries, where she has served as the chair of the Research Instruction & Patron Services Special Interest Section. She is one of the founders of the Teaching the Teachers Conference for Law Librarians and architect of the Teaching the Teachers Beginners' Bootcamp, and she was named one of the American Association of Law Libraries' Emerging Leaders for 2022.
