At the University of Houston Law Center, we dare to dream. It is part of our ethos! We are an institution that fuels our students’ social mobility as well as their professional achievements. Our Law Center graduates are pillars of the legal community propelled by the power of their UH Law legal education.

UH Law alumnus John M. O’Quinn for whom the Law Building is named was a first-generation college student. Graduating first in his class in 1967, O’Quinn was Editor-in-Chief of the Houston Law Review. He became an acclaimed trial lawyer who won billion-dollar judgments for his clients. John M. O’Quinn dared to dream!

UH Law alumnus Tony Bonilla’s parents emigrated from Mexico to the U.S.; he worked at a gas station and graduated from the Law Center in 1960 making him our first Hispanic graduate. During his career, Bonilla was elected to the Texas House of Representatives making him the first Hispanic to represent Nueces County. He also served as President of LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens. He currently serves as president of Bonilla & Chapa, P.C., a personal injury firm with five offices across Texas. Tony Bonilla dared to dream!

UH Law alumna Ruby Kless Sondock enrolled in the Law Center to become the “best legal secretary.” Instead, she graduated first in her class in 1962, passed the bar exam and was admitted to the state bar a year before she graduated, and was the first woman to serve as a Texas Supreme Court justice. Justice Sondock dared to dream!

UH Law alumnus James Lemond remembers that his mother kept his college rejection letter which stated that he was rejected solely because of the color of his skin. He graduated from UH Law in 1970, making him our first African American graduate, and he later became the first African American equity partner at the Winstead law firm. James Lemond dared to dream!

And our current students continue to dream big!

Today, our entering class has the highest median GPA of 3.70 in the Law Center’s history and a median LSAT of 161, tied with two other prior years as being the highest LSAT in the school’s history. At the same time, we have the most diverse class in the Law Center’s history. Almost 57% are women and a little under 50% identify as students of color. Moreover, almost 20% of the student body are first-generation students, and 80% are first-generation law school students.

UH Law Center has always been an engine for social mobility and student advancement. But to continue that mission, our students need increased scholarship dollars.

While the Law Center is consistently recognized as one of the “best value” law schools in the U.S., it is worth acknowledging that the pursuit of a J.D. or LL.M. is a costly endeavor. Our annual in-state tuition is almost $35,000 per year, and it can be an obstacle for some of our students. Our annual scholarship budget is small, but we try to spread those dollars around. For the 2022 incoming class, 66% of the students had merit scholarships. However, their average scholarship award is much smaller than our competitors, and with our limited budget, we have little opportunity to provide need-based scholarships.

Third-year Law Center student Mallika Dargan, like her historical predecessors, dares to dream. She is a first-generation law student. She started her Law Center journey after completing her undergraduate education at Carleton College, with a focus on biology. Dargan is also part of the Cougar Venture Fund, a graduate-level class offered at the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business. Dargan is on the Dean’s List and serves as the Senior HLRe (Online Articles) Editor of the Houston Law Review.

“The Law Center is nationally known for its health law and IP programs, which were appealing to me given my science and tech background,” she said. “I also grew up in Houston and read about the robust and growing legal market in Texas. With all these things combined, choosing UHLC was the best and most obvious choice.”

Mallika is a recipient of the Dean’s Merit Scholarship, which mattered in her academic trajectory. When asked how having a scholarship has benefited her time in law school, Dargan said it has helped keep her mind on academics, alleviating the stress of paying for law school.

Dargan served as the president of the Intellectual Property Student Organization for the 2021-2022 academic year, and her interest in this area of law stems from her experience.

“Many professors, attorneys, and peers encouraged me to pursue IP because of my science and tech background,” Dargan said. “I have now explored this path through various IP-focused opportunities, and it has cemented my decision to go into this industry. I love learning about new technologies, so I am very excited about the IP field.”

After completing her legal education, Dargan has high expectations for the trajectory of her career.

“My goal is to practice intellectual property law focusing on patent prosecution and patent litigation,” she said. “I am also interested in privacy law and artificial intelligence regulation.”

Like so many of our current students, Mallika Dargan dared to dream. Her story is just one example of how Law Center scholarships can transform a student’s life. We are very grateful to our generous donors for supporting scholarships, and we encourage others to consider how a scholarship could make a lasting and positive change in a student’s life.

Click here to donate or learn more about our scholarships.

Sincerely,

Leonard M. Baynes
Dean & Professor of Law
University of Houston Law Center

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