Greetings and welcome to KU Law

If you are a prospective law student, I congratulate you on your decision to study law. You are about to embark on the most intellectually challenging, and the most rewarding, educational experience of your life. The choice of which law school you will attend is an important one. I encourage you to choose KU.

When you join KU Law, you become part of a proud history. The state and the University of Kansas were founded by a determined group of abolitionists who were committed to a state free from the injustices of slavery. Then, Lawrence was a battleground for human rights; today, it is charming college town with ethnic restaurants, coffee bars, and a vibrant music and arts scene. Through it all, for over 138 years, KU Law has prepared students for the practice of law, helping them gain the knowledge and develop the skills they will need to right wrongs, resolve disputes, and stand against modern-day injustice. Around Green Hall, you will see composite photographs of students who preceded you. From the earliest classes, those pictures include the faces of students of color and of women. This is an open and inclusive place. Whether you are rich or poor, black, white, red or brown, whether you are the progeny of generations of lawyers or you will meet your first lawyer during law school orientation, you can find your passion and your place in the law here.

At KU, your classmates will come from down the road, across the nation, and around the world. Our faculty members include nationally and internationally known scholars and accomplished lawyers. We have served as judicial clerks on the nation’s highest court and on state and federal trial and appellate courts nationwide. We have represented the United States and its sovereign states. We have practiced with the best law firms in the country and published in leading law journals and academic presses. Whether the topic is legal theory or legal practice, constitutional law or contracts, KU’s intellectual climate for students and professors is open and robust.

KU Law is a public law school that proudly embraces its public mission to provide a high quality, affordable legal education. We offer six certificate programs, including elder law, environmental and natural resources law, international trade and finance, media law and policy, tax law, and tribal law and governance, and eight dual degrees, including business, economics, health administration, indigenous nations, journalism, philosophy, public administration, social welfare, or urban planning. Our clinical and externship programs enable you to begin your legal training by prosecuting criminals or by representing inmates, by serving in a judge’s chambers, or by providing legal services to the poor. You can participate in legislation or law reform in the Legislative Clinic or the Public Policy Clinic. Yet, tuition and fees are one-third to one-half the cost of a comparable private school. You will receive an excellent, affordable legal education in a supportive learning community at KU.

KU’s 6200 alumni practice law from Wall Street to the Silicon Valley in private firms large and small. As corporate counsel, they advise business leaders, and as chief executive officers, they run businesses. They are state and federal judges, appointed officials, elected leaders, and law professors. They can be found in the halls of Congress, on Indian reservations, in law schools, law offices and government buildings in every state in the nation, and in countries around the world. When you complete your legal education and take your own place as a member of the Bar-whether your place is in the courtroom, the boardroom, or the classroom, on the Bench or in the statehouse-KU lawyers will be there to welcome you. Make a wise choice; join KU.

I look forward to meeting you.

Gail B. Agrawal
Dean and Professor of Law