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McALLEN — The Texas Legislature can be full of surprises.
But for the last eight sessions, there has been one constant: state Rep. Armando "Mando" Martinez’s proposal to establish a public law school in the Rio Grande Valley.
For the Weslaco Democrat, establishing a law school would open the door to more job opportunities for Valley residents, curb the "brain drain" of young professionals leaving the area to find higher-paying jobs in bigger cities, and provide much-needed legal support for one of the state’s poorest regions.
"A lot of the bright people that work in other areas of the state and across the nation come from the Rio Grande Valley," Martinez said.
The legislation has had mixed support over the years but has never gained traction in the Texas Senate. The cost of opening a law school could be one factor for the lack of support, legal experts and advocates said.
However, after more than a decade of trying, that dream might become a reality without the Legislature’s help. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is currently in talks with St. Mary’s School of Law to create a legal education program locally.
The talks are preliminary, said UTRGV spokesperson Patrick Gonzales, who added the university welcomes the opportunity to build upon those initial discussions.
If that program were to become a reality, it would be the culmination of yearslong efforts in the Valley, which is just one of several legally underserved areas in Texas.
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In 2021, there was an average of one lawyer for every 310 Texas residents, according to an analysis by the State Bar of Texas. However, the average varied across the state. In the Valley, there was one lawyer for every 788 residents in the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area and one lawyer per 738 residents in the Brownsville-Harlingen region. Meanwhile, Travis County, which includes Austin, had one lawyer for every 118 residents and Harris County, which includes Houston, had one lawyer for every 192 residents.
Luz E. Herrera, a professor at the Texas A&M University School of Law, was among the authors of a 2022 research paper that looked into the Valley’s legal needs.
The paper argued that access to legal education plays an important role in access to justice, pointing out that law schools can integrate legal services into their curriculum and encourage graduates to develop affordable services for low-income communities.
Herrera pointed out that most law schools have training programs for their students such as law clinics through which they provide legal assistance to low-income people within the community surrounding the school.
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