Alumni Profiles

SMU Dedman School of Law Alumni around the world have distinguished themselves in a wide variety of ways over the years since 1928 and have truly have shown a role as leaders.

• Our alumni have served as prominent members of the judiciary. They include, both in the U.S. and abroad, three justices of the Supreme Court of Japan, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Indonesia, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, and several justices on the highest courts of Egypt, Brazil, and Columbia. Recently, five of our alumni were justices of the Supreme Court of Texas and another was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri. Currently nine of our alumni serve on federal courts in addition to over 100 judges on various other courts in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas, which includes the Presiding Judge for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the Chief Judge for the Oklahoma State Court of Civil Appeals.
   
• Dedman School of Law alumni have held high government positions here and abroad including Counsel to the President, Assistant Secretary of Education, Ambassador to Mexico, and Ambassador to Sweden. Eight of our alumni have served as U.S. Congressmen, five of which served at the same time. Our alumni also have included the Chief of Staff for the Republic of Korea; the President of the Senate of Thailand; the Argentinean Ambassador to the U.S.; the Ministers of Justice for the Republic of Korea, Argentina, and Nepal; the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Georgia, Chief Minister of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in India; Minister of the Environment and Energy of Costa Rica; a Member of the Parliament of Kuwait; and managing partners of some of the largest law firms in Brazil and Argentina. In addition the Dallas County Judge and Dallas County District Attorney are graduates of the Law School.
   
• Many of our graduates became CEOs and presidents of numerous businesses, most recently including: 7-Eleven, Allegiance Title Company, Austin Industries, Building Materials Holding Corp, Cathay Life Insurance, ClubCorp, Computrac Inc.,  The Hart Group, Hexter-Fair Title Company, Kroger, First Acceptance Corporation, Mosbacher Energy Company, Omni Hotels, Optisoft, Saxon Publishing Company, Softbrands Inc., State Farm Insurance Companies, Tupperware Corp., TRT Holdings Inc, TXU, WellPoint, and World-Wide Shipping. One alumni was also the Vice Chairman of Compaq Computer Corporation.
   
• Many of our graduates have moved on to become General Counsels for many businesses, most recently including: 7-Eleven, Arizona State University, Belo Corp, Blockbuster Video, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Texas, Brinker International, Commercial Metals, Dallas Mavericks, Dr. Pepper/7-Up, FedEx Kinkos, The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Fossil, First Horizon National Corp, Hunt Oil, Neiman Marcus Group, Frito-Lay, Pappa Johns Pizza, Sammons, Triad Hospitals, TXU, Unocal Thailand and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
   
• Some of our graduates have taken a leadership role in state and city bar associations including presidents of the Federal Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, the Hawaii Bar Association, the Missouri Bar, the Dallas Bar Association, the Houston Bar Association, the San Antonio Bar Association, the Bar Association of San Francisco and the Orange County Bar Association in California.
   
• Many of our alumni are named or managing partners including 21 of the top largest firms in Texas. Some of these include Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld; Haynes and Boone LLP; Bracewell & Giuliani; Winstead, Sechrest & Minick; Godwin Pappas Langley Ronquillo; Bickel & Brewer; Locke Liddell & Sapp; Thompson & Knight; Jackson Walker; and Hughes & Luce.
   
• Our alumni’s accomplishments have been noted by many publications. Most recently 386 of our alumni were identified as Super Lawyers by Texas Lawyers and eight were given the honor of Texas Lawyers Legal Legends. D Magazine named 180 of the best lawyers in Dallas; 35 percent in 2006 and 35 percent in 2003 were SMU law alumni.