For the ninth straight year, University of Georgia graduates lead the state in the Georgia bar exam passage rate. School of Law graduates, who sat for the July 2022 exam, posted the highest rate for first-time takers among all of the state's law schools, and almost 8% ahead of the overall first-time passage rate for Georgia law schools.
On October 14, the 2022 University of Georgia Blue Key Service Award was presented to Yvette K. Daniels, deputy director of workforce management at the Georgia Department of Public Health and president of the UGA Alumni Association; Judge William M. Ray II, U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Georgia; and D. Paul Chambers Jr., retired AT&T North Georgia regional director of external affairs. Daniels and Ray are both School of Law graduates.
The University of Georgia School of Law recently unveiled the portrait of its first Black graduate, the late Chester C. Davenport, and the painting will hang in the law school’s iconic rotunda that bears his name. “Today we honor the first,” Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge said at the event. “When future students following in Chester’s footsteps enter these halls for the first time, they [will] forever see Chester’s name. They [will] forever see Chester’s portrait. They [will] forever know that they belong here just like Chester did and just like Chester does now.”
Congratulations to third-year students Lindsey K. Adams, D. Briana Barnett and Nia N. Waller for finishing as national finalists in the 16th Annual Civil Rights and Liberties Moot Court Competition. Instructor Joe Lester served as coach. He was assisted by 2021 alumna Joi A. Siler.
During the 2021-22 academic year, more than 435 School of Law students enrolled in one of the school's 17 clinic/externship programs and cumulatively engaged in 94,129 service-learning hours. Nearly 28,000 of those hours occurred under the direct supervision of law school faculty members directing in-house clinical programs – all of which provide access to justice services for underrepresented communities and individuals.