The Daily Toreador - Student Newspaper of Texas Tech

Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Coleman Morefield

The Texas Tech University School of Law introduced the completion of the Mark and Becky Lanier Professional Development Center with a visit from the Texas Supreme Court Tuesday.

The 34,560-square-foot center, named for Mark and Becky Lanier, who donated $6 million for the building, features an auditorium and a courtroom for students to practice advocacy skills, according to a Tech news release.

Texas Supreme Court justices were present at the opening ceremony and inaugurated the new courtroom with the hearing of two court cases. The nine Supreme Court justices heard the cases in front of Lubbock residents, Tech students and faculty, as well as families involved in the trials.

The cases - Gilbert Kerlin v. Conception Sauceda and Benny Phillips, M.D. v. Dale Bramlett - drew attention from a broad audience who filled the 150 seats in the Donald Hunt Courtroom a half hour prior to the hearings. The courtroom is named for an advocacy coach in the School of Law, known to his students as "Coach Hunt," who is retiring this year after more than three decades of teaching.

Overflow attendees were allowed to sit in the 300-seat auditorium and view the cases by video. Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson, who began the inauguration of the courtroom, said the court was very pleased to be in the new facility.

Walter Huffman, dean of the School of Law, said he believes the presence of the Supreme Court justices was very significant to Tech and the law school.

Wendy Humphrey, a legal practice professor, said she required her students to attend the hearings.

"A lot of students want to come, not only to see the new facility," she said, "but because it's such an honor to have the Supreme Court justices here."

Because of Humphrey's requirement, law students lined the front row of the auditorium. Humphrey said the hearings gave her students a feel for the real world, something the law school desires for all students to obtain before graduation.

Mark Lanier, who Humphrey said she considers to be a "successful" alumnus, contributed almost half of the funds needed for the building project. A 1984 Tech law school graduate, Mark Lanier is the founder of Lanier Law Firm, which has offices in Los Angeles, Houston, New York and Palo Alto, Calif.

According to the Lanier Law Firm Web site, www.lanierlawfirm.com, Mark Lanier continues to serve the university as a member on the law school's Foundation Board.

Huffman said it had been 34 years since a significant addition was made to the law school. Immediately following the hearings, the law school hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to introduce the new addition. In attendance were Mark and Becky Lanier, several other law school alumni and Texas senators and state representatives.

Although the opening of the facility featured Texas Supreme Court hearings, the courtroom will be used in the future for students of the law school to practice advocacy skills, according to a Tech news release. The Facilities Planning and Construction System of the university designed the project to be a space capable of accommodating law classes as well as continuing education conferences.

Tech is the only university in Texas that combines a medical school, law school and major university all on the same campus, Huffman said, which is why he believes the Lanier addition will be "very special to both students and faculty."

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