Reflections - Texas Wesleyan School of Law - Texas Wesleyan ...

Reflections
of Four Founders
A look back at 20 years of service
Article and photography by Dan Brothers
From humble beginnings as a part-time, evening program in Irving, Texas, to an ABA-accredited, vibrant,
modern institution of superior legal education in downtown Fort Worth, Texas Wesleyan University School
of Law has covered a lot of ground in its fi rst 20 years. Now home to 750 students and with more than
2,800 graduates practicing law, the law school is a major player in the Fort Worth and Tarrant County legal
communities. In what follows, four of the law school’s founders offer their insights into the fi rst two decades.
It is still, and has always been, about the people – students, faculty, alumni, supporters – and the community
we serve.
The early years
In the late 1980s, three men of vision
– businessman Bob Harmon, CPA
Randy Roberson and noted local
attorney Steve Chaney – had the drive
and foresight to plan and create a new
law school for the North Texas area.
Frank W. Elliott was the fi rst permanent dean of the law
school and has been a professor of law at the school since
its inception.
To help implement their somewhat
daring vision, Harmon had been
cultivating Frank Elliott for some
time about the possibility of starting a
new law school. Elliott, who was then
counsel to the Ramirez & Associates
law fi rm, remembers thinking “. . .
this is never going to work.” Despite
his reservations, Elliott was offered
a faculty position, as Harmon
continued to press him to get as
many details as possible about how
to start and then operate a law school.
With a broad legal background that
included being a law professor at the
University of Texas and Texas Tech
and the former dean at Texas Tech
School of Law, Elliott proved to be
a storehouse of knowledge. But, the
limit of his generosity was reached.
He had had enough. “If you’re going to
make me act as dean and get all this
information out of me,” Elliott told
Harmon, “then pay me for it, and I’ll
become dean.” Harmon agreed. Elliott
became permanent dean in October
1989 when John Cady, who was
serving as start-up dean, gracefully
stepped aside. Cady has continued to
serve on the law school faculty for the
past two decades.
2
At the time, DFW was the largest
metropolitan area in the country
with no night law school. There was a
market for people who wanted to go to
law school but couldn’t afford to go to
day school. “They had jobs, families,
whatever,” Elliott said, “and almost
every place else in the U.S., there was
at least one night law school, and here
there wasn’t.” North Texas needed a
night law school.
“How would you like to teach in a
law school we are starting in the
Dallas/Fort Worth area?” Harmon
asked Judge Joe Spurlock during
a phone conversation in early July
1989. Spurlock, then a sitting justice
on the 2nd Court of Appeals of Texas,
considered the offer for a moment.
“Bob, don’t get me wrong,” he said,
“starting a law school is a real serious
proposition.” Not deterred, Harmon
responded, “Well, let me tell you
something. Frank Elliott is going to
be my dean.” That sealed the deal as
far as Spurlock was concerned. “If
you’ve got Frank Elliott,” he replied,
“I’ll come teach in your law school.”
And he did, teaching the fi rst entering
class in Intro to Legal Analysis on
Aug. 30, 1989.