Jeremy Counseller, J.D., Appointed Dean of Baylor Law School

Contact: Lori Fogleman, Baylor University Media and Public Relations, 254-709-5959
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WACO, Texas (Nov. 9, 2023) – Following a nationwide search, Baylor University Provost Nancy Brickhouse, Ph.D., announced today that Jeremy Counseller, J.D., The Abner V. McCall Chair of Evidence Law at Baylor, has been selected as dean of the University’s nationally ranked Baylor Law School. His appointment is effective July 1, 2024.

Professor Counseller will succeed Dean Emeritus Brad Toben, who returned to the Baylor Law faculty at the end of the 2022-2023 academic year after a 31-year tenure as dean of Baylor Law.

“Professor Counseller knows Baylor Law well – both its strengths and its opportunities for growth and improvement,” Provost Brickhouse said. “He has articulated a vision for Baylor Law that is ambitious and aligned with that of Baylor University. The campus community also knows Professor Counseller very well and expressed overwhelming support for his vision and his leadership. Professor Counseller has the courage and mandate to lead Baylor Law into the future, preparing lawyers and producing scholarship informed by Christian perspectives on service and leadership.”

“I am grateful to President Livingstone, Provost Brickhouse and the members of the Search Committee, chaired by Dean Sandeep Mazumder of the Hankamer School of Business, for entrusting me with this privilege and responsibility,” Professor Counseller said. “I am blessed by the opportunity to serve our students as dean alongside my faculty and staff colleagues and our alumni and friends. I will do so with a deep sense of optimism about the future of Baylor University and the Law School. The Law School’s tremendous successes have prepared it to embrace the full import of its Christian mission within the legal profession, which I believe impels us to improve the quality of justice through the highest-caliber teaching, scholarship and service.

“The education I received at Baylor Law School positively transformed my life, and so I will do everything I can to preserve and enhance the Law School’s existing strengths, particularly its distinctive commitment to preparing students for leadership and service in the profession, while also working collaboratively across the University to find bold new opportunities to better serve our students, achieve Law School and University objectives, and fulfill our distinctive mission. In all that I do, I will endeavor to be guided by God’s command in Micah 6:8 – inscribed on the walls of the law center – to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God,” Professor Counseller said.

Counseller joined the faculty of Baylor Law in 2003. He graduated from Baylor Law with honors and was a member of the Baylor Law Review, the Order of the Barristers and the interscholastic moot court and mock trial teams. He also earned an M.B.A. from Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business and a B.A. summa cum laude from Stephen F. Austin State University.

Following his graduation from law school, Professor Counseller served as a law clerk to the Honorable Reynaldo G. Garza of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Professor Counseller then entered private practice in Houston, Texas, with Bracewell & Patterson LLP (now Bracewell LLP), where he was an associate in the trial section. He also served as an Assistant Criminal District Attorney in McLennan County, Texas, where he prosecuted both misdemeanors and felonies.

Professor Counseller has authored articles and presented papers on various evidentiary and procedural issues. He is the co-author of four books: “Handbook of Texas Evidence,” “Texas Commercial Causes of Action,” “Texas Trial Procedure and Evidence” and “Civil Procedure: In Focus.” In 2006, the President of the State Bar of Texas appointed him to serve on the Administration of the Rules of Evidence Committee, where he helped restyle the Texas Rules of Evidence.

Professor Counseller has served as the director of the Baylor Law Academy of the Advocate at St Andrews, Scotland, since the program’s inception in 2013. He previously served as Baylor’s Faculty Athletics Representative to the Big 12 Conference and NCAA from 2014 to 2019. As an educator, he has received Baylor University Outstanding Faculty awards in 2007 and 2022.

Provost Brickhouse also thanked the search committee, who provided their time, insight and service to Baylor during this process: Dean Sandeep Mazumder (chair), Jerry Clements, Matt Cordon, Angela Cruseturner, Laura Hernández, Chris Holmes, Chris Jaeger, Julie King, Elizabeth Miller, David Reid and Ronnie Turner Jr. Additionally, the Provost expressed gratitude to Professor Patricia Wilson, J.D., for her leadership as interim dean of Baylor Law School since July 2023.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and over 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.

ABOUT BAYLOR LAW

Established in 1857, Baylor Law was one of the first law schools in Texas and one of the first west of the Mississippi River. Today, the School has more than 7,800 living alumni. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Baylor Law has a record of producing outstanding lawyers, many of whom decide upon a career in public service. Baylor Law boasts two governors, members or former members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, two former directors of the FBI, U.S. ambassadors, federal judges, justices of the Texas Supreme Court and members of the Texas Legislature among its notable alumni. In its law specialties rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked Baylor Law’s trial advocacy program at No. 3 in the magazine’s 2024 edition of "America’s Best Graduate Schools." The National Jurist ranks Baylor Law as one of the "Best School for Practical Training" and one of the "Best Law School Facilities" in the country. The Business Insider places Baylor Law among the top 50 law schools in the nation. Baylor Law received the 2015 American Bar Association Pro Bono Publico Award, making it only the third law school in the nation to be honored with the award since the award's inception in 1984. Learn more at the Baylor Law website.