South Texas College of Law, Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 3, October, 1980 Page: 3 of 8
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October 1980 — ANNOTATIONS — Page 3
Newest Faculty Member
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Matthews' Goal to Upgrade Oasses
"I came to South Texas for a
variety of reasons. Houston, the
unique set-up here and I got an
opportunity to teach what I
wanted to teach."
The speaker, one of the newest
faculty members at STCL, is Dr.
F. Lawrence Matthews. He came
here from a private practice in
Miami, Florida. He also served
as an adjunct at the University of
Miami's law school, his alma
mater.
While at UM he was on the law
review, served as a teaching
assistant in his upper level years
and ended up graduating number
two in his class.
Joining the faculty at STCL has
put Dr. Matthews into what he
likes to call the "non-status
role", but one that he was looking
for in a teaching position.
"I always enjoyed writing, 1
like to feel I'm a craftsman," he
said. Evidence of his disire is the
upgrading of the Legal Research
and Writing classes now being
offered at STCL since his takeover
of the program. ,
He says that over the years the
Legal I and II classes had
degenerated into an easy one or
two hours, but he is going to
upgrade the program.
"There are now three options
in Legal II. First for one credit,
an intramural writing competi-
tion, with a Constitutional Law
problem," he said. Dr. Matthews
is looking for an outside sponsor,
and the top five papers will be
selected from the Fall and Spring
semesters with an outside judge
to pick the top paper.
"Second is the group taking it
for two credit hours. They will
have to write a paper for a
national competition." There are
six or eight different require-
ments, he says, with cash awards
ranging from $500 to $5,000.
The third option seems to be
the one Dr. Matthews favors the
most. "This is a little group
working to improve. It's a one
credit seminar with eight to ten
assignments and a critiqre on
each one.
"This is way too much work for
one credit. I'm going to try and
limit it to ten or so people, all
interested in improving their
writing," he said.
Dr. Matthews sees all this as
fitting into a larger framework,
"Legal I, Appelate Advocacy and
Legal II, each without overlap-
ping, will give the students a
good fundamental background in
all different phases of legal
writing."
Besides his entry into the
The first of these involves
many things more than just the
surface writing of papers and
projects for different classes that
students periodically enroll in. He
strongly believes that a refined
writing ability will increase a
student's average substantially.
"When you go into an exam
you can automatically eliminate
the two geniuses. Everyone else
college before he found out about
"Strunk and White" and "all of a
sudden my papers became A's."
When asked about the addition
of the WestLaw computer re-
search system and whether it was
a major addition to the library, he
replied with an emphatic "ab-
solutely!"
"Mrs. Thompson is very con-
He strongly believes that a refined writing ability
will increase a student's average substantially.
teaching world he has again taken
on writing assignments. As a
student at UM he assisted the
Dean with the editing of "Blash-
field's Automobile Law and Prac-
tice" for West Publishing. It is a
17 volume set on all phases of
auto law. When Dean Lewis
decided his other obligations
were too much he passed the full
duties on to Dr. Matthews, by
then in private practice, and with
West's approval he took over the
responsibilities for ten of the
seventeen volumes.
Since being here at STCL he
has taken on another major
writing project for West. This
one, a part of their "Texas
Practice Series", will deal with
another of his areas of expertise,
insurance. This will be the first
volume on insurance in the series,
"They have not yet had one,"
Matthews said. The book is due
next summer and is part of what
he refers to as actively under-
taking writing projects. There are
several other faculty members
involved in writing projects right
now, Matthews said, and he
chalks it all up as "good P.R.".
"We've all got to work and try
to attract good students," he
said. Another thing he classifies
as "good P.R." is the TCTA
program "which builds up the
reputation of the school to the
Bar."
Appropriately, two areas of
great interest to Dr. Matthews,
are development of writing ability
by the students and research
facilities.
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knows about the same going into
a final, grades are spread over ten
points, 72-82, on how they write
it," he said. His suggestion for
improvement is "Strunk and
White" a volume he uses in his
classes and stresses the impor-
tance of as voraciously as a
vacuum cleaner salesman. He
says that he was a senior in
scientiously going about doing a
fantastic job. It is very hard to
pull yourself up by your boot-
straps.
"We do not have 100 years of
alumni donating books, or 100
years of buying new books," he
said. That is one reason he is
such a strong believer in the
computer research systems. The
acess afforded by the computers
is his main interest, especially
when considered on an economic
evaluation.
"Up until now the computers
were not competing economically,
because there was not enough
software. It is almost to that point
now, simply on space require-
ments," he said.
Dr. Matthews now has one
whole session on computer re-
search and says that the use of
the computer now will result in
recent graduates being at an
advantage over attorneys with 20
years experience.
Dr. Matthews is happy with his
selection of STCL as a faculty
member and "cannot forsee
doing something else. Practicing
law is a full time consuming
passion, you can't do it part
time." Once his book is done he
hopes it will open the door to
more writing opportunities and he
wants to get involved in more Bar
activities. He even allows that he
"may consult from time-to-time,
but teaching is my full-time
desire."
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Our 24 hour
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can give you
the extra
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need.
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HOUSTON. TEXAS 77002
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YOU WILL RECEIVE THE ANNOTATIONS MONTHLY UNTIL JUNE 1981.
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Palumbo, Norman. South Texas College of Law, Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 3, October, 1980, newspaper, October 1980; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144397/m1/3/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting South Texas College of Law.