Mission Statement
Temple University Beasley School of Law is committed to excellence in teaching, learning, scholarship, and service. The faculty is dedicated to preparing students to enter and continue in the legal profession with the highest level of skill possible, with a firm commitment to principles of professional responsibility, and with a sense of personal obligation to lead and to serve the communities in which they live and practice. We are dedicated to our foundational ideal of making legal education accessible to all talented individuals, including individuals who otherwise might not have that opportunity or who might encounter barriers because of race, creed, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, socioeconomic background, or other personal characteristics. We endeavor to create and sustain a law school community that is diverse, inclusive, and committed to equal justice under the law.
Student Learning Outcomes and Performance Criteria
History
Since its founding, Temple Law School has remained true to its original mission of access to an excellent legal education, even as even as that vision has expanded to reach further than ever before. As our mission statement reflects, we are committed to creating and sustaining a diverse, inclusive law school community within which all students are supported on their journey into the legal profession. This enduring commitment defined our past and continues to guide our future.
James E. Beasley
The Temple University Beasley School of Law is named in honor of James E. Beasley, Sr., a legendary Philadelphia trial lawyer and a member of the class of 1956, in gratitude for one of the largest gifts given to an American law school at the time. Born to a working-class family in West Philadelphia, Beasley attended Temple University on the GI Bill and then enrolled in Temple Law School. He went on to establish his own firm, now known as The Beasley Firm, and became nationally known as an outstanding litigator with several landmark verdicts. His transformative gift has helped to ensure that new Temple Lawyers will have what it takes to succeed on their terms for generations to come.
The Law School opened in 1895 as Temple College’s Department of Law. An ambitious young lawyer, Henry S. Borneman, proposed to Russell Conwell that he organize evening courses in the study of law for students wishing to prepare for the bar examination. His goal was to increase access to the legal profession for people of modest means who could not take time away from work to pursue their studies. With Dr. Conwell’s support, Borneman appointed himself as Dean and proceeded to recruit a faculty. Although he planned to establish both a day and evening division, the day division attracted no students and was canceled, while 46 students initially enrolled in the evening division. The Law School graduated its first class (of 16) in 1901. It received accreditation from the Pennsylvania State Board of Bar Examiners in 1907.
From its humble beginnings on North Broad Street, Temple Law School has grown in both size and prestige. In 1933 the Law School created a three-year day division, and in that same year it received full accreditation and an “A” rating from the Council on Legal Education of the American Bar Association. The Law School was admitted to full membership in the Association of American Law Schools in 1935. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Law School greatly expanded its programs. Various “law center” programs with a community outreach focus, such as Temple’s Legal Aid Office, were founded or significantly expanded. Then-dean Peter J. Liacouras established international Summer Abroad programs in Athens, Rome, Tel Aviv, and Ghana, and organized foreign law graduate, teaching fellow, and graduate tax programs. Within the J.D. program itself, clinical education received new emphasis, and upper-level course offerings were expanded.
Under the leadership of Dean Robert Reinstein, the 1990s and early 2000s brought continued growth in the Law School’s graduate programs and international programs, including the semester abroad program in Tokyo, the LL.M. in trial advocacy, the LL.M in Transnational Law, the LL.M. program for Chinese lawyers, and the rise of the school’s trial advocacy program to national prestige. Law School facilities saw significant improvements as well. In 1997, the Law School added Shusterman Hall, a converted Gothic-style church on Temple’s campus that now serves as an elegant conference facility, followed by Barrack Hall, which houses classrooms, meeting spaces, and administrative offices, in 2002.
In 2008, Dean Reinstein returned to the faculty and was succeeded by Dean JoAnne A. Epps, one of the first Black women to lead an American law school. Dean Epps continued to strengthen the Law School’s experiential and trial advocacy programs while also establishing the Sheller Center for Social Justice and the Center for Compliance and Ethics. Together, these Centers expanded student opportunities for success and pathways into legal practice while establishing the Law School as a strong partner and collaborator for both communities and business leaders in the region. Dean Epps, together with then-Director of Advocacy Programs Eddie Ohlbaum, also took on a leadership role in the Law School’s Rule of Law program in China, training lawyers and judges in that country on the operation of the rule of law as a governing principle.
In 2016, Dean Epps was appointed Provost of Temple University, and Gregory N. Mandel succeeded her as interim and then permanent dean. Dean Mandel continued to steward the Law School’s mission of access to excellence with a strong focus on student success and sustaining the Law School’s diverse, inclusive community throughout the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dean Mandel also built on the Law School’s historic strength in tax law, establishing the Center for Tax Law and Public Policy, and created the groundbreaking Institute for Law, Innovation & Technology, which operates at the intersection of digital technology and human rights. Dean Mandel succeeded Epps as Provost in 2021; Epps went on to later serve as President of Temple University.
Dean Mandel was succeeded by Rachel Rebouché, first as interim and then as permanent dean. Building on Dean Mandel’s stewardship, Dean Rebouché focused the Law School’s strategic efforts on three priorities: student success; national and international reputation and impact; and diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Under her leadership, the early 2020s saw a surge in faculty hiring and philanthropic support, including establishment of the endowed Kean Family Deanship, a first in the history of the Law School.
In 2025, Dean Rebouché stepped down and was succeeded by Kristen E. Murray as Interim Kean Family Dean pending a national search for the Law School’s next permanent dean. During her tenure, Interim Dean Murray maintained the Law School’s strategic commitments while also working to strengthen partnerships both within Temple University and across the region. Significantly, during Dean Murray’s tenure the Law School also secured philanthropic support for the Oller Center for the Rule of Law, which will become the centerpiece of the Law School’s renewed focus on the rule of law as an essential foundation for democracy.
In 2026, the Law School celebrated the appointment of Lonnie T. Brown, Jr. as the next Kean Family Dean and the first externally appointed dean in recent memory.
Russell Conwell
Russell Conwell was an attorney, journalist, and Baptist minister who assumed the pastorate of Grace Baptist Church in North Philadelphia in the early 1880s. Through his leadership, the church quickly grew too large for the building it had commissioned at Mervine and Berks Streets. As a result, the congregation voted to purchase a lot a short distance away at Broad and Berks streets and to build what would become known as the Baptist Temple.
Temple University was founded in 1884 as an outgrowth of Conwell’s ministry at the Baptist Temple. Conwell wanted to make higher education available to all capable and motivated students regardless of their backgrounds and finances. His college began as informal classes for seven people and was first housed in the meeting rooms of his church.
More than a century later, having emerged as a major educational enterprise, Temple University continues the Conwell mission. Today, Temple is a thriving public urban research university, is ranked in the top tier of the Carnegie Classification for Institutions of Higher Education and is one of the nation’s leading centers of professional education (law, dentistry, medicine, pharmacy, and podiatric medicine).
Temple Law is proud of its Conwellian heritage and remains committed to providing access to a world class legal education regardless of means or family background.