The Downtown Location for the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law

The Memphis downtown area is the hub of the legal community.  The downtown location provides the University with a permanent presence in the downtown area. Across the nation, downtown is home to over 35 law schools, including several ranked in the top 50.

The new home for the School of Law is the Customs House and Post Office, a magnificent building on the Mississippi River at the intersection of Madison and Front streets in the Central Business District in downtown Memphis.  This beautiful neo-classical building is rich in legal history and formerly housed the Federal Courthouse.

The move downtown is advantageous for law students and faculty, the existing legal and business communities and many others.  The School of Law will be the center for continuing legal study and intellectual inquiry through seminars, conferences and CLE panels that will be presented in its spacious and well-appointed new quarters.  Lawyers, judges and their interns and clerks will benefit from convenient access to the School of Law library’s collection of materials that law offices no longer maintain or have other access to. 

The relocation of the School of Law to downtown Memphis will add further momentum to the extraordinary “downtown renaissance” in the city.  Some 500 students, faculty and staff will dine, shop and in many cases, live in the area.  Moreover, the Customs House is particularly well suited structurally for restoration and renovation into a premier legal education facility, readily allowing for the creation of contemporary spaces for classrooms, seminars, meetings, offices, a new and technologically advanced library, plus three courtrooms and three clinics to serve the Memphis downtown community on-site.