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In 1952, Kathleen “Rita” Keenan made history as the first woman graduate of the law school at the University of Houston. Women’s enrollment grew slowly, but steadily until, 66 years later, women became the majority in the 2018 entering class. In the intervening years, the women of the Law Center have had a tremendous impact on the school, the community and the legal profession.
Each year since 1987, the country and the Law Center observe March as Women’s History Month, a time to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions made by women such as Keenan.
The law school welcomed women applicants since its founding in 1947, but the first graduating class consisted of 28 men, mostly World War II veterans. Keenan too was a veteran, serving during the war at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio as a member of the Women’s Army Corp. She married and moved to Houston in 1950, deciding to go to law school to become the first lawyer in her family.Keenan was fond of saying she went to law school to become a lawyer, not a woman lawyer, and she proved her lawyering skills for many years. She established a civil law practice with fellow classmate, Vernon Thrower. The two partners later expanded the firm with Keenan’s son, Christopher, and Thrower’s son, Greg. Keenan continued practicing law until her death in 1981.
As the percentage of women students grew over the years to 54.1 percent in the Class of 2022, the faculty, which began with the dean and one other male professor, also has evolved. There are 24 female professors, or about 42 percent of the 57 full-time faculty members teaching today.
The school’s first woman graduate established a small, successful civil practice, and many are doing the same today. But Law Center alumnae have long since gone on to become judges, partners in the nation’s largest firms, corporate executives, elected officials, public servants and community leaders. Women’s History Month is a time to acknowledge the great strides that have been made and the challenges that remain.
Please see the PowerPoint presentation for other exceptional Law Center women. This is but a start of the Law Center’s project to collect stories and highlight the accomplishments of all our graduates no matter their background. If you know of other women who should be part of the slideshow, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Leonard M. Baynes
Dean & Professor of Law
University of Houston Law Center
The University of Houston Law Center
100 Law Center
Houston, TX 77204-6060
713.743.2201