The National Jurist Publisher Jack Crittenden with UH Law Dean Leonard M. Baynes at the reception where the magazine announced its list of “Most Influential People in Legal Education.” The event was held during the Association of American Law Schools’ Annual Meeting.
Appointed in 2014, Leonard M. Baynes is the UH Law Center’s ninth dean and the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Chair at the University of Houston.
Jan. 12, 2026 – The National Jurist has recognized University of Houston Law Center Dean Leonard M. Baynes as one the most influential figures in legal education. The magazine announced its list of “Most Influential People in Legal Education” at the Association of American Law Schools’ Annual Meeting in New Orleans held last week. Baynes currently serves on AALS’s Executive Committee.
The list, which is included in the spring issue, recognizes leaders who are shaping legal education nationwide. Selections were based on a survey sent to 207 law school deans and other leaders in legal education nationwide, with more than 35% responding.
"I'm sincerely grateful for this honor. As a law school dean, as a legal educator, and as someone who cares deeply about the legal profession, this recognition means a great deal to me,” Baynes said. “It highlights the power of legal education and the beauty of the United States. Only in our country can someone like me who is a first-generation college student and is the child of immigrants become dean of a top tier law school and be recognized by his peers as one of the most influential people in legal education. Legal education changes lives! It changed mine!”
Baynes, appointed as the Law Center’s ninth dean in 2014, made history as its first dean of African descent, whose parents immigrated to the U.S from St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
During his almost 12-year tenure, Dean Baynes has guided the Law Center through significant growth and transformation.
In the 2025-2026 U.S. News & World Report rankings UH Law has four specialty programs ranked in the top 15: the Part-Time program is ranked No. 5, Health Law program is No. 9, Intellectual Program is ranked No.12, and the Legal Writing Program is ranked No.15. The Law Center ranks No. 30 among U.S. law schools with most graduates employed at Big Law firms.
This past year, UHLC also earned national recognition for delivering exceptional value to its graduates, ranking No. 9 among the nation’s top law schools for return on investment (ROI), according to a LawCrossing analysis highlighted by the American Bar Association Journal. Additionally, the Law Center received an “A” from the National Jurist in its Law Firm Employment rankings, placing among just 12 schools nationwide and only three in Texas.
Baynes, who holds the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Chair at UH, is committed to making legal education accessible for all.
He has overseen several innovative programs, including the 3+3 Program with UH Honors College, the UH Law Express Program and the acceptance of GRE scores as an alternative to the LSAT, and a joint J.D.-LL.M. program that allows students to receive both degrees in less time than if pursued separately. He also initiated the race neutral, ethnically neutral, and gender neutral award-winning UHLC Pre-Law Pipeline Programs that help prepare first-generation and low-income students for law school. Students who participate in the UHLC Pre-Law Pipeline Programs experience, on average, median LSAT score increases of 6 to14 points.
Baynes also led a major capital campaign that brought together UH Law alumni, the State, University officials and community supporters and resulted in the opening of the state-of-the-art $93 million John M. O’Quinn Law Building in 2022. The 180,000-square-foot, five-story cantilevered building features cutting-edge technology, collaborative spaces, classrooms and student-centered active learning spaces. In 2023, the new law building received the Higher Education Award of Merit at the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Southwest Chapter Design Awards, and in 2024 made the cover of PreLaw Magazine as one of the best law school buildings in the nation.
As the legal profession evolves and the demands and needs of its constituents mature, Baynes instituted a free Continuing Legal Education Program highlighting contemporary issues that “provide light not heat on the law.” He also started a “So, You Want to be a Law Professor?” Workshop co-convened by the Texas big city bar associations, the Utah Bar Association, 13 other ABA accredited law schools in the Southwest region, and the Big 12 Law Schools. The Workshop is designed to educate and develop lawyers who may want to become a law school professor.
The “Most Influential” recognition is the most recent in a long line of honors recognizing Dean Baynes for his leadership and impact, including being named one of the nation’s 100 most influential lawyers of color, receiving the Houston Lawyer Association’s Roberson L. King Excellence in Education Award, the Association of American Law Schools’ Clyde Ferguson Award, and Columbia Law School’s 2022 Paul Robeson Award and the National Black Pre-Law Conference John Mercer Langston Legal Education Leadership Award in 2019. He has also been inducted into the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council Hall of Fame and honored by the New York Bar Association and the ABA for his work in legal education.
Baynes is a prolific scholar. Baynes co-authored the casebook "Telecommunications Law: Convergence and Competition" and authored more than 25 law review articles and book chapters on corporate law, communications law, and other topics. He has also served as an expert witness for the FCC Federal Advisory Committee on broadcast ownership.
Baynes earned his B.S. from New York University and J.D. and M.B.A. from Columbia University.
See this year’s National Jurist list of honorees: https://nationaljurist.com/the-25-most-influential-people-in-legal-education/
