Congratulations! The University of Houston is excited to celebrate its graduates during the upcoming spring commencement ceremonies. All graduates will walk across the stage, have their name called, and their photo taken. The date, time, and location of the Law Center’s graduation ceremony are:
Date: Saturday, May 10, 2025
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Fertitta Center, 3422 Cullen Blvd., Houston, TX 77204
The Law Center’s graduation ceremony will be available via live stream. The live stream link will go “live” one hour prior to the start of the ceremony at this webpage:
University Commencement Live Streams - University of Houston (uh.edu).
Keep the celebration going and submit a video to be included on the 2025 Graduation Video Wall! Click here for Submission Guidelines.
Additional details regarding the Law Center’s ceremony and related events are provided below.
Please calendar the below dates to ensure you do not miss any important deadlines related to the graduation ceremony and related activities. Additional details regarding these deadlines are provided below in the “Regalia” and “General Information” sections.
March 21st – Deadline to RSVP for Commencement Ceremony
Please click here to RSVP if you are planning to attend the commencement ceremony. December 2024 and August 2025 graduates must also RSVP. August 2025 graduates will officially file for August graduation online in May.
April 28th – May 9th (tentative dates) – Regalia Pick-up from the Campus Bookstore
Regalia pick-up will be available at the Campus Bookstore only. Regalia will only be released to students who have completed the Graduate Survey. Please note, the Campus Bookstore is not open on weekends.
Graduate Survey
You must complete the Graduate survey 48 hours before picking up your regalia. The Career Development Office will email the survey to you before April 28th.
April 29th – May 9th – Line Card and Commencement Day instructions
Participants must pick up their Line-card and Commencement Day instructions in the Office of Student Affairs.
May 10th – Law Commencement Reception
Additional details regarding the Law Center’s graduation reception will be provided to students via email. RSVPs are not necessary.
May 10th - Commencement Ceremony
The Law Center’s commencement ceremony will start promptly at 7:00pm at the Fertitta Center - Graduates must arrive for line-up no later than 6:00pm.
The Honorable Irma Carrillo Ramirez
U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
Irma Carrillo Ramirez was sworn in as Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on December 11, 2023. She had previously served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, for 21 years. Prior to her judicial service, she was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, where she spent time in both the criminal and civil divisions, and an associate attorney in the general commercial litigation section of the law firm of Locke Purnell Rain Harrell L.L.P. She received her law degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law, Dallas, Texas, where she was a Sarah T. Hughes Diversity Fellow, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from West Texas State University, Canyon, Texas.
Judge Ramirez received the State Bar of Texas Hispanic Issues Section Judge of the Year Award, the Dallas Women Lawyer’s Association’s Louise B. Raggio Award, the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law’s Distinguished Alumni Award for Judicial Service, the Dallas Hispanic Bar Association’s La Luz Achievement Award, the SMU Women in Law Distinguished Alumna Award, a Federal Executive Board Public Service Award, the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers’ Outstanding Mentor Award, and the SMU Law School Board of Advocates Coach of the Year Award. She is a member of SMU Dedman School of Law’s Executive Board and the SMU Law Review Association Advisory Board, and she has previously served as an SMU Community Fellow. She has also served two terms on the Board of Trustees for the Texas Center for Legal Ethics, including as the Chair in 2019. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Dallas Hispanic Law Foundation; a Sustaining Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, the Dallas Bar Foundation, and the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers; a Master in the William “Mac” Taylor Inn of Court and the Sarah T. Hughes Inn of Court.
Regalia is mandatory to participate in the graduation ceremony. Only official UH Regalia can be worn. JD and LLM students will wear the same regalia.
The Law Center will pay for the regalia rental for those students who complete the Graduate Survey, which will be sent to the graduates via email by the Career Development Office. If you choose not to complete the survey, you will be responsible for the rental payment for your regalia.
Graduates must order regalia online anytime from now through March 25, 2025, through Herff-Jones (https://herff.ly/uh) Click on the link for the Law Center, then click on the Cap & Gown Icon. Lastly, click on the Graduation Regalia icon and fill in your information.
There will be other items listed, (Keepsake stole, mini-tassel, keychain, etc.) that you can purchase as mementos, but these are not required. You get to keep the tam and hood as a keepsake from the Law Center.
Regalia ordered after the deadline will go through the Campus Bookstore only, and availability will be based on surplus in the store. There’s no guarantee that regalia will be available in your size.
Regalia Pick- up
Distribution of regalia is tentatively April 28, 2025 – May 19, 2025, at the Campus Bookstore. Regalia will only be released to students who have completed the online Graduate Survey, unless you opt to pay for your regalia out-of-pocket. Please be sure to complete the survey a minimum of 48 hours before you go to pick up your regalia.
Campus Store – (713) 741-7095 or houston@bkstr.com
If you miss any of these deadlines, you should contact the Campus Bookstore immediately, (713) 741- 6311. The Law Center cannot obtain regalia for you.
Regalia Return
There will be Campus Bookstore personnel to take your regalia after the ceremony or you may return it to the Campus Bookstore by the stated deadline you received from the Bookstore. A late fee and/or a “hold” will be placed on your record if you miss the stated deadline.
Tickets will be required for all commencement ceremonies taking place at the University of Houston. Tickets will be distributed to the graduating students via email closer to the date of the ceremonies.
Each graduate will receive six (6) electronic tickets. Graduates themselves will not require a ticket. Children, two (2) years of age and under, will not require a ticket.
All commencement tickets are complimentary, and any unused tickets should be returned to the commencement ticket pool. The selling of commencement tickets is not condoned by the University and could constitute a violation of the Student Code of Conduct.
Commencement Guest Ticket Lottery: Need additional guest tickets? Students interested in entering the commencement guest ticket lottery to receive additional tickets can submit a request for more tickets.
The commencement lottery will open on UH’s Commencement Webpage beginning March 24 at 10:00am through March 28 at 11:59pm. Please note, the availability of extra tickets is not guaranteed and depends on the number of graduates and amount of returned or unclaimed tickets; please plan accordingly.
Students will be notified of the commencement lottery results by the end of the day on April 4. If selected, your additional tickets will be available for pickup at the Graduation Celebration taking place on Thursday, April 10 from 10:00am – 4:00pm at the University of Houston Campus Store located at 4455 University Dr #130, Houston, TX 77204 in the Student Center South.
Additional pick-up dates at the UH Ticket Office are:
Monday, April 14 – Friday, April 18 from 9:00am – 7:00pm
Monday, April 21 – Friday, April 25 from 9:00am – 7:00pm
Monday, April 28 – Friday, May 2 from 9:00am – 7:00pm
Saturday, May 3 from 9:00am – 7:00pm
For questions about commencement tickets please email, gradtickets@uh.edu
Your name will appear in the program as indicated on the Commencement RSVP or as reported to the University on the graduation application if an RSVP is not received.
December 2024 Graduates
Honors for December 2024 graduates will be noted in the program and announced at the ceremony based on your final cumulative GPA.
May 2025 Graduates
The Fall 2024 semester cumulative grade point average for May 2025 graduates will be used to determine honors listed in the program only and announced at the Ceremony. Your final GPA (after Spring 2025 grades are reported) will determine if you graduate with honors based on the ranges provided below.
August 2025 Graduates
The Office of Student Affairs conducts a general audit to estimate which students will be eligible to graduate in August, but those students are not certified for graduation until after the Law Commencement Ceremony. Therefore, if you plan to participate in the Commencement ceremony or want your name to be listed in the program, you must submit your RSVP by the March 21st deadline. No determination of honors will be listed in the program for August candidates.
University of Houston Law Center’s Honors Designation
Summa Cum Laude |
3.871 to 4.000 |
Magna Cum Laude |
3.740 to 3.870 |
Cum Laude |
3.640 to 3.739 |
Order of the Coif
The Order of the Coif is an honorary scholastic society, the purpose of which is to encourage excellence in legal education by fostering a spirit of careful study, recognizing those who as law students attained a high grade of scholarship, and honoring those who as lawyers, judges and teachers attained high distinction for their scholarly or professional accomplishments.
For each academic year, measured from July 1st to June 30th, the Charter school may elect to membership those students whose grade record ranks in the top 10 percent of all the graduates for the designated period and who have five (5) semesters of graded law coursework.
The graduates will be ranked, and the top 10% will be invited to membership for the Order of the Coif.
Fertitta Center
Clear Bag Policy: The Fertitta Center enforces a clear bag policy to ensure the safety of our graduates and guests. Items such as backpacks, purses, and diaper bags are not permitted, and all attendees are strongly encouraged not to bring any bags to the facility. The following items will be allowed inside the Fertitta Center:
Exceptions will be made for medically necessary items after proper inspection at the doors by arena personnel.
Parking: Complimentary parking will be available in designated areas, although carpooling is encouraged to help minimize traffic. Please click here for more parking information.
Guest Hooder
If you have a parent, spouse, sibling, grandparent, uncle, or aunt who is an alumnus of the Law Center, and you would like that person to hood you, please be sure to provide their name when you submit your RSVP to attend the Law Commencement Ceremony. The guest hooder must be a relative who is an alumnus of the Law Center and/or a sitting Judge (no exceptions!).
Honor Cords
The only honor cords worn at the Law Commencement ceremony are those special honor cords presented by the Order of the Barons to their members.
Diplomas
The Law Commencement Ceremony is a hooding ceremony only; diplomas are not handed out at the ceremony. Your diploma will be mailed to you later during the summer, after your final grades are posted and the University has cleared your record of all academic and financial obligations. If you have an outstanding balance with the University for any expense such as tuition, parking citations, library fines, etc., you will not be certified as a graduate until it is resolved.
NOTE: The name on the diploma and the mailing address is based on the information that you submitted when you applied to graduate online.
Photographs
A professional photographer will take an individual picture of each graduate as they exit the stage. The photographic proofs will be mailed and/or emailed to the graduates using the information submitted to the Office of Student Affairs.
Contact Information:
Office of Student Affairs
Phone: (713) 743-2182
Email: lawOSA@uh.edu
For other general commencement information, please visit University of Houston – University Commencement.
