Hall for Legal Education Like No Other

The Southern University Law Center is located in Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana and the fifth largest port in the United States. With a population of about 400,000, this seat of state government offers you interaction with the Louisiana Legislature; state agencies; federal, state, district, and city courts, and top private law firms. The Law Center building is located on the 512-acre main campus of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This site on Scott’s Bluff overlooking the Mississippi River makes for particularly stunning views. Housed in A.A. Lenoir Hall, named for the first dean of the original School of Law, the Law Center occupies 85,000 square-ft.   The Law Center’s main entrance opens into a 3,133-square-ft. atrium, popular gathering place for students, and when appropriately adorned provide the spectacular settings of numerous Law Center receptions, luncheons and dinners, and special events exhibits and registration areas. An 850 square-ft. courtyard attracts students and faculty for leisure time and members of the Law Center family and special guests for special events. Some faculty members have been lured to this outdoor setting for their classes during the first few weeks of Louisiana’s temperate spring weather. Through two sets of doubled glass doors at the back of the atrium you enter a substantial foyer leading to two multi-media classrooms. With the drawing of electronically controlled partitions, these classrooms can be made into a 130-seat lecture hall. The hall is the site for the annual lecture series and other special events throughout the year. The west wing of the building’s first floor houses offices for special student services/programs. Here you will find the offices of financial aid, career counseling and development, the Student Bar Association, and Southern University Law Review, and the student lounge equipped with telephones, chairs and tables for relaxing and dining, a large-screen television, and microwave ovens. The clinical education program, designed for the operation of a fully equipped law office, also occupies this wing. The Law Library occupies a 30,000 square ft area of the east wing on the first floor of A.A. Lenoir Hall. Along with its stacks holding a collection of more than 400,000 volumes, 1 million microfiches, 40,000 rolls of microfilm, and 800 law reviews, the library space also includes two computer and multimedia law learning laboratories. Its Civil Rights Room is home to a Civil Rights Collection that is one of the best in the southeastern region. Two wings on the second floor of A. A. Lenoir Hall are devoted to classroom instruction. Located In the east wing are seminar rooms, general classrooms, and a moot courtroom and in the north wing are two general classrooms. Also located in this area, is the staff lounge, which is often converted into a setting for special luncheons and receptions for more intimate gatherings. The moot courtroom is equipped with a state-of-the-art audio and video system for closed-circuit telecast into four large classrooms. It is in this courtroom that the next cadre of lawyers hone their skills in a commitment to leadership and securing access to justice. Faculty wing occupies the east side of the second floor of A. A. Lenoir Hall. The Law Centers administrative business is conducted in the offices, including the Chancellor’s suite, that occupy the central area on the second floor facing the front entry of A.A. Lenoir Hall. Included in this area is a faculty lounge.   A ground-breaking ceremony for the $4.1 million expansion of A.A. Lenoir Hall was held February 20, 2008.