Federalist Society and University of Austin team up for new law program

Palantir Technologies

16/09/2026 21:14

By Karen Sloan
Sept 16 (Reuters) - The University of Austin — a five-year-old Texas institution that bills itself as an oasis of free speech and academic freedom in U.S. higher education — is working with the conservative Federalist Society to launch an undergraduate law program that leaders hope to expand into a law school after receiving an $11 million donation, its president told Reuters on Wednesday.
University president Carlos Carvalho said the influential lawyer association, which has chapters at many U.S. law schools, will help develop a law curriculum that emphasizes the Constitution, rules, and individual liberty. 

“The connection to the Federalist Society is an important one,” he said.
UATX, as the tuition-free university is known, opened to students in 2024 and says it makes admissions decisions based on merit alone. Its founding trustees include Bari Weiss, founder of the Free Press news website and the editor-in-chief of CBS News since last year, and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale.
The Federalist Society did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday on its role in the new law program.
It will prepare students to be admitted to top law schools by offering rigorous legal training in their upper-class years and opportunities for hands-on legal training, Carvalho said.
He said a law school offering a J.D.— the university does not yet have any graduate programs — could launch as soon as 2028, though he called that timeline “aggressive.”
Carvalho and Federalist Society President Sheldon Gilbert unveiled the donation and plans during a Constitution Day address on Tuesday featuring federal appeals court judge James Ho. The judge in 2022 said he would not hire Yale Law School graduates as clerks in protest of “cancel culture” and an intolerance of conservative viewpoints. He later extended his clerk boycott to graduates of the law schools at Stanford and Columbia.
The $11 million donation is from Gail Jaquish, founder of behavioral research firm Jurix Inc., and her husband Steven Kenninger, founder of private investment firm QMO. Kenninger is a Stanford Law School alum. The couple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday through their foundation. 
Carvalho said recent changes to Texas’ attorney licensing rules were among the factors that motivated UATX to add law to its undergraduate offerings and look at adding a law school.
The Texas Supreme Court earlier this year ended its reliance on the American Bar Association for law school accreditation and instead established its own list of law schools whose graduates may practice in the state. Carvalho said that change could make it easier for graduates of a future UATX law school to become licensed. 
     
Read more:
Texas becomes first state to end ABA role in lawyer admissions
Conservative judges extend clerk boycott to Stanford after disrupted speech
     
Additional reporting by Nate Raymond 

(Reporting by Karen Sloan)