Maurice Blanchard Cohill Jr.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Law is a diverse community of learning whose essential mission is to help lawyers and legal institutions to meet the demands of a rapidly changing legal and professional environment. We perform this mission through three critical functions: We prepare a diverse and talented pool of students to meet the challenges of demanding legal careers whether as advocates, counselors, planners, or policy makers and to meet the leadership responsibilities lawyers are called upon to perform in their personal and professional lives. Our central focus in this effort is the preparation of students for the first professional degree in law. We are a center of legal scholarship, whose members work to enlarge society's understanding of law and its underlying policies, legal institutions, and legal processes. We provide expertise, support and service to governmental units at all levels, to local and national organizations engaged in law reform and policy analysis, to the legal profession, and to the people of Western Pennsylvania, both through the work of our graduates and through efforts to foster improvements in all aspects of the justice system. In serving our students, we are committed to an active and inclusive spirit of community and to the effective, efficient and congenial provision of service. We seek to model a diverse community characterized by fairness, professionalism, and respect for the dignity and contributions of all persons. We aspire, with regard to our teaching, research, and public service, to conduct all of our programs in a manner consistent with the highest standards of professionalism, and at a nationally prominent level of quality that adds luster to the legal and business communities of Pittsburgh; that makes us relevant to the key needs of this region's private, public, and nonprofit sectors; and that distinguishes us as one of the finest public urban law schools in the United States.