Freddie Pitcher became the first African American elected to Baton Rouge City Court, then he was elected to the 19th Judicial District Court, & then was elected to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, without opposition. He was the first African American in Baton Rouge to fill each of these positions. After leaving the City Court, Judge Pitcher was the only African American judge for the first six years, then Judge Tyson followed, & others. After being on the First Circuit for five years, he was asked to serve as partner with Phillips Dunbar, a huge law firm, being the first African American partner in their Baton Rouge office. After six years at Phelps Dunbar, he was asked to take the job as Chancellor at Southern. Judge Pitcher had been an adjunct professor for a while at Southern, before being asked to be Chancellor.

When Judge Pitcher stepped into his new position as Chancellor, he found the Southern Law Center to be in a position of possibly not becoming re-accredited by the American Bar Association, which would be detrimental to the school. Judge Pitcher came in knowing this situation, & he had four years to prepare the school for the next re-accreditation in 2007. When he was elected, there were only two professors teaching 140 students Legal Writing, whereas the recommended student teacher ratio is 25:1. Therefore Judge Pitcher increased the Legal Writing faculty from two to eight. BAR passage rates were also a problem, especially on first-time takers. Longitudinally, Southern Law Center has been doing decent, meaning after taking the BAR a few times, their students were passing, roughly 94% of them, but first time takers were performing poorly. He worked increase this. Other changes Judge Pitcher made were to start a night school & to start a study abroad program. Southern Law Center is partnered with the University College of London. Students get to attend a six-week summer program at this school, giving them four courses exposing them to international law of various forms. Thanks to Judge Pitcher, Southern’s BAR is now all essay. The class of 2011’s bar passage was at 69.88%, compared to 39% in 2003.

Tuition cost of Southern Law Center is $10,600 compared to $17,000 at LSU, $38,000 at Loyola, & $41,000 at Tulane Law School. Southern is the cheapest Law School in the state, but was ranked number one in the nation for overall best value at graduation by US News & World Reports. Furthermore, Southern Law Center is ranked number four overall in the nation by US News & World Reports in “most popular law school,” behind Yale, Brigham Young, & Harvard. Compared to a national average of around 30%, 61% of those accepted to Southern Law Center choose to go there. Despite increasing their admission standards, Judge Pitcher emphasizes the importance of Southern Law Center’s mission to provide access & opportunity to underrepresented & underserved populations. Students must be prepared, no matter their background, to come to Law School, made apparent by their GPA & LSAT score. Another part of their mission is to provide leaders in society. Alumni of Southern Law Center include: a number of District Attorneys, 78 judges, mayors, legislators, & other community leaders. The show comes to a close.