The university will launch the Wildcat Bar Association next semester to connect alumni who work as lawyers with current students who hope to work as lawyers.

The program is still in the early stages of development. Still, it will be co-chaired by Chris Riley, associate professor of government and criminal justice and pre-law adviser, and April (Ward ’06) Farris, justice on the Fifteenth Court of Appeals in Austin.

“The hope in launching the Wildcat Bar Association this fall is to provide opportunities to enrich the professional and personal lives of ACU-alumni attorneys while supporting the university’s mission,” Riley said in an email.

The association has four main goals: updating the database of alumni attorneys, facilitating alumni connections, providing student opportunities and developing fundraising initiatives.

To make this happen, Riley and Farris will invite alumni to serve on the association’s board.

Farris, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 2009, said that having a Bar association would have been helpful when she first graduated from ACU. She hopes the association will help students with career development and friendships.

“When I was a law student working for a law school during the summer, an ACU graduate from five years ahead of me reached out to me,” Farris said. “He was going to be one of my mentors and be one of my mentors for life, and I think that’s the ACU difference.”

Despite this mentorship, she said it was difficult to find connections after law school.

“When I was in college I had no connections to anybody,” Farris said, “I would’ve loved to have had an internship for a judge and we do have quite a few ACU alumni who are on the bench now and so if we can help people with internships that’s something I’d like to see eventually.”

For now, there are very few concrete plans for what will be included in the association, but Riley and Farris will work with the university over the summer to begin connecting alumni.