Join us for Night Court’s 2026 original musical comedy, “Dial L for Lawyer,” which benefits legal-related charities across Houston, including South Texas College of Law Houston’s Randall O. Sorrels Legal Clinics.
The production — a comedic, musical take on the classic Alfred Hitchcock suspense thriller “Dial M for Murder” — runs Aug. 26-29 at The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston, and attendees can earn CLE ethics credit. Aug. 26 is South Texas Law Night at Night Court, and President and Dean Rey Valencia will present the opening curtain talk.
Using a special link tied to the law school to purchase tickets helps the Night Court board see the strength of South Texas Law’s support for the show. To credit the law school with your ticket purchases, please use this link: Buy Tickets for South Texas Law Night at Night Court
Night Court is a Houston-based, nonprofit troupe made up of local attorneys, judges, and city officials who have raised nearly $2 million for legal charities in the troupe’s 30-plus years of performing its own musical comedies. Proceeds have benefited a range of charitable causes that provide free legal services to those in need in our Houston community.
“The Night Court donation helps close the funding gaps that can cripple legal services to the poor in our community,” said South Texas Law’s Associate Dean for Experiential Education and Professor of Law Catherine Greene Burnett. “For our free legal clinics, the funding helps pay for litigation expenses, which allows us to offer our students opportunities to observe and assist with more complex legal cases.”
Without this annual boost, the clinics would have to severely curtail student learning, said Carlos Calderon, senior director of legal services for the clinics. For example, in family law cases, if children or property are involved, additional costs are required. However, in “no property, no children” divorces, the extra costs do not come into play.
“If we are forced to limit our family law cases to just ‘no property, no children’ cases, our students will have no exposure to the very real world of family law practice,” Calderon said. “They will not experience how mediation is used in divorce. They will not interact with ad litems as part of their litigation experience, nor will they engage in complex discovery. It will be similar to a college student being enrolled in only freshman classes for four years.”
The Night Court funding annually provided to South Texas Law — based on ticket sales coded to the law school — is used for litigation expenses including translators, psychiatric exams if addressing PTSD or family violence, physical biometrics exams, home visits, mediation costs, fees for attorneys ad litem and guardians ad litem, service of process, service by publication, travel, and discovery and depositions.
“We invite everyone to use the link above to purchase tickets for opening night in celebration of South Texas Law Night,” Burnett said. Dean Valencia, Dean Emeritus and former Night Court superstar Helen Jenkins, and various alumni, faculty, staff, and students will attend that evening. “It would be wonderful if your law firms or organizations bought tickets in bulk using the link and attended together. It’s lots of fun and for a good cause.”
