Abbott’s visit to Fort Worth for this big news shows power of Texas A&M expansion | Opinion

Thursday is a big day for Texas A&M University-Fort Worth. But it’s just the first of many big days to come.

Gov. Greg Abbott is joining Chancellor John Sharp at the Texas A&M School of Law to launch a new court that will affect business across Texas and the nation as a whole.

Last year, the Legislature passed — and Abbott signed — House Bill 19, creating a new system of courts for complex business cases. The idea was to make Texas an even more attractive place to do business—a place businesses can grow both faster and smarter. By creating a court for businesses, relevant legal disputes can be settled more quickly, allowing entrepreneurs to get back to business.

The Eighth Division of the new Texas Business Court will be housed in Fort Worth, at the Texas A&M campus downtown. Abbott has already named Jerry Bullard and Brian Stanger as the two judges who will preside over this court — along with eight other judges serving other divisions across the state. On Thursday, in a great moment for our community, all 10 will take their oath in Fort Worth.

But today is not the end; it’s just the beginning.

The Texas Business Court is being housed at A&M-Fort Worth because the campus is the new home for academic/industry collaboration in advancing innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth for the entire region.

Texas A&M School of Law intensely prepares its graduates for the business world. Students specialize in nationally recognized programs in patents and technology, dispute resolution, healthcare, energy, and other critical fields. They graduate understanding business and entrepreneurship as well as they understand the law.

It’s no surprise that the law school is exploding in size, rising faster and further in the rankings than any law school in history. Or that its graduates have the highest bar passage rate in Texas and are second in the nation for post-graduate employment.

With an eye to the law school’s success and particular strengths in business, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship — as well as its fast-growing training programs for non-lawyer professionals — Sharp announced even bigger plans for Fort Worth in November 2021. Texas A&M-Fort Worth, a new hub for research and innovation in North Texas that’s already under construction, will link together a set of impactful innovation spokes that could transform the way we live, the way we work, the way we eat and the way we play.

To create better partnerships with businesses, A&M is changing how research is done. Rather than the traditional institutional approach of a college doing research and then hoping a business can use it, A&M-Fort Worth is reversing the model. Businesses will engage A&M on their research needs, and A&M will direct its work to those needs.

To create better and healthier food, the A&M AgriLife program is working with businesses to change how we design and produce food. A&M scientists engaged in that work are already actively living and working in Fort Worth.

To create safer communities, A&M-Fort Worth will house a number of state agencies and programs, including the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, and the Institute for Health Care Access. Professionals from around the state are already being trained in Fort Worth on emergency response, and local hospitals are partnering with A&M to pursue innovative research on rare diseases.

And to create better entertainment, the A&M School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts is already conducting classes on the Fort Worth campus, to train the technology and arts leaders of the future. This has already resulted in a meaningful corporate relocation.

In every aspect of life, A&M-Fort Worth aims to do cutting-edge research and find new, effective solutions. In the years ahead, the innovation coming out of the A&M-Fort Worth campus will change the world.

Sharp was right when he said he was making a “Texas-sized commitment to Fort Worth.” A&M-Fort Worth is a game-changer for our city, our businesses and our future. And we are just getting started.

John Goff, co-founder of Crescent Real Estate, is chairman of the board for the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Innovation Partnership.