Fall 2005
LAW SCHOOL BRIEFS
Major Gifts to the College of Law Legal Clinic Endowment
Since 1991 the Clinical Law Program has offered practical legal experience to Willamette’s law students, who provide legal assistance to needy Oregonians under the direction of full-time clinical supervising attorneys. If the matching funds are obtained, the endowment for the Clinical Law Program would total $3 million — the largest programmatic endowment in the history of the law school.
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or the fourth consecutive year, Willamette University College of Law has received gifts totaling more than $2 million for the endowment of the college. Last year an anonymous donor gave $1 million to endow the Clinical Law Program. That donor also pledged an additional $1 million gift if the college can raise matching funds by December 31, 2005.
Recent Grad Helps Fund Loan Repayment Program
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uring the summer of 2005 the College of Law received a major gift from a recent graduate, W. Parker Lee JD’01. Lee, who works in private business, generously committed $250,000 to fund several College of Law projects.
In June 2005, Mr. and Mrs. S. Michael Rodgers JD’68 helped the college move closer to meeting that challenge with a generous donation of $100,000 for the Clinical Law Program. Rodgers, a former trustee, is a founding partner of Rodgers Deutsch & Turner in Bellevue, Wash. His gift has been instrumental in helping the college reach its goal of raising $1 million by the end of 2005.
Lee has donated $100,000 for the Professor Carlton J. Snow Memorial Scholarship Fund and $25,000 for support of the Law and Business Program. In addition, he has pledged $125,000 over the next five years to fund the Loan Repayment Assistance Program, which assists law graduates who work in public interest jobs by partially repaying their student loans.
Thanks to the support of alumni like Rodgers and Maribeth Collins H’93, a life member of the Board of Trustees who provided a $500,000 gift for the clinic, the college has reached 65 percent of its goal. If the Clinical Law Program endowment is to be fully funded, the College of Law must secure another $350,000 for the program by the end of 2005.
“It is gratifying and inspiring to see such a recent graduate able and willing to make such a big investment in his law school,” said College of Law Dean Symeon C. Symeonides.
Professor Nafziger Directs Research at The Hague
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of distinguished scholarship and education in public and private international law.
rofessor James A. R. Nafziger was selected to lead the Hague Academy of International Law’s Centre for Studies and Research this past summer. The academy’s program, which is held in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, includes legal scholars and practitioners from around the world. The academy is the epicenter
Participation in the research program is highly competitive and open only to qualified jurists with notable experience and recognized scholarship in international law. Under the guidance of Professor Nafziger, participants investigated a critical area of international law. The focus of the 2005 program was “The Cultural Heritage of Mankind.”
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