Case Western Law

These Law Schools Just Got Paid

Two law schools just landed massive donations.
Case Western Reserve University School of Law announced a $10 million gift from alumnus Coleman Burke. The donation will help to launch a new environmental center. According to Law.com, it is the largest donation in school history.
“Our natural world faces increasingly critical and complex environmental challenges,” Burke tells The Daily. “This center will combine the law school’s significant expertise in the subject with the university’s broader related strengths to make meaningful contributions to address them.”
The Burke Center will launch its first major event this fall with a symposium on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency. The center has a number of events planned, including a 2020 symposium on environmental health. Additionally, the center will help support scholarships for students interested in pursuing environmental law, fund environmental law externships, and sponsor student research in environmental law.
“This center will help prepare students to meet the environmental challenges of today,” Jonathan H. Adler, a Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law, tells The Daily. “as well as those that inevitably will emerge in the future.”
Money Towards Professional Development
In California, Pepperdine University School of Law announced a $2 million donation from Carrol and Rex Parris. The donation will go towards the Parris Institute for Professional Formation, an institute that offers first-year law students support and mentorship in their professional development.
According to Law.com, Rex Parris is a Southern California trial lawyer. In 2014, he donated $1 million to Pepperdine Law to establish the professional formation institute
“It is an honor to have the opportunity to shape the character of the young men and women who come to Pepperdine Law for a premiere legal education,” Carrol Parris says. “Beyond expanding the skill sets of these students, the Parris Institute perhaps most importantly connects future lawyers with current legal professionals who give them practical advice on how to use those skills.”
Sources: Law.com, The Daily, Parris Institute for Professional Formation