$20M marked for law school

Local philanthropist Donald Bren of Newport Beach made another generous donation to UC Irvine, this time $20 million to the university’s new School of Law. The money will go toward recruiting a staff of 11 law scholars, a dean, and funds for program planning.

Classes will be offered starting in the fall of 2009 but before that staff must be hired and a curriculum chosen, a task educators hope to begin by fall of next year, UCI Chancellor Michael V. Drake said Monday. A number of UCI’s present teaching staff are among those under consideration for the positions although nothing has been finalized, Drake said.

“It’s a very important boost to the quality of the initial faculty and the tools that the founding dean will have to recruiting the best possible staff,” Drake said.”

The school will be named after Bren in recognition of the gift. The Donald Bren School of Law, the first public law school to open in California since 1965, was approved in 2006 by the University of California Board of Regents.

“This is the first public law school to open in California in more than 40 years, and an important new area of study at UC Irvine that will boost the quality and strength of its curriculum across a number of schools,” Bren said in a news release. “I would like to see the school built on a foundation of the most accomplished faculty available. And my hope is that this school will educate a new generation of talented students in both law and other important interdisciplinary studies, and produce well-rounded and highly qualified professionals and leaders.”

The school received its first $1 million donation in May from the Joan Irvine Smith and Athalie R. Clarke Foundation. Smith, the great-granddaughter of Irvine Ranch founder James Irvine, offered the money with the main purpose of establishing a core collection for the school’s library.

UCI is among the fastest-growing UC campuses, with more than 25,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,800 faculty members. The law school will open with a planned 65 students.

“By 2015 we’ll be fully staffed,” Drake said, adding that the school expects by then to have 200 students in every classroom, at a total of roughly 6,000.

UCI administrators are working to develop quality internships for the students and other programs that will enhance their chances of finding work after they get their diploma, Drake said.

“We’ll work on building all of those so they will have the world laid out before them,” Drake said.