News Feature
Columbia Law School
October 4, 2007
Sidney Silverman LW’57 donated $1 million on the occasion of his 50th reunion to establish the Sidney B. Silverman Loan Repayment Fund. The endowment fund will provide interest-free loans to eligible graduates who pursue full-time positions in government service that make direct use of their legal educations. The loans, which may be used to repay debt incurred to attend Columbia Law School, will be gradually forgiven over time as recipients remain in government service.
An anonymous donor pledged $3 million to establish a chair in tax law.
Five donations in support of faculty chairs at Columbia Law School were matched by Gerry Lenfest’s $10.5 million challenge. These include $1.5 million each from Steven B. Epstein LW’68 and Deborah Epstein, Robert L. Lieff, and a third anonymous donor, as well as the following two gifts.
The Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation and the Pritzker Foundation made a combined gift of $2.5 million to endow the Charles Evans Gerber Transactional Studies Program Fund. The gift also renames the school’s Transactional Studies Program in honor of Gerber, an early career mentor to Michael A. Pucker CC’83 LW’88 ’s and a pillar of Chicago’s legal community. The Gerber Program will support a permanent Gerber Professor and may also be used to name a visiting professor, a junior faculty member, and a fellow. This gift was matched under the Lenfest Challenge.
An anonymous donor pledged $1.5 million to endow the Liviu Librescu Professorship. The gift recognizes the heroism of Professor Liviu Librescu, a Romanian-born and -educated Israeli-American scientist who perished in the Virginia Tech shootings of April 16, 2007. The 76-year-old Holocaust survivor was shot and killed while holding off the gunman at the entrance to his classroom so his students could escape. This gift was also matched under the Lenfest Challenge.
The law firm Sidley Austin LLP and a number of its partners donated $1 million to name the conference room on the newly renovated 9th floor of Jerome Greene Hall. In celebration of her reunion year, Cathy Kaplan LW’77, took a leadership role in making the gift happen.
