McGeorge School of Law receives historic donation, plans to provide scholarships for students of color
McGeorge School of Law received a $30 million dollar donation from Eglet Adams, a law firm based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The donation comes from Robert T. Eglet, a 1988 graduate of the McGeorge School of Law, and his wife and partner Tracy A. Eglet.
The $30 million gift is the second largest donation to a California law school and among the top-15 in contributions ever made towards any law school in the United States.
Eglet said his goal is to “motivate” and “inspire” students to pursue a career in civil trial practice, in a press release to McGeorge School of Law.
“My wife and I both strongly believe that it is important to give back when you can,” Eglet said. “We are excited that we have the ability to help students who would not otherwise be able to afford law school. We both relied upon assistance throughout law school.”
The donation will be dispersed to fund $20 million dollars of need-based scholarships for law students who are either first-generation students or students of color. An additional $5 million will be matched from University of the Pacific’s Powell initiative.
The endowment will also help cover costs for competition fees, including travel fees for members of McGeorge’s mock trial, moot court, negotiations, and other competition teams.
The generosity of the Eglet’s will also create three additional faculty chair positions for the school’s award-winning advocacy program. The program will be renamed the Eglet Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution, after the alumnus.
McGeorge’s Dean Michael Hunter Schwartz worked closely with Eglet to design how the gift would be used by the school.
“The new need-based scholarships will help us address a systemic barrier to diversifying the law school and the profession, and the advocacy center fund will help cement the institution as a leader in trial advocacy, moot court, and legal education,” said Schwartz.
The law school has competition programs giving hands-on experiences for students to improve their skills in trial and appellate advocacy while refining their talents in arbitration, negotiations, and client counseling.
U.S. News & World Report ranks McGeorge No. 8 nationally in trial advocacy.
Recently, in the past three years, a McGeorge Law student has won the national Top Gun competition, an invite-only mock trial tournament for the top-16 student trial lawyers in the country.
“I am so proud of the nationally ranked mock trial program at McGeorge,” Eglet said. “I have seen the students in action as they prepared for upcoming competitions, and I was really impressed. Trial law is my passion, and I want to do something that will enhance McGeorge’s mock trial program.”
The Eglet gift is the largest donation in the law school’s 97-year history. It is the second largest donation received in the 170-year history of University of the Pacific.
Pacific President Christopher Callahan called the gift “transformational” for the McGeorge School of Law, saying it will change the lives of McGeorge students for generations to come.
This story was originally published October 12, 2021 at 10:00 AM.
