This has been a year of turmoil and upheaval in the country. But it has also been a year of great promise at the Law School. We have received two monumental gifts — from the W. P. Carey Foundation and from the Robert and Jane Toll Foundation — which have given us the capacity to expand and grow our academic program while creating greater capacity to address the inequities in our society.

One year ago, we were the beneficiaries of an historic $125 million gift from the W. P. Carey Foundation. Since then, as chronicled in the Journal cover story, we have worked assiduously and strategically to apply these resources in a way that supports and provides new opportunities to students, that fortifies our excellent faculty, and that strengthens the Law School overall.

And we have done so in concert with our students, many of whom have been engaged in the process, meeting with me in person and sharing ideas about how to maximize the impact of these resources.

Thanks to them, and the generosity of the W.  P. Carey Foundation and support from many other alumni donors, in just a year-and-a-half we have added six new faculty, excellent teachers and distinguished scholars. We have increased funding for public interest summer fellowships and for post-graduate fellowships, tripling the number of students in the latter category this year. We also have created a full suite of lifelong learning programs. And this is just a brief summary of all that we’ve accomplished.

So, I think it’s fair to say that the gift is reshaping the Law School in the short and long terms. But, mind you, we are in the early stages of implementation and there is much more to come. Both now and well into the future, our goal is to build on our well-established reputation as the leading cross-disciplinary law school in the country. We also strive to earn a new distinction as the leader in law school innovation, in collaboration with our new Future of the Profession Initiative, one of the pillars in our plan for growth.

At the same time, the gift will support a comprehensive Law School initiative to create a more diverse and inclusive law school community, including recruiting more students from underrepresented backgrounds, such as those who are the first in their families to attend college.

To strengthen the opportunities for our graduates to enter public service, Robert Toll L’66 and Jane Toll GSE’66, who through multiple gifts have demonstrated their sustained commitment to supporting students driven to public service, have pledged an additional $50 million to double the number of public interest scholars and fellows through full and partial scholarships.

With this gift and the commitment of our students and alumni, the Law School is in a prime position to work toward righting the wrongs of our society, matching the intensity and sense of purpose displayed by many of the alumni we feature in this issue. The depth and breadth of their civil rights work is truly inspiring.

Sincerely,

Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law