Kirkland & Ellis, a Chicago-based national law firm, and its partners who are U-M alumni, will contribute $1.2 million to the Law School to endow a professorship.
Pending approval by the Regents, the endowed chair will be named the Kirkland & Ellis Professorship of Law.
“The U-M Law School is delighted to receive this generous commitment to establish the professorship,” said Dean Lee C. Bollinger. “This is a major leadership gift to help launch the Law School’s $75 million endowment campaign. It will allow us to recognize one of our most gifted teachers and scholars today and will help us attract and retain eminent faculty in the years ahead.
“The income from the Kirkland & Ellis endowment will provide support for the professor selected for the chair and offer funding to further enrich that scholar’s teaching, writing and research,” he added.
“We are pleased to establish the Kirkland & Ellis Professorship at the U-M Law School,” said Daniel W. Vittum Jr., a Kirkland & Ellis partner. “We recognize our responsibility to support schools upon which we depend for new lawyers. Those of us who are U-M Law School graduates recognize our indebtedness to the Law School for a fine education, and we believe it is important to provide financial support to enable the Law School to maintain its strong and excellent faculty.”
Long supporters of legal education in the United States and pioneers in making substantial law firm gifts in support of law school faculties, Kirkland & Ellis and its partners also have endowed Kirkland & Ellis Professorships at Harvard Law School, the University of Chicago Law School, and Northwestern University School of Law.
Kirkland & Ellis, founded in 1908 in Chicago, employs approximately 400 lawyers, including more than 30 graduates of the Law School. The firm also has offices in Denver, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. Kirkland & Ellis represents a wide range of national and multinational institutions throughout the United States and abroad.
