Loyola Chicago Sells Its Naming Rights Renames Building for Alumnus
We regret our replication of the Chicago Tribune’s error. Thanks to our commenters for bringing the mistake to our attention.
UPDATE / CORRECTION: After we noticed comments 34 and 41, we reached out to Loyola Law School for clarification. A Loyola spokesperson confirmed that the Chicago Tribune made an error: Loyola has renamed its main building for Philip Corboy, but NOT the school itself. For a correct account of what has taken place, see the law school’s press release.
FURTHER UPDATE: The Tribune has corrected its story, but without noting the fact that it was corrected. Most publications, such as the New York Times and Slate, will note substantial corrections after they are made. Here at Above the Law, we will also explicitly note corrections that go to matters of substance (as opposed to, say, typographical errors).
We mentioned this already in Morning Docket, but the decision by Loyola - Chicago bears further discussion. We know that the overall economy has made things difficult on law schools. Tuition keeps going up, despite nearly record numbers of new applicants. So one should applaud a law school for getting a major boost to its endowment.
Loyola - Chicago received a huge gift, so massive that the school has decided to change its name its main building name in honor of the donor. The Chicago Tribune reports:
Loyola University Chicago’s School of Law will be renamed the Philip H. Corboy Law Center after the noted alumnus and prominent personal injury attorney who donated the largest single gift in the law school’s history, it will be announce Monday.
Some might argue that a decrease in the confusing proliferation of law schools named after St. Ignatius Loyola — we already have Loyola of Chicago, Loyola of Los Angeles, and Loyola of New Orleans — is a good thing. But was going with Philip Corboy the right move? Wasn’t Henry Walpole available?
More details after the jump.
It should go without saying that Phillip Corboy is not a Jesuit saint. Instead, he is a famous personal injury attorney. But, in a way, Mr. Corboy was also persecuted for his religion:
“There are very few living lawyers who have had the kind of impact Phil Corboy has,” said David Yellen, the law school’s dean. “He largely transformed the practice of personal injury law. … He’s been a teacher and mentor to a couple of generations of leading lawyers in the country.”Even though Corboy graduated first in his 1949 class, major firms were not interested in hiring “an Irish Catholic graduate of a local school,” Yellen said. So Corboy went to work for the City of Chicago’s corporation counsel for a year before joining a firm that specialized in personal injury law. In a few years, he established his own firm, now known as Corboy & Demetrio.
I’m convinced that Corboy deserves to have a law school named after him. But does it look like Loyola is selling out?
Even if the school is selling out, so what? As long as that money trickles down to the students and helps keep tuition low during the worst legal economy anyone can remember, who cares what the school is named? Would you rather pay $X to go to Loyola - Chicago law school, or less than $X to go to Phillip Corboy Law Center - Presented by Gino’s?
UPDATE / CORRECTION: Once again, please note the correction at the top of this post. Loyola has renamed its building for Mr. Corboy, NOT the entire law school.
Loyola University Chicago School of Law Receives Historic Gift - Famed Trial Lawyer Philip H. Corboy Honored With Building Naming Rights [Loyola University of Chicago (press release)]
Loyola University law school will be named after personal injury lawyer Philip H. Corboy [Chicago Tribune]
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Firsty McFisterton
I suppose that I should know the answer to this question, but is Loyola Law School accredited by the American Bar Association? Does anyone know whether the school is a member of the Association of American Law Schools?
"Granted, any decrease of the proliferation of institutions named after St. Ignatius Loyola is a good thing."
Kanye Mystal, do you even think about how offensive you come across to people? Those white religious types, what terrible people in your mind.
2, it is not. It is an online school not eligible for ABA accreditation that annually sells its naming rights to the highest bidder. Next year, it very well could be “Red Bull School of Law” or “Wal-Mart’s House of Law Learning.” However, it is accredited by the State Bar of Illinois, so rising 2L's take the 'baby bar' and are then eligible to keep studying if they pass; upon graduation, they can sit for the state bar exam and may be able to eventually get into other jurisdictions by reciprocity.
Uh, this hardly seems like a new or interesting development. Certainly not to anyone who attended the James E. Rogers College of Law. Soon we will all be educated thanks to the largess of PI lawyers.
Already addressed in previous post.
Elie: You want to post a new entry dedicated to Kanye, too?
How about a post on Obama's 40 czars?
I can only imagine the shock and scorn that will pollute the comments page once my preeminent peer law school, which has held fast to its original name for over 100 years, is named after me--and all before my 30th birthday.
Incidentally, I have obscene family wealth, which will by itself grant me a position on the board of trustees.
Wow. I hope he donated a LOT of money...
ABA Journal is reporting that Corboy gave $75,000.
IU-Bloomington sold out last year: http://info.law.indiana.edu/news/page/normal/9420.html
Was Loyola aware of the fact that Beyone had the best video of all time when it made this decision?
7 funny dick
Suck my ass, Mystal, you fat racist walrus!
Jumanji!
It would have been nicer if the school had given the name as an "honor" to a judge or noted legal scholar instead of a PI attorney who bought them off (albeit a relatively famous and successful PI attorney).
But in the end, who cares? It's Loyola.
I'm assuming 13 is Lat, who keeps angrily posting because Elie refused when Lat offered up his "donut hole."
What 3 said. I can't really comment without being as racist as Elie, so I'll be the bigger person. Metaphorically, of course - I'm not quite as intimate with Gino's as our author.
Doesn't Loyola put its accreditation status, whatever it may be, at risk by renaming itself simply because a alum drops a wad a money on it?
I said it once, I'll say it again: I'm SO glad I didn't go to Loyola Law.
Southwestern all the way, baby!
It's one thing to name a law school building, but the school itself? Screams TTT!
Contribution must have beat $5M?? If you only have to beat a $5M donation to get the school named after you, Corboy's name could be replaced in six months. A building for $5M seems okay. The whole name of the school? I wouldn't sell that off for less than $100M, $50M at the bottommost.
How about the Citgo First Baptist Church of Springfield? I mean, someone has to pay the bills.
13=Angry Angry Lat
The last clause in the first excerpt has a typo. I checked the original Trib story to see whether they made the mistake or whether it was, once again, Mystal. Score one for Elie.
What a shiTTThole. How does this school even compete in the Chicago market behind. UC, NW, Kent State, Depaul, Michigan, Illinois, and Notre Dame. There is no fucking way.
This is totally racist, but chinks
24: The IIT joke is funny. Unfortunately I assume it was unintentional.
Corboy's profile in the Trial Lawyers is interesting. Particularly the part about him giving up drinking.
Read between the lines and it looks like he was a massive lush. Score one for the drunks.
26, you are incorrect.
-24
most people that go to loyola chicago probably end up in the horrible world of personal injury anyway, so this is a good fit.
What if I attended Loyola on its promise that it was prestigious, and suddenly find myself with a degree that has the name of an ambulance chaser on it? Would I have any sort of claim against the school, possibly under section 90 of the restatement?
30 - no because your reliance needs to be reasonable. No person of even average intelligence could think that Loyoyla was anything but a TTT for even 1 minute, much less long enough to actually enroll.
Is this really that big a deal? Temple University did this years ago. The official name of its law school is Beasley School of Law in honor of a big donor. But everyone knows it is Temple's law school. I assume the same will happen at Loyola.
31 - but it only took about 7 seconds from the time 30 walked into the admissions office to the time the dean caught the scent of the money in 30's wallet and enrolled 30 on the spot.
Geez. I hope you guys are joking about a lot of this. Loyola is not only accredited, but it's ranked #87. Not exactly high, but respectable. Also, this article is not clear, but I believe that it is the BUILDING that is being renamed, not the name of the school itself. The law school recently (within the past 5 years) moved into a new building that until now has just been called the "Law Center." My guess (and I graduated from there in '08) is that now it's the Philip Corboy Law Center, but that the school is still called the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. And, no, I do not practice personal injury law.
34-- No, your information is incorrect. Loyola lost its accreditation during the routine ABA review process in 2008. I guess this must have happened after you left? Or you might be thinking of Loyola LA, not sure. In any event, you didn't have to take the baby bar because it was accredited at the time you were there. I'm not sure what the affect on your bar admission is since your alma mater is now unaccredited-- you may want to consult an ethics attorney.
So they got an 85 year old guy to agree to disperse a gift over the next 15 years. Good luck with that.
34: since when is coming in 87th respectable?
34, of course you don't practice personal injury law. Instead, you are like the majority of us here. You don't practice anything because you don't have a job. Betcha didn't think we would catch that verbal slight of hand!
37, in a world where graduating 76th out of 85 from Syracuse Law counts as graduating in the "top half."
Your friend,
Joe Biden
Employed. Tax Law. Sorry you don't have a job though.
34 is correct. They are renaming only the *building* that houses the school of law on the LUC Water Tower Campus. Via Dean Yellen: "In recognition of his extraordinary legal career and long-time support of the law school, the building which houses the School of Law at the University's Water Tower Campus will be renamed the Philip H. Corboy Law Center."
32 -- Temple's name change came after one of the largest gifts ever given to an American law school. Loyola is changing its name after receiving the largest gift it their history (no mention of how it ranks in comparison to gifts to other schools). It would be interesting to compare the two dollar figures.
elie chase the Skadden layoffs
Looks like Corboy has gone to more colleges than Sarah Palin.
35, your information is incorrect. Try harder.
35, your information is incorrect. Try harder.
34 = ambulance chaser or unemployed. we should set up a pole.
Mass email to Loyola students makes clear that Chicago Tribune and ATL are misreporting this. The BUILDING is being renamed, not the SCHOOL.:
Loyola Community,
Loyola University Chicago is very pleased to announce that Loyola law alumnus Philip H. Corboy (JD '49) and his wife Mary A. Dempsey have made a leadership gift to the School of Law, which is the largest single gift in the law school's history. Their gift will be used to support ongoing renovations of the law school building, new faculty hiring, and student scholarships. Corboy is also donating his papers, which will be maintained in the Law Library at 25 E. Pearson Street. In recognition of his extraordinary legal career and long-time support of the law school, the building which houses the School of Law at the University's Water Tower Campus will be renamed the Philip H. Corboy Law Center.
A special ceremony acknowledging the remarkable generosity of Phil Corboy and Mary Dempsey will be held later this fall. In addition, there will be special recognition of Phil and Mary at the School of Law’s annual Philip H. Corboy Lecture on Advocacy on Thursday, September 24 at 5 p.m. in the Ceremonial Courtroom. This year's lecture, "Death of the American Trial," will feature guest speakers Robert Burns, author and professor of law at Northwestern University, and William Pizzi, professor of law at the University of Colorado and one of the country's most distinguished scholars in comparative criminal procedure.
Loyola University Chicago remains deeply grateful to Phil Corboy and Mary Dempsey for their extraordinary support.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Garanzini, S.J.
President, Loyola University Chicago
David Yellen, JD
Dean, School of Law
and by pole, I mean poll.
48-- A P.I. attorney contributed his papers?? What would that consist of? A copy of every phonebook his face was on the back of?
ATL has corrected its post. Refresh your browser:
"After we noticed comments 34 and 41, we reached out to Loyola Law School. A Loyola spokesperson confirmed that the Chicago Tribune made an error: Loyola has renamed its building for Philip Corboy, but not the school itself."
"We regret our replication of the Chicago Tribune’s error. Thanks to our commenters for the correction."
another fine example of excellent fact checking ATL
What's that about Dewey defeating Truman?
Mystal, once again caught drinking the Obama kool-aid that is peddled by the Chicago Tribune rag. Fitting that misinformation blew up in his face, once again. How, pray tell, did this get to Harvard? Please tell me!
#34 is not an ambulance chaser. #34 pointed out that #34 is a tax lawyer (#40). And employed. And yes, going to a school ranked #87 is fine if it allows you to concentrate in the area you are most interested in, and stay in the region that you want to live in. Thus, if you want to concentrate in tax (and Loyola has a tax program) and want to live in Chicago, it seems to be a pretty darn good choice. And don't forget that sometimes people have other reasons to choose a law school, as well (money, scholarships).
Not #34 - promise.
54 - A box was checked.
Nothing very exciting about this. Every insitution is busy selling naming rights to the building and just about every sub component of the building in order to raise money. For $1 million I could have had the moot courtroom at my law school named after me. I didn't have the million, but was interested in a smaller contribution if I could sponsor the restrooms, so I could name the toilet stalls after some of my least favorite politicians and actors, but was rebuffed.
I am planning to make a naming gift to the Touro School of Law, in the amount of $100. They have agreed to rename the school after me. I wonder why they sold out at such a low number?
-- Kyle M. Harvard, J.D.
Thanks #55.
IU, a first tier school got $35 million and renamed the school. In my opinion, that's way too cheap. However, IU has a habit of whoring itself. Seriously, you only get one shot at naming your school. Typically, after you name your school, alumni stop donating! They incorrectly think everything has been taken care of. Wrong.
For Loyola's building, I wouldn't expect anything over 10 million? Maybe they got 15? It will help them rise above Depaul and Kent in the rankings, but I doubt they will crack the top 50. Maybe they can steal some Depaul faculty after the Dean fiasco.
Slip and Fall School of Law
That is correct that the building will be named after Mr. Conroy. The Loyola Law School itself will be renamed after another of its graduates, Thomas Thornton Tines, although I understand the school will generally just be referred to by Mr. Tines' initials.
Once again, fine reporting by ATTTL.com
62 FTW - you can close down the comments now.
Elie, I hope this experience of repeating the Trib's error teaches you to stop resorting to Copypasta and to actually investigate stories before reporting on them.
As an aside, does anyone have a link to a good Trib website?
Lispy voice.....
giggle giggle
63 - As noted by 52, ATL successfully fact-checked the Chicago Tribune.
So kudos to ATL for riding herd on the mainstream media / print publications.
65 - It is standard practice, and entirely appropriate, for blogs to collect and comment on reports from newspapers and other sources.
The blogs of the ABA Journal and the Wall Street Journal are mostly aggregation / commentary. There is more original content on ATL than on either of those blogs.
Nothing like seeing a bunch of pretentious, self-absorbed, materialistic young associates obsessed with the status of six figure starting salaries and bonuses, attempting to degrade an attorney who has made more money than they could ever dream of making. Whatever though, I am sure he would be impressed with your LSAT score.
None of the money will trickle down to the students, it will be wasted on hiring more profs who teach because they can't practice and who wants to bet the administration gets a raise? Excellent way to avoaid estate taxes on Corboy's part while inflating his (presumed) ego while still alive.
Good grief, Elie. Do your independent investigation before posting next time, will you?
69 ftw - you can shut down the comments now.
Kent = the Demetrio School of Law?
Second only to naming your building after a PI lawyer, is spelling the word "law" in different languages on tacky polished steel in your lobby.
Ostentatious display of the totally unnecessary - a definite TTT.
@73,
Too funny. I was there for BARBRI. That display just screamed "children's museum." Hilarious that it's supposed to be a law school.
On the upside, the cafeteria was decent and cheap, though.
Hey Mystal:
YOU LIE!
- Congressman Joe Wilson
Please check your facts. Loyola University Chicago School of Law is ABA accredited per the ABA listing on their website. The school ranks in the top ten every year for it's health care law program. The school also does extremely well in trial advocacy and places higher than all schools in the area, nationally, and internationally in some competitions. If you want to be a litigator or in health care, it's very high quality. Not everything is perfect, some profs lean very left and are really out of touch, for example.
73, 74 -
Knowing the word "law" in 20 different languages clearly does not make you more marketable.
- unemployed Kent '07 grad
77, don't worry about it. Being unemployed is the new being employed. It is catching on rapidly and soon everyone will be doing it! We will proudly be able to tell our grandchildren 50 years from now that we were among the first to be unemployed!
34 & 40. Sorry dude, but working part-time at H&R Block and preparing income tax forms is not practicing tax law. However, it is ok because it is least a job. Can you help me get a job there too?
So much disdain for personal injury lawyers. Fitting for a bunch of d-bags freaking out because it looks like they won't get that six figure biglaw gig they feel so entitled to. God forbid any of you gets crippled on the highway by a trucker who fell asleep at the wheel. What a choice you'll have to make: swallow your pride and seek assistance from an "ambulance chaser," or do the "honorable" thing and side with the corporate lawyer who's trying to get the trucking company off the hook.
I thought law students were above the right wing vitriol that gets spat at PI lawyers in political discourse. I guess nothing is too low for those seeking high status.
@80,
Responding to the "right wing vitriol" that you disdain by is parroting its left-wing counterpart seems an odd response. Exhale, buddy.
There are meritorious PI attorneys, no doubt (Mr. Corboy likely being among them). And there are the true rank-and-file "ambulance chasers" that really do plague the legal system. The crap arguments are easily identifiable (and dismissable) because they'll want to ignore one end of the spectrum wholesale.
@80,
Responding to the "right wing vitriol" that you disdain by is parroting its left-wing counterpart seems an odd response. Exhale, buddy.
There are meritorious PI attorneys, no doubt (Mr. Corboy likely being among them). And there are the true rank-and-file "ambulance chasers" that really do plague the legal system. The crap arguments are easily identifiable (and dismissable) because they'll want to ignore one end of the spectrum wholesale.
Fuck, even a fucking school that names itself after a personal fucking injury attorney fuck is fucking higher ranked than fucking Northeastern. Fuck fuckity fuckerson, I fucked up.
Unemployed Northeastern Law Grad
Way to fuck up again, ATL.
So the law school is still for sale? I'll buy it, fat boy.
--Joe Jamail
Seriously, how much did the building go for?
It's too bad Loyola's law school will be named after Corboy. While there are meritorious PI attorneys out there, I find it hard to believe one who has become so rich practicing PI law is among them. Further, based on Mr. Corboy's reputation, I doubt he is among them. Instead, it will taint all Loyola alum of an otherwise fine institution. It will further pigeon-hole Loyola's reputation as producing trial attorneys rather than graduating sophisticated legal minds. But, that is the Class of 2010's problem and not mine. I went to Northwestern.
PLEASE FACT CHECK #2. Loyola is ABA accredited and consistently has a high bar passage rate.
#77 is right. Loyola is an excellent trial advocacy and health law school. Loyola places many students in top tier firms for health law and litigation.
Loyola is a great school that gives many students scholarships. I graduated from there and landed a top firm job without having that much student loan debt.
Loyola should be proud that they are receiving money from alums in this bleak economy.
The "further update" is a bit catty, no?
83 and 87 are are out of their elements. Florida's law school is actually named after a PI lawyer (not just the building). Plus PI probably had a significantly different role in society in "49 than it does now.
Also, with $$, a lawyer can purchase the privilege of being "meritorious," (e.g. cherry-picking the quality cases, minimizing risk for the client, etc.). If 87 went to Northwestern he/she ought to know all about that. Right?