Law Schools

Why Would You Even Want To Name A Law School?

What Frank Underwood can teach us about naming a law school.

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As has been reported, everywhere, some law school you’ve never heard of sold its naming rights to some guy you’ve never heard of for a sum of money that will be pissed away before you can blink.

I get why a major corporation would pay to name a stadium. It’s advertising. I just got back from Indiana and, what do you know, turns out Lucas Oil is a thing. I even get it when a law school names a stadium. I mean, it’s stupid, but I get it. Go Lugnuts.

But why would a private citizen pay $50 million to affix his name to an eight-year-old law school he didn’t even attend? There are people grinding out Crucible emblems in Destiny that aren’t as pointlessly vain…

Drexel University School of Law will now be called the Thomas R. Kline School of Law. It was previously called the Earle Mack School of Law, but Drexel rubbed out Mack’s name in order to create “new fund-raising opportunities.” For those playing along at home, that’s three names (Drexel, Mack, Kline) in eight years. For a profession based on tradition and precedent, changing the name of your institution every time someone waves a dollar in front of your face does not inspire confidence.

When law schools sell their names like a soccer kit, I ask, “What are the students getting out of this?” The answer is never “tuition cuts.” From the Wall Street Journal:

The money, which will fund scholarships as well as faculty salaries, is meant to put the eight-year-old school “on a firm financial footing and, in particular, establish it as a force for the practice of trial advocacy,” Drexel president John A. Fry told the paper.

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Scholarships… to entice students who can get into higher-ranked schools to go to Drexel, and faculty freaking salaries. There are 99 problems with financing legal education, but let’s make sure that Drexel can afford to pay the going rate for a Contracts professor. Kline’s gift will allow Drexel to have shiny buildings and to compete for higher-performing students, while still sticking most of its students with a $40,000/year price tag.

What does Kline get out of it? From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Kline, chairman of the law school board, said the idea for the contribution emerged from discussions with Roger Dennis, the law school dean.

“It is our collective vision to create a law school with national stature,” Kline said. “The foundation is there. What we now have is an opportunity to not only build programmatic changes, but we also have a magnificent magnet that is a true gem of the City of Philadelphia.”

I’m going to go on and quote Frank Underwood here: “It’s not about what’s lasting or permanent, it’s about individual voices coming together for a moment. And that moment lasts the length of a breath.”

Drexel has $50,000,000 to play with. Let’s hope that they use some of that money to help their students achieve something precious.

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Drexel Law Gets $50 Million from Philadelphia Trial Lawyer [WSJ Law Blog]
Trial lawyer Kline gives $50M to Drexel law school [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Earlier: Is Any of This Law School Naming Rights Money Going Back to the Students?

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