$2.5-million Law donation to support public sector careers

Thanks to a recent $2.5 million dollar gift, Penn Law School will expand its public interest initiatives.

The gift is the second donation from 1966 Penn Law graduate and Board of Trustees member Robert Toll and his wife Jane, 1966 graduate of the Graduate School of Education, to benefit the Toll Public Interest Center.

“It’s my hope that graduates of Penn Law will run public interest organizations and significant departments, agencies, councils, etc. of our government, bringing our uniquely educated students to positions of leadership in the near future,” Toll said in a statement.

The Toll Public Interest Center oversees over 20 student projects, a scholarship program and events such as Public Interest Week.

The center was originally created to oversee Penn Law’s pro bono requirement. In 1989, Penn Law was one of the first law schools to instate such a requirement for its students, mandating that students serve 70 hours donating legal services to underrepresented clients.

The center was renamed the Toll Public Interest Center in 2006 after Toll’s first donation of $10 million to Penn Law, at the time one of the largest in the school’s history.

The first gift established the Toll Public Interest Scholars Program, which funds full scholarships for selected students’ first years and partial scholarships for their second and third years and helped expand the school’s Public Interest Loan Repayment Assistance Program, which provides loan forgiveness for ten years for those working in the public sector.

This $2.5 million donation will “enable us to continue our growth,” said Toll Public Interest Center Assistant Dean and Executive Director Arlene Finkelstein. The gift will allow the center to increase pro bono options available to students and funding for students who engage in public interest work during the summer or after graduation, she added.

2012 Penn Law graduate and Public Interest Scholar Katherine Roberts chose to pursue public interest — which includes not-for-profit services such as government and nonprofit organizations — to help “[promote] social justice and equal opportunity.”

Given the cost of law school tuition and the “allure of extremely high salaries” in the private sector, 2012 Penn Law graduate and Public Interest Scholar Rebecca Maltzman said it is difficult for many to work in the public sector after graduating. This donation will help Penn Law students to “really make a difference using their talents.”

The Tolls have also financed the Say Yes to Education Program at the GSE in 1990 and the Albert and Silvia Toll Scholarship Fund for law students.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.