This is the sort of thing that should be widely acknowledged: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given the University of Washington Law School $33.3 million to fund a series of full-ride scholarships (tuition, supplies, and room and board for all three years of law school) for five students per year for the next eighty years. The students have to commit to practice public interest law for seven years after graduating. If they do not practice public interest law, then they have to pay the money back. The words seem inadequate for such a gift, but kudos to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (The University of Washington Law School’s press release with more details is available here.)
Hat tip: Paul Caron’s TaxProf Blog
Posted by Kristin Hickman on December 3, 2005 at 02:11 PM
Comments
This plan sounds great, but I wonder . . . not only will there be questions about “what counts” as “public interest” work, but what will happen to scholarship students who try, but fail, to get (plausible) public-interest jobs?
Posted by: Rick Garnett | Dec 5, 2005 7:50:47 PM
That’s great news. I hope the scholarship’s administrators do not discriminate against students seeking public-interest jobs with organizations like the Institute for Justice and Pacific Legal Foundation.
Posted by: Mike | Dec 3, 2005 9:08:37 PM