Second Chicago law school receives biggest gift ever

Chicago personal injury lawyers are loading up the city's lesser known law schools with donations, hoping their contributions will prime the pump for more gifts.

Philip Corboy, a founding partner of Corboy & Demetrio, and his wife Mary Dempsey, a lawyer who chairs the board of trustees for DePaul University, this week gave an unspecified seven-figure endowment to her alma mater, DePaul University College of Law. In September the couple gave more than $5 million to his alma mater, Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Both gifts were the largest the law schools had ever received. Also in September, Joseph Power and Todd Smith of Power Rogers & Smith gave $2 million to Loyola's law school.

"There's more need, and not as many people are stepping up because of the bad economy," Power said. "We're hoping to encourage people to give money."

DePaul is kicking off a fund-raising campaign next year, and Loyola is about half way through a seven-year bid to raise $40 million, of which $30 million has already come in. The two Catholic-founded schools can sometimes be overshadowed in the public eye by their city neighbors, the University of Chicago Law School and Northwestern University School of Law.

Dempsey said that the Corboy-Dempsey contributions will be used for scholarships at both schools and also for faculty hiring at Loyola. The donation from Power and Smith will go to endowed chairs, program support and scholarships, said David Yellen, dean of Loyola's law school.

While Loyola has received fewer gifts amid the financial stress, overall fund-raising is "way up," Yellen said. "It really is true that big gifts attract more big gifts."

Despite the wave of associate cutbacks at law firms, neither Dempsey nor Power had any qualms about encouraging students to enroll in law school. The economy will improve and a law degree is useful in any profession, they said.

"I use my legal training and law degree every day even though one would not call me a practicing lawyer," said Dempsey, who serves as commissioner of the Chicago Public Library and keeps her law license current.



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