UCLA LAW FIRM CHALLENGE 2008-2009
The Law Firm Challenge reconnects UCLA School of Law’s alumni, each year encouraging participants to make regular, annual contributions to the school, particularly the UCLA Law Fund. The school owes a great deal to the representatives of the participating Challenge firms and the alumni at those firms for their leading role in expanding the connections between their firms and the school and reinvigorating the Law Annual Fund. Please note that ALL gifts made to the law school, not merely those to the UCLA Law Fund, are applied to firm participation rates.
A note from Jim Barrall '75, Founding Chair of the UCLA Law Firm Challenge:
SEVEN RECORD YEARS IN A ROW
The UCLA Law Firm Challenge had another record year in 2009, with 77% of the school's alumni at our 82 participating firms making a gift to the school, and with 35 of these firms getting to 100% support (up from 32 last year). These are nation-leading results and have helped drive the school's annual alumni giving percentages from the bottom of the nation's top 20 law schools in 2002 to number 5 in the nation in 2008. We intend to do even better in the years to come.
Thanks to our participating firms and their representatives, the Challenge is helping change the school's alumni culture from one of assuming that the school can rely exclusively on state support, to one of understanding that without strong private support the school would suffer badly. It is clear that without the support of its alumni and other friends, the school would not be able to compete for the nation's best students and faculty and would lose ground against the competition, which largely rely on private support to compete.
Below are the Challenge's impressive annual participation records:
2002-2003 4 firms, 31% participation
2003-2004 31 firms, 42% participation
2004-2005 44 firms, 58% participation
2005-2006 56 firms, 70% participation
2006-2007 68 firms, 72% participation
2007-2008 76 firms, 75% participation
2008-2009 82 firms, 77% participation
Beyond the numbers, we are excited by the team-building nature of the Challenge. Each year the Challenge is drawing more and more alumni and their law firms into the vibrant life of the school. We all benefit from this involvement, whether we are recruiting new lawyers to our firms, developing client relationships, mentoring current students, leveraging our firm's resources to support the school or just sharing good times with law school classmates and friends.
In 2009-2010 we intend to continue to add more firms, alumni and participation percentages to our historical records. We will also focus on other initiatives, such as growing the Law Firm Chairs and Endowments Campaign so that it plays a vital roll in the school's $100 million campaign to build its endowment. Beyond that, we will continue to find more ways to build stronger and mutually beneficial ties between the school and our firms, at a time when the school and its students need our help on every front more than ever, given California's recent deep cuts into already substantially diminished state support, as well as the challenging current employment market for lawyers and others.
So please join us in doing this important work, and in the fun we share. Please contact me or Rebecca Melville at (310) 206-1121 ormelville@law.ucla.edu, to enroll your firm in the Challenge.
James D.C. Barrall '75
UCLA Law Firm Challenge Founding Chair
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