Duke Law gets $5 million for Faculty Challenge

<p>A $5 million gift to Duke Law from the Charlotte-based Duke Endowment was announced Monday.</p>

A $5 million gift to Duke Law from the Charlotte-based Duke Endowment was announced Monday.

Duke Law has received a $5 million grant from the Charlotte-based Duke Endowment to increase the number of endowed faculty positions, President Richard Brodhead announced Monday.

The grant will create the Duke Law Faculty Challenge, which will match donations in order to fund new endowed faculty chairs, professors of the practice or clinical professorships. The grant aims to create as many as six new law faculty positions over the next two years.

“Endowed professorships support and attract distinguished scholars to Duke,” said David Levi, dean of the Duke Law School, in a Duke News press release. “Their scholarship generates intellectual excitement and new understandings of our legal system and substantive legal rules.”

The grant adds to the more than $90 million raised for Duke Law so far in the $3.25 billion Duke Forward fundraising campaign. It is the Duke Endowment’s second major contribution to the Law School since the start of Duke Forward. In 2013 it gave $5 million to the Law School’s Center for Judicial Studies.

The Charlotte-based Duke Endowment focuses on four areas including child care, health care, education and the rural church, and distributes grants to organizations across North and South Carolina. It has given nearly $1.5 billion to the University to date.

“Establishing a law school was part of our founder’s hope for Duke University, and we believe this new grant strengthens that legacy for students and scholars today,” said Minor Shaw, chair of the Endowment’s Board of Trustees in the Duke News press release.

Levi noted the new positions will allow the law school to address a large range of social issues.

“Almost every challenge facing our society—from climate change and financial regulation to health care reform and access to justice—have important legal dimensions,” Levi said in the press release. “Law faculty help shape public conversations through their scholarship, research and counsel.”

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