Koret Foundation Awards $3.25 Million
to University of San Francisco School of Law

(San Francisco)–The Koret Foundation has awarded a grant of $3.25 million to the University of San Francisco School of Law. The money will be used to reconstruct Kendrick Hall, the law school’s home for the past 40 years.

In appreciation of this gift, the University will name the Law School complex the Koret Law Center. The complex includes Kendrick Hall and the state-of-the-art Dorraine Zief Law Library, a facility next to Kendrick Hall that opened in August 2000. The name of the law school itself will remain the University of San Francisco School of Law.

"This grant is not simply about bricks and mortar," said Jeffrey Brand, Dean of the USF School of Law. "This grant is about helping the University of San Francisco School of Law to grow, to help us focus on new generations of lawyers concerned with societal responsibilities and social justice.

"The University of San Francisco School of Law is passionate about making sure our graduates are skilled, ethical practitioners who understand their responsibility to serve local, national and international communities. We are proud that the Koret Foundation is joining us in helping educate students who will work toward enhancing ethical values associated with the practice of law."

The Law School is home to the Center for Law and Global Justice, the J. Thomas McCarthy Institute for Intellectual Property and Technology Law, and the Center for Applied Legal Ethics. It was established in 1912 and enrolls nearly 700 students. Approximately 200 students receive the Juris Doctor degree each year.

According to Tad Taube, president of the Koret Foundation, "Through our support of this outstanding educational center and its superior environment for the lawyers of the future, and through our significant partnership with the Law School faculty, we can help to improve the quality and public responsibility of tomorrow’s lawyers."

USF offers full-time and part-time programs leading to the Juris Doctor degree, as well as a full-time concurrent degree program leading to Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration degrees. USF also offers a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree program for foreign lawyers who have first degrees in law from a non-American university. It will soon offer an LL.M. in intellectual property and technology law for foreign and U.S. lawyers.

The Koret Foundation is one of the largest Jewish-sponsored charitable trusts in the United States. Since its founding, Koret has awarded more than $200 million in grants to support community projects, educational institutions and organizations active in areas of public policy, arts and culture and programs for disadvantaged youth and elderly citizens in the Bay Area and in Israel. It supports organizations and initiatives that advance economic opportunity, individual freedom and entrepreneurial values and provides the means for organizations to educate people to help themselves.