FIEGER AND YACKNESS LEAD THE WAY

BY CHRIS HENNING Law college launches $12 million capital campaign to feed its future Pioneers in their respective law specialties—trial practice and property law—Geoffrey Fieger, ’79, and Irvin H. Yackness, ’41, are also pacesetters in Michigan State University-DCL College of Law’s $12 million Capital Campaign, launched in tandem with the university’s $1.2 billion goal. MSU-DCL President Clifton Haley, ’61, hopes other alumni will step up in like fashion to fund the college’s future. Both Fieger and Yackness helped set the stage for the campaign—Fieger with his $4 million donation that has initiated, and will sustain, the college’s Geoffrey Fieger Trial Practice Institute; and Yackness, whose $700,000 planned gift boosts the building fund and establishes the Irvin H. Yackness and June G. Yackness Real Property Award (see cover story). When Fieger was asked for input on how to improve the curriculum and skills of graduates so they could be better trial lawyers, he not only answered that call, but he had a resounding answer for the future, too, in his record-setting donation to MSU-DCL. He hopes the gift will put future graduates “light years ahead of the competition.” Yackness, whose career spans a half-century—and who, in his mid-80s, still serves as general counsel to the Building Industry Association of Southeastern Michigan—says that, were it not for DCL’s night school, he wouldn’t have been able to secure a law degree while holding down the full-time job he needed. “For that,” he says, “I feel indebted to the college, and it is one of the motivations of my gift.” His gift accesses another channel of giving: planned giving that may include charitable remainder trusts, gift annuities and bequests. President Clifton Haley Similar gifts, says Haley, are necessary to advance what he calls “the greatest transformation” in the law college’s 111-year history. “We’ve grown from a small but proud in-city school serving primarily Detroit, to one with national and international impact. Along the way, we’ve transformed lives, strengthened our academic profile, expanded our intellectual resources, and built state-of-the-art facilities.” Haley is calling on all MSU-DCL alumni to reconnect with their alma mater and nurture its goals, thereby ensuring its future. “We need to enlarge our modest endowment, and we need to establish a bond with our alumni just as MSU and other universities do. And we need to do both now.” It’s a way, he says, to give back to the law college that transformed every alumnus’s life. A transformation is apparent, too, on the campus of Michigan State University, where the law college now resides. Both the university and the college have undergone immense change, and with their affiliation in 1995, the two institutions took ownership of a shared past, present and future. Today, that union blends the law college’s distinct history and distinguished heritage with the renown and prestige of a Big Ten university. Dean Terence Blackburn The affiliation has more than doubled the number of applications for admission to the law college and has boosted entering enrollment by 68 percent while increasing the academic profiles of entering classes. It also has bumped MSU-DCL’s national visibility, according to Dean Terence Blackburn. “Being affiliated with MSU has enabled us to improve markedly the quality of the education that we’re providing through joint degree programs, team teaching and cross-registration of students into graduate courses,” he says. “There’s no doubt that moving to this location and changing the nature of the educational experience is having a direct effect on the quantity and quality of students applying.” While MSU-DCL’s campaign—launched publicly in September 2002—already had reached the halfway point of its goal in the first few months, the potential donors necessary to feed the law college’s future remain relatively untapped, with less than 10 percent of MSU-DCL alumni—about 700—giving back in charitable contributions during the preceding year. Development Director Virgil Allen hopes alumni will seize the opportunity to make a lasting impression on the future, just as the college made a lasting impression on them. “Everything alumni do for the rest of their lives is tied to the law school,” he says, “and along the way, they were helped in some way to reach their full potential. Now they have an opportunity to help MSU-DCL reach its full potential while strengthening their connection to the college.” Until Haley became involved with the law college’s move to East Lansing, subsequently becoming its president, his connection, he admits, had otherwise been somewhat limited and distant. Haley, like many DCL students, attended law school at night, worked days and had a family. As a consequence, he says, DCL alumni are less involved than at other leading institutions. “Virtually without exception, other schools have developed a relationship with their alumni,” he explains. “These alumni also have a long tradition of involvement, at various levels of governance, in their respective institutions. That, in turn, has led to fairly substantive endowments—some huge, in the billions or hundreds of millions.” “We’ve grown from a small but proud in-city school serving primarily Detroit, to one with national and international impact. Along the way, we’ve transformed lives, strengthened our academic profile, expanded our intellectual resources, and built state-of-the-art facilities.” By comparison, he notes, until about seven years ago, MSU-DCL’s development funds were barely existent, and alumni for the most part scarcely engaged in the college’s affairs. Haley and his wife Carolyn, encouraged by the vision of the college’s transformation, took a leadership role early in the initial building campaign with a $1 million gift. Today, the Moot Court classroom bears their name. More importantly, he says, it holds promise for future lawyers and the law college alike. “We’re in the big leagues now,” he says. “We’re promoting a global perspective, but to have global impact, to transform our law college into one with statewide, national and worldwide reach, we must each step up and help. Our graduates have made, and will increasingly make, meaningful contributions around the world in advancing the cause of justice, democracy and the rule of law. “I would encourage others whose lives have been transformed like mine, because of the legal education received at MSU-DCL, to reconnect emotionally and support our goals financially. In order to preserve our heritage, our history and our future, we’ve got to reach back to the college so we can continue to reach beyond it.” MSU-DCL’s alumni number in excess of 8,000, extending the impact of legal education into communities large and small. Each is testament to the priceless education and valued heritage of a once in-city law school whose own reach now is expanding in scope and time. Professor Clark Johnson Professor Clark Johnson, who received an honorary degree from MSU-DCL in June, was asked in 1973 to give the college a hand for a semester. Born to be a schoolteacher and revered by his students, the Wayne State University law graduate was seen by DCL as something special. Johnson says it was a nice match right from the beginning. Now he’s the matchmaker, linking students and alumni to the law college as the Capital Campaign’s alumni ambassador. Inside and outside the classroom, Johnson has witnessed the impact MSU-DCL has had on the practice of law—locally, nationally and internationally—and he knows that impact is directly linked to alumni. As the faculty speaker during June’s commencement, he told graduates that without alumni, neither he nor they would be there. “It’s alumni who have made the difference,” he says. “They’ve kept the institution going for over 100 years. We’ve managed to stay solvent, but without alumni support, we couldn’t have. It’s critical to our survival and our success.” He supports the re-energized DCL, its affiliation with MSU and relocation to East Lansing. “We now have marvelous grounds for expansion,” he notes, “and we’re far better off now than we’ve ever been. As time progresses, alumni will gain a deeper appreciation of the ‘old’ law college and the new. It’s important that they also see the opportunity to take responsibility for the future of the college—and it’s still their college, but now with greater potential.” Johnson tells every student that tuition is good for a lifetime, and he’s honored the guarantee time and again. “They can come to me for any reason—for legal advice or with personal problems.” Now, he hopes they’ll come back to MSU-DCL as advocates for its future, as donors with a vision, and as alumni of a college that is rapidly emerging as one of the nation’s leading law schools. “Everything that alumni do for the rest of their lives is tied to the law school. Everybody wants to belong to something bigger than themselves, and our Capital Campaign gives them an opportunity to do that. Not only do they make a difference in their contributions to the practice of law, but by joining this campaign, they’ll also make a difference right here at MSU-DCL.” Virgil Allen, MSU-DCL Development Director