On Tuesday, Dec. 6, CWRU President Eric Kaler joined Anthony Richardson, the President of the Gund Foundation, and law school Co-Deans Jessica Berg and Michael Scharf to rededicate George Gund Hall. A number of faculty, alumni, staff and students joined them to celebrate the historic milestone.
The original dedication of George Gund Hall took place fifty years ago on April 30, 1972 in Amasa Stone Chapel. 1,200 alumni, students, faculty and staff attended the event and listened to President Louis Toepfer’s speech, “Of Buildings and Barristers.”
The Gund donation enabled the law school to move from a cramped home adjacent to a morgue to a state-of-the-art building surrounded by the cultural treasures of Cleveland. Twenty years after the original dedication, the Gund Foundation endowed the Cox International Law Center, which is now ranked in the top ten in the nation.
In remarks entitled “Then and Now,” Dean Scharf compared things in 1972 to the present:
- In 1972, the law school graduated 197 students, all of them JDs. In 2022, the school graduated 114 JDs, 105 foreign LLMs, 34 Master students, and 13 SJDs, for a total of 266 students.
- Because of the Vietnam War, in 1972 the law school had a January entry option, and 20 members of the class of 1972 graduated in December. The law school recently re-established a January entry option after four decades with only a fall option.
- In 1972, the law school’s Annual Fund brought in $125,000, which would be $834,000 in today’s inflation-adjusted dollars. The amount of Annual Fund dollars received this year was $1.1 million. Overall attainment was $9 million. Plus the law school brought in $4.5 million in grants.
- In 1972, the school dedicated a new building, which was expanded in 1994. In 2022, thanks to the generous contributions of alumni and friends a comprehensive interior renovation took place, including new carpeting, furniture, lighting, and technology – making the building feel brand new again.
- In 1972, the Law Clinic was established. Today, we have ten Law Clinics, and have become a national leader in experiential education and rank #5 in practical training.
- In 1972, Carl Stokes was mayor of Cleveland, the first Black mayor of a major U.S. city. Today, the mayor of Cleveland is Justin Bibb, a 2018 graduate of the law school, who installed a cabinet made up primarily of CWRU Law alums.
The law school would like to extend our warm thanks to the Gund Foundation as well as our alumni, faculty, staff and students who joined us for the rededication.