Building Naming Opportunities

It has been an eventful year. We have now held six Jackson Howard Leadership Lunches where we match prominent alumni with students for a white tablecloth lunch to discuss their future careers. These lunches have been highly successful and I’m pleased to be able to introduce more of our alumni to students than ever before.

Last fall’s reunions for the classes in years ending in 2 and 7 were terrific. In fact, several reunion sceptics that attended were so impressed they felt that we should hold the reunions more often. This year we will hold reunions for the class years ending in 3 and 8 (and 2010!).

Many of our alumni have been recognized for their outstanding careers. We highlight a new alum every month on our web page and we send out the news as soon as it reaches us. I would love to hear more of your stories and get more news out about you and all you have accomplished and are accomplishing, in your careers, in your lives and in the public sector.

On that note, it’s amazing to me how much volunteer work we all do. Our alumni are serving on boards, city planning and zoning committees, homeowner’s association groups, walking dogs at the Humane Society and so much more. It is a huge benefit to the community for lawyers to be involved in public service. Please let me know what you are engaged in and how you feel it helps you to participate in that activity. We are an amazing group of people and I want to get the word out as much as possible.

Technology continues to be a force in the legal world and one with which we should be adept at navigating and utilizing. There are many aspects of using technology that present questions. That has always been true. That does not mean, however, that we should ignore the benefits as they arise and adapt the tools to make us better lawyers and allow us to enhance our delivery of legal services.

Jeff Pfeifer, in Law Technology Today, January 28, 2018, stated that: “Current discussions of AI in the legal context . . . generate [] fear . . . of being replaced by machines. While machines may indeed one day perform some of the tedious, repetitive tasks that preparing thoroughly for legal matters can entail, we are a long way – if ever – from replacing the extraordinary levels of nuanced judgement and expertise demonstrated daily by experienced legal counsel.”

It is the “nuanced judgement and expertise” that we learn how to achieve in law school. One 1980 alumnus, Gary Kennedy, stated the following in the Acknowledgments section of his new book, “Twelve Years of Turbulence” which was just published:

Thank you to the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law for providing a first-rate legal education and the essential tools needed to navigate complex legal issues as general counsel of a major corporation. For this, I am deeply indebted.

Gary is an example of the quality of lawyer our law school produces. He is one of us. It is YOU I want to celebrate and highlight. We are doing great things at the law school and are pleased that our alumni are doing great things for the legal profession and in their communities.

We’d love to highlight more of you and we’d love you to get involved. I hope to see you at your reunions and hear from you with any ideas, suggestions and comments. This is your school and we want to be available to you.

Building Naming Opportunities

Campus Gateway Building

College of Law Building at Southwest entrance to campus

Public Spaces

Physical home for the S.J. Quinney Law Library

Named for James E. Faust, prominent College of Law alumnus, made possible by gift from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Additional library components can be separately named:

Public Reading Room (1st Floor)

Student Reading Room (2nd Floor)

Rare Book Room and Collection

Conference and Event Center (6th floor)

The top two floors will house the premier conference facility on campus, accommodating events of up to 450 people with breathtaking views of the Wasatch Mountains and Salt Lake Valley, an adjacent shaded roof garden, and rooms for receptions, breakout sessions, and meals.

Auditorium/Moot Court Room

To be named in honor of Professor John Flynn, thanks to the generosity of his former students and friends, supporters, and family.

Other conference center components can also be named separately:

Conference Atrium

Faculty Workshop Room

Conference Suite (3 flexible meeting rooms)

Professional Training Center

To be used for the National Criminal Justice Academy and other training programs for attorneys, judges and students.

Training Classroom (5th floor)
Training courtrooms (5th floor) (3)

West Foyer (1st Floor)

East Foyer (2d Floor)

Entry Plaza – external, west

Accessibility garden and path into campus

East Dining Patio

Café Dining Commons

Academic Spaces

Classrooms

Large (75 persons) (2)
Small (25 persons) (2)
Seminar Rooms (4)

Collaborative Research Suites (9)

Wallace Stegner Center

Law Journals
Clinics
Pro Bono Initiative
Center for Global Justice
Center for Law and Biomedical Sciences
Criminal Justice Academy
Center for Innovation in Legal Education

Student Spaces

Student Lounge, Child Care Room and Patio (1st Floor)

Made possible by a [prominent SLC law firm, announcement pending]

Admissions Suite

Student Affairs Suite

Professional Development Suite

Study rooms

Large (4)
Small (14)

Faculty and Staff Spaces

Dean’s Suite

Dean’s Conference Room

Faculty and Staff Lounge

Faculty Offices (45)

Investments in Core Values and Commitments

The Sustainability Commitment

LEED Platinum design made possible by the Alternative Visions Fund of the Chicago Community Trust.

Named donors to the Green Building Fund

The Accessibility Commitment

The building will incorporate the most advanced features available to provide an accessible learning environment for persons with a full range of disabilities (mobility, sight, hearing, learning disorders).