Dear Alumni and Friends,
As I reflect on the 2022–2023 academic year, which this report covers, I have immense gratitude for the numerous ways our community supports Columbia Law School. It’s a feeling made all the more significant given my recent announcement that I plan to step down as dean in 2024. It was a remarkable 12 months in many respects—from welcoming the most diverse J.D. class in our history to hiring seven new full-time faculty. Thanks to the unwavering efforts of donors like you, we set yet another fundraising record of more than $67 million and celebrated the conclusion of our five-year Campaign for Columbia Law, exceeding our ambitious $300 million goal with a final tally of $325 million.
The success of the Campaign is a tangible reminder of how much the Columbia Law School community values our core mission: to train the next generation of legal professionals to confront the myriad challenges of a complex world, and to support our faculty as they pursue cutting-edge scholarship and pedagogy.
With tremendous appreciation for the generosity of more than 12,000 alumni and friends—and the leadership of Campaign Co-Chairs Alison Ressler ’83, Brad Smith ’84, and Kathy Surace- Smith ’84—we created 104 new student scholarships, including 50 made possible by the Jerome L. Greene Scholarship Challenge.
We also established 12 named professorships and added $40 million to our endowment funds earmarked for faculty. Like all of you, I am excited that our plans to reimagine the Law Library are now well underway, thanks to a lead gift from Alia Tutor ’00, whose $17.5 million gift is the largest single commitment in the Law School’s history. In March, we unveiled renderings of the stunning, airy, modern design that features a two-story reading room with expansive windows overlooking Revson and Ancell plazas. Conceived with students’ needs in mind, the library will have more than 20 group study rooms and over 60% more seating.
Your gifts also enable us to continue growing financial support for students, especially first-generation students and those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. To reduce financial barriers for graduates committed to public interest and public service careers, we have enhanced our Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP)—already one of the most generous programs of its kind among U.S. law schools—for all current and prospective participants. Whether our graduates pursue careers in the public sector, the private sector, or academia, they have exceptional success in the job market: More than 99% of the Class of 2022 secured full-time employment within 10 months of graduation.
One of the high points of the past fiscal year was orientation, when I had the privilege of greeting the J.D. Class of 2025, the most diverse in the Law School’s history: 52% of its members are students of color; 50% are women; 20% are international students; and 18% identify as LGBTQ+. Its 400 members—poets, entrepreneurs, engineers, ultramarathoners, Eagle Scouts—hail from 38 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, represent 36 countries across six continents, and speak dozens of languages. The 300 members of the LL.M. Class of 2023 represent 66 nationalities, and students from 14 countries make up the Executive LL.M. in Global Business Law Class of 2023. They come to Columbia with experience that includes teaching domestic and international tax law in India, working for a leading commercial law firm in Nigeria, helping to prosecute crimes against humanity and war crimes in Colombia, and defending the wrongfully accused in Uganda.
We also welcomed seven new professors: Ashraf Ahmed, Mala Chatterjee, Josh Gupta-Kagan, Monica Hakimi, Michael Love, Camille Pannu, and Thomas P. Schmidt. Their expertise spans political theory, legal philosophy, intellectual property, tax law, environmental law, family law, constitutional law, and international law. Pannu and Gupta-Kagan also bolstered our experiential learning curriculum by establishing, respectively, the Just Transition Clinic, which addresses environmental justice issues, and the Family Defense Clinic, which defends families against intervention by government agencies.
Columbia Law has a long-standing tradition of supporting faculty who take leaves to serve in government. During the past year, Jamal Greene, Dwight Professor of Law, and Gillian Metzger, Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law, both assumed positions as deputy assistant attorneys general in the Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal advice to the president and all executive agencies. Associate Professor of Law Lina Khan is also continuing in her role as chair of the Federal Trade Commission. We welcomed back from Washington, D.C., Associate Professor of Law Kerrel Murray, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in her first term, and Tim Wu, Julius Silver Professor of Law, Science and Technology, who served as special assistant to President Biden for competition and technology policy.
The past year also featured the return of much-loved traditions, including the 2022 Winter Luncheon, where we awarded Medals for Excellence to Ellen V. Futter ’74 and Brad Smith ’84, and other events recognizing and celebrating alumni, such as the Harlan Fiske Stone Society Reception, which honored Cathy Kaplan ’77; the Stone Circle Luncheon; the Paul Robeson Lecture and Annual Alumni of Color Reception; and of course, reunion.
So many of these milestones and special events would not have been possible without the diligent work of our staff—who always go above and beyond. Those moments include reunion, which raised a record $23 million, thanks to the outstanding efforts of our alumni, and Class Day, always a capstone of the academic year. During May’s ceremony on the South Lawn, it was especially meaningful to recognize in person the members of the Class of 2023, who spent their 1L year online due to the pandemic. And I was thrilled to present the Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching to recently tenured Professor of Law Kellen Funk, whose courses—including Civil Procedure, Federal Courts, American Legal History, and the American Bail System—challenge and delight our students.
I am honored and humbled to lead Columbia Law School. Thank you for all that you do to support our students and faculty, and for your own leadership in the profession and society. We have so much to be proud of as a community that always has been, and always will be, a force in the world.
Best regards,
As I reflect on the 2022–2023 academic year, which this report covers, I have immense gratitude for the numerous ways our community supports Columbia Law School. It’s a feeling made all the more significant given my recent announcement that I plan to step down as dean in 2024. It was a remarkable 12 months in many respects—from welcoming the most diverse J.D. class in our history to hiring seven new full-time faculty. Thanks to the unwavering efforts of donors like you, we set yet another fundraising record of more than $67 million and celebrated the conclusion of our five-year Campaign for Columbia Law, exceeding our ambitious $300 million goal with a final tally of $325 million.
The success of the Campaign is a tangible reminder of how much the Columbia Law School community values our core mission: to train the next generation of legal professionals to confront the myriad challenges of a complex world, and to support our faculty as they pursue cutting-edge scholarship and pedagogy.
With tremendous appreciation for the generosity of more than 12,000 alumni and friends—and the leadership of Campaign Co-Chairs Alison Ressler ’83, Brad Smith ’84, and Kathy Surace- Smith ’84—we created 104 new student scholarships, including 50 made possible by the Jerome L. Greene Scholarship Challenge.
We also established 12 named professorships and added $40 million to our endowment funds earmarked for faculty. Like all of you, I am excited that our plans to reimagine the Law Library are now well underway, thanks to a lead gift from Alia Tutor ’00, whose $17.5 million gift is the largest single commitment in the Law School’s history. In March, we unveiled renderings of the stunning, airy, modern design that features a two-story reading room with expansive windows overlooking Revson and Ancell plazas. Conceived with students’ needs in mind, the library will have more than 20 group study rooms and over 60% more seating.
Your gifts also enable us to continue growing financial support for students, especially first-generation students and those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. To reduce financial barriers for graduates committed to public interest and public service careers, we have enhanced our Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP)—already one of the most generous programs of its kind among U.S. law schools—for all current and prospective participants. Whether our graduates pursue careers in the public sector, the private sector, or academia, they have exceptional success in the job market: More than 99% of the Class of 2022 secured full-time employment within 10 months of graduation.
One of the high points of the past fiscal year was orientation, when I had the privilege of greeting the J.D. Class of 2025, the most diverse in the Law School’s history: 52% of its members are students of color; 50% are women; 20% are international students; and 18% identify as LGBTQ+. Its 400 members—poets, entrepreneurs, engineers, ultramarathoners, Eagle Scouts—hail from 38 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, represent 36 countries across six continents, and speak dozens of languages. The 300 members of the LL.M. Class of 2023 represent 66 nationalities, and students from 14 countries make up the Executive LL.M. in Global Business Law Class of 2023. They come to Columbia with experience that includes teaching domestic and international tax law in India, working for a leading commercial law firm in Nigeria, helping to prosecute crimes against humanity and war crimes in Colombia, and defending the wrongfully accused in Uganda.
We also welcomed seven new professors: Ashraf Ahmed, Mala Chatterjee, Josh Gupta-Kagan, Monica Hakimi, Michael Love, Camille Pannu, and Thomas P. Schmidt. Their expertise spans political theory, legal philosophy, intellectual property, tax law, environmental law, family law, constitutional law, and international law. Pannu and Gupta-Kagan also bolstered our experiential learning curriculum by establishing, respectively, the Just Transition Clinic, which addresses environmental justice issues, and the Family Defense Clinic, which defends families against intervention by government agencies.
Columbia Law has a long-standing tradition of supporting faculty who take leaves to serve in government. During the past year, Jamal Greene, Dwight Professor of Law, and Gillian Metzger, Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law, both assumed positions as deputy assistant attorneys general in the Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal advice to the president and all executive agencies. Associate Professor of Law Lina Khan is also continuing in her role as chair of the Federal Trade Commission. We welcomed back from Washington, D.C., Associate Professor of Law Kerrel Murray, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in her first term, and Tim Wu, Julius Silver Professor of Law, Science and Technology, who served as special assistant to President Biden for competition and technology policy.
The past year also featured the return of much-loved traditions, including the 2022 Winter Luncheon, where we awarded Medals for Excellence to Ellen V. Futter ’74 and Brad Smith ’84, and other events recognizing and celebrating alumni, such as the Harlan Fiske Stone Society Reception, which honored Cathy Kaplan ’77; the Stone Circle Luncheon; the Paul Robeson Lecture and Annual Alumni of Color Reception; and of course, reunion.
So many of these milestones and special events would not have been possible without the diligent work of our staff—who always go above and beyond. Those moments include reunion, which raised a record $23 million, thanks to the outstanding efforts of our alumni, and Class Day, always a capstone of the academic year. During May’s ceremony on the South Lawn, it was especially meaningful to recognize in person the members of the Class of 2023, who spent their 1L year online due to the pandemic. And I was thrilled to present the Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching to recently tenured Professor of Law Kellen Funk, whose courses—including Civil Procedure, Federal Courts, American Legal History, and the American Bail System—challenge and delight our students.
I am honored and humbled to lead Columbia Law School. Thank you for all that you do to support our students and faculty, and for your own leadership in the profession and society. We have so much to be proud of as a community that always has been, and always will be, a force in the world.
Best regards,
Gillian Lester
Dean and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law