One of Erwin Chemerinsky's jobs as dean of UC Irvine's new law school will be to create a reputation for legal scholarship for the school. But it's his other job -- chief fundraiser -- that will either make or break the fledgling school.
Chemerinsky's challenge -- raising tens of millions of dollars to open the school in 2009, erect buildings and fund an endowment -- comes at a time of unprecedented fundraising in higher education, and for law schools in particular.
Although the controversy over Chemerinsky's recent hiring, firing and rehiring has raised questions about the leadership of UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake, experts in philanthropy say it probably will have little or no effect on raising money.
"If they hadn't rehired him, the school would have been finished . . . as far as academics is concerned," said Brian Leiter, a professor of law and philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin who blogs on issues affecting law schools. "If anything, the public at large now sees Erwin Chemerinsky as the greatest constitutional scholar of all time because he got so much good press. It might inspire donors."
What will matter, experts say, is Chemerinsky's lack of fundraising experience and the fact that UC Irvine's law school has no alumni whose wallets it can tap.
Although Harvard Law School's $400-million fundraising drive sent jaws dropping in philanthropy circles, it is but one in a crowded field of public and private law schools jockeying to raise record-breaking amounts. UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law is among those in the midst of campaigns to raise more than $100 million.
"A decade ago . . . you heard a lot of academics who said, 'I didn't get into this line of work to raise money,' " said Gene Tempel, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. "Today, there isn't a dean or top administrator at a university who is hired without the expectation of fundraising on the table."
Driving the need for private money is the continued decline of state support for public higher education and the cost of luring and keeping star professors who will attract top students.
"There is a national market for legal academics, the way there's a national market for professional basketball players," Leiter said. "It's an expensive proposition to start a law school," because top talent can command compensation packages in excess of $250,000 a year. "It's cheaper to build out a philosophy department."
