Law school receives $1 million

Donation to help acquire prestigious honor society, made possible by tobacco suit

Melody Sias

DM Senior Staff writer

As preschoolers practiced their batting skills Saturday afternoon in the Grove, partners in the Jackson law firm of Pittman, Germany, Roberts & Welsh announced their gift of $1 million to the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Believed to be the largest gift ever made to the law school, the money will be used to support the law library, faculty research and scholarships for talented students.

Those elements are some of the criteria measured when law schools apply for a chapter of the Order of the Coif. Faculty salary, buildings and financial resources are also considered.

The Order of the Coif is the highest academic honor bestowed upon a law school graduate.

"The Order of the Coif is to law schools what Phi Beta Kappa is to undergraduate schools," Dean Samuel M. Davis said.

The top 10 percent of the law school's graduating class would become members of the Order of the Coif. Currently, there is no single highest honor for law graduates, Davis said. A law school committee plans to file a membership petition to the Coif Executive Committee in November 2000.

Pittman, Germany, Roberts & Welsh was part of the team of lawyers who participated in the recent tobacco litigation initiated by Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore. The gift would not have been possible without the successful lawsuit, Crymes G. Pittman said, so the firm wanted to reserve the money for the future of the state.

"One of the best places to put the money is to give it back to the state so future students will be able to help the state with litigation," Pittman said.

Pittman and the other members of the firm -- Robert G. Germany, Joseph E. Roberts Jr. and C. Victor Welsh III -- are graduates of the University of Mississippi School of Law.

"Our firm felt obligated to give back, and we felt it was natural to give to the law school," Pittman said. As a result of the gift, all the partners will become members of the Lamar Order, the highest level of giving for law school alumni.

"Because of that gift, we are on our way to becoming one of the top 50 law schools in the country," Davis said. The announcement was part of the annual Law Weekend festivities, including Saturday's lunch of ribs, goat sausages, turkey wings, tamales and boiled peanuts, among other things. Chancellor Robert Khayat was among the alumni present at Saturday's gathering.