Annual giving competition raises nearly $250,000 
By Lorri Grubaugh
Fifty firms and companies participated in the 2013 USC Law Firm Challenge, a philanthropic competition that called on 663 USC Gould alumni of those organizations to give back to the school. Seventeen firms reached 100 percent participation and 70 percent of all participating alumni made a gift to the law school. Click here to see the complete final results of the 2013 Law Firm Challenge.
“The Law Firm Challenge taps into what is special about USC Gould – our alumni network,” said Dave Walsh ’85, a partner at Morrison & Foerster and the chair of this year’s Challenge. “I was honored to chair this year’s effort. I am proud of our results and what our collective efforts mean for our law school and the students who follow in our footsteps.”
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| Dave Walsh '85 |
The Challenge is the law school’s most impactful philanthropic program in terms of participation, currently accounting for more than one-third of total alumni donor participation with one month left in the fiscal year.
Michelle Ouellette ’89, a partner at Best Best & Kreiger, a firm new to the Challenge this year, said participating in the Challenge was a natural fit for alumni attorneys at her firm.
“BB&K has a long history of giving back to our community; in fact, it's a key part of the law firm's culture,” said Ouellette, whose firm reached 100 percent participation. “Trojans at BB&K have spent the last few years raising funds among themselves to give a scholarship in the firm's name to a USC undergrad. We saw the Law Firm Challenge as an opportunity to support the next generation of attorneys. Although this was our first year participating in the challenge, we anticipated nothing less than full participation when it came to supporting our Trojan Family.
Alumni in participating firms donated nearly $250,000 — a significant amount that was bolstered by a new aspect to the LFC: the Partner’s Challenge. This side competition challenged alumni, partners in particular, to make gifts of $1,000 or more to join the USC Law Leadership Society.
“As lawyers, we all have a vested interest in ensuring that our profession improves with each new generation of practitioners,” said Todd Moore ’97, a partner at Hahn & Hahn. “Participation in school giving campaigns is an important way to advance that interest. More generous gifts bring about more meaningful improvements. That’s why at Hahn & Hahn we are proud of the fact that our support for the USC Gould School of Law is both wide and deep.”
Partner’s Challenge Winners
Group I
Gibson Dunn
Group II
Munger, Tolles & Olson
Group III
Hahn & Hahn (the highest percentage of Law Leadership Society donors overall)
100% Firms
Group I – 31+ alumni
Gibson Dunn
Group II – 11 – 30 alumni
Best Best & Krieger
Bingham McCutchen
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCoy
Morrison & Foerster
Munger, Tolles & Olson
Reed Smith
Group III – 2 – 10 alumni
Baker & Hostetler
Feinberg, Mindel, Brandt & Klein
Hahn & Hahn
Hodel, Briggs & Winter
Irell & Manella
Pircher, Nichols & Meeks
Reed Smith
Russ, August & Kabat
Sauer & Wagner
Shook, Hardy & Bacon
Venable
Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati
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