They come from different walks of life, grew up in different generations, and pursued different career paths. Yet one connection runs deep: their devotion to USC Law.
This year, to help the law school continue to attract stellar students and faculty, a trio of distinguished graduates — Ruth J. Lavine ’43, William A. Rutter ’55 and Stephen P. Rader ’81 — each have pledged major gifts designed to support the law school in perpetuity.
“USC Law graduates are extraordinary people who share a deep love for the school, a passion for excellence and a desire to help,” says Dean Edward J. McCaffery. “We are especially fortunate to count Ruth, Bill and Steve among our most loyal and supportive alumni.”
One gift will support scholarships. Another will establish a teaching prize. A third will endow a chair. All will create a lasting legacy.
Philanthropist & Pioneer
Richard and Ruth Lavine Scholarship Fund will open doors for exceptional students
More than 60 years ago, Richard Lavine ’42 introduced himself to fellow student Ruth Jacobson ’43 in the law library. (A mutual friend encouraged the meeting.) The couple eventually married in April 1944 and would later become partners in the firm of Fain & Lavine.
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| Ruth Lavine and Catherine Unger |
“I was able to go to law school, and I want others to have the same opportunity and experience,” Lavine says. “To me, scholarships are the purest form of academic philanthropy because they directly help the students. Scholarships help in the recruiting process and allow the law school to bring in the very best. I’m so pleased to be able to assist in that.”
After years of providing scholarship assistance to USC Law students, the Lavine Family Foundation last summer augmented its longstanding commitment by pledging to endow the Richard and Ruth Lavine Scholarship Fund.
According to daughter Catherine Unger, the gift is a fitting tribute to her parents. She remembers her dad as a dedicated scholar, someone who was truly interested in learning, and she is proud of her mom, who is one of the relatively few women in her generation to attend law school.
“My grandparents believed strongly in education and in all of its benefits,” Unger says. “They encouraged my mom and her sister to pursue their scholastic goals. It didn’t matter that they were girls.”
The Jacobson sisters began their scholarly pursuits in England, after their family left Germany on April 1, 1933, two months after Hitler’s appointment as chancellor. When they immigrated to Los Angeles in 1938, both Mrs. Lavine and the late Leonore Jacobson Kunz ’44 attended USC as undergraduates and as law students.
After passing the bar exam, Mrs. Lavine practiced part time while raising a family. Fifteen years later, she began working full time with fellow USC Law graduates Robert Thompson ’42, the late Laughlin Waters ’46 and the late Conrad Moss ’49. She then practiced with her husband and Harry Fain ’46 until Mr. Lavine was appointed a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in 1980. She retired as a solo practitioner, specializing in probate and estate planning, in 1990.
Today she still attends continuing legal education courses and pays her bar dues. She also remains involved with USC Law.
“My parents both had a great law school experience at USC,” Unger says. “Their love for the law school is just one of the many common interests they shared, including travel and serving the community. Each of them was always president of some organization — that’s the kind of atmosphere I grew up in. They taught me the importance of giving back and, whenever possible, trying to make the world a better place.”
Honoring Great Teachers
William A. Rutter Distinguished Teaching Award to recognize excellence in the classroom
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| William Rutter |
“That’s when I realized that teaching ain’t all that easy,” Rutter recalls with a smile. “You think you know a subject fairly well until you try to teach it to somebody else. I was amazed at the amount of time it took me to prepare for class.
“To inspire students in some way, to get their minds working and keep them alert and interested — that requires a great deal of foresight, preparation and ideas. Great teachers have these abilities and are remembered for it.”
Years later, after founding The Rutter Group, one of the leading legal publishing companies in the country, Rutter designed an award to honor the hardest-working people he knew: He established a teaching prize program at four University of California law schools, where promotions and raises were tied primarily to research and publications, and less credit was given to classroom performance.
Although this is not the case at USC, Rutter — a longtime Legion Lex and Board of Councilors member — says he had always dreamed of establishing a similar program at his alma mater. In 2006, with his $1.2 million pledge to USC Law, the William A. Rutter Distinguished Teaching Award program was set in motion.
With a prize of $50,000, the award will be given annually to a USC Law professor who demonstrates exceptional abilities in the classroom. The purpose, Rutter explains, is to recognize the additional time and effort great law teachers apply to preparation and classroom performance. Because such professors inevitably attract larger classes, Rutter notes, they spend additional time grading papers and interacting with students.
“I see this award going to the kind of professor who exposes students to different ways of thinking,” Rutter says. “My hope and expectation is that the award will encourage younger faculty to devote more time to classroom teaching, in addition to their scholarly research.”
After graduating from USC Law, Rutter practiced with classmate Sydney M. Irmas ’55, specializing in business litigation and appellate work until 1970. During this time, he also wrote and published all of the original Gilbert Law Summaries, the most popular study aid for law students in the country, and with Irmas co-founded the company that became BAR/BRI Bar Review, which offers the largest bar review course in California. He founded The Rutter Group in 1979 and, as president, Rutter spends most of his time working with some of the best legal minds in the country — judges, justices and attorneys who write Practice Guides covering legal areas from alternative dispute resolution to real property transactions.
“I had prospered as an attorney and an educator, and I attribute that to the head start I got at USC,” Rutter says. “Being a student at USC Law was also a fun time — one of the best times of my life. Some of the friendships I made in law school are with me to this day. For all these reasons, I am indebted to the school and always will be.”
All in theTrojan Family
Rader Family Trustees Chair in Law honors a remarkable USC heritage
Stephen Rader’s USC roots are deep and strong. Like his father, Stanley Rader ’63, Stephen received his bachelor’s degree in accounting and went on to the USC Gould School of Law for his J.D. And like his father, Stephen graduated at the top of his law school class.
His sister, Janis Rader ’77, also earned a law degree from USC. His wife, Anne, and her two brothers and two sisters earned USC degrees as well; their father was a surgeon at LAC+USC Medical Center.
And today, his younger daughter, Haley, is a sophomore at USC, studying communications. (Daughter Katelyn graduated magna cum laude from New York University in 2006.)
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| Stephen Rader |
In 2006, Rader pledged $3 million to establish an endowment to fund the Rader Family Trustees Chair in Law. In addition to commemorating his father, the gift is designed to help USC Law continue its rise in national prominence.
“I believe professionals feel an extra affinity for their professional schools,” Rader says. “It’s up to the alumni of those schools, if they have the means, to make sure their school has the resources it needs. I would like to see USC become one of the top 10 law schools in the country, and I know that takes money and resources.”
While a student at USC Law, Rader served as a 1L section president and as executive notes editor of the Southern California Law Review. He also clerked for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
After graduating in 1981, Rader practiced as a corporate securities attorney and a certified public accountant. He then served as a managing director for Bear, Stearns & Co., prior to joining Chartwell Partners in 1989. In 1997, he co-founded Rader Reinfrank & Co., LLC, a $100-million Los Angeles-based private equity fund. Today he is a co-founder and managing general partner of Clarity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in communications, media and related technology companies.
Aside from his involvement on the USC Law Board of Councilors, Rader — whose daughter Haley was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 5 — also is active with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, serving as a board member in the Los Angeles chapter and chairing several fundraising events. Rader is an avid photographer as well; he has exhibited internationally and has won several awards.
“I could not have accomplished what I did in my business career without my legal background,” Rader says. “My training at USC Law and my professors taught me how to think, how to solve problems, and how to articulate my thoughts and ideas. They taught me how to focus on important issues and to ask the right questions. My three years at USC Law allowed me to flourish in my business and my career.”
-This story appeared in the Fall/Winter 2006 USC Law Magazine.
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