Alumnus donates $15 million to law school for full scholarships
Faculties of law
Alumnus donates $15 million to law school for full scholarships
David M. Rubenstein received a full scholarship to the University of Chicago Law School, and since then the 1973 graduate has donated $61 million to cover scholarships for other law students.
Co-founder of the Carlyle Group, a global investment firm, Rubenstein’s latest gift of $15 million was announced in a March 16 press release.
The Rubenstein Scholars program, established in 2010, offers full three-year scholarships to about 10% of the JD class, according to the press release. He estimated that around 60 students from the classes of 2026, 2027 and 2028 will receive the scholarships.
One recipient, who graduated in 2021 and whose name has not been named, said the scholarship enabled him to spend two years on an internship after graduation.
Rubenstein served as chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. From 1977 to 1981, he worked as President Jimmy Carter’s Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy. He then practiced law in Washington, DC, and co-founded The Carlyle Group in 1987. Today, he has $301 billion in assets under investment, according to the press release.
“I am pleased to continue to support the law school’s efforts to attract the best possible law students. It reinforces the school that served me so well with a scholarship as a law student in the 1970s,” Rubenstein said in the press release.
It also hosts The David Rubenstein Program: Peer Conversations, which aired on PBS, and in 2007 bought a Magna Carta 1297 for $21.3 million. He donated it to the National Archives and Records Administration.
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