UC Law SF Receives $1 Million Gift from Shanin Specter

SAN FRANCISCO, October 19, 2017-Renowned trial attorney and University of California Hastings College of the Law Professor of Practice Shanin Specter is giving $1,000,000 to the UC Law SF Foundation. The gift will be used to support multiple areas within the College, including the building and naming of a trial courtroom for Specter, Chancellor & Dean David Faigman announced today.

The “Shanin Specter Courtroom” will be a part of a larger Advocacy Center that will also include the Marvin & Jane Baxter Moot Courtroom located in the new 198 McAllister Building, expected completion 2023. The courtroom will be furnished with an elevated bench, elevated witness box, jury box with chairs, counsel tables, a rail, seating and tables suitable for both spectators and students, podium, visual display equipment and other furnishings and equipment for a contemporary courtroom and trial setting.

“We’re so glad that Shanin Specter is here working with our students, and his gift comes at a particularly exciting and busy time for the College,” said Dean Faigman, noting this weekend’s reunion-homecoming gatherings and the ceremonial groundbreaking for our new academic building at 333 Golden Gate Avenue, part of a long-range plan that will transform the UC Law SF campus into an “Academic Village” in the heart of San Francisco. “Friday thus effectively marks a moment of transition between the past and the future, and Shanin’s generosity has given us considerable forward momentum.”

The commitment by Specter, one of the nation’s most preeminent trial lawyers and a founding partner of Kline & Specter, extends the opportunity to pass along the lessons he has learned in practice to the next generation of attorneys. Specter is currently teaching First-Year Torts and will be teaching Evidence next semester.

Specter, who has taught for years at University of Pennsylvania Law School, Berkeley Law and Stanford Law School in addition to UC Law SF in San Francisco (where he has taught since 2015), describes his experience teaching at UC Law SF as “fantastic.” “I love the UC Law SF students,” Specter said in a recent Q&A for his popular “How to Ask a Question” course. “They are very bright and have lots of common sense. They’re also practical, committed, scrappy, and tough.”

Specter also cited Chancellor & Dean David Faigman’s vision for building the future of UC Law SF as important in his decision to step up and support the success of the school. “David Faigman is a special person and a superb dean,” said Specter. “The deanship is a nearly thankless job, but he’s succeeding in creating a new level of energy among the students, faculty and alumni.”

While Specter says he would prefer to be known for his practice and his pedagogy rather than his philanthropy, he also says he hopes his gift may spur others to give, “because much remains to be done.”

Let’s build UC Law SF together.

From a single brick to the entire law center building, we invite your participation. Naming opportunities are available at all levels. To learn more about the many ways in which you can support UC Law SF, contact Eric Dumbleton, Chief Development Officer, at dumbletoneric@uclawsf.edu or 415-565-4616.