Robina continues LaPPS program support with $2 million gift to U of M Law School

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (07/21/2010) —The University of Minnesota Law School has received a $2 million gift from the Robina Foundation, extending its support of the Law School’s Program on Law, Public Policy, and Society (LaPPS).

The new pledge will enhance LaPPS’s continued development, including recruitment and retention of high-quality faculty members and implementation of initiatives to advance the curriculum reform that is making the Law School a national model.

The gift builds on the Robina Foundation’s earlier grant of $6.01 million for 2008-12, which jump-started the new LaPPS program. The program supports innovative public policy research and an enriched curriculum that prepares law students to serve as agents of social transformation.

Robina funding has supported new faculty in international law, criminal law, and law and science; new capstone courses for upper-level students; faculty research on cutting-edge public policy problems; and new student internships and post-JD fellowships. The recent gift will continue promotion of inventive new policy proposals, visionary and pragmatic approaches to law, and practical solutions to complex problems.

The Robina Foundation was created by James H. Binger (’41) shortly before his death in 2004 to fund forward-thinking projects at major institutions. His goal was to encourage new ideas and transformative approaches that will have a positive effect on critical social issues. The Law School, Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, The Council on Foreign Relations and Yale University were selected to receive major funding.