The law firm of Anthony “Tony” Buzbee, Class of 1990 and Texas A&M University System regent, donated a $1 million endowment to Texas A&M University School of Law this month, the school announced Wednesday.
Buzbee said this was a good time to donate since the law school is still new and rising in the ranks.
“I’m just trying to jump-start the campaign for the law school,” Buzbee said. “The Board of Regents is very happy to have a law school now – it’s been a long time coming – and I think each one of us is doing what we can to make sure it’s fully integrated into the Aggie system and we are going to leverage the Aggie brand and all the other things that make our school great, so hopefully we will have a great law school as well.”
The funds will go to the new law school dean once he or she is chosen, Buzbee said, who can then use the money for the betterment of the school.
“This will be a fund for the dean, so it can be used as the new dean sees fit, whether it be for marketing or any programs the dean wants to use it for, but it’s specifically designated for whoever fills the chair of the dean of the law school,” Buzbee said.
Buzbee said the donation encourages the law school to choose the best dean to use that money.
“It encourages us to get the best dean we can get and I think we are going to do that, and secondly it helps the dean in his or her primary interests, which we would expect would be to advance the law school,” Buzbee said. “Anything we can do that increases the prestige of the law school is going to help every student that attends there – specifically in getting jobs after.”
Aric Short, law school interim dean, said this endowment will provide resources for the expansion of programming, the improvement of education quality and faculty scholarship.
Short said the endowment is an excellent way to end the law school’s first academic year.
“It’s been a year of incredible transformation for the law school and I think this is a wonderful way to finish up the first academic year of the Texas A&M law school,” Short said.
Shawn Johnson, Class of 2010 and first-year law student, will intern with the Buzbee Law Firm at the end of the summer. Johnson said he hopes the generous donation will go toward the programs and curriculum to help raise the prestige of the new law school.
“I just hope it helps grow the law school, make it better, whether that means a wider curriculum or whether it’s a smaller student to faculty member ratio,” Johnson said. “Really, whatever it is, I admire what Mr. Buzbee is doing, trying to help get A&M as a top-ranked law school.”