DLA Piper Supports School of Law with $250K Donation
May 14, 2012
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
A donation of $250,000 from the Baltimore office of global law firm DLA Piper to the University of Baltimore School of Law's new John and Frances Angelos Law Center will allow for the construction of both outdoor and indoor water features for the building, each of which will be named after the firm. The exterior feature is a "water wall" that will be a highlight of a below-street level garden, while the indoor feature is a stepped waterfall in the building's lobby. The indoor water feature is part of the building's many energy saving initiatives; it creates a "micro climate" that will encourage air flow and enhance evaporative cooling. Both water features also will buffer ambient sound.
DLA Piper boasts more than 20 UB School of Law alumni spread across five of its U.S. offices, including Roger Truitt, senior counsel in DLA Piper's Baltimore office and a member of the school Dean's Advisory Council for the past 12 years. Truitt received the UB Alumni Association’s "Law Alumnus of the Year" award in 2007.
"DLA Piper has a long-standing commitment to Baltimore and with the Baltimore office being one of the foundation offices of the firm, we saw this as a wonderful opportunity to express our appreciation of the UB School of Law and support the next generation of lawyers in Maryland," said Paul A. Tiburzi, managing partner of DLA Piper's Baltimore office. "We are also excited to be part of a new world-class building which will be a model for future law school buildings around the world."
In speaking on behalf of his fellow UB Law graduates, Truitt indicated that "DLA Piper and its UB law alumni are extremely grateful for the education they received at the School of Law and want to see the law school continue to grow in its service to the legal and local communities."
"We appreciate the generous support of DLA Piper toward our new law center project," said UB President Robert L. Bogomolny. "The firm's recognition of the UB School of Law's reach and impact on the region's legal community is now a prominent and permanent part of the center, and we're proud to see it come to fruition."
Now under construction, the $107 million, 190,000-square-foot law project at North Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue will provide a new home for the UB School of Law, the sixth-largest public law school in the country. Over the past two years, the University secured $15 million in private funding to support design, development and construction and to be used in conjunction with funding from the state of Maryland. The building is scheduled to open next spring.
Behnisch Architekten of Stuttgart, Germany, in partnership with Baltimore's Ayers/Saint/Gross, was selected to design the John and Frances Angelos Law Center following an international competition.
Learn more about the new law center.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the School of Law, the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Public Affairs and the Merrick School of Business.