An Unparalleled Legal Education

In December 2007, the Lilly Endowment gave the IU Foundation $25 million for the Indiana University School of Law—Bloomington.

The gift will support our efforts to attract and retain exceptional teachers and scholars and to establish Indiana Law as one of the very best public university law schools in the country.

“The school already attracts professors with passion, who have identified important problems and want to solve them, while engaging and inspiring students,” said Indiana Law Dean Lauren Robel, the Val Nolan Professor of Law.

“This gift will assure that our students receive a legal education that is unrivaled in the country, and that will enable our graduates to continue to serve the state, the nation, and the world in the highest and best traditions of the legal profession.”

Indiana Law has provided quality legal education for more than 150 years and is a recognized leader in many fields of legal scholarship, including the study of constitutional democracy, cybersecurity, criminal law and procedure, environmental law, and intellectual property.

Our clinical programs are in step with some of the nation’s best and provide students with essential on-the-job legal training. Students also benefit from an increasing roster of multidisciplinary centers that are focused on some of the world’s most critical issues.

We are among the top 10 public law schools in the nation and the top 15 percent of all accredited law schools nationwide. Half of our entering students are ranked among the top 9 percent of all law students in America in terms of standardized test scores. More than half of our faculty members engage in research related to the effects of globalization on law and legal systems, and we have been recognized as being among the leaders of the current transformation of legal education prompted by the path-breaking 2007 report, “Educating Lawyers,” from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

“With this gift, we will be able to hire and retain world-class teachers and legal scholars who will be leaders in their respective fields,” said Robel.

“This extraordinary gift will help us position our School of Law at the forefront of legal education by enabling the school to vigorously compete for the very best faculty and students from around the globe,” said IU President Michael McRobbie.

The Lilly Endowment, headquartered in Indianapolis, is one of the largest philanthropic foundations and historically has three areas of grantmaking: community development, education, and religion.