The William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has a commitment to receive a $1 million leadership gift from one of the state’s top law firms, Davis Levin Livingston, to launch private fundraising efforts for its new Advocacy and Trial Practice Center.
After a decade of dreaming and planning, the $7 million overall project was approved by the Legislature and Board of Regents, and final design work is almost completed. The community legal outreach center will be called the Advocacy and Trial Practice Center.
This leadership gift launches private fundraising efforts for the new facility to leverage existing state and law school funding.
Law school’s academic core
The Advocacy and Trial Practice Center will be the academic core of UH Law School’s multiple efforts to teach trial practice and advocacy skills and to advocate for some of the state’s most vulnerable people through a rich array of clinics.
The design calls for a two-story building on the Ewa side of the existing William S. Richardson School of Law. It will provide dedicated professional training facilities for law students and faculty who serve, one-on-one, some of the people in Hawaiʻi who most need skillful legal assistance while at the same time teaching advocacy and trial practice skills.
School of Law Dean Avi Soifer noted that the new Advocacy and Trial Practice Center recognizes the school’s longstanding excellence in clinical education and the importance of creating a center of excellence for trial advocacy education.
Mark Davis, founding partner of Davis Levin Livingston, said “Clinical and trial advocacy education is the life blood of a lawyer’s training in the adversary system. The Richardson School of Law has developed an enormous depth in the opportunities it offers to law students to develop trial skills and serve the public interest in pro bono pursuits. Now, with the new Advocacy and Trial Practice Center, as an addition to physical plant of the law school, UH is destined to be one of the leading centers for clinical education in the country.”
—By Beverly Creamer
