The Paul M. Hebert Law Center received its largest single donation and largest institutional gift in its history this semester.
Law Center alumnus John Laborde pledged to donate $2 million in early November to the center’s new energy law program launched this year.
Students can now earn their Juris Doctorate or Master of Laws degree from the LSU John P. Laborde Energy Law Center.
“I see it as our mission of the state’s flagship law school to produce the future leaders of both the industry and government who are knowledgeable,” said Law Center Chancellor Jack Weiss. “Law students … increasingly are going to want some focus to their studies that enhances their ability to get a really good job.”
Weiss said $1.2 million of the donation will be used to create “a new double distinguished chair in energy law.” The remaining $800,000 will create a “challenge fund,” which will match future “significant donations to the law school to encourage those gifts.”
Laborde entered the University in 1940 as an undergraduate, but was unable to finish school in four years because he was drafted into the Army in 1942. After serving, Laborde returned to school to finish his undergraduate and begin law school.
Laborde said he hopes his donation will better Louisiana because of its energy influence.
“It gives me personal pride and pleasure for it to hopefully be serving a purpose for the state of Louisiana, LSU and the [students],” he said. “I hope that it will be an inspiration to not only my own family, but the young people from many, many other families across the country who will honor this as something worthwhile in their lives.”
Preis & Roy, PLC law firm of Lafayette, New Orleans and Houston made the $250,000 endowed professorship investment in mid-November.
The gift will pay part of professor Jeffrey Brooks’ salary, Weiss said. The money the law school would have spent on his salary will now go to support the center’s 27 Trial Advocacy and Moot Court teams and externship programs, where students can work for credit.
The Law Center’s National Moot Court Team placed second in this year’s regional competition, and it will advance to the national championship in New York City in January, according to the Law Center’s website.
“These [programs] help our students hit the ground running when they graduate,” Weiss said. “The income from the endowment is used to support the activities of the professor or the school program.”
Edwin Preis is a 1972 graduate of the Law Center, and Lane Roy is a Tulane University Law School alumnus. Nearly half of the firm’s attorneys are LSU Law Center alumni.
‘I hope that it will be an inspiration to not only my own family, but the young people from many, many other families across the country who will honor this as something worthwhile in their lives.’
