New Gift From Winston & Strawn Supports Scholarships, International Moot Court Program

A new $650,000 gift from law firm Winston & Strawn establishes a scholarship that will provide need-based financial aid to three students each year and continues to fund the Law School’s Winston & Strawn International Moot Court program for the next five years. 

“Through its generosity and ongoing commitment to the Law School, Winston & Strawn ensures that our talented students can attend Columbia Law regardless of their socioeconomic background,” says Daniel Abebe, Dean and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law. “And by supporting the International Moot Court program, this gift also helps our students prepare to be global leaders in law by equipping them with valuable experience in international arbitration, European law, and other areas of legal practice.”

“Great law firms are a reflection of the great lawyers they recruit and nourish. Winston depends on the very best schools, like Columbia Law, to be a prime source of our recruits,” says Jeffrey L. Kessler ’77, partner and co-executive chairman of Winston & Strawn. “Our hope is that the scholarships will provide an opportunity to those who would not otherwise be able to afford a legal education at Columbia.”

The firm’s funding of the program also aligns with its goal to foster exceptional courtroom attorneys. “We support the International Moot Court program because of our firm’s long-standing tradition of training first-chair trial lawyers who can be leaders of the litigation bar,” says Kessler. “The gift will hopefully enable the International Moot Court team members to hone their litigation skills as advocates and get real-world argument experience that will be valuable to their future careers as litigators.”

Speaking personally, Kessler recalls the professional and life skills he received as a student at Columbia Law as well as the “exhilarating discussions we had in first-year classes with some of the most brilliant and entertaining legal minds in the country, including Professors Willis Reese, Hans Smit, and Curt Berger. Their magnetic presence, insightful observations, vivid analogies, and sharp questions remain with me to this day,” he says. “Giving back is my way of helping to make sure Columbia Law will continue to change lives in a positive way.”