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Generosity of adjunct professions helps fund tuition for law students


June 20, 2011

The generosity of adjunct professors at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University has rewarded a deserving law student with full in-state tuition. The 2010-11 Adjunct Faculty Scholarship was awarded to Alexandra White, a second-year student.

The scholarship is funded by the College’s adjunct professors, who are judges and lawyers from the private and public sectors in Maricopa County. They enhance the College’s curriculum by teaching a variety of legal topics, including patent litigation, Arizona media law, evidence, health law, employment law, estate planning and many others. In exchange, they each receive an honorarium. This year, 20 of them waived more than $52,000 in honoraria.

Gary Birnbaum, the College of Law’s Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Program Development, helped establish and oversees the scholarship program. Birnbaum said adjunct faculty are an indispensable part of the law school.

“Teaching by prominent local practitioners and judges allows the College of Law to offer an incredible variety of courses and clinics and to reduce average class size to a level matched by only a few other law schools,” he said. “Now, through the adjunct faculty scholarship program, these same individuals can waive their honoraria, effectively pool their donations and provide academic scholarships to deserving students.”

Anne Tiffen, a shareholder at Mariscal, Weeks, McIntyre & Friedlander, P.A., in Phoenix is an adjunct professor who teaches Employment Law each spring semester.

“The Adjunct Faculty Scholarship Program at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law is, to the best of my knowledge, unique,” Tiffen said. “It provides another avenue for local attorneys to support the College of Law and, particularly, its academic scholarship programs. The adjunct faculty is particularly proud of its support for this scholarship program.”

Janie Magruder, Jane.Magruder@asu.edu
(480) 727-9052
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law