For Immediate Release
May 2, 2008
Contact:
Christi Fish
cfish@wilkinguge.com
(909) 390-1239 ext. 105
Gala Honors University of La Verne College of Law’s Five Founders
ULV honors judge for establishing Inland law school while serving on the contentious 60s & 70s school desegregation case, Crawford v. Board of Education of the City of Los Angeles.
Ontario, Calif., May 2, 2008 – Over 400 leaders in law and education gathered in their finest attire on Saturday evening at the Pomona Fairplex’s Avalon to honor the visionaries who founded the University of La Verne College of Law, Inland Southern California’s only American Bar Association (ABA)-approved* law school. Receiving awards and recognition were the law school’s founding dean, Retired Superior Court Judge Paul W. Egly; Stephen Charles Jones, Esq.; Sandra Rae Riley, Esq.; Dr. W. Donald Clague; and Dr. Leland Newcomer (posthumously).
“This started as a retirement party,” said Judge Thomas Nuss, co-chair of the Gala event. “Judge Paul Egly, who we are honoring tonight, retired from the faculty in May 2007. ULV College of Law wanted to throw a party in his honor, but he didn’t want the focus to be on him. As founding dean, he suggested that the law school honor all of its founders. So, what started as a cake-and-punch reception has turned into the significant fundraising event we are attending here tonight.”
Throughout the evening, judges, attorneys and friends celebrated the vision of Judge Egly and his four co-founders. They lauded Judge Egly for his vision to bring legal education to Inland Southern California and for his role as a superior court judge overseeing the desegregation of schools in San Bernardino and Los Angeles.
Highlighting the Gala was a video detailing the law school’s move from West Covina to the University of La Verne and its eventual receipt of provisional ABA approval. It also gave a glimpse of the role each founder played in the law school’s establishment and growth.
Dr. Leland Newcomer, La Verne College’s then-president, was instrumental in bringing the law school to La Verne. He was enthusiastic about the law school, noting that La Verne College focused on educating future service professionals. Dr. Newcomer worked with La Verne College’s Board of Trustees through the proposal, negotiation and approval processes preceding the law school’s opening in La Verne on September 21, 1970.
Once established, the detailed Dr. Donald Clague, ULV’s Dean of Graduate Studies, oversaw the operation of the law school. Stephen Charles Jones, an attorney who worked with Judge Egly prior to 1970, served the La Verne law school as Assistant Dean.
Administrative duties, including financial aid, admissions, registrar services and faculty scheduling were completed by undergraduate student worker, Sandra Rae Riley, who is now an alumna of the law school.
When the law school opened in 1970, it offered 13 part-time evening law classes to 84 enrolled students. It also employed approximately 20 part-time faculty members, all successful judges and attorneys. Today, the College of Law has 308 enrolled students at its state-of-the-art campus in Ontario, and it is pursuing full approval from the American Bar Association.
To view the Founders Gala’s program book, download event photos or watch the video tribute, visit http://law.ulv.edu/foundersgala/index.html.
For more information about admission to ULV College of Law, contact its Office of Admissions at lawadm@ulv.edu or (909) 460-2001.
About the University of La Verne College of Law
Located in Ontario, Calif., the University of La Verne College of Law serves over four million people as the only ABA-approved law school in Inland Southern California and an additional 2.2 million people in San Gabriel Valley and Eastern Los Angeles County. For more information about the College of Law, please call (909) 460-2001 or visit the Web at http://law.ulv.edu.
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The University of La Verne College of Law has been provisionally approved by the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association since 2006. The Section of Legal Education may be contacted at 321 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60610 or by phone at (312) 988-6738.
