Less than a year after former Ambassador Earle Mack graciously stepped aside as naming donor of Drexel’s School of Law, the school has a new benefactor, a new name and a new institute.
In September, President John Fry announced the school would be named the Thomas R. Kline School of Law in honor of a landmark $50 million gift that will transform legal education at Drexel for generations to come.
The commitment by Kline, one of the nation’s most respected and influential trial lawyers and a champion of the elevation of trial advocacy training for law students, marks the largest single gift in the University’s history.
“I’m proud that our law school will be forever associated with Tom Kline,” says Fry. “His commitment to Drexel will carry great significance for lawyers across America.”
Kline is a distinguished trial lawyer who has spent more than 35 years representing catastrophically injured persons. He is founding partner, along with Shanin Specter, of the nationally recognized law firm of Kline & Specter. His many groundbreaking cases have contributed to the shaping of the law in Pennsylvania, and his many jury verdicts and settlements are well known for resulting in corporate, institutional and governmental changes through the civil justice system.
He has also served four U.S. senators over two decades and chaired the Federal Judicial Nominating Commission for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania more than a decade. He’s both a Drexel University trustee and chair of the advisory board for Drexel’s law school.
Kline’s gift includes the conveyance of the historic Beneficial Saving Fund Society Building at 12th and Chestnut streets, which will house the future Thomas R. Kline Institute of Trial Advocacy of the Kline School of Law.
Once restored and renovated, this grand Horace Trumbauer-designed bank building located in the heart of Philadelphia’s legal community will house state-of-the-art facilities — a magnificent ceremonial courtroom, faculty offices, public and student spaces, and innovative technology — for students to build and hone their advocacy skills. The building will be transformational to the Market East corridor and serve as an anchor to the redeveloping neighborhood.
“We aspire to swiftly establish our law school as a force, especially in the area of trial advocacy, and to gain recognition nationwide,” says Kline. “I am especially excited about the establishment of a new trial advocacy institute, unique in American law school education.”
“We will build a facility unique in legal education,” he says. “This magnificent site will become a magnet for the best of faculty and students, and a top-tier law school.”
The Thomas R. Kline Institute of Trial Advocacy will dramatically change the entire range of the law school’s activities. It will advance courtroom simulation for the JD program and co-curricular programming and will enhance faculty interaction with students who undertake advocacy-based co-ops and clinical work. Additionally, it will support the development of post-graduate LLM and continuing legal education trial and appellate advocacy programs.
The remainder of the gift will serve the law school’s overarching mission to be a center of legal excellence in Pennsylvania and a national leader in experience-based legal education, already a strength of the law school.