Interesting article in the National Law Journal: The Price of Legacy: $25 million, by Leigh Jones:
Want a law school named in your honor? Be prepared to chip in about $25 million. That’s the going rate for donors who want their names as part of a law school’s official moniker, according to a recent study conducted by a law professor at Nova Southeastern University. The study by Robert Jarvis found that although paying for a law school’s name is dramatically cheaper than the $100 million price tags that some medical schools have, the naming privilege is more expensive than, say, business, pharmacy or theatre schools.
The study is A Brief History of Law School Names, 56 J. Legal Educ. 388 (2006). The article reports that law school naming rights have been sold for these amounts in recent years:
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$115 million: Arizona (1999)
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$30 million: Ohio State (2001), UNLV (1996), Utah (2001)
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$20-$30 million: Temple (1999)
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$20 million: Denver (2004), SMU (2001)
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$10 million: Florida (1999)
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$3 million: Nova (1989)
The article concludes: "[T]he current market rate for a law school’s name has been set (in round figures) at about $25 million. (As it happens, this is the exact figure the University of Pittsburgh pegged its law school at when it announced a lengthy list of naming opportunities.)"
