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February 19,
2014 | |
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Greetings,
Last
week we held our Annual Scholarship Lunch where we
publicly celebrate and thank the alumni and
friends whose generosity in supporting
scholarships makes law school a reality for so
many of our students. It is a heartwarming
event and a great reminder of the difference our
donors make.
We
want to share a few of the many
compelling stories we heard at that event, so this
week we profile 1L student Timothy Butterfield,
friend of the College Mark Harrison, and our
student scholarship program.
Until
the footnotes,
Marc
|
Timothy
Butterfield '16
 "My journey
to Arizona Law began on the playground nineteen
years ago," says 1L Tim Butterfield. "While many
of my friends were pretending to be cops, robbers,
doctors, firefighters, artists, etc., I was
marching around in a dapper blue suit with a
little brown leather briefcase pretending to be
the top legal mind on the playground."
Driven
by his desire to become a lawyer, Tim excelled
academically, graduating from the University of
Montana with a double major in political science
and economics. Although his dream of being a
lawyer continued to propel him, his life took a
slightly different track. "My five-year-old self
could have never predicted that I would meet my
future wife on the first day of college and that I
would adopt my son two years later."
With
a wife and son to consider, Tim entered his senior
year of college with significant financial
responsibilities. Looking at the cost of attending
law school, Tim began to think that a legal career
would remain what it had been for much of his life
-- a dream. Luckily for us, Tim didn't give up. He
applied to three law schools, and then held his
breath awaiting a response.
Tim
describes the emotion of receiving his acceptance
letter from Arizona Law.
"My
initial response when I opened the first
communication from Arizona Law was joy at getting
accepted. That joy soon turned into dismay. On one
hand, I had done it; I was accepted to a great law
school. On the other hand, the acceptance was a
mere token because I couldn't afford to attend. I
didn't see information about scholarship. In good
conscience, I knew that I couldn't ask my wife and
son to sacrifice their future."
The
next two weeks were difficult for Tim as he tried
to reconcile having his dream within reach without
the finances to achieve it. Tim and his wife
started looking at the best areas where she could
find work as a teacher and he began planning ways
to save up enough money to one day try again.
Then
there was a second letter from us, arriving
inauspiciously. 
"I
was on my way to an 8:00 a.m. course, I was
shuffling through the mail and I noticed a letter
from Arizona Law. I opened it, assuming it was
just a request that I reply to the admission
offer, and scanned through it haphazardly. It took
about three times reading through before I
completely realized what I was reading. It was a
scholarship offer-- a generous scholarship offer
that would allow me to pursue my dream. After two
weeks of walking around heartbroken, the truth of
the situation washed over me, and I broke down in
my car crying tears of both joy and
relief."
Tim
knew when he received the letter that he was
headed to Arizona Law. He came to visit over
Spring Break and was welcomed by Assistant Dean
for Admissions Bianca Mack and
Admissions Counselor Katie
Beringson. "Bianca and Katie are
two of the most kind and helpful people I have
ever met," he says. By the end of the trip, Tim
was a
Wildcat! |
Mark
Harrison '60
(Harvard)
 Imagine having friends and
family so impressed by your hard work and
dedication to law and to Arizona Law that they
raise $100,000 to honor you with a scholarship.
That's what friends of Mark Harrison have
done.
Through
the generosity of Mark's friends and family,
Arizona Law has started the Mark I. Harrison
Scholarship.
Mark
has worked with the College as an adjunct
professor, served as President of the Law College
Association, and been a member of the College's
national Board of Visitors. His relationship to
the students, faculty, and staff is so strong that
it is as if he is a graduate himself. He was named
a Distinguished Honorary Alumnus of the College in
2003 and received the University of Arizona Alumni
Association Bear Down Award in 2007.
As
a practicing attorney for Osborn
Maledon in Phoenix, he has been involved in
tort law and commercial litigation. Mark's areas
of interest also include alternative dispute
resolution, appellate matters, and ethics and
professional liability. He is the primary "go to"
attorney at Osborn Maledon when the need arises to
advise lawyers, law firms and in-house law
departments on ethical obligations and to tackle
risk management. He has represented hundreds of
lawyers in malpractice and discipline
situations.
This
Harvard Law alum ('60) is also incredibly active
in the legal community. He has served as President
of the State Bar of Arizona and the Arizona Bar
Foundation. He also serves on the National Board
of Directors of Justice at Stake and has received
the ABA Mike Franck Award for Professional
Responsibility.
His
connection to Arizona Law is strengthened by his
daughter Jill Harrison, a 1998
alumna of the College. He and his wife Ellen
enjoy spending time with Jill, her two daughters,
and their daughter Lisa.
Those
strong ties and his passion for not only Arizona
Law but law itself are the reasons Mark's friends
and family raised these substantial scholarship
funds to help law students work toward their
educational and career goals.
Last
week, I had the honor of announcing the Mark I.
Harrison Scholarship at our Scholarship
Lunch. Mark and his daughter Jill were
present for the announcement. During his
acceptance, Mark offered the students a few words
of advice. 
"After
fifty-three years in the active practice of law, I
continue to believe that the law is a noble if not
the noblest profession and one which enables us,
as lawyers, to perform great service to our
clients, to protect the civil rights and civil
liberties of all citizens and to safeguard the
institutions which assure the continuation of this
democracy. When you are admitted to practice
law, you are really granted a franchise and to
borrow a phrase often linked with the medical
profession, it is your sacred duty in exercising
that franchise 'to do no harm'."
Mark,
your life and your career are a model for all of
us. Thank you for being an adopted member of the
Arizona Law family and for the impact the Mark I.
Harrison Scholarship will have on future
generations of Arizona Law
lawyers. |
The Arizona Law
Scholarship Program
|
Every
scholarship gift makes an impact and every
recipient has a story. 
Arizona
Law appreciates and celebrates the essential
partnerships forged between students -- whose
future will shape the profession -- and those
whose accomplishments and generosity allow
students to attend the College and focus on their
studies. Those relationships are what lead to the
creation of scholarships that change the lives of
students and donors alike.
Arizona
Law gives almost $4,000,000 in scholarship money
to JD students each year. More than $1,200,000
comes from private donors. The donors represent
more than 100 named scholarships and awards.
The
need for those donors becomes even greater for us,
as a public land grant institution, in order to
remain true to our mission and roots of quality,
discovery, and access. This need is enhanced by an
economy that has hit students and families very
hard.
The
dramatic increase in law student debt nationwide
is a well-known issue and it might be difficult
for many alumni who graduated ten or more years
ago to imagine being a law student in 2014.
Students now are launching careers against a much
different economic and legal landscape.
Thankfully, tuition and debt levels at Arizona Law
are significantly lower than the national average,
in significant part because of the scholarship
donations by alumni and others. Because our
tuition is among the lowest for top law schools,
scholarship dollars go even farther to make a
first rate legal education truly accessible.
For
many of our students -- students like Tim
Butterfield -- the cost, even the relatively
affordable cost of Arizona Law, make the path near
impossible without scholarship support.
Scholarship donors are the needed
'circuit-breakers' in challenging times. For
those students who could not otherwise imagine
getting a professional education, graduating from
one of the country's best public law schools is an
amazing goal to achieve.
Thank
you to all of our scholarship donors. You are
making dreams come true and shaping the future of
the
profession. |
|
Coming
soon!
 Former FBI Agent Terry
Hake - "Going Undercover as an
Attorney: Inside Operation
Greylord"
Wednesday,
February 19, 2014
5:00
pm - 6:30 PM
James
E. Rogers College of Law, Room 168
RSVP here
Alumni
Authors Needed
The
College of Law will host a booth at this year's Festival
of Books on March 15-16. We are looking
for alumni authors to join us. If you are
interested, please contact Nancy
Stanley
Networking
Nosh at Arizona Law
Lewis
Roca Rothgerber Lobby
February
27 4:30-6:00 p.m.
March
27 4:30-6:00 p.m.
Connections
between alumni and students strengthen the Arizona
Law community. To help facilitate those
connections, we are launching a new networking
series. If you are an alum willing to return to
campus to spend time with and advise students,
please sign up by emailing Marissa White.
Alumni
Reception in San Diego
Thursday,
February 20, 2014 - Electra - 700 West E. Street,
San Diego, CA 92101 RSVP here.
 2014 McCormick Lecture with
Olympia Snowe
Please join us
for a lecture by Olympia Snowe, who will discuss
her long service in the US Senate and offer
thoughts about the current state of the
Union.
March 6th
James E. Rogers
College of Law -- Ares Auditorium
5:30 - 6:30
pm
RSVP
here
Law
College Association Annual Dinner and Awards
Ceremony in Phoenix
Friday,
April 4, 2014 5:30 - 9:00 -- U of A College of
Medicine, 550 E Van Buren St, Phoenix, AZ
85004
Register
here.
Looking for a way to make an impact?
Make a donation to our student scholarship
fund. Every dollar invested produces
a solid return and helps to alleviate the burden
of educational debt for a
student.
| |
On
behalf of every student who received a
scholarship, and on behalf of every future client
our students will serve and every
life their work will touch -- thank you.
Warmly,
Marc L.
Miller
Dean & Ralph W. Bilby Professor of
Law
James E. Rogers College of Law
| |
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