FEATURE

A New Day in Court

Join us in a bold reconstruction of our Advocacy program.  

With the construction of two new state-of-the-art student courtrooms, an expansion of faculty support and new funds for experiential learning opportunities, University of Arizona Law is putting advocacy skills and the student experience front and center. We are in the final fundraising push for this project, with plans to break ground this summer. All gifts to this project now will help us reach our goal. 

“I strongly believe that advocacy at any level – courtroom, or elsewhere – is an enormous skill and talent that must be developed if you are going to represent clients,” said alumnus and ‘A New Day in Court’ donor Patrick J. McGroder III (’70). “This project is a great opportunity to provide space to learn skills in real-time in a setting that emulates a real courtroom experience. It is vitally important for law students who aspire to learn the art of advocacy.”

Justice Advocates Coalition Fellowship Program

Empower law students pursuing unpaid summer positions in public interest work.  

The Justice Advocates Coalition (JAC) is a student-run organization that provides stipends to qualified students who accept unpaid summer positions with nonprofit law organizations.  

Students launched the Justice Advocates Coalition in 2017 with the dual goals of empowering marginalized communities and supporting University of Arizona Law students pursuing careers in public interest law.  

“JAC is about giving to its core,” says faculty advisor and Dean Emerita Toni Massaro. “Students work to raise awareness of, and funds for public interest law work. Every summer, JAC provides grants to assist fellow students who do unpaid legal work for a range of public interest organizations. Your support of them makes this possible. And few things our students do here make me prouder of Arizona Law.”

Dean’s Innovation Fund

University of Arizona Law creates what’s next in legal education, from our groundbreaking push to accept the GRE to creating the nation’s first undergraduate law degree to establishing new educational pathways and support systems for students from underrepresented communities. When you contribute to the Dean’s Innovation Fund, you allow Dean Marc Miller to fund University of Arizona Law's most pressing needs and projects.

General Student Scholarships

University of Arizona Law maintains one of the lowest law school tuition rates in the country, and each year roughly 92% of JD students receive a scholarship. With your help, we can remove financial barriers and put the dream of a legal career within reach for every student.  

“In a word, it has motivated me to someday be able to give back the way my donor gave to me,” said second-year student Aram Arutyunyan when discussing the impact of being awarded with the Richard M. Bilby Scholarship. Arutyunyan, a first-generation Armenian American, and a fourth-generation genocide survivor, wants to represent the world’s most marginalized groups with a legal career in human rights. 

In 1970, Kenney Hegland, a public interest lawyer from California joined the faculty at University of Arizona Law. He was one of two clinicians at the law school, tasked with creating clinics.  

“The law school made a perfect choice in hiring Kenney with that wide-open mission. He was a person filled with ideas. But I learned quickly that Kenney was not just an idea person. When he thought of something, he never sat on it but immediately started to work out the details and do what was needed to make the idea a reality,” wrote Professor Emeritus Andy Silverman (’69), who was hired as a clinician at the same time as Hegland.  

Kenney’s first of many contributions to the college began with the creation of the Neighborhood Law Office (NLO), established to provide legal services to low-income clients. NLO sought to supplement the work being done by Southern Arizona Legal Aid by providing adjusted evening hours so people who could not access pro bono legal services during the day could speak with a lawyer. 

Following his passing in May of 2020, his wife Ret. Judge Barbara Sattler (’81) worked with family, friends and colleagues to establish the Kenney F. Hegland Scholarship in his memory. 

The scholarship, awarded to full-time JD students with an interest in practicing public interest law, was awarded in 2022-23 to first-year law student Daniel Macdonald. The first Hegland Scholar, in 2021-22, was Deven Schoenthaler.  

“I am very grateful for the opportunities that the Hegland Scholarship has provided me,” said Macdonald. “I’m still deciding exactly what kind of law I want to practice, but I know I want it to be something that allows me to work with people. I want to be able to help others navigate their way through their interactions with the law.” 

To learn more, see the full story here.

The first annual Legal Paraprofessional Summit, held last weekend, was a success!

The event, in person at the University of Arizona Chandler campus with virtual viewing in Tucson and Yuma, brought together licensed and prospective legal paraprofessionals, lawyers and judges, and members of the legal community to facilitate robust discussion promoting innovation and growth for LP education and professional development.

To learn more about the University of Arizona Law’s educational pathways for legal paraprofessionals, see our Legal Paraprofessional Program home page.

Thanks to all who participated!