Wall Street Journal's Coverage of Rubenstein Gift

Carlyle Founder to Donate $10 Million to Law School

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein plans to announce Wednesday that he is giving $10 million to his alma mater, the University of Chicago Law School, to help it compete with deep-pocketed Ivy League rivals in attracting the nation's top law students.

Beginning in 2011, the David M. Rubenstein Scholars Program will provide 20 entering students with full-tuition scholarships for all three years of their law-school study. The program will run for three years, funding a total of 60 students, but Mr. Rubenstein, a member of the school's board of trustees, said that if the project proves successful he might up his commitment to continue it.

"With $46,000 a year for tuition, plus room and board, it's easy to lose students to other schools that can provide these scholarships," said Michael Schill, the law school's dean. "Now, 10% of our enrolled class for the next three years will be getting tuition paid for, which will hopefully generate a virtuous cycle of even more scholarships."

Mr. Rubenstein's offering represents the single-largest gift the law school has received from an individual, and marks Mr. Rubenstein's first large donation since he pledged last month to give away more than half of his wealth, currently estimated at $2.5 billion. That announcement follows a call by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates for the wealthiest Americans to give the majority of their riches to charity.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal