By Jose Rodriguez, Development Communications
Posted January 19, 2000

Five founders of an international consulting firm specializing in economics and finance -- all of them Berkeley professors -- have pledged $1 million to attract the best graduate students and faculty members to campus.

The donors have designated their gift for students in economics, agricultural and natural resource economics, and business. The fund also is intended to support graduate-level research in economics and business.

These faculty members established the Law and Economics Consulting Group, better known as LECG, a leading firm in the field of applied economics and finance. It is one of the world's largest private sector employers of Ph.D. economists and financial economists.

"Over the many years that we have been associated with the university, we have developed a great affection for this institution and for the principles of excellence in education and research that it represents," the faculty members said in a joint statement. "Our purpose with this gift is to help ensure that this extraordinary institution will continue to attract the best faculty and graduate students and maintain its position as the premier research university in the academic fields that have been central to the success of LECG."

The five faculty donors are Richard Gilbert, professor of economics; Robert G. Harris, professor emeritus in the Haas School of Business; Tom Jorde, professor of law; Gordon Rausser, Robert Gordon Sproul Distinguished Professor and dean of the College of Natural Resources; and David Teece, professor and director of the Institute of Management, Innovation & Organization in the Haas School of Business.

The elements funded by the gift include:

• a joint graduate research seminar in economics and business administration;
• a seminar in law;
• graduate fellowships in economics, agricultural and resource economics, and business;
• research in economics, regulation, and public policy; and
• support for a student scholarship fund in the College of Natural Resources.

"The LECG gift creates resources for Berkeley and enhances the atmosphere that allows us to attract, support and retain the finest faculty and students," said Chancellor Berdahl. "The generosity of our faculty demonstrates clearly the 'ecology of a just society,' how we give back as much as we take."

The gift counts toward the campus's totals in the Campaign for the New Century, a $1.1 billion fund-raising drive set to be completed by 2001.

January 19 - 25, 2000 (Volume 28, Number 18)
Copyright 2000, The Regents of the University of California.
Produced and maintained by the Office of Public Affairs at UC Berkeley.
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