Alumnus gives law school $15M for full-tuition scholarships
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David M. Rubenstein received a full-tuition scholarship to the University of Chicago Law School, and since then, the 1973 graduate has gifted $61 million to cover scholarships for other law students.
A co-founder of the Carlyle Group, a global investment company, Rubenstein’s most recent gift of $15 million was announced in a March 16 news release.
The Rubenstein Scholars Program, established in 2010, provides three-year full-tuition scholarships to about 10% of the JD class, according to the news release. It estimated that about 60 students from the classes of 2026, 2027 and 2028 will receive the scholarships.
One recipient, who graduated in 2021 and was not quoted by name, said the scholarship allowed them to spend two years clerking after graduation.
Rubenstein worked as chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. From 1977 to 1981, he worked as then-President Jimmy Carter’s deputy assistant for domestic policy. He later practiced law in Washington, D.C., and co-founded the Carlyle Group in 1987. Today, it has $301 billion of assets under investment, according to the news release.
“I am pleased to continue to support the efforts of the law school to attract the best possible law school students. Doing so strengthens the school that was so helpful to me with scholarship aid as a law school student in the 1970’s,” Rubenstein said in the news release.
He also hosts The David Rubenstein Program: Peer-to-Peer Conversations, which airs on PBS, and in 2007, he bought a 1297 Magna Carta for $21.3 million. He donated it to the National Archives and Records Administration.
