With UPenn shooting itself in the genitals with an ill-advised effort to rename itself “Carey Law School” — not to be confused with the University of Maryland’s Carey Law School — law school observers may have missed the burgeoning controversy in Canada over a donor bringing a lawsuit against his namesake school for his name not appearing in enough places.
The Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia finds itself embroiled in a lawsuit brought by Peter A. Allard after the attorney turned philanthropist learned that his name doesn’t appear on the diplomas of higher level law school graduates (e.g., the LL.M.s). Allard’s $30 million donation to the school — the largest of many donations he’s made to the school — included a provision that all degrees granted by the Faculty of Law include a “reasonable reference” to Allard.
The wrinkle is that the Faculty of Law doesn’t give out those degrees. While they issue JDs — which do include Allard’s name — higher level degrees are granted by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and therefore the school doesn’t believe the agreement with Allard covers those diplomas.
This seems like a good practical lesson in the importance of reading the fine print. Allard, however, did not see it that way and took the school to arbitration. The arbitrator ruled that the school wasn’t acting in bad faith and trying to hide the ball when it came to the departmental divide. Allard is now asking the courts to allow him to appeal the arbitrator’s decision.
The school seems to be technically correct here but can’t we all be adults here and just say, “Oh, right, you probably reasonably assumed our LAW DEGREES included all our law degrees — sorry about that, we’ll slap your name on there going forward.” For its part, the school tried to downplay the importance of the oversight by noting that “around 200 students are expected to graduate with JDs next year, with 60 to 65 students earning master’s degrees and another six completing PhDs.” But this actually proves too much — this is exactly why this isn’t a particularly big ask and they could easily just let it go, especially if the school’s hoping to maintain a relationship with the donor.
Still, suing the school is equally ridiculous. They may be unnecessarily obstinate here, but does the justice system really need to get dragged into what names end up on 60-70 diplomas?
Sometimes being right doesn’t require being vindicated.
But it goes to show you that when a bunch of lawyers get involved, even Canadians can stop being polite.