NYU School of Law has received a $20 million gift from Frank J. Guarini ’50, LLM ’55, former New Jersey State Senator and US Congressman, to support the Guarini Institute for Global Legal Studies (“Guarini Institute”). The gift bolsters the Law School’s international law programs and initiatives and ensures that NYU Law continues to be a leader in global legal innovation.
The aims of the Guarini Institute include providing a platform for in-depth, interdisciplinary study of transnational legal and regulatory issues, as well as the technology-driven transformation of legal services and global legal practice. Benedict Kingsbury, vice dean for global programs and Murry and Ida Becker Professor of Law, will serve as faculty director of the Institute.
Guarini is a longstanding supporter of the Law School and has previously funded the Frank J. Guarini Center for Environmental, Energy, and Land Use Law, the Frank J. Guarini Leaders in Government Service Institute, and the Guarini Government Lecture.
A program at NYU Law today to launch the Guarini Institute features a conversation between Sonia Sotomayor, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Albie Sachs, former justice of the South African Constitutional Court.
“Frank Guarini embodies what it means to do well and do good,” said NYU Law Dean Trevor Morrison. “In his extraordinary career, he has been a highly successful lawyer and businessman, a dedicated public servant, and a generous benefactor. With his latest gift, Frank is helping ensure that the Law School maintains its preeminent position in international legal scholarship and education.”
The Guarini Institute will support numerous initiatives, including NYU Law Abroad; the Global Fellows Program; the International Conference Series; the Emile Noël Lecture Series; the Jean Monnet Center for International and Regional Economic Justice; and the scholarship of the Law School’s global and international faculty. All of this will help ensure that NYU Law graduates are equipped with the cutting-edge skills required to meet the evolving demands of law practice and of society more broadly.
“Our increasingly international world needs lawyers who can meet the complex challenges presented by a changing global and technological landscape,” said Guarini. “Lawyers continue to be the business facilitators central to understanding other countries that knit the world together. NYU Law is already at the vanguard of global legal education and faculty research, and I am proud to support the Law School in its mission to not only train future leaders in law, business, and public policy, but to remain ahead of the curve when it comes to the global legal landscape.”
Born and raised in Jersey City, NJ, Guarini received the Navy Commendation Medal and three Battle Stars for his military service during World War II. He received degrees from Dartmouth College and NYU Law, and pursued advanced studies at The Hague Academy of International Law. Guarini served in the New Jersey State Senate for two terms, in the US House of Representatives for seven terms, and was appointed US Representative to the United Nations General Assembly.
Guarini’s achievements in political office included meeting in 1979 with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping as a member of the first US government mission to discuss opening China’s doors to trade; serving on the Select Committee of Narcotic Abuse and Control for seven terms; and serving as a delegate to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He has received many awards and distinctions, including Italy’s highest honor, the Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, bestowed by President Giorgio Napolitano.
“Tomorrow’s lawyers will need to approach law as an instrument of governance—including its enduring power and inherent limitations—from an interdisciplinary and global perspective,” said Kingsbury. “NYU Law offers unparalleled opportunities for our JD and graduate students to engage with novel legal, policy, and regulatory issues here and abroad, and the Guarini Institute will raise those opportunities to a new level.”
Posted April 4, 2018