The UCLA School of Law has received a landmark $5 million gift from alumnus David J. Epstein. In recognition of this generous endowment gift, the law school will name the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy. The gift also establishes the Jane Epstein Scholarships for Educational Law and Policy, named for David Epstein's wife, a life-long educator.
Epstein, who graduated from the UCLA School of Law in 1964, has dedicated his life and work to giving back and to public service. In 1984, he founded the Unclaimed Property Clearinghouse, which audits businesses on behalf of states for unclaimed funds owing to others.
"David Epstein is a lawyer who has done well by doing good," said Michael Schill, dean of the law school. "His path-breaking work returning abandoned financial assets to rightful owners embodies the ideals of public interest that we seek to imbue in our own students.
"David Epstein is among our most successful and inspiring alumni," Schill said. "His leadership support for our public interest programs epitomizes who David is - a person dedicated to giving back, committed to public service and devoted to our law school. His gift, the largest ever from a living alumnus, will have a real impact on our ability to educate and train the very finest students who will enter careers in public service, not-for-profits and government agencies."
Epstein's interest in unclaimed property was sparked by his work on the 1974 California gubernatorial campaign of Jerry Brown. After the campaign, he turned down an appointment to the bench and went to work for the California State Controller's Office, where he designed a program to help the state enforce its unclaimed property law. As a result of Epstein's audit program, state collections quickly increased from $2 million to more than $100 million a year. California is now looking for the missing owners of $4.2 billion in unclaimed property.
Providing a program to educate and train students to pursue careers in the public interest has been at the very core of the public mission of the UCLA School of Law since its inception. The school has developed a highly respected public interest program that has enabled students and graduates to give back to the community, region, state and nation. The program's faculty represent a broad cross-section of interests in social justice issues and have brought a depth of knowledge from a wide range of experiences and scholarly research perspectives.
"The UCLA School of Law Program in Public Interest Law and Policy has a great tradition of training innovative lawyers who dedicate their careers to promoting the interests of underserved communities and causes," said Scott Cummings, UCLA professor of law and faculty chair of the program. "This incredibly generous gift will ensure that the program remains on the leading edge of public interest education for many years to come."
Priorities of the Epstein Fund include the support of student scholarships to attract top talent to the public interest program, loan repayment assistance to enable work in the public and not-for-profit sectors, summer fellowships for students in public interest, and the development of relevant coursework, conferences and related research.
Epstein is an active alumnus who serves on the UCLA School of Law board of advisors. He is a dynamic attorney who has specialized in unclaimed property law for the past 30 years. Epstein has also served as a commissioner on California's nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission, an independent oversight agency that promotes efficiency and effectiveness in state programs, and was a reporter to the nonprofit Uniform Law Commission, during which time he played an integral part in the rewriting of the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act, which was adopted by more than 30 states.
"Compliance with state unclaimed property law is good for everyone," Epstein said. "Unclaimed property law is the only law that provides for the lawful owner to get their property back - and there is no charge for recovering that money. You don't have to pay an attorney. You don't have to pay the state treasury or other agencies to collect it. And you don't have to pay the former holder of the property. There is no other law that works this way."
Epstein is the author of "Escheat and Abandoned Property Laws: Survey and Analysis," which is distributed to every major public corporation in the nation. He also is the author of "Unclaimed Property Law and Reporting Forms," a seven-volume treatise that covers state escheat laws and the requirements for holders of unclaimed property, and includes an analysis of the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act, relevant case law and state statutes.
Philanthropic leadership runs in the Epstein family. David's twin brother, Daniel, made a major gift to USC to name the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
About UCLA School of Law
Founded in 1949, the UCLA School of Law is one of the newest major law schools in the nation. With approximately 100 faculty and 970 students, the school is a leader in bridging the gap between interdisciplinary research and training and is at the forefront of efforts to link research to its effects on society and the legal profession. The school also offers one of the best programs in public interest law and policy in the country.
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