Diverse Issues in Higher Education
April 12, 2012
Renowned Trial Attorney Donates Law Library to Texas
Southern University
One of the nation’s most storied trial lawyers and
educational philanthropists has donated a major gift to Texas Southern
University (TSU)—his law library.
The 1,200-volume collection of books and journals from
longtime Houston attorney Joe Jamail is currently being catalogued and organized
by campus librarians, says TSU law dean Dannye Holley. Jamail’s gift has an
estimated $3 million value. TSU officials hope to have the materials ready for
student and faculty use by this fall, if not sooner.
In announcing the donation last week, Jamail credited Texas
state Senator Rodney Ellis, a TSU alumnus, with steering him toward TSU.
"We’re quite grateful for the gift,” Holley says, “and for
Ellis being the major reason (Jamail) looked in our direction.”
Dr. John Rudley, TSU president, notes, “Sometimes great
things happen that you don’t expect. This is one of those things. Joe is known
for breaking down barriers.”
In a 60-year career earning him the nickname “King of Torts,”
Jamail has been lead counsel for more than 100 personal-injury cases in which
each verdict or settlement tallied at least $1 million. His victories have
resulted in product recalls from the marketplace of a Remington Mohawk rifle, a
Honda all-terrain, three-wheel vehicle and the prescription drug Parlodel. In
the Pennzoil v. Texaco case of the mid-1980s, Jamail convinced a jury
that a proverbial handshake agreement ought to carry the weight of a signed
contract. The jury decided Texaco had derailed Pennzoil’s efforts to acquire
Getty Oil and awarded Pennzoil $11 billion, the biggest award in U.S. history
for civil damages.
Alongside the information resources that Jamail’s gift will
provide TSU students, Holley envisions further opportunities springing from the
gift. For instance, TSU officials are considering offering alumni selected sets
of volumes from the newly acquired collection in exchange for in-kind,
reciprocal gifts to the university. “Some of these books would be wonderful for
a young lawyer’s starter library,” Holley says.
Graduates of the law school, which is named after U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, have gone on to careers in Congress,
the Texas legislature, the judiciary and throughout the legal profession. In
recent years, it has been consistently recognized as having one of the most
ethnically diverse enrollments nationally. Currently, about 48 percent of law
students are Black, 20 percent are Hispanic, 20 percent are White and the rest
are other non-White minorities, according to Holley.
TSU officials also are having discussions with Jamail—whose
charitable gifts have benefited the University of Texas, Rice University and
several medical and health-science schools—about him guest-lecturing on campus
about topics such as litigation, class-action lawsuits and a life in law.
“He has signaled that he wants more of an affiliation with
us,” Holley says. “We’re delighted because he has long been a fighter for the
common good.”
Holley believes Jamail’s interest, coupled with his library
gift, can boost the law school’s appeal among prospective students. “Jamail’s
gestures make our school more marketable and fit into our effort to build an
experiential program,” he says.
After a recent ceremony at his law office announcing the
gift, Jamail chatted with leaders of TSU’s student bar association and law
review publications. He showed them many keepsakes and photos from his career
and recounted the tales and the clients behind them, Holley says, adding how the
young people were particularly intrigued and amused by a Xerox copy of a
filled-out, bank deposit slip stemming from a case: It was for $3 billion.
