The “Give to Bowen” button directs you to a giving form. Choose “William H. Bowen School of Law” under the gift designation section. These f
unds will be deposited into the Bowen Annual Fund. If you wish to designate your gift to a specific scholarship or purpose, please use this link and include the desired fund in the “Other” category. Please contact the Bowen Alumni/Development Office or 501-916-5445 for more information.
Watch a video or read a letter from Dean Beiner regarding how to support students during the COVID-19 outbreak. Please refer to the Bowen page on other COVID-19 updates.
Donors who give $100 or more are part of Bowen’s Giving Circles and are named on the Honor Roll of Giving.
Alumnus Mark Hayes shares his motivation for supporting Bowen. Read more here.
Why Give to Bowen?
Read the Dean’s year-end letter and find out about Bowen’s needs.
The UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law offers a challenging educational experience in a close and supportive environment. Outside support is critical to the school’s continuing success. Your support helps us excel in an increasingly competitive marketplace as we recruit some of the brightest students in the country. Alumni giving also impacts the US News and World Report rankings for law schools.
Every gift buys something Bowen would not have otherwise — each book in the library is important to the student reading it, and each computer is vital to learning. Each year, small gifts amount to thousands of dollars.
Gifts to the Annual Fund support the best elements of the Bowen Law School — small classes, low faculty-to-student ratio, a beautiful campus, one-on-one attention. Without financial support, it would be difficult to maintain and improve these assets.
Gifts to other designated funds — these gifts allow the Bowen Law School to pursue endeavors outside the normal budget restrictions like scholarships, faculty and staff development, student organizations, student competitions, professorships, etc.
The tradition of philanthropy keeps the institution strong and competitive — the value of a Bowen Law School diploma depends on the standing of the school and its ability to continue to excel.
Ways to Give
Annual Fund — Unrestricted gifts will be directed to Bowen’s most urgent financial needs. These gifts help provide student scholarships; bring distinguished professors and speakers to campus; supports student organizations; provide professional development for faculty, administrators and staff; and support Moot Court and the Trial Competition teams. It also supplements Law Review and the Arkansas Journal of Social Change & Public Service.
The Bowen Annual Fund also helps fund technology for digital classrooms, taping of law classes and wireless hubs throughout Bowen.
Bowen’s goal for the Annual Fund corpus is $1 million annually.
Endowed Scholarships —Arkansas’s funding for higher education continues to be flat. In spite of this, Bowen has not increased the costs of a legal education for our students. Bowen has a record number of first generation college graduates entering law school. Scholarships are incredibly important for these students because they are less likely to have the financial support of their parents. Scholarships help keep student debt low and provide support for deserving students. Named scholarships can be in your name, in that of a family member, or in that of a colleague or mentor you would like to honor or memorialize.
- Full-tuition scholarship — $350,000
- Half-tuition scholarship — $175,000
- Minimum scholarship endowment — $25,000
Bowen’s goal is to endow $4 million in total scholarship funds.
Book Awards — Books continue to be one of the largest expenses for students. A named book award provides an endowment to help defray those costs. As with scholarships, book awards can be in your name, in that of a family member, or in that of a colleague or mentor you would like to honor or memorialize.
- Endowed book award — $10,000
Law Library Study Carrel Program — The Law Library has many study carrels that are available for naming. By naming a study carrel, you can assure that your legacy, or that of a loved one, will live on for years to come. Carrels can be in your name, in that of a family member, or in that of a colleague or mentor you would like to honor or memorialize.
- Open study carrel — $5,000
- Closed study carrel — $10,000
Endowing a Professorship — Recruiting and retaining high quality faculty is fundamental to Bowen’s educational mission. Bowen currently has seven named professorships, each focusing on a specific area of scholarship and teaching. You can choose to endow a professorship to honor a professor who had a significant impact on your life or to commemorate a colleague and/or mentor.
- Named professorship — $350,000
Bowen’s goal is to add three named professorships so that we can recruit and retain the best faculty possible.
Endowing a law school space — Maybe you have a favorite classroom or study space; perhaps it’s a space you always wished Bowen had. Endowing a gift for a room will ensure maintenance and updates on law school facilities.
- Classrooms 303, 315, 317, 515 — $100,000 each
- Library classrooms (3 of them) — $50,000 each
- High tech classroom for new courtroom — $250,000
- Student Center — $250,000
Endowing programming — Bowen is consistently named as a top practical skills law school and as a leader in practice-ready education. Each student is required to take an experiential class (clinic, externship, or practicum) in order to graduate. Endowments help ensure the legacy of Bowen, our alumni, and our core values of access to justice, public service, and professionalism. The Legal Clinic at the UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law is a law firm within the law school that enables students to work with real clients, the community, and the court system providing legal services to low-income Arkansans.
- Naming of the Legal Clinic — $10 million (It includes each of the clinic divisions mentioned below.)
- Center for Excellence in Trial Advocacy/Lawyering Skills — $5 million
- Consumer Protection Clinic — $1 million
- Delta Clinic — $1 million
- Immigration Clinic (new) — $2 million
- LEAP program — $2.5 million (provides scholarships for those admitted to the program)
- Litigation Clinic – $1 million
- Mediation Clinic – $1 million
- Moot Court program — $1 million
- Rural Practice Incubator Project — $2.5 million (provides access to justice to rural areas in Arkansas and includes loan forgiveness program for the last year of law school for those accepted into the program)
- Tax Clinic – $1 million
- Trial Advocacy program — $1 million
- Veterans Legal Services Clinic – Funded at $1.5 million by the Office of Attorney General Leslie Rutledge & the Office of Governor Asa Hutchinson
Planned Giving
If you would prefer to make a gift to Bowen as part of your estate planning, we would be happy to help you. Please contact Assistant Dean Wanda Hoover for more information. Read about some of the most recent planned gifts and the donors who made them possible.
Dean Emeritus Paula Casey made a bequest to endow a professorship upon her retirement from Bowen.
One of the school’s first graduates, Sam Perroni, is using his life insurance policy to ensure that Bowen students will continue to have access to a quality legal education — especially in the recently named Sam Perroni classroom (323).
Thanks to an annuity from Wylie Cavin, another successful early graduate, additional scholarship funds are available for future students. Now the Dean’s Conference Room (204E) bears his name.
