W. Bruce Lunsford contribution to create Academy for Law, Business + Technology
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. (May 15, 2013) — The Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law has received a $1 million gift from W. Bruce Lunsford to establish and support the W. Bruce Lunsford Academy for Law, Business + Technology.
Lunsford, a 1974 graduate of Chase College of Law, is chairman and CEO of Lunsford Capital, LLC, a private investment company headquartered in Louisville, Ky.
The W. Bruce Lunsford Academy for Law, Business + Technology will be an honors immersion program operated by the NKU Chase Law + Informatics Institute. The focus of the program will be to develop “renaissance lawyers” for the Information Age. The Lunsford Academy will provide students with the technological, financial and professional skill sets essential to the modern practice of law. Through the program’s technology-driven, skills-based curriculum, students will acquire the fundamental skills that will make them more productive for their clients, more attractive to employers and better prepared to practice law upon graduation.
In addition to taking the program’s required and elective law and informatics courses, Chase students participating in the Lunsford Academy will have the opportunity to participate in technology-focused semester-in-practice placements and study abroad programs; they will also be able to seek joint degrees. Chase College of Law partners with the NKU College of Informatics to offer a Juris Doctor/Master of Business Informatics and Juris Doctor/Master of Health Informatics and with the NKU Haile/US Bank College of Business to offer a Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration.
Professor Jon Garon, director of the Law + Informatics Institute, said the development of the Lunsford Academy is the next step in the evolution of legal education. “In addition to a solid foundation in legal doctrine, theory and practice, law students need business education, information technology and intellectual property knowledge, and law practice management experience,” he said. “These skills will enable students to compete in today’s highly networked, efficient and global business community. The generous donation by Bruce Lunsford enables Chase to meet this challenge and redefine the scope of legal education.”
In recognition of Lunsford’s gift, the academy will be named the W. Bruce Lunsford Academy for Law, Business + Technology, upon approval by the NKU Board of Regents.
“We are extremely honored and pleased that Bruce has made this significant investment in our Law + Informatics Institute,” said Dennis R. Honabach, dean of the College of Law. “The Lunsford Academy will provide our law students with invaluable opportunities to become uniquely prepared for the modern practice of law.”
The NKU Chase Law + Informatics Institute provides critical interdisciplinary research regarding law, regulation and industry practice as it is applied across complex information systems, emerging technology and all areas of law. While not limited to any legal field, the institute emphasizes intellectual property law, privacy, business and securities laws, international laws, and evidentiary rules because the creation, acquisition, aggregation, security, manipulation and exploitation of data have the largest legal and societal consequences in these fields.
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