A letter from an alumnus about a law school at Princeton

March 3, 2002

When I attended New York University School of Law following Princeton, Dean John Sexton (a wonderful storyteller) used to tell us about how NYU School of Law almost became Princeton University School of Law. I cannot remember all the interesting details, but the story went that in the early 1970s, NYU was trying to poach the law school's sizable endowment (due to the university's financial problems), and the NYU law faculty decided to leave NYU. The school was to stay on Washington Square but would be joined with Princeton — the story went that the NYU faculty had even voted to join Princeton, and Princeton had voted to bring the former NYU law school on board. The law school remained with NYU after a tennis game between trustees when they figured out that they could get more money out of the law school endowment, thus saving NYU (the university) and preserving the law school's independence from the university. Is there any truth to this story?

Alex Southwell ’93
New York, N.Y.

Respond to this letter
Send a letter to PAW

Go back to our online Letter Box Table of Contents