Law-school endowment provides scholarships for minorities

Seattle's Livengood family, along with the UW Law School, has established a landmark fellowship program for underrepresented students of color.

The Gordon A. Livengood Law Studies Fellowship Program, named in honor of the Seattle-area lawyer who was a staunch civil-rights supporter, was established to support Livengood's belief that ethnic origin or lack of money should never prevent a student from pursuing a legal career.

The $934,000 endowment, one of the largest scholarship gifts received by the school, provides four minority law-school students who have demonstrated financial need with $10,000 each for their first year of law school.

"This fellowship is about helping to make the legal community more closely resemble the community at large, especially after the passage of Initiative-200," said Pete Livengood, Gordon Livengood's son. "My dad was both passionate and pragmatic, a man who worked hard, saved money, and eventually decided to use his IRA funds for charitable purposes to back up his convictions," he said.

This year's recipients of the Livengood Fellowship are Vicky Cardenas, Ralph Jefferson, Stephen Ssemaala and Crystal White.

"The first Livengood fellows are an exceptional group and will be an asset to the 1L class, the legal profession and ethnic communities," said Sandra Madrid, assistant dean for student affairs.