Gillian Lester, Dean and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law, announced that Columbia Law School’s Center for Chinese Legal Studies will be named in honor of the school’s first Chinese graduate, Hong Yen Chang, who graduated from Columbia Law School in 1886 and later became the first Chinese American to be admitted as a lawyer in the United States. As of January 1, 2021, the center will be known as the Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies (张康仁 中国法律研究中心).
The naming is made possible through a new $5 million endowment led by Tim Steinert ’89, former general counsel of Alibaba Group, and his wife, Lixia Zhang. The fund garnered nearly 100 other contributions from dedicated Law School alumni, including leadership donors Li Lu ’96, Chun Wei ’84 LL.M., Charles Li ’91, Tim Xia ’97, Jon Christianson ’89, and Wei Sun Christianson ’89.
The first academic center of its kind in the United States, Columbia Law’s Center for Chinese Legal Studies was founded in 1983 by R. Randle “Randy” Edwards, Walter Gellhorn Professor Emeritus of Law, a preeminent authority on Chinese law. Under his leadership, the center produced influential scholarship, fostered scholarly exchanges between China and the United States, and trained generations of students in Chinese law.
Click here to read the full announcement from the Columbia Law School.
