Upper Makefield Couple Makes $1M Donation To Rutgers Law Schools

A Bucks County couple has donated $1 million to Rutgers University law schools in Camden and Newark. The investment will be used to fund pro bono and public interest initiatives, according to information from the school.

Rutgers Law–Camden alumnus James R. Maida and his wife Sharon, of Upper Makefield, made the donation.

“The Maidas have long supported Rutgers students through generous scholarships. Now with their $1 million gift, the Maida Public Interest Scholars Program will establish the law school as one of the nation’s leading public law schools for public interest law,” Rutgers said in a statement.

The Maidas are trustees of the James and Sharon Maida Foundation, Inc., which creates opportunities for young people to continue their education.

The Maida Public Interest Summer Fellowships will pay up to 40 students to work for public interest legal organizations in positions that are normally unpaid, imparting valuable professional experience to the students while advancing the public good, Rutgers said in a statement.

The Maida Post–Graduate Public Interest Fellowship will fund the full-time salary of a selected fellow working in the public interest. “These extraordinary funding opportunities will also help attract a cohort of high-achieving prospective law students with a demonstrated commitment to social change,” Rutgers said.

James R. Maida, a 1990 graduate, is founder, president, and CEO of Gaming Laboratories International, LLC, headquartered in Lakewood, N.J.

Sharon O’Mara Maida, Ed.D, is a 1997 Rutgers University Graduate School of Education alumna. According to her bio, she is a pioneer in the area of orientation and mobility of blind and visually impaired children. Dr. Maida also maintains a private practice specializing in children with visual impairments.

“All of our gifts to Rutgers centered on helping those students, those future lawyers, who through no fault of their own find that the cost of a legal education is outside of their financial means,” James Maida said in a prepared statement. “Now it’s time for those students to give back, to pay it forward to help other people in need. Good quality legal service is often out of reach to those who need it the most. We are paying it forward twice on a single gift.”

The donation comes at a perfect time, according to Rutgers.

“Their generous and strategic gift comes at a momentous time for the law school. Pending American Bar Association approval later this summer, Rutgers’ law schools in Camden and Newark will merge as a unified Rutgers Law School, becoming one of the nation’s largest public law schools and offering one of the most comprehensive curriculums in the country,” Rutgers said in a statement.

According to the Maidas, the timing of the gift is no coincidence.

“This is an exciting time for Rutgers Law, and we are exceptionally grateful to James and Sharon for their transformational investment that will greatly enhance our nationally recognized pro bono and public interest program in an unprecedented way and during an historic time in Rutgers legal education,” says Rutgers Law–Camden Acting Dean John Oberdiek.