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In Biggest Law School Gift Ever, Pritzkers Donate $100 Million To Northwestern

CHICAGO (CBS) -- In what is the biggest single gift ever given to a law school, J.B. Pritzker and his wife, M.K., are donating $100 million to Northwestern, which will rename the school the Pritzker School Of Law.

J.B. Pritzker, a NU Law School alumnus and venture capitalist who is reportedly worth about $3.4 billion, said the donation will provide scholarships to students.

M.K. Pritzker is a director of the Pritzker Family Foundation and serves as a trustee of the Northwestern Memorial Foundation.

The donation also will support social justice initiatives at the school, including the Center on Wrongful Convictions, the Children and Family Justice Center, the Center on International Human Rights, the Environmental Law Center.

Northwestern President Morton Schapiro and Law School Dean Daniel B. Rodriguez made the announcement during an event at the Law School Wednesday.

"Our increasingly complex and dynamic world demands lawyers who are trained to tackle difficult legal and policy problems and to work imaginatively at the interface of law, business and technology," Rodriguez said. "This extraordinary gift will help provide the financial foundation for this law school to produce a new breed of highly skilled, adaptive lawyers."

The Pritzkers have made gifts to the University for 16 consecutive years.

The family's ties to Chicago span over 100 years.

Nicholas J. Pritzker arrived here in 1881 and grew up in poverty.

He was admitted to the Illinois College of Law in 1900 and put himself through school, eventually building a successful law practice.

J.B.'s father, Donald Pritzker, was co-founder and the chief executive who built the Hyatt Hotels Corp.

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