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The American Bar Foundation Receives $3.4 Million Grant from the American Bar Endowment

October 13, 2020, Press releases

The American Bar Endowment (ABE) has awarded a $3.4 million grant to the American Bar Foundation (ABF), which will be used to support the ABF’s mission to expand knowledge and advance justice by understanding and improving law through interdisciplinary and empirical research.

ABE President Carolyn B. Lamm commented, “ABE is very pleased to be able to support the ABF’s mission to expand knowledge and advance justice through interdisciplinary and empirical research during the 2020-21 fiscal year. ABE is exceedingly grateful to all of its insureds among the Fellows who donate their dividends to support this important work!” 

"As the ABF’s primary funder, ABE's annual grant is critical to the development of our innovative and influential research,” said ABF Executive Director Ajay K. Mehrotra. “We continue to be grateful to the ABE for their longstanding and ongoing support."

The ABF has received annual grants from ABE since its founding in 1952. For more than 65 years, ABE has awarded about $150 million to the ABF. These unrestricted, annual grants are vital to enabling the ABF to continue its critically acclaimed work.

In the past year, the ABF celebrated the establishment of multiple programs intended to support empirical and interdisciplinary scholarship on the most pressing issues facing the legal system in the United States and the world. The ABF/JPB Foundation Access to Justice Scholars Program, currently in its inaugural year, aims to promote the next generation of scholars and to support the infrastructure of the burgeoning field of access to justice. The William C. Hubbard Law & Education Conference Endowment will fund conferences that recognize and disseminate innovative and significant scholarship on law and education.  

Current ABF research is also examining the political and social impact of problematic policing, the legal tools for protecting public health, the changing diversity of law students since the Great Recession, perceived bias in the legal workplace, and the role of law in end of life care.

ABE is a not-for-profit corporate public charity that sponsors high quality, affordable life and disability insurance for ABA members. ABE’s mission is to generate funds for the support of law-related research, educational, and public service projects through its insurance program and other programs that encourage charitable giving. Through ABE, ABA members can donate dividends to help fund over 200 legal research and public service projects, including the ABF. 

About the American Bar Foundation

The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is among the world’s leading research institutes for the empirical and interdisciplinary study of law. The ABF is an independent, non-profit that seeks to expand knowledge and advance justice through innovative, interdisciplinary, and rigorous empirical research on law, legal processes, and legal institutions.  The ABF produces timely, cutting-edge research to inform and guide the legal profession, the academy, and society in the United States and worldwide. The ABF’s primary funding is provided by the American Bar Endowment and the Fellows of The American Bar Foundation

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