PENNSYLVANIA RECORD

A prominent Philadelphia business lawyer has gifted $1.1 million to Temple

University’s Beasley School of Law.

Murray H. Shusterman, a 1936 graduate of Temple Law and a longtime supporter of the Philadelphia-based university, decided to “underwrite an endowed chair in the area of law he practices with demonstrable success during his long career,” according to an Oct. 24 Temple news release.

Shusterman, who practiced and taught in the field of business and real estate law since graduating from the university many decades ago, had been a member of the law school’s first day division class, where he served as editor of the Temple Law Quarterly before he graduated with honors.

Before joining the Philadelphia law firm Fox Rothschild, Shusterman served as a deputy city solicitor in Philadelphia and also worked as counsel for the Commission on Human Relations and for the Philadelphia City Council, according to the university.

The attorney has also worked for many years as an adjunct Temple Law professor, teaching mostly corporate and real estate law.

The law school stated that Shusterman’s contributions are not only inspiring, “they are unparalleled.”

“It is not an exaggeration to say that, without Murray Shusterman, Temple Law School could not have achieved its current level of excellence,” JoAnne A. Epps, dean of Temple Law, said in a statement. “His commitment and generosity have been an inspiration to all of us.”

Shusterman has also served as president of Temple’s alumni association, as a member of the Law School Board of Visitors, and as a member of the school’s board of trustees, according to the university.

Shusterman and a group of alumni founded the Temple University Law Foundation, the school’s first major fundraising organization, back in 1959.

The school stated that years of “dedication and diligent fundraising” by the foundation have increased its initial endowment of $50,000 to one currently worth nearly $3 million.

Shusterman also helped establish the Murray H. Shusterman Israel-Temple Law School Exchange Program Fund in the early 1980s, after Temple Law faculty and students displayed an increasing interest in international study and research.

Today, the fund enables students to spend a semester studying at Israel’s Tel Aviv University.

In 1994, Shusterman and his family gave a $1 million gift toward the renovation of Temple Law’s Park Hall, a historic church located on campus, according to the university’s news release.

When Shusterman announced his desire to contribute to Temple’s business law curriculum by endowing a chair, he reported stated, “Lord Francis Bacon three centuries ago said, ‘I hold every man a debtor to his profession.’ Whatever progress I’ve made personally and professionally, I owe to a large extent to the excellent education I received at Temple undergraduate and law school,” according to the Temple press release.

According to a biography on the Fox Rothschild website, Shusterman was awarded with Temple’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1993 and he was given an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the university two years later.