Page 14 - NYLS Magazine • 2016 • Vol 35, No. 1

By Katrina Dewey
Joe AnD susAn PluMeri Give $5M to new York lAw sChool
Joe Plumeri is the kind of guy who can make you believe anything is possible.
And why not?
The grandson of Sicilian immigrants, he was infused before his first breath with a belief in the power of hard work and reaching for the stars. His grandfather was legendary in Trenton, N.J., for wooing Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig to play a game there just three days after winning the 1927 World Series for the Yankees.
After a stint in the Army, Plumeri found his first professional job in a closet on Broad Street. From there, he became a corporate titan with a raft of titles: President of Shearson Lehman Brothers; Citibank North America; and Willis, to name a few.
He’s legendary for his ability to inspire – which is why he brought down the house at Carnegie Hall in May 2015, when he gave the commencement speech for New York Law School’s graduates. His speech was exceptional because he is so gifted and passionate, but also because of the audience of several hundred new lawyers he was launching into choppy waters.
“Go play in traffic,” he advised them, encouraging them to take risks and find their way in the world. And he told the story of how he got his start in business. In 1968, he enrolled in NYLS to pursue his dream of becoming a lawyer. Because he also needed to work, he went knocking on doors downtown hoping to clerk for a law firm.
So when he found one that had three names and an ampersand, he figured, what luck! One of the partners interviewed him and asked why he wanted to work there, and when Plumeri said to get some practical experience in the law, Sanford Weill explained that Carter, Berlind & Weill was a brokerage firm. Plumeri left law school and became a huge success in business instead of law– proof that you never know where life will take you.
* This article was adapted from Lawdragon. The original article appeared November 12, 2015 on www.lawdragon.com
So at graduation 47 years later, as he watched the students – each a story of perseverance – cross the stage to accept their diplomas, Plumeri was inspired.
“These were first generation lawyers, a person raising a child while going to law school holding their child as they went across the stage,” he said. “It was inspiring, motivating and it made me feel good about what the school was doing, seeing the diversity and the opportunity it gave people.”
The experience inspired Plumeri to establish The Joe Plumeri Center for Social Justice and Economic Opportunity with a $5M gift to NYLS from him and his wife, Susan. The Center will provide opportunities to law students and clients who need legal advice as entrepreneurs, veterans, immigrants and for civil rights issues.
“A large reason for whatever has happened to me in my life I owe to New York Law School,” says Plumeri, who became reacquainted with NYLS earlier this year after meeting Dean Anthony W. Crowell. When Plumeri visited NYLS, he wanted to support the school’s efforts to build its practical training program.
“My grandfather and great-grandfather were immigrants who came for an opportunity, not a handout,” says Plumeri. “I want to make sure everybody has the opportunity to be able to live the American dream. This is my way of doing that.”
The Plumeri Center will be the home of NYLS’s law firm, with street-level access for clients who can receive free legal services. It will house more than 20 legal clinics from the school and offer trial practice facilities. The donation is one of the largest in NYLS history and one of the largest ever to a law school to enhance experiential learning.
12 NEw York Law ScHooL magazINE • 2016 • VOL. 35, NO. 1