Cornell Law School alumni have contributed a total of $8 million to found a business law institute to be housed within Myron Taylor Hall on campus, the law school announced Nov. 2.

A $5 million gift given by alumnus Jack G. Clarke, LLB '52, a lawyer and a retired ExxonMobil executive, and his wife, Dorothea, initiated the creation of the Jack G. Clarke Institute for the Study and Practice of Business Law. Other alumni have committed an additional $3 million to the project.

"This is the largest single investment in business law in the history of the Law School," says Stewart J. Schwab, the Allan R. Tessler Dean and professor of law. "It will provide our students and faculty with unparalleled opportunities to contribute solutions to the complex issues emerging from new domestic regulations and a global economy."

According to the terms of the gifts, the institute will provide "a unique synergy between the law and business curricula," providing law graduates with the skills they need to succeed in both the business and legal worlds of today.

The Clarke Business Law Institute will include expanded class offerings, three new faculty, an executive director as well as seminars, conferences and other programming.

The institute also will serve to complement the law school's dual J.D./M.B.A. degree program, run in conjunction with Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management.