The American Law Institute is excited to announce the receipt of a $500,000 gift from Ann and Dan Girard. This gift will help ensure that ALI has the resources necessary for its next century of clarifying, modernizing, and otherwise improving the law.
“The American Law Institute is enormously grateful for Dan’s significant intellectual contributions to so many of our projects and to all the time that he devotes to Council matters,” said ALI Director Richard L. Revesz. “And I am so moved that he and Ann have made such a tremendously generous gift to our Second Century Campaign. Throughout Dan’s career, he has dedicated much time to maintaining and defending the rule of law. With this gift, the Girards are helping to ensure that the ALI can continue its work to do the same for the next 100 years.”
Ann and Dan Girard are no strangers to the work of The American Law Institute. Both are experienced lawyers who were first introduced to the Restatements and Model Codes in law school. Dan became a member of ALI in 2006, and was elected to its Council in 2019.
Ann began her career at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison. This is where she and Dan met. Ann then went on to serve as western regional counsel at Hitachi America for more than 10 years, where she was chief legal counsel for the company’s largest business unit. After that, she joined QuickLogic as general counsel. She also served as president of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel. She currently works with education-focused organizations.
Dan’s practice is concentrated in federal court, and he has served in various capacities on federal court rulemaking committees. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist appointed him to the United States Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, where he served from 2004 to 2010. Chief Justice John G. Roberts appointed him to the Standing Committee on Practice and Procedure in 2015 and reappointed him for a second term in 2018. He served on the Advisory Board of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System from 2007 to 2016. He has been a long-standing member of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section, Committee on Business and Corporate Litigation. (Visit the donor profile page to view the complete profile.)
Dan explained why they decided to support ALI’s Second Century fund, saying, “It’s a privilege to contribute to this historic campaign. I can’t think of a more important cause at this time in our history than supporting an association dedicated to maintaining the rule of law.” He continued, “Ann and I hope that ALI in the next 100 years continues to serve its mission of improving the law, and builds on its reputation for excellence by incorporating the contributions of the most talented legal thinkers from every area of legal profession.”
Gifts made to ALI’s Second Century Campaign will allow ALI to continue to focus on its Restatements, Principles, and Model Codes that have been identified as areas in need of clarification or reform; launch projects that examine areas of the law not yet studied by ALI that are at the forefront of legal discourse; coordinate legal rules and facilitate cooperation across borders by working with organizations in other countries to create transnational legal principles; and eliminate barriers to participation in our work, ensuring that our membership remains diverse and broad, and that there are no financial obstacles to participating in our process. (Read the full list of funding priorities.)