Northwestern’s Juris Doctor MBA program received a $3 million gift from General Dynamics Corporation to commemorate Nicholas D. Chabraja (School of Law ’67), the recently retired chief executive officer of General Dynamics.

The donation will fund the University’s first-ever joint JD-MBA professorship. The three-year JD-MBA program, which has been in existence since 1999, consists of a dual major in the School of Law and the Kellogg School of Management. The professorship will help unify the two schools, but will essentially serve to fund interdisciplinary research.

David Van Zandt, dean of NU’s School of Law, said the board of directors of General Dynamics, a defense industry contractor, chose to honor Chabraja by creating the professorship in his name. Chabraja is a member of NU’s Board of Trustees, and became the CEO of General Dynamics in 1997.

Bernard Black, a leader in the fields of law and finance, was chosen to chair the Nicholas D. Chabraja Professorship. Previously, Black had a joint position in law and finance at the University of Texas at Austin.

“I’m excited to be at NU,” Black said. “I’m in a field known as law and finance, so this position makes a lot of sense. There are lots of interesting people to work with.”

Kathleen Hagerty, a senior associate dean for faculty and research at Kellogg, said the professorship will enhance the schools’ research of finance in corporate law.

“(Kellogg and Law staff) have been wanting to strengthen the area of corporate law and its financial aspects,” she said. “Having someone of his caliber at NU is really pushing that area forward.”

Black will begin his professorship in September 2010, combined with a joint position in Kellogg’s finance department and the School of Law similar to his previous job at UT-Austin.

Van Zandt said the goal of the chair is to further solidify and unify the Kellogg and Law programs through the $3 million donation.

“We’re just thrilled to have received the gift and put Black in as the first holder,” he said. The JD-MBA program was the first of its kind in the nation, and integrates managerial and law studies for about 25 students.

“The program is unique in that it’s a fully integrated three-year program,” Van Zandt said.

“It’s very hard to be a good lawyer without knowing about business and vice versa, and the idea is to produce people who are attractive to business jobs and law firms.”

Lydia Hill, a student in the JD-MBA program, said she isn’t sure how the $3 million is going to benefit the program’s students directly, but looks forward to seeing how administrators use it to enhance collaboration between schools.

“I hope they will use (the money) to make sure the schools pay attention and take care of the students’ needs,” she said. “We’ve been going through a battle with Kellogg making sure there’s appropriate staff paying attention to us. I’d rather see the money spent on an administrative person whose job it is to usher us.”

Lizzie Rivard contributed [email protected]

Editor’s note: The original version of this article incorrectly stated that Hill said she would like to see “money spent on an administrative person whose job it is to lecture us.” Hill actually said “usher us.” THE DAILY regrets the error.