The Northwestern School of Law has established a new fellowship for post-graduate opportunities in public interest law, the University announced Friday.

The Jay A. Pritzker Fellowship Program will offer fellowships to several students annually over a three-year period. The fellowship is funded by a $1 million gift from the Jay Pritzker Foundation, named for Pritzker (Weinberg ’41, Law ’47).

“We need to do all we can to expand opportunities in this area,” said Dan Pritzker (Law ’86), a trustee of the foundation and Jay Pritzker’s son, in a news release. “We made this gift to honor the memory of my father, a dedicated philanthropist. We hope to inspire others to contribute as well, so that the Law School can expand these types of public interest initiatives.”

In addition to the $1 million gift, the foundation will match other gifts of $25,000 that go toward similar fellowships.

“So many of our students see the impact that public interest law can have on the well-being of their communities and society,” Dean Daniel Rodriguez said in the news release. “The Jay Pritzker Foundation’s generous gift to establish this program enables our graduates to immediately begin serving their communities, regardless of financial constraints.”

The Pritzker Fellowship will supplement the Northwestern Law Public Interest Fellowships program, established earlier this year.

— Joseph Diebold