PHILADELPHIA – JAN. 20, 2023 – Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP’s Philadelphia office Managing Shareholder Curtis B. Toll was appointed to a special 14-member panel charged with advising Penn State University on how best to unify its two law schools.
Penn State University President Neeli Bendapudi asked the volunteer panel – composed of alumni, faculty, staff, and students of Penn State Law at University Park and Penn State Dickinson Law School – to deliver a plan by May 31 that promotes excellence in teaching, scholarship, service, and community and that is fiscally and academically sustainable. Bendapudi and the Penn State board are set to study and implement a plan that would streamline and consolidate its law school offerings with a primary location in Carlisle. The panel, working without compensation or comments to the media during these confidential sessions, will report its findings directly to Bendapudi.
Toll, a graduate of the Dickinson School of Law and a longtime member of the Penn State Law School’s Board of Advisors, will offer a measured, thoughtful approach to the delicate and complex challenges posed by this proposed reunification. A nationally-renowned member of the firm’s Environmental Practice, Toll has led the firm’s Philadelphia office since 2018, growing it from 37 to 65 lawyers.
“I am humbled to be among the select volunteers entrusted with this assignment,” Toll said. “There is no doubt that this is sensitive, tedious, and difficult work, but it is critical to the competitive and financial health of Penn State’s Law School, its campus community, and, ultimately, the taxpayers of the Commonwealth.
“There are a lot of emotions involved, as well as cultural and financial considerations for all involved, so I expect this to be challenging on many levels. But in the end, this is an effort designed to bring alignment and a stronger legal future forward for Pennsylvania and those who would come here to study at one of the most august centers of knowledge in the country. We all deserve that, and as an alum and a lifelong Pennsylvanian, I am proud to engage in this public service and to be a part of the solution in this process,” Toll added.