The Straus Institute

The Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law & Justice was established through the generosity of Daniel Straus (NYU School of Law '81).

Mr. Straus has been a longstanding supporter of the Law School. He joined the Law School's Board of Trustees in 1998, and served on the Executive Committee, the Investment Committee, and the Ancillary Income Committee. In all of these roles, Mr. Straus contributed to the oversight of issues of great importance to the Law School. He also supported the Law School's Weinfeld Program, co-chaired and then chaired his Reunion Committee, and served as an active member of the Campaign Steering Committee that led our successful $400 million "Where We Stand" campaign.

In 2009, Mr. Straus made a gift to the Law School to establish the Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law & Justice. The Institute honored Mr. Straus' parents, Joseph and Gwendolyn Straus--dedicated philanthropists with a deep commitment to education--and extended their philanthropic legacy. Over the course of five academic years (2009-10 to 2013-14), the Straus Institute made extraordinary contributions to the intellectual life of the Law School and to the scholarly community at large. The Straus Institute was one of the first of its kind dedicated exclusively to scholarship at the intersection of law and the social sciences and humanities. It quickly rose to global preeminence as a center of excellence, deepening our collective understanding of the law's evolving and vibrant relationship with other disciplines. The innovative approach of the Straus Institute provided NYU and the wider academic community with a model for future endeavors of this type. We anticipate the scholarly legacy of the Straus Institute will have a lasting impact on the continued scholarship of those who participated in its work.

Mr. Straus' philanthropic support of the School of Law also includes the establishment of the Joseph Straus Scholarship and the Joseph Straus Professorship, both gifts made in honor of his late father, who received his LLB from the Law School in 1937 and his LLM in 1943.