Northwestern Gets $5 Million Gift For Immigration Legal Clinic

EVANSTON, IL — Northwestern's law school received a $5 million gift from Harry Seigle to expand its immigration clinic.

The donation will endow the Seigle Clinic for Immigrant Youth and Families at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law's Blum Legal Clinic's Children and Family Justice Center and help cover the costs of operations, programming and hiring a second immigration attorney, school officials announced.

The clinic represents young people in immigration court seeking humanitarian protection and works to prevent family separation by representing parents in deportation proceedings.

More than 150 Northwestern law students have taken part in the immigration law clinic, working on investigations, writing up court filings and representing clients in court and before federal immigration agencies, according to school officials.

The new clinic will be directed by Clinical Professor of Law Uzoamaka Emeka Nzelibe, whose work focuses on asylum, removal defense and unaccompanied child migrants.

“Recent headlines show that our asylum system is broken, and immigration remains a hot-button issue,” Nzelibe said in a statement. “This endowment establishes a permanent home for immigration work at Northwestern Pritzker Law and provides a space where honest and informed dialogue on immigration reform can occur.”

Seigle is a third-generation Elgin native whose father owned the Elgin Lumber Company. After graduating Northwestern's law school in 1971 and practicing law in Chicago for several years, he went into the family business and spent three decades as chairman of Seigle's, leading it to become the Chicago area's largest building products supplier.

In 2006, he launched The Elgin Company, which focuses on real estate acquisition and management, private investing and philanthropy, school officials said. He is also the president of the Seigle Family Foundation.

Seigle said he made the $5 million gift in memory of his mother, Lora Seigle, who was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1936 as a Jewish refugee.

“My mother’s life experiences inspired me to make this gift to improve legal services for immigrants,” Seigle said. “The idea behind e pluribus unum, ‘out of many, one,’ is central to my family’s heritage. Immigrants have helped make this country what it is today, and we are better for it.”

The donation is Seigle's second multi-million contribution to Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. In 2015, he gave $3 million to create an endowed fund to support faculty and establish the Seigle Family Chair of Law.

Hari Osofsky, dean of Northwestern Pritzker Law, said in a statement that he and other school officials are "extremely grateful" to Seigle for providing the money to endow the new clinic.

“His generosity will make a critical difference in the Law School’s efforts to assist immigrants," Osofsky said, "and provide our students with important learning and service opportunities.”