Communications mogul bestows $28.5 million on UNLV law school

Jace Radke

Thursday, Nov. 5, 1998 | 11:12 a.m.

When the students at the UNLV law school study the colorful lawyers of Nevada's past, the name Louis Wiener Jr. probably will pop up a lot.

After representing such diverse clients as Frank Sinatra, corporate magnate Kirk Kerkorkian and mobster Bugsy Siegel, one would think Wiener had cemented his place in the annals of local lawyer lore.

But Wiener's longtime friend, James Rogers, who is majority owner of Sunbelt Communications Co., must have wanted to make sure people didn't forget his pal.

Rogers, whose company owns and operates NBC television affiliates in Nevada and five other Western states, announced Wednesday a a pledge to the law school of $28.5 million, with $1 million of those funds earmarked for the new Louis Wiener Law Library.

"Louis and I developed a simple philosophy over the years, and that was that after you make what you need for your family, you're just holding the rest for the public," Rogers said. "So now we're delivering funds to an institution with first-class leadership, a first-class faculty and now a first-class law school."

The $28.5 million will be paid into the law school through the UNLV Foundation over a number of years, Rogers told about 150 people at the Tam Alumni building on the UNLV campus.

There will be an outright gift for an amount still being negotiated, and then money will be paid on a yearly basis until the pledge is paid in full, UNLV spokesman Tom Flagg said.

The monies will be used to enhance the faculty and student body through salary supplements and scholarships, law school Dean Richard Morgan said.

"It's hoped we can turn this into a momentum-wielding experience to generate support in this community for the law school," Morgan said. "It's going to take public and private funding if we're going to build the law school that UNLV should have."

Rogers, who has donated or pledged $50 million to the University of Arizona School of Law and more than $2 million to the University of Nevada Medical School, says he owes his philanthropic beliefs to Wiener.

"Louis always said to give away your success with a warm hand," Rogers said of Wiener, who died of a heart attack in February 1996 at age 80. "So my goal is that when I write my last check, it will bring my account to zero."

Wiener, who was a founding member of the UNLV Board of Trustees, would have been proud to be associated with the law school, said his daughter, Valerie Wiener, a Nevada state senator.

"I know he's smiling down from heaven today," Wiener said of her father. "There is no greater legacy then to have your name forever connected with education."