Building on its longstanding support of City of Hope, the law firm of Irell & Manella LLP has committed $7 million in funding to support City of Hope’s Graduate School of Biological Sciences.

A $5 million gift from the firm, matched by a $5 million anonymous gift, will establish the Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences. Another $2 million from the firm will create the Irell & Manella Visiting Professorship.

A $7 million naming gift will benefit programs for graduate students such as, from right, Louisa Villeneuve, Yan Li and Sumanth Putta. (Photo by Thomas Brown)

“These generous gifts will take City of Hope’s graduate school to the next level of academic excellence,” said Michael A. Friedman, M.D., president and chief executive officer. “Students in our graduate school have the potential to contribute a great deal to the scientific community and to our efforts to improve treatments for people with life-threatening diseases. We are grateful to Irell & Manella for helping to enhance City of Hope’s research and teaching efforts.”

John Rossi, Ph.D., graduate school dean and Lidow Family Research Chair, noted that the gifts will ensure that students and faculty remain at the forefront of biomedicine. “These monumental gifts will enable City of Hope to attract and train future generations of talented researchers,” he added.

Irell & Manella is a longtime supporter of City of Hope. Past gifts from the law firm established a symposium, created the Irell & Manella Leading-Edge Lecture Fund and supported the graduate school’s endowment.

Irell & Manella was founded in 1941 and was ranked in 2008 among the top 10 percent of the Blue Chip Index and Growth Index of The American Lawyer. Chambers & Partners, publishers of the world-famous legal guides, named Irell & Manella the “U.S. Intellectual Property Law Firm of the Year” in 2006 and recognized the firm nationally in its 2007 and 2008 top-tier rankings of intellectual property firms in the U.S.

“Our firm is pleased to support City of Hope’s graduate school,” said Morgan Chu, partner in Irell & Manella. “The school has an outstanding faculty and a tradition of scientific inquiry and collaborative research, which is critically important to the future of health care and patients who face a life-threatening disease.”