Benefactors of the Law Library

The Bodleian Law Library is extremely grateful to the benefactors who provide us with invaluable support. This enables us to provide extra services, books and databases which we would otherwise be unable to offer our students and researchers.

If you would like to become a benefactor and support the ongoing maintenance of the excellent law collection at the Bodleian Law Library, please contact Maureen O'Neill, Director of Development, Faculty of Law, via email (maureen.oneill@law.ox.ac.uk).

Hogan Lovells

In 1998 Hogan Lovells agreed to support the Law Library's efforts to offer extended opening hours on weekends during term time.

Their continuing support allows us to extend our opening hours to 7pm on Saturdays and Sundays. This is a very popular service with all our students and researchers. It has also enabled us to open longer on Sunday evenings, to satisfy numerous requests by students. To this day, Hogan Lovells' generosity continues as an extension of the daily services provided by the Bodleian Law Library to all its readers.

In addition to this funding, Hogan Lovells provide popular items for student use, including power banks, water bottles and umbrellas. 

Other benefactors

The Bodleian Law Library is fortunate to receive donations from individuals and smaller firms which go towards our collection development fund. These donations provide us with the opportunity to make special purchases which would otherwise not be funded from our annual materials allocation. Occasionally, such a donation will be targeted at a certain practice area, such as taxation law, or human rights law. Current benefactors who provide funding for books which is given in conjunction with prizes awarded to students include the following:

Individuals

  • Allan Myers QC (Australia) generously provides support for the maintenance of the Australian collection, including the WestlawAU database.
  • Prof. Stephen A. Scott from Toronto provided donations to support the Canadian collection.

Barristers’ chambers

  • 3 Verulam Buildings
  • 5 Stone Buildings
  • Francis Taylor Chambers
  • Gray’s Inn Tax Chambers
  • Littleton Chambers
  • Quadrant Chambers
  • Red Lion Chambers
  • South Square

Law firms

  • Allen & Overy
  • Linklaters
  • Norton Rose Fulbright
  • Penningtons Manches Cooper
  • Pinsent Masons
  • Slaughter and May
  • White & Case

Professional services firms

  • Deloitte

Organizations

  • Planethood Foundation

Endowment funds

In 1998 The Rhodes Trust provided a generous donation for the establishment of a trust fund to support the Commonwealth collection.

In addition, the Law Library derives ongoing income for book purchases from two endowment funds established over 20 years ago. These came from the Club OASIS, an overseas lawyers' club which included a generous endowment from the Horace W Goldsmith Foundation, based in New York. Purchases from this fund support the European collection. The other ongoing endowment fund is the Thomas Casswell Memorial Fund, which is also used to support the Commonwealth collection.

Past benefactors

The Bodleian Law Library has benefitted from numerous relationships with law firms including:

  • Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
  • Baker & McKenzie
  • Slaughter and May
  • Norton Rose Fulbright
  • Weil Gotshal & Manges
  • Herbert Smith Freehills
  • Simmons & Simmons
  • Cravath, Swaine & Moore
  • Eversheds Sutherland

The City Solicitors' Educational Trust also provided donations to the Bodleian Law Library, which were used to supplement our foreign law book purchases.

We are extremely grateful for this generosity and appreciate the thoughtfulness of donors who continue to provide the opportunity for us to maintain the best law collection in the United Kingdom.