STL PILF First Public Interest Auction raises over 81,000 RMB

On April 19 2014, STL PILF hosted the First Annual Public Interest Auction on campus at the Peking University School of Transnational Law, Shenzhen. The Auction was the first event of its kind for a Chinese law school and was supported by many public interest law organizations from mainland China and Hong Kong. It is an annual fundraiser to support various public interest law events and Summer Internship Grants at STL. The Summer Internship Grants helps subsidize STL students who choose to devote their summers to public interest work. All monies donated will contribute to PILF to support these programs.

Dean Colleen Toomey, the Associate Dean of STL and the PILF supervisor opened the event with the introduction of the PILF founding team. Jeffrey Lehman, the President of NYU Shanghai and Founding Dean, also attended the event and was happy to see STL’s growth and student initiative. He hosted as an auctioneer for several items, and won the bid for calligraphy written by a 2L student.

Most auction items were donated from faculty and students. Dean Philip McConnaughay’s donation, a Hong Kong Victoria “junk boat” dinner cruise, received heated bids between students, faculty, and staff. Dean Yandle donated a traditional “American cocktail party” for students. Other professor bids included hosted dinners, dim sum lunches, and even a special dinner at the prestigious Yale Club in New York City (from Professor Kargman). Student donations ranged from personal piano courses, a guided tour through Shenzhen, and handmade jewelry. An exchange student from Miami University donated a script signed by a famous director.

Professor Eric Mao and Professor Andrew Kerr hosted as lively auctioneers and created a sense of joyous and playful tension between bidders. Mark Daly, a human rights lawyer in Hong Kong (Daly & Associates), gave the keynote speech. Huang Xuetao, the Executive Director of Equity & Justice Initiative, expressed her excitement in joining this event and expects more excellent law students to join the public interest law field.

We expect the Public Interest Auction to continue as a major annual event in STL. We thank all those who donated to the auction and bid for all of the wonderful items. Monetary donations and auction sales totaled over 81,000 RMB. Together, the auction was able to fulfill its goal – for everyone to have fun and Bid for Justice!

– Reported By WU Guanhua (2L); Photo by LI Jianwei and Zhang Junqi