Columbia University received a $5 million commitment from alumnus John Sullivan and family to establish a three-year, full-tuition scholarship to one deserving, exceptional incoming student each year.
The Grace Rodriguez ’86 Scholars Program was created in memoriam of John Sullivan’s wife Grace Rodriguez to perpetuate her legacy of mentorship.
The program will also develop a network of Rodriguez Scholars.
The recipients will be encouraged to perpetuate the values Rodriguez exemplified throughout her life by acting as mentors and role models for subsequent student recipients and fellow graduates of the program throughout their careers.
Sullivan said Grace always provided good counsel not only to young lawyers and her colleagues, but also to our kids and her friends who were not lawyers.
“For young women associates in particular, she would take the time to counsel them on the differences between equity and non-equity partnerships and balancing practice with family obligations,” Sullivan said.
Rodriguez was a longtime partner in the Washington, D.C., office of King & Spalding. She specialized in complex civil litigation, antitrust matters, whistleblower actions and internal investigations.
“Grace loved practicing law,” said Sullivan, former U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, former deputy secretary of state and now a partner at Mayer Brown. “She was like a detective. She loved doing interviews, getting documents, finding out what happened, sorting out all the BS and figuring out when people were lying to her. She had very good instincts as a human being.”
Shortly after Rodriguez died, Sullivan began discussing ways to memorialize her with their children and her mother. They agreed that a fitting legacy would be a scholarship at Columbia Law School, where she and Sullivan met, fell in love and served as editors on the Columbia Law Review.
