PUBLISHED:February 04, 2013

Anne ’94 and Adrian ’95 Dollard establish scholarship for law students pursuing studies in entrepreneurship or business

Anne ’94 and Adrian ’95 Dollard

Duke Law alumni Anne L. Dollard ’94 and Adrian E. Dollard ’95 have established an endowed scholarship for students pursuing studies in business or entrepreneurship as well as law, announced Dean David F. Levi.  The gift advances the Law School’s current $85 million capital campaign — part of the university-wide $3.25 billion Duke Forward fundraising campaign — which includes increasing student support as a key priority.

The Dollards, who met at Duke, have established the Adrian E. and Anne L. Dollard Scholarship with a $500,000 gift commitment that will be matched with $250,000 from the financial aid challenge established by Elizabeth and Stanley Star ’61. The fund will be used to provide scholarships to students who are pursuing a dual JD and LLM in law and entrepreneurship, a dual JD/MBA, or the LLM in law and entrepreneurship (LLMLE).  This focus reflects the professional interests of the San Francisco-based couple. 

Anne Dollard retired last spring as deputy general counsel and chief patent counsel for Takeda, where she managed all facets of Takeda San Francisco’s general legal and intellectual property matters, including the global management of Takeda’s antibody technology.  She joined the company in 2008 after spending more than a decade in the area of antibody technology and therapeutic antibody intellectual property.

Adrian Dollard is a co-founder and the chief operating officer of Qatalyst Partners, a global, independent investment bank that services the emerging technology sector.  Prior to co-founding Qatalyst in 2008, he served as general counsel of Credit Suisse’s technology group and practiced law at Shearman and Sterling, where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and venture capital.  He is a member of the Law School’s Board of Visitors and the advisory board for the LLMLE program.

Establishing a scholarship for students pursuing studies in law, entrepreneurship, and business, meshes with the couple’s professional interests and Duke University’s strengths, said Adrian Dollard, who also received his undergraduate degree at Duke.

“Duke has a strong culture of innovation; it’s not hidebound to tradition, and it’s also very interdisciplinary, which is exactly the stew of things you need to have a successful entrepreneurial class,” he said. “One of Duke’s defining characteristics as an institution is its nimbleness. It’s much younger than its peer institutions, it’s much more flexible, and it’s much more innovative in all different areas.  That it has established a curriculum to stoke and nurture those interests is only a natural extension of the whole culture at Duke.”

Why support a scholarship?  “The reality is that no student’s tuition comes close to paying for the education they actually receive.  Whether you’re getting financial aid scholarships or not, everyone is really standing on the shoulders of the generosity of folks who have come before and tried to make that possible,” said Dollard, who received the Law Alumni Association’s Young Alumni Award in 2010.  “The Duke community has enriched my family’s lives tremendously, and now it’s our turn to try to do the same for other folks down the line.”

“Anne and Adrian are wonderful examples of how the training at Duke Law can prepare our graduates for careers at the cutting edge of law and business,” said Dean Levi.  “The Dollards have been terrific supporters of the School in so many different ways, particularly in advising us about the dynamic areas in which they practice and work.  We are so grateful to them for this further act of leadership, generosity, and loyalty which will directly benefit future generations of law students who want to make a difference in business and entrepreneurship.” 

“Adrian Dollard has offered tremendous support and guidance as we have established and expanded our programs and curriculum relating to entrepreneurship,” said Professor  Kip Frey ’85, who directs the Law and Entrepreneurship Program.  “That he and Anne have now seen fit to endow a scholarship is a wonderful affirmation of their belief in the relevance of these initiatives.”