St. John’s University School of Law Receives Historic Gift to Name DiMartino/Smith Public Interest Center

Dean Jelani Jefferson Exum has announced that the Public Interest Center at St. John’s Law will be named the DiMartino/Smith Public Interest Center in honor of alumna Rose DiMartino ’81 and her spouse, Karen Sue Smith, whose multimillion-dollar gift will endow the Center’s programs and initiatives. It is the largest naming gift in the Law School’s 100-year history. 

For more than a decade, the DiMartino/Smith Public Interest Center has offered St. John’s Law students opportunities to build practical knowledge and skills while promoting social justice and serving the public good. Among the Center’s initiatives is the popular Summer Public Interest Fellowship Program, which provides generous stipends that enable students to accept full-time, unpaid summer positions with nonprofit organizations, courts, and government agencies. A longtime supporter of the Program, DiMartino funds multiple summer fellowships.

Students also gain valuable experience by participating in Center-coordinated pro bono programs, including the Spring Break Service Program, Civil Legal Advice and Resource Office Project, and Pro Bono Working Lunch. These programs receive funding through the Center’s annual Public Interest Auction, which DiMartino and other alumni generously support with their donations and winning bids.

Now newly endowed, the Center will augment these offerings by launching the Public Interest Intensive and other programming; increasing stipends for summer fellows and for the student fellows who drive the Center’s year-round work; broadening pro bono initiatives that give students hands-on legal experience serving their community; and convening symposia to address urgent issues affecting underserved New Yorkers.

“Building on their history of great generosity, Rose DiMartino’s and Karen Sue Smith’s gift to endow the Center is a strategic investment in our students and the futures they are shaping,” said Center Director Jeanne Ortiz-Ortiz. “It not only expands the pipeline for those pursuing careers in public interest and public service but also empowers us to innovate in ways that prepare all our students to become the well-rounded, practice-ready lawyers our communities need.”

This transformative investment in the Center also underscores that public interest is not a niche pursuit but a defining part of the St. John’s Law experience, open to every student. “The Center embodies a commitment that is deeply woven into the Law School’s mission and culture and that unites our community,” Ortiz-Ortiz said. “It reminds us that advancing the common good and upholding the integrity of our legal system are shared responsibilities that go beyond the 50-hour pro bono requirement for New York Bar admission and continue to guide our graduates wherever their careers take them.”

The endowment of the DiMartino/Smith Public Interest Center comes at a pivotal time, as St. John’s Law celebrates its 100th anniversary and looks ahead to its second century of excellence, prominence, and impact. “As the Law School’s 10th Dean and inaugural Rose DiMartino and Karen Sue Smith Professor of Law, I’m deeply grateful for Rose’s and Karen’s visionary support,” Dean Jefferson Exum shared. “Their gift will strengthen the Center’s position as a national leader in public interest and public service education, preparing our graduates to use the law for good and to serve their profession with purpose.”

For DiMartino, who retired as a Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP partner after nearly four decades of distinguished practice in asset management, supporting the Center’s public interest and public service work is very fulfilling. “The Public Interest Center is where law students can live out the Vincentian values of compassionate care for others using the legal skills they are developing, and Karen and I are privileged to support the wonderful work they do,” she said.

To learn more about the DiMartino/Smith Public Interest Center, please visit the Center’s website or email Center Director Jeanne Ortiz-Ortiz at [email protected].