Mark P. Robinson Jr. of Newport Beach, Calif.'s Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson, known for lawsuits against automakers and tobacco companies, is being obligingly munificent toward the new "public interest" law school starting up under Erwin Chemerinsky. More: Thomas Lifson, American Thinker (calling tort lawyers a "natural constituency of the new school"); Stephen Bainbridge (quoting Chemerinsky maintaining that public-interest law cuts across ideological boundaries).

Yet more: This recent profile by Amanda Bronstad of the NLJ notes Robinson's leading role in pharmaceutical litigation and the political clout associated with his firm; California State Sen. Joe Dunn, closely identified with trial lawyer interests in Sacramento, worked for Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson for ten years. And it also notes that at UC Irvine, "Robinson was one of only two lawyers on the dean search committee," though he "often shuns the spotlight".