John and Jan deGravelles with LSU Law students who are benefitting from their $1 million gift at the 2020 Scholarship Reception on Feb. 11.
John and Jan deGravelles have made a transformational $1 million gift to create four scholarships at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, John’s alma mater. John (Humanities & Social Sciences, ’71; Law, ’74) is a federal judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. The scholarships, as well as a class award, honor two of the judge’s former LSU Law professors and lifelong friends who profoundly impacted his education and career: David W. Robertson and Professor Symeon Symeonides.
The idea to create the scholarships came from LSU Interim President Thomas Galligan (who was LSU Law dean at the time) when the deGravelleses asked him what the most meaningful way would be to support the school. “Jan and I get to meet the people who are the recipients of our scholarship. We get to read their letters … and it’s extremely gratifying to see an actual person who is receiving the benefit of your gift,” said Judge deGravelles.
The deGravelleses dedicated both an endowed superior graduate scholarship and an annual scholarship for each former professor, as well as the class award in honor of Symeonides. The late Robertson (Law, ’61) was a distinguished teacher and scholar at the University of Texas School of Law and rose to notoriety as one of the nation’s foremost experts on torts and admiralty. Symeonides taught for many years at the LSU Law Center before accepting his role as the dean of the Willamette University School of Law and becoming a distinguished scholar.
John and Jan consider their scholarships and award, which provide approximately $50,000 in support of seven students every year, a great legacy of increasing access to LSU Law and the legal profession for hardworking students. Preference for Robertson Scholars is given to underrepresented students with financial need; preference for Symeonides Scholars is also given to underrepresented students with financial need but from a country other than the U.S., as Symeonides himself immigrated from Cyprus, Greece.
“We need to encourage people who want to come to America from other countries looking for educational opportunity,” Jan said. “Professor Symeonides is a shining example of how such students can contribute to our society.”
John, who was appointed as a federal judge by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2014, joins them as a prestigious alumnus of LSU Law. Though he graduated with The Order of the Coif distinction, he was challenged during his years as a student with what he found grueling curricula and professors with high standards of excellence. He recalls that, at the time, his class was the largest the school had seen, but only about half finished with a degree—a fate they were warned of at orientation. “What I can say without a doubt is that it prepared me very, very well for the practice of law,” he shared. “A lot of the success that I’ve had in my career has been as a result of the education and the training and the rigor of LSU Law.”
His first two years out of school, John practiced international maritime law, traveling everywhere from the Dominican Republic to Germany to the Philippines for the job. Over the next 40 years, his career was centered in civil litigation as a “zealous advocate” for his clients, founding the Baton Rouge firm of deGravelles, Palmintier, Holthaus and Frugé. “It’s complicated in practice, but not complicated in theory,” John shared of the transition from lawyer to judge. “When I went through the confirmation process and I had to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I was asked over and over again, ‘What is your job as the judge?’ My job is to follow the law. It is to find the law and follow the law and apply the law to the facts of the case. It is not to make up the law, although you may be tempted.”
An adjunct professor since 1994, John teaches a course on federal courts at LSU Law, and he always has the same advice for his students: “The secret to success is not much of a secret, actually. It’s really what every successful lawyer knows. It’s mostly hard work and preparation. It helps to be brilliant, of course, but it is not a necessary ingredient to success. Just getting down to the hard work of learning materials, doing as well as you can in law school, and then just carrying these habits with you into the practice of law.”
