- About
About USC Gould
USC Gould is a top-ranked law school with a 115-year history and reputation for academic excellence. We are located on the beautiful 228-acre USC University Park Campus, just south of downtown Los Angeles.
- Academics
Academics
Learn about our rigorous and interdisciplinary curriculum, our invaluable experiential learning opportunities, and the breadth and depth of our specialized areas of concentration and certificate offerings.
- Admissions
Admissions
USC Gould helps prepare you for a stellar legal career. You can pursue a JD degree, one of our numerous graduate and international offerings, or an online degree or certificate.
- Student Life
Student Life
Participate in an unparalleled learning experience with diversity of people and thought. Get involved in the law school community and participate in activities that enhance your studies.
- Careers
Careers
We work closely with students, graduates and employers to support successful career goals andoutcomes. Our overall placement rate is consistently strong, with 94 percent of our JD class employed within 10 months after graduation.
- Faculty
Faculty
Our faculty is distinguished for its scholarship, as well as for its commitment to teaching. Our 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio creates an intimate and collegial learning environment.
- Alumni and Giving
Alumni and Giving
The global Trojan network of more than 10,000 law alumni and donors include recognized leaders in numerous fields who are deeply committed to supporting student and law school success.

Giving to USC Gould
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Featured Blog Post
Where There’s a Will, There’s More Than One Way to Be Charitable
Posted January 2021One of those New Year’s resolutions, while not as widespread as losing weight, is pretty common: Time to write or update the will! We all know we should be doing this, since a will is the bedrock of any person’s estate plan. It can give direction on the final disposition of your assets—and benefit your loved ones and the charitable organizations that you value.
As you consider drafting or updating your will, it is important to keep in mind just which assets your will can—and can’t—control. Simply put, your will controls only the distribution of assets the disposition of which is not already determined in some other way. For many of us, those other assets may actually be the majority of what we own. So what are some of the assets that can pass outside the will?
- Jointly held property
- Trusts
- Retirement-plan accounts
- Life insurance
- Accounts with financial institutions
So is a will still necessary?
Because there are multiple ways your property can be inherited, you may be tempted to think that you don’t need a will at all. Even though many—and in some cases most—of your assets may pass outside a will, there are, however, important reasons to execute a valid will:
- Appoint a guardian for a minor child
- Account for distribution of unexpected or unknown assets
- Start the clock running on time for creditors to claim against the estate
Charitable planning with your will and beneficiary designations
Charitable bequests are among the oldest and most important types of gifts received by many charitable organizations, including ours. It is easy to include provisions for our organization in your will—and those provisions can be modified at any time during your lifetime.
It is also possible—and not complicated—to name a charitable organization as a beneficiary of all or a portion of your trust, bank or investment account, retirement-plan account, or life insurance policy.
It can be quite beneficial to fund charitable gifts with qualified retirement-plan benefits and then direct other assets to family members. REASON: Most, if not all, of such benefits passing from your estate are treated as taxable income to the recipient; but, because we are tax-exempt, we would not pay tax on those amounts.
We want to help
Making decisions about the ultimate distribution of your assets is a vitally important undertaking. It should be undertaken carefully and with the guidance of trusted professionals. If we can be helpful in any way in the process, please feel free to contact our office.Share This Post: |
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Next Steps
- Request a confidential conversation with a gift-planning
officer about gift plans or other options - Read about our donors and the gifts they've made
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