Anthony T. DiPietro, a New York Law School (NYLS) alumnus and trustee, gave a $1 million gift to the institution to establish the Carmen DiPietro Scholarship Fund for students pursuing careers as plaintiff attorneys, the school recently announced.
The scholarship, named in honor of DiPietro’s mother, will support students at the Lower Manhattan law school interested in the plaintiffs’ side of medical malpractice, plaintiffs’ personal injury, civil rights, criminal prosecution and appellate advocacy involving civil plaintiffs.
DiPietro graduated from NYLS magna cum laude in 1998, and began his career as a medical malpractice trial attorney before founding The DiPietro Law Firm in 2003. His work focuses on cases involving medical negligence, patient safety violations, institutional misconduct and alleged cover-ups.
According to NYLS, DiPietro has secured more than $2.2 billion in compensation for his clients in cases involving sexual exploitation and abuse, birth injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death and other catastrophic injuries.
“Anthony T. DiPietro is a role model for our students,” said Anthony W. Crowell, dean and president of NYLS. “Courage is a through-line in his groundbreaking work, in which he powerfully demonstrates that advocacy on behalf of the most vulnerable is true public service. This includes the courage his clients show in their pursuit of justice, and Anthony’s own courage in his relentless drive to help them achieve it. Thanks to his extraordinary generosity, new generations of New York Law School students will follow in Anthony’s footsteps as forceful advocates delivering justice to survivors and holding the most powerful accountable.”
DiPietro, who was elected to NYLS’s Board of Trustees this year, said every person deserves to be treated with respect and given the same chance in life, adding that his mother taught him the importance of equality and inclusiveness—lessons he has carried throughout this legal career.
“This gift honors her values by providing financial support to any New York Law School student interested in pursuing a career as a plaintiffs’ attorney or criminal prosecutor — future trial attorneys who will seek justice for people who have been wronged, hold powerful institutions accountable for the harm they cause, and enforce the rule of law on behalf of the public,” he said. “I am proud to partner with New York Law School and carry her legacy forward through this perpetual scholarship.”
John Estes, chair of the NYLS Board of Trustees, called DiPietro an “extraordinary litigator” and advocate.
“The Board of Trustees is grateful for his extraordinary generosity which will provide critical support to our students so that they can achieve justice and accountability for those who need it most,” he said. “His success in building one of the nation’s leading plaintiffs’ practices, together with his genuine dedication to student success, will make Anthony an important voice in shaping the board’s strategic thinking and the institution’s future growth.”
The Carmen DiPietro Scholarship is the first scholarship in the school’s 134-year history that is dedicated specifically to supporting future plaintiffs’ trial attorneys and criminal prosecutors.