$15 million gift from Dineen family honors parents’ legacy, transforms future of law school

For the Dineen siblings, the path to giving back to Syracuse University’s College of Law began with their parents’ determination to build lives in law when the odds were stacked against them.

Robert Emmet Dineen and Carolyn Bareham Dineen, both graduates of the College of Law who ranked in the top 10 percent of their classes, faced formidable challenges in carving out careers at a time when opportunities were not easily handed to young lawyers—especially to women like Carolyn.

Relying on resilience, tenacity, and each other, they went on to shape lives of distinction in their profession and communities.

Now, their children—Hon. Carolyn Dineen King, Kathryn Dineen Wriston, and Robert E. Dineen Jr.—are honoring that legacy in the most fitting way they know: through education. Together, the three prominent attorneys have pledged $15 million to Syracuse Law, a gift that will name the college’s new building and anchor the largest fundraising campaign in the school’s history.

“This gift is not just about bricks and mortar,” the family shared. “It is about ensuring that future students, no matter the barriers they face, will have the tools and the environment to pursue excellence in the law, just as our parents did.”

The donation—among the largest in Syracuse University’s history—will fund the construction of a new 200,000-square-foot facility designed for 21st-century legal education, with advanced classrooms, research hubs, and collaborative spaces.

The building will replace the outdated White Hall and Winifred MacNaughton Hall and serve as a cornerstone of the University’s $1 billion campaign priority of “building futures.”

For Syracuse, the Dineen family’s leadership gift is transformative. For the family, it is deeply personal.

“It is a tribute to our parents’ courage and perseverance,” said the siblings. “And a way to carry forward the values they lived by—commitment, integrity, and service.”

With their gift, the Dineens have not only secured their parents’ names in the physical heart of the law school but also extended their legacy into the lives of generations of students yet to come.