Robertson Foundation lawsuit Q&a updated December 18, 2008
Who are the current members of the Robertson Foundation board?
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- 10. Who is suing Princeton
- 11. What are the key issues in the litigation
8. Who are the current members of the Robertson Foundation board?The four Robertson Foundation trustees appointed by the University include Princeton President Shirley Tilghman, Princeton trustees Peter Wendell and Stephen Oxman, and Thomas Kean, former New Jersey Governor, president of Drew University and chair of the 9/11 Commission. The three trustees appointed by the Robertson family are the donor’s son and daughter, William Robertson and Katherine Ernst, and Robert Halligan, who has stated that he is a distant relative by marriage of Charles Robertson. They are plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Princeton. 9. How has the Robertson Foundation governance process evolved since President Tilghman became President of the Foundation?As president of Princeton University, Shirley Tilghman is president of the Robertson Foundation. Starting with her first Foundation board meeting in 2002, prior to the initiation of the lawsuit, President Tilghman has worked to promote an operating philosophy of transparency and accountability. It is unfortunate that Mrs. Robertson's children chose to file a lawsuit instead of supporting President Tilghman's goals of modernizing the Foundation's governance procedures. Nonetheless, despite resistance by Mrs. Robertson's children (frequently underscored by their bloc-voting against governance reforms proposed by the University-designated trustees), President Tilghman has guided several new governance and spending initiatives at the Foundation, including:
Key Issues 10. Who is suing Princeton?Plaintiffs in the Robertson Foundation lawsuit are William Robertson, Katherine Ernst, Robert Halligan and Anne Meier. Robertson, Ernst and Meier are children of Charles and Marie Robertson; Halligan has stated that his wife’s mother was a relative of Charles Robertson. Robertson, Ernst and Halligan are the current Robertson family-designated trustees on the Foundation board. The plaintiffs are suing four individuals (President Tilghman, current trustees Wendell and Oxman, and a former trustee, the late John J.F. Sherrerd) and the University. 11. What are the key issues in the litigation?Plaintiffs would like to narrow the Foundation mission from the one agreed to by the University and the Robertsons in 1961, take control of the Foundation themselves and remove Princeton University as the beneficiary of the Foundation. [See: Question 13] They now claim that the Woodrow Wilson School graduate program supported by Foundation funds should have been limited to a kind of vocational program, designed for the sole purpose of training students for positions in the State Department and a handful of other federal government departments that graduates would be expected to fill upon graduation. [See: Question 25] Plaintiffs also would like to reverse the decision by the Robertson Foundation board in 2003 to appoint the Princeton University Investment Company as the Foundation’s investment manager. [See: Question 36] The litigation is not about whether the recipient of a charitable gift has an obligation—legal and moral—to fulfill the commitments it makes in accepting the gift. Princeton agrees that it does, and the University has an excellent record of meeting its commitments and sustaining strong relationships with donors over more than two centuries. Questions posed by this litigation include the following: Can a donor’s descendants:
In posing these questions, the plaintiffs are seeking to use this lawsuit to redefine some of the fundamental principles of American philanthropy and overturn some of the laws and best practices that govern charitable organizations. When the Foundation was incorporated in 1961 with Marie Robertson’s gift of $35 million, its purpose was to maintain and support at Princeton and as part of the Woodrow Wilson School a graduate school in which men and women dedicated to public service may prepare themselves for careers in government service (particularly federal government service in areas concerned with international relations and affairs). [Document: Excerpt from the Foundation Certificate of Incorporation] The Woodrow Wilson School has always been and remains one of the world’s leading schools of public and international affairs; its students are well prepared for careers in government service at local, state, federal and international levels. Consistent with the emphasis sought by the donor, its faculty is especially strong in the fields of international relations and affairs. The Foundation’s Certificate of Incorporation explicitly authorizes support for the School and its students, and for “collateral and auxiliary services, plans and programs” including “internship programs, plans for public service assignments of faculty … and programs for foreign students.” [See: Question 22] [Document: Excerpt from the Foundation Certificate of Incorporation] Through her advisors, Mrs. Robertson expressed a clear intention to make Princeton University the sole legal recipient of her gift and to give Princeton control of a majority of seats on the Foundation board of trustees. Even though the manner in which Mrs. Robertson made her gift ensured that Princeton, through its appointment of a majority of the Foundation board, would always control the assets of the Foundation, the current Robertson family trustees are seeking to overturn this intent and gain control over the Foundation’s assets for themselves so they can spend them at other institutions and in ways other than the way chosen by their parents. For an overview of a number of the key issues in this dispute, see Robertson v. Princeton -- Perspective and Context, prepared by Victoria B. Bjorklund. Ms. Bjorklund is a member of the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, which, together with Lowenstein Sandler PC, serves as litigation counsel to Princeton University and the individual defendants in the Robertson litigation. Download 180.02 Kb. Share with your friends:
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