Making His Legacy at UVA Law Now

By most measures, Brian Leung ’08 is still a young man, but when he began to consider his estate, he wanted to remember the Law School with a planned gift, also known as a legacy gift. He is one of the youngest alums to declare that he intends to leave the Law School such a gift.

Asked why, Leung, senior vice president and deputy general counsel at Vox Media, began with his appreciation for the Law School and for UVA generally. He’s a Double Hoo, a former president of the Student Bar Association, a longtime class agent, and a rabid Cavalier sports fan whose Twitter handle is @TheUVAFool. If alums can bleed in two colors, Leung probably does in blue and orange. In other words, though he is still in his 30s, a planned gift to the Law School now made sense.   

“My gift is an acknowledgment and appreciation of the Law School and its role in setting me up for success as a human being, as well as in my career,” Leung said. “I really can’t overstate how much of an impact going to UVA Law has had on my personal development. With that as a foundation, I want to consistently give back to the Law School. And a planned gift was actually a very easy way to do that.”

Legacy gifts are an important part of the Law School’s endowment and complement annual giving. There are several ways to make a legacy gift, including annuities, both immediate and deferred; a charitable remainder annuity trust; a charitable remainder unitrust; a gift of life insurance; or a gift of retirement assets. Leung has chosen to donate a portion of his 401(k) account, which means, he noted, that his gift will increase over the years as his retirement savings grow.

“It was something that I knew would have an impact down the road without having an immediate impact on my own personal finances today,” he explained.

A native of Chesapeake, Virginia, Leung was a Dillard Fellow and Peer Advisor while in Law School, as well as serving as Student Bar Association president. He said he likes teaching and mentoring people, a passion he keeps up now as an adjunct professor of entertainment law at the George Washington University Law School. After graduation, Leung worked in private practice, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, before moving in-house to Vox Media in 2014; he became deputy general counsel in January. In addition to the general interest news site, Vox.com, Vox Media owns a variety of other websites and print publications, including New York Magazine and the college and professional sports site SB Nation.

The latter is particularly important to Leung because SB Nation hosts Streaking the Lawn, a website he founded in 2009 that is dedicated to all things UVA sports-related. It started when Leung, who was away from Charlottesville for the first time in seven years as a young associate, began tweeting UVA sports highlights. He founded the website and moved to SB Nation not long thereafter. Leung remained managing editor of Streaking the Lawn until earlier this year, passing torch after a 13-year run. He’s also a season ticketholder to both football and men’s basketball games.

Though Leung has been a part of the UVA community as an undergraduate and as a law student, he credits his three years on North Grounds for helping him develop as a person.

“What I like about UVA Law is we come out not just as lawyers, but as lawyers who like to be really involved and engaged,” he reasoned. “We’re lawyers who also want to have a stake in the community. Whether it’s your law firm, the bar association or something else, [UVA] people just want to be invested in whatever organizations they are a part of.”

By making a legacy gift now, Leung hopes that other younger alums will follow his example and remain invested in the future health of the Law School as well.