The University of Chicago Law School announced Wednesday that it has received a $10 million gift to create 60 full-tuition scholarships starting next year.

The donation, the largest gift from an individual in the law school’s history, came from David Rubenstein, an alumnus who founded a successful private equity firm in Washington D.C.
His contribution will fund 20 merit scholarships in each of the entering classes in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Each scholarship will be for three years of tuition. The university now charges about $45,000 for law-school tuition, which is expected to increase some in the next three years.  Twenty  scholars would represent about 10 percent of each class.

“We are a small law school with a surprisingly small endowment,” said Dean Michael Schill. “That is why David’s gift is so important.  It will give us the resources to be competitive for the best and the brightest.”

Rubenstein graduated from the law school in 1973. After a political career, he cofounded the Carlyle Group in 1987. It has grown to become of the world’s largest private equity firms. In the 2009 Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, Rubenstein ranked No. 123 with a net worth of $2.5 billion.

Rubenstein, who grew up in Baltimore where his father was a postal clerk, attended law school on a scholarship.

“My scholarship meant that I could tell my parents I wouldn’t need any money from them for law school,” Rubenstein said in the university’s news release. “That meant a lot to me.”

He joined the University of Chicago’s board of trustees in 2007.