UPDATE: Blewetts give $10 million to UM law school

Great Falls attorney Alexander "Zander" Blewett and his wife, Andy, have gifted the University of Montana School of Law with one of its largest donations in history — $10 million.

As a result, the Montana University System's Board of Regents is expected to take action at its meeting this week to rename the University of Montana School of Law the Alexander Blewett III School of Law. The regents are meeting in Kalispell starting Thursday.

A formal press announcement from the University of Montana is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

"The law school is in need, and public education generally is in need of support," Blewett said from his Great Falls law firm Wednesday. "We really appreciate what the University of Montana School of Law has done for the Blewett family."

Blewett is a 1971 graduate of the University of Montana School of Law. His father, Alexander Blewett Jr., was a 1938 graduate. Zander Blewett's sons, Anders and Drew, both graduated from UM School of Law in 2007.

According to the University of Montana, the $10 million gift will be used to fund a few different priorities. Part of the donation will be used to endow a professorship and supportive funding for a consumer law and protection program. Another $1.5 million will be used to challenge other donors to contribute toward scholarships. The Blewetts will match donations up to $1.5 million for scholarships, thus doubling the amount of potential scholarships. Another portion of the donation will be used for a discretionary fund for the dean of the law school.

Blewett said he's made a career out of being a trial attorney and representing injured people. He specializes in protecting consumers — be it in health care, employment or others. He estimates that in his more than 40-year career as an attorney he's helped close to 1,000 clients on contingency — people who wouldn't have been able to pay for an attorney without some sort of financial settlement or award.

"On the shoulders of these people we've been able to give," Blewett said.

Greg Munro, dean of the University of Montana School of Law, said this is the largest non "bricks and mortar" gift the law school has received and said gifts like this from the Blewetts are called transformational for a reason.

"It's the kind of gift that transforms lives," he said.

The UM law school has sporadically offered a consumer law class to its students. But having an endowed professor and director of a consumer law program will greatly expand the education and experience law students can have, Munro said. The additional program funds the Blewetts are giving will allow the law school to offer a consumer protection clinic and provide students with stipends if they go to work for consumer protection agencies during the summer.

Munro, who has taught at the law school for the last 26 years, said there's almost nobody who funds consumer protection programs in law schools across the country. Major donors to law schools are typically corporations looking for law students to work in the corporate realm and protect business interests.

"If (a consumer protection program) is going to be funded in a law school, it's got to be from someone like Zander Blewett," Munro said.

In his 44-year career practicing law in Great Falls, Blewett has not been afraid to go after the big firms and big government. He thinks it might have to do with his small stature as a wrestler, which caused him lose a few matches.

"When you're not quite as good as others, you have to do more," he said. "If you work harder, you're more likely to win."

One of his more famous cases was representing Great Falls artist Steve Seltzer, who was awarded $20 million in punitive damages after being maligned for testimony on a painting mistaken for a C.M. Russell. In the initial case, Seltzer testified that the painting in question "Lassoing a Longhorn" actually belonged to his grandfather, O.C. Seltzer. His evaluation of the painting dropped its worth from $650,000 to $65,000. The collector sued Steve Seltzer and Seltzer countersued, with Blewett acting as his attorney.

He said a big-city, national firm represented the collector. He thinks the company had close to 800 attorneys, not all of them necessarily working on the case. But it was a big firm. At Hoyt and Blewett, they had five attorneys.

A 1963 graduate of Great Falls High and a 1967 graduate of Montana State University, Blewett was going to be a mathematician but eventually decided on law school. When he graduated in 1971, he went to work for his dad's law firm in Great Falls — Jardine, Stephenson, Blewett and Weaver.

He and Andy, who is also a Great Falls native, married in 1975.

"He was fun and he was smart and he had a lot of energy," Andy Blewett said of her husband.

"She liked short guys," Zander Blewett joked.

On Oct. 1, 1985, Blewett made a decision that has forever changed him. He opened Hoyt and Blewett law firm with long-time trial lawyer John Hoyt. Hoyt died in 2001, but his name will always remain part of his practice, Blewett said. In 2003, Blewett's father — a 1938 UM law school graduate — passed away as well. He tears up when he talks about Hoyt and his dad.

"(John) taught me a lot," Blewett said. "As did my dad."

Munro said it's hard to describe just how important this gift is. The Blewetts' gift will give him a budget to get out and recruit more law students.

When the economy crashed in 2008, big litigation firms started dropping lawyers and nationally, enrollment in law schools started to decline. Munro's seen enrollment drop slightly at UM, but it always manages to have close to 80 new law school students each year and graduates have been able to find employment in Montana. They make less money than they might at a bigger firm, but they find jobs.

"This is a very healthy place to practice law," Munro said.

To help in recruiting more Montana graduates to the law school, the Blewetts last year gave $800,000 to fund scholarships. Philanthropically speaking, the Blewetts have been generous to a number of organizations over the years. They have given in the past to Montana State University, where they both earned their bachelor's degrees, the Boys & Girls Club of Cascade County and the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. They fund a wrestling gymnasium addition at Great Falls High and provide scholarships as well.

Andy Blewett said she and her husband have always been ardent supporters of public education and have a strong commitment to improving the community they've called home most of their lives.

"We were both in this together," she said. "There are so many ways we can help the community. It was time to give back."

Naming the law school after a family who has earned a reputation over the last eight decades for being renowned and well-respected lawyers not just in Great Falls, but across the state, seems like a no-brainer to Munro. He's hopeful the Board of Regents sees it that way, too.

"Having three generations of Blewetts out there, that's quite a heritage," Munro said. "We're very, very proud to have this name on the law school."

Zander Blewett said he wants to honor his father through having the Blewett name on the building and the school of law, which provided him and his family with a strong education.

"They think highly enough of me to put my name on the law school," he said. "We're going to try to live up to their trust."

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kristen Cates at 791-1463 or kcates@greatfallstribune.com. Follow her on Twitter @GFTrib_KCates.