The University of Texas has received a $500 Million pledge from Moncrief Oil, but as the Chrolincle of Higher Education reports it, the gift is conditional on Moncrief prevailing in pending litigation over the ownership of a Russian gas field.

The conditional gift raises a number of interesting questions.  For example, Rob Recih of Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society is quoted in the Austin American-Statesman as wondering if the donor “is seeking to influence either the outcome or the speed of the trial.”

What it made me wonder, right off the bat, is what (if any) contingency exists for a settlement of the gas field ownership claim.  What does the University of Texas stand to gain if the case follows the trajectory so common in modern litigation and winds up being settled?

Michael Moffitt