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Community Impact

Special Olympics Board Vice Chair Donates Academic Prize Money to Special Olympics

Professor William Alford, Special Olympics Board Lead Director and Vice Chair.
Professor William Alford, Special Olympics Board Lead Director and Vice Chair.

Professor William Alford, Special Olympics Board Vice Chair, was one of two recipients of the 2018 Li Buyun Law Prize awarded by the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law and the Guangdong University of Finance and Economics in December. He was honored for promoting an understanding of Chinese law in America and for fostering an environment of legal exchanges between the two countries. Professor Alford donated the entirety of his $22,250 award money to Special Olympics China. His hope is that his donation will inspire other people in China, the United States and globally to support Special Olympics programs.

A member of the Special Olympics Board of Directors since 2005, Professor Alford is currently the director of the Centre for East Asian Law Studies of Harvard University. He is also the founding Chair of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability and author of the book “To Steal A Book Is An Elegant Offense: Intellectual Property Law in Chinese Civilization.”

Professor Alford was joined in receiving an award certificate and medal by Professor Albert Chen from Hong Kong University Law School for his trailblazing scholarly work on the Hong Kong constitution.