$1,000 for a day with Richard Epstein

After auctioning off more than 50 items at this year's event, Epstein was handed a last-minute item: a day with the Epsteins at their vacation home in Michigan, offered by Eileen Epstein.

"My wife is apparently giving away my house!" Epstein announced.

The surprise entry garnered $1,000 at the auction, which raised a total of more than $14,000 for The Woodlawn Organization. The organization helps more than 17,000 South Side residents each year through job training and placement, counseling, and educational and medical programs. In the past six years, the LSA event has raised more than $69,000 to help South Side not-for-profit organizations.

Ellen Cosgrove, Dean of Students in the Law School, said many law schools hold auctions to support classmates with summer internships in public-interest law. "Chicago law students voluntarily donate enough money to fund their fellow students who want internships in public-interest law," she said, so they hold an auction to support the community instead.

Students, faculty members, staff, alumni, law firms and local businesses contributed items for the auction. The highest amount bid was a whopping $2,525 for "a mean martini" party for up to 60 students at the home of R.H. Helmholz, the Ruth Wyatt Rosenson Professor in the Law School. Cosgrove said two groups of student were vying for the honors.

An alumnus, Chuck Edwards (J.D.'65) received $230 for his offer: free legal services to any law student buying his or her first home in Illinois.

Other popular items included $560 for two round-trip tickets to anywhere Southwest Airlines flies; $400 for a visit to the courtroom of U.S. District Judge James Zagel with Al Alschuler, followed by lunch and a trip to a shooting range with Zagel and Alschuler; $500 for the use of Senior Lecturer Andrew Rosenfield's sky box for the March 23 game between the Blackhawks and the Redwings; $400 for tickets to a Bulls game; and $420 for four tickets to a Notre Dame home football game.