Pay it forward. That is the idea behind Quinnipiac School of Law’s alumna Brooke Goff’s $500,000 scholarship commitment. To create more success stories, just like her own.
“Quinnipiac is the school that always believed in me,” Goff said. “I wanted to give back to not only the school but to give back to young women that were like me.”
On March 18, Quinnipiac University’s School of Law Dean Jennifer Brown wrote a message to the school of law community, announcing the creation of the Goff Law Group Endowed Law Scholarship.
“With tremendous pride and gratitude, I am delighted to share with you the good news,” Brown wrote. “(This) scholarship will benefit women students in the School of Law with demonstrated financial need, with preference given to LGBTQ+ students and allies.”
Anyone is able to apply for the scholarship, which will be awarded to two applicants per year. Every application will be closely reviewed by both Goff and the financial aid office will determine who receives the scholarship.
Goff grew up in a low-income community and is a member of the LGBTQ+ communities. To her, she said, “it was very important to bring these two pieces together” — the elements of her background she said have defined the person and the lawyer she has become.
“I tend to find that many scholarships go to the kids that need it the least, because they have the access to the education that people who are low income don’t,” Goff said. “We want to heavily look at the members of the LGBTQ+ community because they are so underrepresented in law. If I can help make a dent in that, I want to do that.”
A 2022 survey conducted by the National Association for Law Placement found only about 4,000 lawyers who identified as members of the LGBTQ+ communities out of more than 1.3 million active lawyers across the country.
When Goff first applied to the law school, she got placed on the waitlist. Two weeks before the semester started, she made her way to then-Associate Dean David King’s office — who died in 2016 — and sat outside it for two hours.
“I really wanted him to meet me, so that he could see that it’s not just about what the LSAT shows, it’s more about me as well,” Goff said.
Goff spent hours with King walking around the university, and a week later, she got accepted into the law school.
“Dean King was my somebody,” Goff said. “I had somebody to give me that reassurance, that belief that he had in me and it changed my life. So I look at this scholarship as doing that.”
Goff looks back at her time at Quinnipiac with fond memories and feels she “got every penny worth.”
“Quinnipiac kind of walks around, as it should, like it’s got something to prove and it’s not just going to give things to people,” Goff said.
Which is why she settled on the number of $500,000 for the scholarship. Full-time law school enrollment for the 2024-25 academic year climbed up to almost $85,000. For part-time, the cost is almost $68,000.
“I wanted it to be enough to make a difference, but not enough to just flow through,” Goff said. “To me the number seems, I don’t want to use the word worth it, it seems adequate.”
Goff couldn’t answer when exactly the scholarships will be open for applications due to endowment funding rules, but her hope is to start as soon as possible.
“I expect another successful Quinnipiac Law graduate will give Brooke some of the credit for their career,” Brown wrote. “Brooke is demonstrating what it means to ‘pay it forward,’ setting an incredible example of philanthropy and leading her fellow QUSL grads by example to support the students of the future.”
The Goff Law Group is the largest female owned and operated personal injury law firm in the state of Connecticut — with a 99% success rate — that operates out of seven different locations. At only 37 years old, Goff is the CEO with almost 50 staff members behind her.
The firm is also known for its creative advertisements along Connecticut’s interstate highways.
“I knew the business I wanted to create,” Goff said. “I knew what I wanted the vision to be. I took all of the money I had been able to save and I just dumped it all into the firm when I was 29 and here we are.”
In recognition of Goff’s generosity and leadership, Brown also announced that the School of Law is renaming the Ceremonial Courtroom the Brooke A. Goff Courtroom.
“I am honored to have my name displayed for many young women to see that the sky is the limit,” Goff wrote in a LinkedIn post. “To all of the future students that sit in that courtroom- remember- no one can take opportunity away from you besides yourself. Anything is possible- you just need to want it more than the person next to you.”
