William Falik has a bathroom of his very own

William Falik isn’t proud. You only need to look at the plaque on the bathroom in the new Wasserstein Hall at Harvard Law School to know that. It’s named for Falik, a 1971 HLS alum. Seriously. Seems Falik, who made his money as a lawyer and real-estate developer, donated $100,000 to HLS in honor of his father’s 100th birthday. The gift was intended as a fellowship for students pursuing a career in public-interest law. “Lawyers who might not make as much money as some others,” Falik says. Approached by former HLS dean Elena Kagan about naming opportunities, Falik, who now teaches at UC Berkeley, said there’s only facility that would be suitable. “The only thing I ever thought of naming — with my last name — was a men’s room,” says Falik. “[Kagan] laughed, and I laughed.” He proposed that it be called the “Falik Gentleman’s Lounge,” but the powers that be at the World’s Greatest University didn’t go for it, settling instead on the “Falik Men’s Room.” (Falik said his father had an excellent sense of humor and took great pleasure in the naming opportunity.) Remarkably, this isn’t the first men’s room to bear his name. A few years back, he made a generous donation to the Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theater, and as a result, male patrons spend part of intermission in the Falik Gentlemen’s Lounge. “There’s humor in this, of course,” he told us. “But, most importantly, it was a donation my dad as he celebrated his birthday.”