In 1878, Serranus Clinton Hastings, the first Chief Justice of California, gave $100,000 to be used to create the law school that now bears his name. He arranged for the enactment of a legislative act on March 26, 1878 to create the Hastings College of the Law as a separate legal entity affiliated with the University of California. This was apparently intended for compatibility with Section 8 of the University's Organic Act, which authorized the Board of Regents to affiliate with independent self-sustaining professional colleges. Another reason for making the gift in this fashion was that Hastings desired to impose certain conditions on his gift, while "policy and law dictated that a free-gift could not be hedged by power of reversion."