A Virginia lawyer is demanding University of Richmond pay $3.6 billion after removing family member's name from law school

A Virginia lawyer is demanding the University of Richmond pay his family more than $3 billion after the school changed the name of its law school, which was named after his relative. T.C. Williams Law School was named after a tobacco business owner who owned 25 to 40 enslaved people, according to the university, which changed the name of the school last year after hundreds of students and faculty protested. 

The school changed the names of six buildings last year in response to the protests over buildings named after people who owned slaves, including Ryland Hall, named after the school's first president, who owned slaves, and Freeman Hall, named after a man who advocated for segregation, eugenics and prohibiting interracial marriage, according to local news outlet Richmond.com.

T.C. Williams Law School was changed to University of Richmond School of Law last year, but local lawyer Robert C. Smith, a descendant of Williams, is now asking the school to pay back his family now that the name has been changed.