News

Two recent graduates, Elissa Berger ’06 and Camille L. Zentner ’06, have each been awarded a 2007 Skadden Fellowship www.skaddenfellowships.org, the most prestigious public-interest law award of its kind. The Skadden Fellowship Foundation, described as "a legal Peace Corps" by The Los Angeles Times, was established in 1988 by the firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, LLP.  read more

On November 29, 2006 at a cocktail reception at Feil Hall, Dean Joan G. Wexler and the Brooklyn Law School Alumni Association honored Alumni of the Year Jodi Levine Avergun ’87, Special Counsel at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, and former Chief of Staff of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Irwin B. Cohen ’58, Manager of ATC Management, an independent real estate developer.  read more

The securities markets are in the midst of unparalleled structural changes: electronic trading of securities is largely replacing the traditional floor-based trading system; the exchanges have been transformed from membership associations into publicly owned business corporations; and international mergers of stock exchanges are underway.  read more

In November Retired New York Supreme Court Judge Phylis Skloot Bamberger led two interactive seminars about the process of jury selection and how attorneys handle various jury issues during trial.  read more

Roberta S. Karmel, Centennial Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of International Business Law, delivered a paper at an International Monetary Fund seminar on Wednesday, October 25, 2006 in Washington, D.C. Her paper, “Achieving Financial Stability Through Disclosure,” was presented at a seminar for bank counsels on “Current Developments in Monetary and Financial Law: Law and Financial Stability.”  read more

In the movies, the director receives a possessory credit. Jaws is Steven Spielberg's Jaws, Psycho Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. In the theater, for as long as anyone can remember, this place of honor has been reserved exclusively for the playwright. No matter who directs it, Macbeth is Shakespeare's Macbeth.   read more

In 1996, the Brooklyn Journal of International Law published a path-breaking symposium volume entitled “Bankruptcy in the Global Village.” The symposium was organized by the late Professor Barry Zaretsky at a time when efforts to regularize and harmonize international bankruptcy law and practice were in their relative infancy.  read more

Recent legislative and scientific developments have only intensified debate over the ethics and regulation of human embryonic stem cell research. Baroness Ruth Deech, a renowned authority on stem cell research and reproductive technology, examined the ethical, political, and regulatory issues involved in the research through a comparison of relevant laws in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Italy.  read more

On October 5, Brooklyn Law School participated in an all-day virtual teach-in about the detention policies and conditions affecting prisoners at Guantánamo Bay in the post-9/11 era.  read more

Speaking of Crime: The Language of Criminal Justice, the new book by Brooklyn Law School Professor Lawrence Solan and Professor Peter Tiersma of Loyola Law School, recently received an enthusiastic review in Law & Society.  read more

The United States Supreme Court’s 2004 decision in Crawford v. Washington dramatically altered the landscape of the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause and its limitations on the admissibility of certain hearsay statements.  In Crawford, the Court categorically held that out-of-court “testimonial” statements made by a person who did not testify at trial were not admissible against a criminal defendant.  read more

Professor Steven A. Dean’s op-ed article on tax evasion was published in The National Law Journal on September 11, 2006. In the article, he suggests a new direction in the fight against foreign tax havens by making the governments of the tax havens partners in the effort to crack down on tax evasion.  read more

Professor Susan N. Herman’s op-ed article, “Five Years Later: Law and the Fog of 9/11,” was published in the forum section of the online legal news and research Web site, JURIST, on September 11, 2006. In the article, Professor Herman argues that the lingering fog of the 9/11 attacks has clouded our perceptions, blurred our legal categories, and perhaps also compromised our judgment.  read more

An article by Jill Maxwell '07, published in the fall 2006 issue of the Wisconsin Women's Law Journal, has led to a speaking engagement at a colloquium in Madison, Wisconsin and an interview on ABC News Online for the student author.  read more

On August 21, 2006 the SBA took a mix of 70 first, second and third year students to see the Brooklyn Cyclones take on the Staten Island Yankees at KeySpan Park on Coney Island. The home team may have lost the game with a score of 21-6, but BLS students enjoyed, what was the first time for most, a trip to Coney Island.  read more

Professor Stacy Caplow, Director of the Law School's Clinical Education Program, was selected by the Ireland-U.S. Fulbright Commission for a lecturing and research position at University College Cork for the fall 2006 term. She will work with the Faculty of Law to augment the clinical curriculum for LLB and LLM students.  read more

Professor David Reiss’s op-ed article on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage finance companies was published in The Christian Science Monitor on July 13, 2006.  read more

A judicial commission co-chaired by Professor William E. Hellerstein issued a report, released by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye on June 28, which calls for the state to take over the administration of legal services to the poor.  read more

On June 26, 2006, the Supreme Court handed down a 6-3 decision in Randall v. Sorrell, striking down Vermont’s extremely low limits on campaign expenditures and contributions.  The Court reasoned that such limits on campaign funding were tantamount to limits on campaign speech and therefore in violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech.  read more

Susan N. Herman, Centennial Professor of Law, presented a compelling analysis of a 100-year old murder case and the classic novel that it inspired, “An American Tragedy,” by Theodore Dreiser, at the New York State Court of Appeals on June 26.  read more

Carrie S. Zoubul ’06 has won a fellowship from the Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging which will provide an award of $36,000 for one year to develop an interdisciplinary educational project, “Educating for Professional Intersections in Law, Medicine & Advocacy.”   read more

Justice Richard J. Goldstone, one of the world's outstanding jurists, gave the 2006 commencement address on June 6th. Throughout his career, including his nine years as a Justice on the Constitutional Court of South Africa and two years (1994-1996) as Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, he has used the law to promote, and expand international human rights.  read more

As part of her Civil Practice Internship at Amnesty International USA, Erica Razook ’06 was the co-leader of an online discussion in late May about the U.S. government’s practice of military outsourcing.  read more

An oral history of Roberta S. Karmel, Centennial Professor of Law and former SEC Commissioner, is featured on the Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society’s web site. Audio and print versions of two recent interviews with Professor Karmel are part of a tribute to SEC Women Commissioners.  read more

Professor David Reiss was recently granted an award by the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers (ACCSFL) for his article, “Subprime Standardization: How Rating Agencies Allow Predatory Lending to Flourish in the Secondary Mortgage Market,” in the Florida State Law Review (2006).  read more

The University of Georgia defeated Cleveland Marshall College of Law in the final round of the 2006 Jerome Prince Memorial Evidence Competition. Semi-finalists included Pace University and American University. DePaul University School of Law won the best brief award.  read more

Michael J. Perry is one of the nation's leading authorities on the relationship of morality and the law. He holds the Robert W. Woodruff Chair at Emory University School of Law, its highest honor, and has been a member of its faculty since 2003.  read more

Lawyer, author, and BLS alumnus Gregory J. Wallance will read from and discuss his new book, Two Men Before the Storm: Arba Crane's Recollection of Dred Scott and the Supreme Court Case that Started The Civil War. The book is about the Supreme Court's most catastrophic decision ever, denying a slave his freedom, with important lessons for our times.  read more

Securities law enforcement has been in the news since the downfall of Enron and WorldCom and the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. The symposium examined new methods of leveraging enforcement by both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice and analyzed whether more vigorous law enforcement techniques have been effective or have created new problems.  read more

The new student-run business law journal, Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law, sponsored its first symposium on March 31, "New Models for Securities Law Enforcement: Outsourcing, Compelled Cooperation and Gatekeepers."  read more

The Grand Prospect Hall was the setting for the Student Bar Association’s (SBA) Second Annual Barrister’s Ball on March 30, 2006. Students enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and cocktails and danced the evening away with friends and classmates in celebration of a quickly-approaching end to the school year.  read more

Nineteen BLS students spent their spring break in the Gulf Coast area, working to provide legal and other assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina. This extraordinary work was done under the auspices of the Student Hurricane Network, a network of more than 500 students from around the country.  read more

Over 100 members of the Brooklyn Law School community attended The First Annual Faculty Diversity Celebration on March 29, 2006 in the Subotnick Center. They came to thank and honor 12 full-time, clinical, and adjunct faculty members who identify with and support underrepresented groups at the Law School.  read more

On March 24, 2006, Brooklyn Law School celebrated 20 years of the Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship Program. The Sparer Program continues to serve as the heart of the Law School’s public interest law community, offering students the opportunity to serve leading public interest organizations throughout the nation.  read more

On March 23, 2006, Brooklyn Law Students for the Public Interest (BLSPI) raised close to $38,000 in their 16th Annual BLSPI Auction. A western-style rodeo was the theme for this year's auction. Participants donned their best rodeo attire and were led through the auction by a professional auctioneer.  read more

Legendary radio producer and director Himan Brown, Class of 1931, hosted an interactive discussion and workshop where participants learned to develop listening and speaking skills through careful attention to the spoken word. A reception followed the program.  read more

Professor Anthony Sebok and co-author Peter H. Schuck's op-ed article on asbestos litigation was published in The Wall Street Journal on March 8, 2006. His article commented on the Senate's recent rejection of a reform bill for asbestos litigation, which would have created a fund for asbestos victims and taken asbestos suits out of the tort system.  read more

"A populist revolt is brewing on the left and on the right in response to the Supreme Court's recent eminent domain decision," David Reiss, Assistant Professor of Law, wrote in an op-ed published Sunday, March 5, 2006 in the Daily News.  read more

Two Brooklyn Law School moot court teams took top honors at their recent competitions. The Civil Rights and Family Law teams both received first place in their respective events, paving the way for another successful season for the Moot Court Honor Society.  read more

“Writing Across the Curriculum” is of increasing pedagogical interest in the law school curriculum. But what educational justifications exist for integrating advanced legal writing into upper-class doctrinal and lawyering courses? Several prominent professors will discuss the practical and theoretical implications of this integration and offer four separate models of upper-class writing curricula.  read more

Roberta S. Karmel, Centennial Professor of Law, was invited to appear at a February 15th public hearing of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, D.C. on self-regulation and self-regulatory organizations in the U.S. futures industry.  read more

Professor Stacy Caplow, director of the Safe Harbor Project, and Lauren Kosseff, a third-year student, wrote an oped, "Two Immigrants, Two Standards," that was published on February 11 in the Washington Post. The piece compares a Canadian ice dancer who was able to immigrate in a matter of days, in time to compete for the United States in the Olympics, with a 14-year-old African girl seeking to join her mother, who has asylum in the U.S.  read more

Does the ownership of a hospital make a difference in the type of service and quality of care that patients receive? This was the question posed by a Center for Health, Science and Public Policy theory-practice seminar held on February 9, 2006.  read more

Brooklyn Law School’s Moot Court Teams began the spring competition season with three strong finishes. Congratulations to the First Amendment Appellate Team, Keri Bruce ’07, John O’Callaghan ’07, Sarah Siegel ’07, and coach Shameika Taylor ’06, who were Finalists in the Burton D. Wechsler First Amendment Competition, which was held at the Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C., February 2-4, 2006.  read more

Brooklyn Law School and George Washington University Law School have joined forces to create an innovative online journal, Corporate and Financial Law: Interdisciplinary Approaches, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Organization.  read more

Alumni gathered for the New York State Bar Association annual meeting and luncheon on Friday, January 27, 2006 at the Princeton Club.  read more

As Professor Norman S. Poser and students in his securities regulation class rode the train home from Washington, D.C. on January 18, he was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal Law Blog about their visit to the Supreme Court to watch oral arguments in Merrill Lynch v. Dabit, a statutory-interpretation case that addresses the viability of shareholder class action lawsuits brought in state courts.  read more

Professor Susan N. Herman, Centennial Professor of Law, was interviewed by Dan Abrams on MSNBC-TV News Live on the second day of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court.   read more