Brooklyn Law Alumni Honored at Burton Awards in Washington, D.C.
Two Brooklyn Law School alumni were honored at the Burton Awards, held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Monday night: One was Alexandra Mallory ’25, who had hours earlier walked across the stage and received her diploma at Brooklyn Law School’s 124th Commencement, and the other was Bernard Nash ’66, for whom the Law School library’s Phyllis & Bernard Nash ’66 Reading Room was named.
The Burton Awards are dedicated to rewarding great achievements in law, with a special emphasis on writing and reform. The awards are sponsored by Law360, and co-sponsored by the American Bar Association and Sullivan & Cromwell.
Nash, who chairs the Burton Awards’ Luncheon Speakers Committee, was awarded the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Innovation in Legal Practice for his pioneering role in the representation of corporate clients before state attorneys general.
He started off his career at the Securities and Exchange Commission as Special Counsel. From 1971 to 1977, Nash was Counsel to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust & Monopoly, where he drafted the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Act of 1976 and developed and executed the legislative strategy that overcame two filibusters. This introduced him to the state attorneys general (AG) world, which in turn helped him launch his own firm, and develop a niche as an expert in the state AG practice area. He now is co-chair of the nationally acclaimed State AG Group at Cozen O’Connor.
Previously, Nash won a Burton Award, the “Blog of the Year Award in Law,” for his role as coeditor of Cozen O’Connor’s State AG Report blog. Brooklyn Law School honored Nash with the school’s first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, and he was named Brooklyn Law School's Alumni of the Year in 2023.
Mallory, who served as editor-in-chief for the Brooklyn Journal of International Law, was one of only 15 law school students nationwide to receive the organization’s prestigious “2025 Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Award” for her article “Closing Down Access to Asylum: The Illegal Migration Act’s Incompatibility with International Refugee Law,” which appeared in Volume 49, Issue 2, of the Brooklyn Journal of International Law.
The award-winning note discusses the Illegal Migration Act, which aims to deter asylum seekers from choosing the United Kingdom as a refuge by placing a duty on the Secretary of State to remove individuals who meet certain criteria, regardless of their protection claims. It lists countries deemed "safe," compelling removals without evaluating claims. This approach raises the risk of refoulement, violating the 1951 Refugee Convention, as it neglects individual persecution concerns and promotes discriminatory treatment based on nationality.
Mallory’s note was nominated by the Law School and chosen by a Burton Award selection committee consisting of distinguished judges and law professors.