Brooklyn Law School Appoints Three New Faculty Members

On July 1, Brooklyn Law School officially welcomed three new legal scholars to its nationally recognized faculty. These distinguished academics — who bring expertise in a broad range of areas, including constitutional and family law; evidence; law and technology; civil procedure; and legal ethics — will begin teaching in the fall semester.  

Laura Portuondo joins Brooklyn Law School as an Associate Professor of Law, teaching in the areas of constitutional law, family law, and reproductive rights and justice. A constitutional law scholar with expertise in First and Fourteenth Amendment liberty and equality jurisprudence, Portuondo’s scholarship examines the constitutional law of gender, race, and religion, together, to more broadly generate unique insights about all three areas of law and constitutional theory.  

Previously, Portuondo taught at the University of Houston Law Center in Houston, and both her research and teaching have earned recognition. In 2024, she was recognized as the Haub Law Emerging Scholar in Women, Gender & Law and in 2025 she won the Order of the Barons Professor of the Year for her teaching at University of Houston Law Center.  

After law school, Portuondo clerked for the Hon. Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Hon. Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She also worked as a judicial strategy fellow at the Center for Reproductive Rights and as a fellow with the Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice at Yale Law School.  

She earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal, and a B.A. in English, summa cum laude with distinction, from Yale College. 

Tomer Kenneth joins the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Law, teaching and writing in the areas of evidence; law and technology; and legal and political theory. He also serves as an affiliated fellow at the Information Law Institute at NYU School of Law, and as a deputy editor of the International Journal of Evidence & Proof. 

Previously, Kenneth taught as a visiting assistant professor at USC Gould School of Law in Los Angeles. His research focuses on judicial decision-making about facts. He explores evidence doctrines and their theoretical foundations, and the challenges posed by emerging technologies. His recent writing focuses on general facts, precedents, authority, epistemology, and legitimacy. 

Kenneth earned his J.S.D and LL.M in legal theory from NYU School of Law. 

Brandi M. Lupo joins as an Assistant Professor of Law, teaching courses in civil procedure and legal ethics. Her research examines how procedural rules, litigation strategy, and judicial decision-making shape access to justice and institutional legitimacy. Some of her scholarship explores when and how courts should "level the playing field" between litigants with unequal resources. In other work, she investigates how courts establish legitimacy and maintain public confidence in law.  

Previously, Lupo was a Thomas C. Grey Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School. Prior to teaching, she was a litigation and enforcement associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, where she specialized in complex litigation and international disputes. She clerked for the Hon. William J. Nardini of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Hon. Ann M. Donnelly of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. 

Lupo received her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and her B.A. from NYU’s Gallatin School.