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Serendipity and Startups: A Conversation with Robert Manne '77 The general counsel and senior vice president at Ultimate Software shares how embracing serendipity can lead to success with startups Ultimate Software, the Weston, FL–based human capital management and benefits firm where Robert Manne ’77 serves as general counsel and senior vice president, has a reputation for treating its employees exceptionally well. They have access to a wellness expert, and the company even has a massage therapist on staff. “You might want to think about doing that here!” Manne told Dean Nick Allard during a lunchtime conversation in October before an audience of students about entrepreneurship and advising startups. “If you make the employees happy, they’ll make the customers happy, and that will make shareholders happy,” he said. Manne’s approach to employee—and customer— satisfaction has yielded solid results for Ultimate, which today is a $6 billion company with 3,500 employees that is regularly ranked by Fortune as one of the best places to work in the United States. But when Ultimate launched in 1990, the company barely had an office. Manne, whose friend Scott Scherr was Ultimate’s founder and is the current CEO, stepped in to lend the company its first office space and then signed on to be its lawyer. At that time, Manne had been a litigator at the Fort Lauderdale firm Becker & Poliakoff for more than a decade. He was about to jump into the nascent software-as-a-service (SaaS) field and figure out as he went along how existing laws applied. Manne discussed the company’s journey to success and offered his advice and insights to students who are considering a career working with startups. Can you talk about your path to Ultimate, and why the company is unique in the HR SaaS field? We’ve turned a company that started in a little cubicle outside my office into a large publicly traded company that we think is just a great corporate model. After I became involved and we raised some money, Scott says, ‘By the way, I’ve got no place to go.’ I told him he could use the little secretarial station outside my office for a couple of months. The next day he comes to me and says, ‘By the way, I don’t have any customers.’ So my law firm became the first customer, and that’s where we started Ultimate. We pride ourselves on our relationships with our customers and our employees. We truly believe in partnering with our customers and our vendors, and we like to grow with them. We have a culture that is a little different than I think a lot of other companies our size have, and we have a 96 percent retention rate among our customers. If you had to choose a word that best describes your career path, would you say “planning” or “serendipity?” Serendipity. Sometimes you’re not sure if you are doing the right thing, but you need to take a chance. I grew up in the Harlem/Washington Heights area and didn’t know any lawyers, nor did I have any contact with lawyers. I went to undergraduate school in Albany, and at some point during my time there I decided I was going to go to law school. When I graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1977, I decided to move to Florida even though I had a job offer from a Wall Street firm where I had clerked. When I told the senior partner who had offered me a position that I was going to move to Florida, he said he knew someone at one of the larger firms in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area who was hiring. It was a small, kind of old Southern town in many respects at the time; it wasn’t the cosmopolitan area it is today. The partner said, ‘I’m telling you right now, they’re not going to hire anybody who is Jewish.’ I interviewed at the firm, got through the first and second set of interviews, and was taken to lunch with the hiring partner. Everything was going well until he asked: ‘So, what holidays do you celebrate?’ With a very straight face I looked at him and said, ‘You mean, like July 4th?’ He didn’t appreciate the humor, and needless to say I didn’t get the job. A few months later I joined the Becker & Poliakoff group, which at the time had only eight lawyers, and all of us were under the age of 35. It was a young, dynamic group, and we were going to set the world on fire. What was your practice like at Becker & Poliakoff, and how did you transition to the world of SaaS? Most of our practice was representing homeowners and consumers who had difficulty when they purchased their condominiums, and my practice was primarily litigating. I did a lot of construction litigation and I loved every minute of it; loved my partners. You won’t find a lot of lawyers who say that after 10 or 20 years of practice, but that was me. Then in 1990, as I mentioned, my friend told me that he was starting this HR software company and I was doing all of the legal work for them while I was still a partner at the law firm. You need to understand that at that time there was no Internet. So, when people are asking me questions about technology law, I’m improvising the answers. It was really an exciting time. Some people said I was going to regret leaving my law firm, where I was a senior partner running a litigation department with 30 lawyers. But I said: ‘This is where my heart is going to take me, and let’s take a chance.’ As in-house counsel, one of the first legal issues was a dispute with the Post Office over what our address was going to be. But that’s what you face when you first start working with startups. What are your views and tips on client service for students who are going to become lawyers? The first thing I tell young lawyers when they’re coming out of law school is: ‘You want to be a sponge. You need to spend the first few years learning your trade and learning your profession. You want to talk to other people who have that experience.’ When I left the law firm to start the technology company, I had to learn a whole new area of law in many respects. I always kid people because I tell them that the most important part of my body when I went in-house in those days was the dialing finger. It was the ability to call other attorneys and get information because I was a litigator, I had done a lot of construction and real estate–related work, but there were a lot of areas that I didn’t know. Here’s the best piece of advice I can give people who go into this area: You need to know the product. It is important for young lawyers as they’re learning their profession to know what they don’t know, and know when to ask the question. One of the great things I learned at Brooklyn Law School is issue spotting. You may not know the answer when you’re out there starting to practice, but if you can spot the issue, you’ll get the answer. You are clearly passionate about your work. What kind of advice can you give to young people thinking about how to find that same type of passion? Around our company we have a great passion for what we do, and we believe, especially being in the HR payroll world, that culture is a significant portion of what you’re selling, even to your customers. We win awards as one of the best companies in America to work for. I always tell people that two things are very important with respect to making these kinds of career decisions: You’ve got to have a passion for the work, and you’ve got to have a passion for the people. At the end of the day you’re going to spend a lot of time working. If you’re going to learn your trade, if you’re going to be a good lawyer or you’re going to be a good businessperson, whatever you’re going to do, you need to develop a passion for it.

Nationwide Events Brooklyn Law School Recruiting Schedule Meet us on the road! Recruiting events are a great way to learn more about Brooklyn Law School in person from one of our admissions counselors, alumni or other various school representatives. Please check the list below for recruitment events in your area where you can meet a Brooklyn Law representative in person. Don't see your school on our upcoming visit list? Please reach out to our team at admitq@brooklaw.edu to coordinate a campus visit or virtual event.  Don't forget to check LSAC's schedule to learn about upcoming Law School forums in your area. For more information about the events at colleges and universities, contact the pre-law advisors or career service officers at the participating schools. State (Alphabetically) Event Date Time AL Auburn University Law Fair Wednesday, January 27, 2027 12:00 PM–3:00 PM AZ University of Arizona (WAPLA) Thursday, October 22, 2026 12:00 PM–3:00 PM AZ Arizona State University (WAPLA) Friday, October 23, 2026 10:00 AM–1:00 PM CA University of California San Diego Law Fair Wednesday, November 4, 2026 10:00 AM–2:00 PM CA University of Southern California Law Fair Thursday, November 5, 2026 11:00 AM–2:00 PM CA Claremont Colleges Law Fair Friday, November 6, 2026 11:00 AM–2:30 PM CA Los Angeles LSAC Forum Saturday, November 7, 2026 10:00 AM–4:00 PM CO University of Denver (WAPLA) Monday, October 19, 2026 12:00 PM–3:00 PM CT Connecticut Law Fair Thursday, September 17, 2026 11:00 AM–2:00 PM CT University of Connecticut Law School Fair Wednesday, October 14, 2026 12:00 PM–3:00 PM CT Fairfield University Law Fair Thursday, October 15, 2026 12:30 PM–2:30 PM DC George Washington University Law School Fair Monday, October 19, 2026 4:00 PM–7:00 PM DC Howard University Law Fair Tuesday, October 20, 2026 11:00 AM–4:00 PM FL Florida A&M University (SAPLA) Tuesday, October 20, 2026 10:00 AM–2:00 PM FL Florida State University Law School Fair Wednesday, October 21, 2026 10:00 AM–2:00 PM GA University of Georgia Law Fair Thursday, October 8, 2026 3:00 PM–6:00 PM GA Atlanta LSAC Forum Friday, October 9, 2026 10:00 AM–4:00 PM IA University of Iowa (MAPLA) Monday, September 21, 2026 11:00 AM–3:00 PM IL University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (MAPLA) Wednesday, September 23, 2026 11:00 AM–2:00 PM IL Chicago LSAC Forum Saturday, October 24, 2026 10:00 AM–4:00 PM IN Indiana University Bloomington (MAPLA) Thursday, September 24, 2026 11:00 AM–3:00 PM KY University of Louisville Law Fair Tuesday, October 13, 2026 9:00 AM–12:00 PM KY University of Kentucky Law Fair Wednesday, October 14, 2026 11:00 AM–2:00 PM LA Louisiana State University (SWAPLA) Monday, October 5, 2026 10:30 AM–1:30 PM MA Boston Law Fair at Suffolk University Law School Saturday, September 19, 2026 10:00 AM–1:00 PM MA Boston University Law Fair Monday, October 19, 2026 10:00 AM–2:00 PM MA Boston LSAC Forum Saturday, November 14, 2026 10:00 AM–4:00 PM MD University of Maryland Law Fair Monday, October 19, 2026 11:00 AM–2:00 PM MI Michigan Law Fair Wednesday, October 7, 2026 12:00 PM–4:00 PM MI Michigan State University Law School Fair Wednesday, October 14, 2026 3:00 PM–6:00 PM MN University of Minnesota (MAPLA) Tuesday, September 29, 2026 12:00 PM–3:00 PM NC North Carolina Central University HBCU Law Fair Friday, September 25, 2026 2:00 PM–5:00 PM NC Greater Charlotte Law Fair at Davidson College Thursday, October 8, 2026 10:30 AM–12:30 PM NY Tri-State Law Fair at St. John's University Tuesday, September 15, 2026 12:00 PM–3:00 PM NY Syracuse University Law School Day Friday, October 2, 2026 11:00 AM–2:00 PM NY Greater Rochester Area Law School Night Monday, October 5, 2026 4:00 PM–6:00 PM NY University at Buffalo Law School Fair Monday, October 5, 2026 10:00 AM–1:00 PM NY Cornell University Law School Day Tuesday, October 6, 2026 10:00 AM–1:00 PM NY SUNY Oswego Law School Fair Tuesday, October 6, 2026 4:00 PM–6:30 PM NY Binghamton University Law School Day Thursday, October 8, 2026 11:00 AM–2:00 PM NY University at Albany Law School Fair Thursday, October 8, 2026 5:00 PM–7:00 PM NY Baruch College Pre-Law Panel Thursday, October 8, 2026 12:30 PM–2:00 PM NY New York LSAC Forum Friday, October 16, 2026 10:00 AM–4:00 PM NY New York LSAC Forum Saturday, October 17, 2026 10:00 AM–4:00 PM OH Ohio University Law Fair Monday, October 5, 2026 11:30 AM–2:30 PM OH Dayton Metro Law Fair Monday, October 5, 2026 5:30 PM–7:30 PM OH The Ohio State University Law School Fair Tuesday, October 6, 2026 11:00 AM–2:00 PM OH Miami University Law Fair Wednesday, October 7, 2026 11:30 AM–1:30 PM OH University of Cincinnati Law Fair Thursday, October 8, 2026 3:00 PM–6:00 PM ON Toronto LSAC Forum Monday, September 28, 2026 10:00 AM–4:00 PM OR University of Oregon (WAPLA) Friday, October 30, 2026 11:00 AM–2:00 PM OR Portland State University (WAPLA) Saturday, October 31, 2026 11:00 AM–2:00 PM PA Philadelphia Law Fair Tuesday, October 20, 2026 4:00 PM–7:00 PM PA Penn State Law School Day Tuesday, October 20, 2026 11:00 AM–3:00 PM PA University of Pittsburgh Law Fair Wednesday, October 21, 2026 11:00 AM–2:00 PM RI Providence College Law Fair Friday, September 18, 2026 1:00 PM–3:00 PM SC University of South Carolina Law Fair Wednesday, October 7, 2026 12:00 PM–4:00 PM TN University of Tennessee (SAPLA) Monday, September 28, 2026 10:00 AM–2:00 PM TX The University of Texas at Dallas (SWAPLA) Friday, October 2, 2026 10:00 AM–2:00 PM TX Houston LSAC Forum Saturday, October 3, 2026 10:00 AM–4:00 PM TX The University of Texas at San Antonio (SWAPLA) Tuesday, October 6, 2026 11:00 AM–2:00 PM TX Texas State University (SWAPLA) Tuesday, October 6, 2026 4:00 PM–7:00 PM TX The University of Texas at Austin (SWAPLA) Wednesday, October 7, 2026 11:00 AM–2:00 PM UT University of Utah Law Fair (WAPLA) Tuesday, October 20, 2026 12:00 PM–3:00 PM UT Brigham Young University Law Fair (WAPLA) Wednesday, October 21, 2026 10:00 AM–1:00 PM Virtual LSAC Digital Forum Tuesday, October 13, 2026 5:00 PM–8:00 PM Virtual LSAC Digital Forum Wednesday, November 18, 2026 5:00 PM–8:00 PM Virtual LSAC Digital Forum Thursday, February 4, 2027 5:00 PM–8:00 PM WI University of Wisconsin–Madison (MAPLA) Tuesday, September 22, 2026 11:00 AM–3:00 PM   *Times are in local time zones. Schedule and locations are subject to change. Please check school or organization websites for details and registration instructions.   

Publications Ruth Bader Ginsburg Professor of Law Emerita B.A., Barnard College J.D., New York University School of Law A New Sentencing Law Handcuffs U.S. Judges, Newsday (Feb. 13, 1989) at 51 Ab(Ju)dication: How Procedure Defeats Civil Liberties in the "War on Terror", 50 Suffolk University Law Review 79 (2017) Ab(ju)dication: The War on Terror, Civil Liberties, and the Courts, Keynote Speaker, Civil Rights Conference on Barriers and Innovations in Civil Rights Litigation Since 9/11: Practical and Theoretical Perspectives, University of Texas School of Law, Austin, TX ACLU, Heritage Foundation agree: Reform forfeiture laws, (Civil Asset Forfeiture Op-Ed) The Des Moines Register, (September 9, 2015) (with John Malcolm) ACLU President Discusses New Book, Counterterrorism Tactics (Inside City Hall, NY1 interview; Sept. 2011) Advanced Introduction to U.S. Civil Liberties (2023) After Words, Interview with Viet Dinh (C-SPAN Sept. 28, 2011) American Federalism and the American Civil Liberties Union (with N. Dorsen), in Why the Local Matters: Federalism, Localism, and Public Interest Advocacy (Yale Law School, 2009) Applying Apprendi to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines: You Say You Want a Revolution?, 87 Iowa Law Review 615 (2002) As Guilty as He Says He Is, Newsday (Mar. 29, 1988) at 56 Autrefois Double Jeopardy, 2 Books-on-Law (June 1999) (reviewing G.C. Thomas III, Double Jeopardy: The History, the Law (NYU Press, 1998)) Balancing the Five Hundred Hats: On Being a Legal Educator/Scholar/Activist, 41 Tulsa Law Review 637 (2006) Beyond Parity: Section 1983 and the State Courts, 54 Brooklyn Law Review 1057 (1989) reprinted in part in A Section 1983 Civil Rights Anthology (S. Nahmod, ed. Lexis, 1993) Biographical Introduction to Judith S. Kaye in Her Own Words (Henry Greenberg, Luisa Kay, Marilyn Marcus, & Albert Rosenblatt eds., 2019) Book Review, New York Law Journal (Apr. 26, 1991) at 2, col. 3 (reviewing A. Corman, Prized Possessions) Brief Amicus Curiae of the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the National Police Accountability Project of the National Lawyers Guild, in support of Petitioners (Atwater vs. City of Lago Vista), (2000) Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union, The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, and the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties as Amici Curiae in support of the Petitioner (Riley v. California) Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union as Amicus Curiae in Support of Respondent (Chavez v. Martinez) (2003) William & Mary Law School Symposium on Speech, Protest, and the Role of State Actors, “Can Racial Justice and Hate Speech Coexist?” (with Alexander Tsesis) (Feb. 2, 2018) Checking Our Balances, American Lawyer (July 1, 2003) Clinton Takes Liberties with the Constitution, Newsday (Aug. 4, 1996) at 46 Collapsing Spheres: Joint Terrorism Task Forces, Federalism, and the War on Terror, 41 Willamette Law Review 941 (2005) Come Out With Your Rights Up, Newsday (Apr. 20, 1994) at 36 Commentary [Symposium: Politicians on Judges: Fair Criticism or Intimidation], 72 New York University Law Review 339 (1997) Constitutional Utopianism: An Exercise in Law and Literature, 48 University of the Pacific Law Review 93 (2016) Crime Control and Civil Liberties, in Criminology: A Contemporary Handbook (Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1995) Crystal Eastman, the ACLU’s Underappreciated Founding Mother, ACLU 100 series (July 12, 2019) Speaker, 26th Annual Jefferson B. Fordham Debate, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law on the Patriot Act (Feb. 6, 2010) Debate on the balance between individual rights and the common good as applied to the war on terror, (with Amitai Etzioni), George Washington University Communitarian Policy Studies Defense on the Cheap, Newsday (July 31, 1990) at 46 Do Women Hold the Scales, Newsday (Jan. 31, 1990) at 58 Double Jeopardy All Over Again: Dual Sovereignty, Rodney King, and the ACLU, 41 UCLA Law Review 609 (1994) Double Trials Mean Double Jeopardy, Newsday (Feb. 13, 1997) at 59 Keynote Speaker, “Electing Liberty,” International Students for Liberty Conference, February 28, 2016 Embattled Paradigms: The “War on Terror” and the Criminal Justice System, in The Constitution and the Future of Criminal Justice in America (John Parry & Song Richardson, eds.) (Cambridge University Press 2013) Federal Criminal Litigation in 20/20 Vision, 13 Lewis & Clark Law Review 461 (2009) Five Years Later: Law and the Fog of 9/11, Jurist, September 11, 2006 For Judith S. Kaye, 81 Brooklyn Law Review 1361 (2016) Frayed Justice: Buy Cheap, Get Cheap, Newsday (Aug. 12, 1986) at 53 Panelist, “Freedom of the Press vs. Fighting Terror Effectively,” Jerusalem Press Club Conference, May 2015 (with Steve Linde, Dr. Ely Karmon and David Witzhum) Getting There: On Strategies for Implementing Criminal Justice Reform, 23 Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law 32 (2018) Gideon’s Muted Trumpet: The Supreme Court, the Criminal Justice System, and the Quest for Equality, Florida Criminal Defense Attorneys Seminar, Fiftieth Anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright Program How to Argue, Defend and Decide State Constitutional Law Claims, 14 Search and Seizure Law Report 169 (Dec. 1987) Institutional Litigation in the Post-Chapman World, 12 New York University Review of Law and Social Change 299 (1983-1984) Justice Sees Through a Glass, Darkly, Newsday (May 4, 1992) at 37 Let 12 Angry People Decide, Newsday, (Nov. 22, 1991) at 50 Let's Go to the Videotape, Newsday (Nov. 14, 1988) at 51 Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Reconciling National Values and Human Rights, 18 Queen Mary Human Rights Law Review 1 (2018) Measuring Culpability by Measuring Drugs?: Three Reasons to Re-evaluate the Rockefeller Drug Laws, 63 Albany Law Review 777 (2000) No, the Courts are Not Out of Control, Newsday (Feb. 9, 1996) at 43 On Privacy: Constitutional Protection for Personal Liberty, 48 New York University Law Review 670 (1973) (with L. Simonson) Keynote Speaker, “On Balancing Liberty and National Security,” Annual Meeting of the German Association for American Studies, May 18, 2016 TV Interview, OPEN MIND, WNET, recorded July 29, 2014 (aired Sept. 13, 2014) Os Desafios do Crime Cibernético, Revista Eletronica de Direitos Humanos e Política Criminal (Mar. 5, 2011) Our Heroic Constitution?, 43 American Bar Association Journal of Human Rights 26 (2017-2018) Patriot Games: Terrorism Law and Executive Power, Jurist (2006) Patriotic Dissent, 45 Washburn Law Review 21 (2005) People v. Gillette and Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, 11 Judicial Notice 22 (2016) Philadelphia: Law in the City of Brotherly Love, in Screening Justice - The Cinema of Law: Significant Films of Law, Order and Social Justice (R. Strickland, T.E. Foster, & T. Lovell Banks, eds.) (W.S. Hein 2006) Portrait of a Judge: Judith S. Kaye, Dichotomies, and State Constitutional Law, 75 Albany Law Review 1977 (2011/2012) Prison Reform Litigation Acts, 24 Federal Sentencing Reporter 263 (2012) Prisoners' Rights and Habeas Corpus: The Fourth Conference (Eastern District Civil Litigation Fund Training Materials, 1984) Prisons Aren’t for Young Offenders, Newsday (July 8, 1997) at A29 Pro Se Litigation -- Litigating Without Counsel: Faretta or For Worse, 42 Brooklyn Law Review 629 (1976) (with I. Robbins) (reprinted in Prisoners' Rights Sourcebook (Clark Boardman, 1980)) Procedural Due Process in Guidelines Sentencing, 4 Federal Sentencing Reporter 295 (1992) Reading Between the Lines: Judicial Protection for Socioeconomic Rights Under the South African and United States Constitutions, in Law and Rights: Global Perspectives on Constitutionalism and Governance (P. Andrews & S. Bazilli eds., Vandeplas Publishing, 2006) Reconstructing the Bill of Rights: A Reply to Amar and Marcus's Triple Play on Double Jeopardy, 95 Columbia Law Review 1090 (1995) Resolved: America is not at War with Terror, Speaker, Yale Political Union Debate, New Haven, CT Op-Ed: Roberts’ Pitch More Like a Curve Ball, Newsday (Sept. 16, 2005) at A57 Rosika Schwimmer, Woman Without A Country, ACLU 100 series, (Nov. 20, 2020) Safeguards Against Illegal Searches are Eroding, Newsday (June 11, 1987) at 87 Featured Speaker, Maine Civil Liberties Union Annual Scolnik Dinner (May 5, 2009) Should Culture be a Defense?, Newsday (Apr. 20, 1989) at 80 Slashing and Burning Prisoners’ Rights: Congress and the Supreme Court in Dialogue, 77 Oregon Law Review 1229 (1998) Splitting the Atom of Marshall’s Wisdom, 16 St. John’s Journal of Legal Commentary 371 (2002) Stark Images in Black and White, Newsday (Oct. 27, 1987) at 70 National Seminar for Federal Defenders (Kansas City), “Supreme Court and Other Significant Cases Update,” May 31, 2018 (with Erwin Chemerinsky and Paul Rashkind) Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy (Oxford 2011) expanded paperback edition (2014), winner of the ITT Chicago-Kent/Roy C. Palmer Prize Tavis Smiley Show (PBS Oct. 2011) Teaching Law with Sacco, Vanzetti and the Rosenbergs, 9 Focus on Law Studies 6 (1993) (ABA Division for Public Education) Terrorism, Government, and Law: National Authority and Local Autonomy in the War on Terror (Praeger, 2008) (with P. Finkelman) The ACLU and Times of War, Keynote Speaker, Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs Civil Liberties in Times of War Conference The Balance of Evils: Evil, Law and State Surveillance, in Rights, Citizenship and Torture: Perspectives on Evil, Law and the State (J. Parry and W. Zeydanlioglu, eds., Inter-Disciplinary Press 2009) The Facts and the Jury's Nose, Newsday (May 22, 1990) at 50 The Fight for Control of Rape's Meaning, Newsday (Feb. 16, 1992) at 50 The Insanity Defense in Fact and Fiction: A Review Essay of Norval Morris's Madness and the Criminal Law, 1985 American Bar Foundation Research Journal 385 (1985) The Jury in the 21st Century: An Interdisciplinary Conference: Introduction, 66 Brooklyn Law Review 971 (2001) (with L.M. Solan) The Limits of Advocacy: Lawyers for Terrorists/Lawyers for Torturers, Harvard Law & Policy Review (2010) The New Liberty: The Procedural Due Process Rights of Prisoners and Others under the Burger Court, 59 New York University Law Review 482 (1984) The Right to a Speedy and Public Trial: A Reference Guide to the United States Constitution (Praeger, 2006) The Tail that Wagged the Dog: Bifurcated Factfinding Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and the Limits of Due Process, 66 Southern California Law Review 289 (1992) Thelma and Louise and Bonnie and Jean: Images of Women as Criminals, 2 Southern California Law Review of Law & Women's Studies 53 (1992) Three Decades After 1984: Why Does Privacy Matter?, Speaker, 2014 Appellate Judges Education Institute Summit, Dallas, TX Trager Symposium: Our New Federalism? National Authority and Local Autonomy in the War on Terror: Introduction, 69 Brooklyn Law Review 1201 (2004) The USA Patriot Act and the Submajoritarian Fourth Amendment, 41 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 67 (2006) The USA Patriot Act and the US Department of Justice: Losing Our Balances?, Jurist (Dec. 3, 2001) (reprinted in 9-11 and Beyond (Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2003) Wallenberg Lecture, McGill Law School, Montreal, Canada (Mar. 2012) We Focus on Principles, Not Partisanship, Stand, Summer, 2018, at 10 Why Parity Matters, 71 Boston University Law Review 651 (1991) Why the Court Loves Batson: Representation-Reinforcement, Colorblindness, and the Jury, 67 Tulane Law Review 1807 (1993) Wikidemocracy: How We Can Save Free Speech, Privacy, and Democratic Values, Wikimania Conference Montreal, August 11, 2017 Yasser Hamdi and the Fourth Circuit’s Legal No-Man’s Land, Jurist (Jan. 13, 2003)

Pro Bono Projects Give back to the community and gain valuable legal experience Brooklyn Law School offers many student-run pro bono projects. Participation in pro bono projects allows students to serve their community, develop legal experience, and enhance their resume. BLS offers a wide range of projects, including nationwide programs like the National Lawyers Guild’s Legal Observation at Protests, citywide projects such as the Suspension Representation Project, and projects unique to Brooklyn Law School like the Foreclosure Legal Assistance Group. Pro bono projects span a range of practice areas and populations, including working with alleged debtors, domestic violence survivors, entrepreneurs, immigrants, public benefits recipients, and students. The Public Service Law Center also host alternative spring break and winter break trips where students engage in public service in locations across the country. The PSLC is always open to students interested in starting new projects. Appellate Advocates' Parole Advocacy Project The Parole Advocacy Project partners student volunteers with people incarcerated across New York State as they prepare to go before the parole board. Volunteers support applicants in preparing for parole interviews, preparing a packet to provide to the parole board, and in getting access to resources while they are incarcerated and if they are granted release. There are also opportunities to support clients seeking clemency. We work in partnership with Appellate Advocates lawyers, paralegals, social workers and re-entry specialists. Asylum Relief Project – Winter or Spring Break BLS students partner with a nonprofit organization over winter and/or spring break to provide legal support to recently arrived migrants seeking asylum in the US. In prior years, students worked at Al Otro Lado’s legal clinic in Tijuana, Mexico and remotely. In 2023, students worked with the Central American Refugee Center assisting with client intake, preparing individuals for credible fear interviews, drafting affidavits, petitioning for humanitarian parole, and advocating to protect due process rights. In 2024, they assisted attorneys at Catholic Charities in NYC and Central American Refugee Center in Long Island. Brooklyn Law Alternative Spring Break Trip BLAST is an excellent opportunity for BLS students to spend their spring break working with legal services and other public interest organizations across the United States. Students work in teams and with seasoned attorneys to provide much-needed legal assistance during the one-week period. In previous years, students worked at the Miami-Dade County Public Defender’s Office, Bread & Roses Legal Center in Denver, Louisiana Civil Justice Center in New Orleans, Miami Community Justice Project, Catholic Charities of Atlanta, Georgia Legal Services in Atlanta and Savannah, and Gideon’s Promise in Atlanta. Courtroom Advocates Project Students advocate for survivors of domestic violence seeking civil orders of protection in New York City family courts. Primarily, students work with survivors to draft and file petitions. Students may also have the opportunity to advocate for the petitioner before the family court judge. Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship (CUBE) Consultation Center The CCC is a pro bono project sponsored by Brooklyn Law School’s Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship (CUBE). It offers students valuable practice experience and the opportunity to interact with local entrepreneurs in Brooklyn’s dynamic business community. Participating students work under the supervision of corporate law alumni (from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, Nixon Peabody, White and Case, Davis Polk, Cleary Gottlieb, and Goodwin Procter) and faculty, and alongside community partners and incubators including NYC Business Solutions, the Brooklyn Innovators Center and the Brooklyn Public Library. Consultations tend to focus on providing small business owners and start-ups with essential legal services and resources. During the consultations, students hear directly from the client as they work alongside supervising attorneys to issue spot and assess their legal needs and provide them with valuable information and advice related to contracts, entity formation, leases, intellectual property, tax and other issues. Foreclosure Legal Assistance Group FLAG is a partnership among Brooklyn Law School students, the BLS Public ServiceLaw Center, Access Justice Brooklyn, and Kings County Supreme Court. FLAG’s mission is to assist homeowners in Kings County facing foreclosure. FLAG provides homeowners entangled in foreclosure litigation with information about New York’s unique foreclosure process. It offers students an opportunity to provide meaningful assistance to members of our community, learn about foreclosure law, attend foreclosure settlement conferences, and gain direct exposure to the mandatory foreclosure litigation process, sharpening essential interpersonal skills through hands-on experience. If/When/How - Abortion Clinic Legal Observing If/When/How is a student-driven national nonprofit network of law students and lawyers committed to fostering the next wave of legal experts for the reproductive justice movement. If/When/How works to transform the law and policy landscape through advocacy, support, and organizing so all people have the power to determine if, when, and how to define, create, and sustain families with dignity and to actualize sexual and reproductive wellbeing on their own terms. Through our clinic escorting project, students have the chance to support and help people seeking abortions safely enter a Bronx abortion clinic despite protestor presence. Immigrant Youth Assistance Project Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) is a form of humanitarian immigration status available for immigrant children under the age of twenty-one, who cannot be reunified with one or both of their parents due to abuse, abandonment, and/ or neglect, and it is not in their best interest to return to their home countries. The Immigrant Youth Assistance Project (IYAP) provides students with the opportunity to interview clients and potential guardians, draft guardianship petitions, affidavits, and motions, as well as prepare clients for hearings before the New York Family Court. Upon completion of the Family Court piece of the SIJS process, immigrant youth are then eligible to apply for SIJS before United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Law Student for a Day For over a decade, Brooklyn Law School has partnered with high schools to bring students from diverse communities into the law school through the Law Student for a Day program. During this program, high school students shadow law students to learn about the law school experience and increase the accessibility of the legal profession. This program provides students from underserved communities exposure to the law school, legal profession, and higher education. The goal is to empower students who may have never met a lawyer or don’t have any positive associations with the legal profession. Motivating Youth Through Legal Education Do you want a head start in constitutional law? Updates on the current SCOTUS docket? Networking opportunities with NYC attorneys and judges? BLS Public Service Award pro bono hours? MYLE is an underrated experience for law students. How does it work? First, you join MYLE as a debate coach. Next, Legal Outreach pairs you with a high school student who has already taken extracurricular courses on constitutional law, criminal law, and criminal procedure. Then, you help with their legal and public speaking skills. Finally, you judge the debate, which is usually based on a case currently on SCOTUS’s docket. Completion of constitutional law is not a prerequisite! National Lawyers Guild: Legal Observation at Protests The Legal Observer program is part of the comprehensive legal support coordinated by NLG’s Mass Defense Committee designed to ensure that people can express their political views without unconstitutional disruption or interference by the government. Legal Observers work with NLG attorneys who represent individual activists and political organizations and play a distinct role from that of participants at demonstrations and protests. They are trained to promote police accountability by witnessing and documenting arrests, abuse, or civil rights violations. The presence of Legal Observers helps discourage police abuse, and the information collected by Legal Observers is used in all stages of defending arrestees and in lawsuits against the police or other government agencies when a person’s rights are violated. Petey Greene Program Since 2008, PGP has been supporting the academic goals of incarcerated and formally incarcerated students through high quality volunteer tutoring, while educating volunteers on the injustice manifest in our carceral system. Puerto Rico Legal Brigade Following Hurricane Maria, student-led BLS brigades have traveled to Puerto Rico to assist El Colegio de Abogados y Abogadas de Puerto Rico or the Bar Association of Puerto Rico. In past years, BLS students also assisted locals with legal issues ranging from preparing forms required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to help survivors prove ownership of damaged property, to assisting lawyers with client intakes and client interviews and even attending courts proceedings. This year, students hope to travel to Puerto Rico to provide pro bono legal assistance. Schools Consent Project (SCP) SCP volunteers will assist in delivering lawyer-led school workshops designed to educate young students in NYC on the legal definition of consent, the age of consent, key sexual offenses, online harms, and how to recognize and communicate personal boundaries. The aim is to equip students with the legal knowledge and confidence to identify harmful behaviors, respect others, and encourage them to seek help from the justice system when needed. Volunteers will undergo a background check and receive full training. Small Claims with Sanctuary (SCS) Sanctuary for Families’ (“SFFNY”) “Small Claims with Sanctuary” (“SCS”) Pilot Program aims to train student volunteers to assist clients through the process of obtaining financial relief through the Small Claims Court system. SFFNY is a non-profit organization that provides free services to survivors of intimate partner violence. Many survivors are unable to obtain adequate relief through state resources. SCS will provide clients with another avenue to obtain financial support and reparations to aid in their process of healing and restoration. Suspension Representation Project SRP is an incredible way to increase your advocacy skills while having a tangible impact on the students of New York City. Public school students who receive long- term suspensions are entitled to an advocate during their suspension process. SRP’s goal is to advocate for students to keep them in school and on a path to graduation – avoiding the pervasive “school-to-prison pipeline”. SRP is a consortium of student organizations from five NYC law schools – each dedicated to protecting young people’s educational rights. In many cases, the student’s only chance at having a voice is through SRP’s advocates. The club provides advocates with comprehensive training on interviewing and counseling, hearing procedures, direct and cross examination techniques, and developing a “theory of the case” so that they can effectively represent students and their families in front of hearing officers. New advocates are paired with experienced ones and can turn to the BLS SRP Executive Board for support and guidance at any time. Taxi Workers Defense Collective The Taxi Workers Defense Collective provides student representation to taxi and ride-share drivers accused of violations of New York City’s traffic laws. Drivers are summoned to adversarial proceedings conducted by the New York City Office of Administrative Trials & Hearings, where their cases are prosecuted by attorneys at the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). As a result of these hearings, drivers in New York, hailing almost exclusively from low-income immigrant communities, are often issued predatory fines and penalties without any advocate by their side. Student volunteers fill that gap, representing drivers throughout the lifecycle of their case and handling intake, settlement negotiations, and oral argument. Law students have the opportunity to advocate for clients at TLC hearings, represent one of New York’s most exploited workforces, and fight for economic justice throughout the city. Uncontested Divorce Project Sanctuary for Families serves domestic violence and trafficking victim-survivors from diverse backgrounds who are seeking a life free from abuse and exploitation. The contribution of law students participating in the UDP Project enhances Sanctuary for Families’ capacity to meet the overwhelming demand for help. Divorcing an abusive spouse can be one of the most liberating moments for a victim-survivor of domestic violence. For many, divorce allows them to reclaim their pre-abuse identity and empowers them by cutting off any remaining ties to their abusive past. In some cases, it also offers victim-survivors a chance at obtaining much-needed financial relief through the distribution of martial assets and/or maintenance. Access Justice Brooklyn assists low-income individuals of all genders seeking uncontested divorces in any circumstances. Unemployment Action Center Every year, New Yorkers lose their jobs unexpectedly and sometimes unfairly. For many, unemployment insurance is the only way they can meet their needs and provide for their families. UAC advocates represent unemployed workers in hearings before administrative law judges and get to do everything lawyers do: interview and advise clients, interview and cross-examine witnesses, and deliver arguments. UAC not only provides a vital service to workers but also offers students meaningful experience in advocacy. The Public Service Law Center is a resource for Brooklyn Law School students. Please note that our pro bono projects are connected with clients through their nonprofit partners and not through our office, and we do not have the ability to respond to requests for legal assistance at the phone number or email below.

Policies & Reports Brooklyn Law School Policies & Reports The following is the official and most recently updated list of Brooklyn Law School Policies and Procedures that clarify the Law School’s expectations, strive to improve efficiency and effectiveness, and support legal compliance. This list will be updated periodically as necessary and at the Law School’s discretion. Although effort will be made to ensure that all reproductions of the policies on this list and on other pages of the Brooklyn Law School website or in Brooklyn Law School publications are the most current, this list prevails where there is a conflict. We hope you find this list convenient and helpful. Academic Integrity Brooklyn Law School Code of Academic Responsibility  Brooklyn Law School Statement of Rights and Responsibilities  Animals on Law School Property Brooklyn Law School Policy on Animals on Law School Property  CARES Act Disclosures Brooklyn Law School has signed and returned to the Department the Certification and Agreement and the assurance that the institution has used, or intends to use, no less than 50 percent of the funds received under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act to provide Emergency Financial Aid Grants to students. As a recipient of these funds, Brooklyn Law School is required to make the disclosures which can be found on the CARES Act Disclosures page (click below). Brooklyn Law School has received $1,415,358.00 in emergency financial aid grants for students through the CARES Act, the CRSSA, and SSARP. To date, Brooklyn Law School has distributed $1,415,358.00 in emergency financial aid grants to 413 students through the CARES Act, the CRSSA, and SSARP. Brooklyn Law School estimates that based on their FAFSA (per Federal Cares Act guidance) up to 3340 students were eligible for emergency financial aid grants through the CARES Act, the CRSSA, and SSARP since the programs began in 2020. Based on our limited funds, Brooklyn Law School identified 413 unduplicated students through student hardship requests, need-analysis, and Cost of Attendance factors, including high student loan debt. During the April 1 – June 30, 2023 quarter, $2,725.60 was disbursed to 2 students. 2 students were eligible during the April 1 – June 30, 2023 quarter. During the January 1 – March 31, 2023 quarter, $132,100 was disbursed to 27 students. 27 students were eligible during the January 1 – March 31, 2023 quarter. During the October 1 – December 31, 2022 quarter, $152,522 was disbursed to 33 students. 33 students were eligible for aid during the October 1 – December 31 quarter. (Please note that the determination of eligibility and the awarding of aid are usually made early in the semester, so figures for April 1 – June 30 and October 1 – December 31 quarters will seem lower than expected). During the July 1 – September 30, 2022 quarter, $491,764 was distributed to 73 students. 73 students were eligible for aid during the July 1 – September 30, 2022 quarter. During the April 1 – June 30, 2022 quarter, $18,000 was distributed to 18 students. 18 students were eligible for aid during the April 1 – June 30, 2022 quarter. (Please note that the determination of eligibility and the awarding of aid are usually made early in the semester, so figures for April 1 – June 30 and October 1 – December 31 quarters will seem lower than expected). During the January 1 – March 31, 2022, quarter, $280,150 was distributed to 208 students. 208 students were eligible for aid during the January 1 – March 31, 2022 quarter. During the October 1 – December 31,2021 quarter, $2,150 was distributed to 2 students. 2 students were eligible for aid during the October 1 – December 31 quarter. (Please note that the determination of eligibility and the awarding of aid are usually made early in the semester, so figures for April 1 – June 30 and October 1 – December 31 quarters will seem lower than expected). During the July 1 – September 30, 2021 quarter, $90,000 was distributed to 39 students. 39 students were eligible for aid during the July 1 – September 30, 2021 quarter. Brooklyn Law School uses the following methodology to determine which students receive Federal CARES Act Grants and how much they receive under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act: Student Federal Cares Act Grants are awarded by the Office of Financial Aid. Students must have significant unmet need based on their EFC, Institutional scholarships/grants, and law school federal student loan debt. Students must have a current FAFSA on file to receive Federal Cares Act funding. Exceptions are made for international students who are not eligible for federal student loans, and because of this, are not eligible to complete the FAFSA. Brooklyn Law School has disclosed the following guidance regarding Federal Cares Act Funding. Students must use Federal Cares Act Grants to cover to educational and emergency expenses such as: Brooklyn Law School tuition/fees/housing Off-campus rent Basic needs such as food, personal living expenses, and clothing Medical expenses not covered by insurance Housing displacement due to unsafe or unhealthy conditions Emergency travel to care for immediate family members Computer related expenses Other Covid-related emergencies Students may request emergency funding by contacting fa.app@brooklaw.edu. Federal Cares Act Grants are part of the students’ Cost of Attendance and financial aid package. Federal Cares Act Grants are not loans and will not need to be repaid. Brooklyn Law School has received an additional $1,052,871.00 from the CARES Act, CRSSA, and the ARP Act: $803,981 from the institution portions of Section (a)(1) of these Acts and $248,890 from CARES Act Section (a)(3) funding. Brooklyn Law School has chosen to use this additional funding to support the development of online and hybrid courses that will allow the School to continue to educate students during the pandemic, and to provide evidence-based interventions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 including surveillance testing and PPE for faculty and staff. For quarterly summaries which detail how much of this funding Brooklyn Law School has used and for what purposes, click below. The following quarterly summaries detail how much of this funding Brooklyn Law School has used and for what purposes: Summary for April 1 – June 30, 2020 Summary for July 1 – September 30, 2020 Summary for October 1 – December 31, 2020 Summary for January 1 – March 31, 2021 Summary for April 1 – June 30, 2021 Summary for July 1 – September 30, 2021 Summary for October 1 – December 31, 2021 Summary for January 1 – March 31, 2022 – FINAL REPORT Summary for April 1 – June 30, 2022 Summary for July 1 – September 30, 2022 – P425E201645 Summary for July 1 – September 30, 2022 – P425S21003 Summary for July 1 – September 30, 2022 – P425T220291 --> Disability/Reasonable Accommodation Brooklyn Law School Reasonable Accommodation Procedures  Drugs and Alcohol Brooklyn Law School Alcoholic Beverages Policy  Brooklyn Law School Drug and Alcohol Policy Educational Records Brooklyn Law School FERPA Policy  Brooklyn Law School FERPA Release Form  Brooklyn Law School Request to View Educational Records  FERPA Appeal Form  FERPA Directory Information Opt-Out Form  FERPA Notification Intellectual Property Brooklyn Law School Digital Millennium Copyright Act Policy  Notice of Nondiscrimination Brooklyn Law School is committed to the principles of equal opportunity and non-discrimination in the education and employment of qualified persons. It prohibits discrimination and all forms of harassment based on race, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, color, creed, religion, age, national origin, ethnicity, disability, veteran or military status, sex, marital status, citizenship status, criminal record and any other legally protected status in admissions, hiring, firing, workplace terms and conditions, classroom settings, student and faculty housing, study-abroad programs, and Law School-sponsored events. Such behavior is unlawful and will not be tolerated. Brooklyn Law School Notice of Nondiscrimination and Equal Opportunity Brooklyn Law School Policy on Non-Discrimination and Harassment  Brooklyn Law School Complaint Form for Sexual Misconduct and Discrimination No Smoking Policy Brooklyn Law School No Smoking Policy  Privacy Policy Brooklyn Law School Privacy Policy Brooklyn Law School International Privacy Policy Policy Regarding the Maintenance of Public Order Brooklyn Law School Policy Regarding the Maintenance of Public Order SMS Text Privacy Policy Brooklyn Law School SMS Text Privacy Policy Subpoena and Service of Process Service of Process Policy  Title IX/Sexual Misconduct Brooklyn Law School Policy Prohibiting Title IX Sexual Harassment Involving Students Brooklyn Law School Campus Climate Survey Spring 2024 Website Terms of Use Brooklyn Law School Website Terms of Use CAMPUS SECURITY Annual Security and Fire Safety Report Notification As required by the Jeanne Clery Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1092(f), the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report for the Brooklyn Law School campus is available on the BLS website at www.brooklaw.edu/campussafetyreport. Past Reports: 2023 2024 2025The report contains information regarding campus security and personal safety including topics such as crime prevention, crime reporting policies, fire safety, disciplinary procedures and other matters of importance related to security on campus. The report also contains crime statistics for the three previous calendar years concerning reported crimes that occurred on campus; in certain off-campus buildings or property owned or controlled by BLS; and on public property within, or immediately adjacent to and accessible from campus. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, you can request that a copy be mailed to you by sending an email to publicsafety@brooklaw.edu. As per NYS Education Law Article 129-A, The BLS Advisory Committee on Campus Safety will provide upon request all campus crime statistics as reported to the United States Department of Education. Department of Public Safety staff will perform this task on behalf of the Committee by providing the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report to those individuals who request the crime statistics. Crime statistics can also be reviewed at the US Department of Education website at http://ope.ed.gov/security. Campus Hate Crime Statistics New York State Education law requires Brooklyn Law School to post information about hate and bias crimes that have taken place on or around campus on its website. For this purpose, hate and bias crimes are defined by New York Penal Law § 485.05. In accordance with this requirement, and as reflected in the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, the following are statistics reflecting hate and bias crime incidents in the last three reporting periods: September 1, 2021 – August 31, 2022: 0September 1, 2022 – August 31, 2023: 0September 1, 2023 – August 31, 2024: 0September 1, 2024 – August 31, 2025: 0 Information about Brooklyn Law School’s campus crime statistics may also be found on the U.S. Department of Education website. Brooklyn Law School Campus Safety Transparency Report Hazing is prohibited by the Law School Policy Prohibiting Hazing. Hazing is also a crime under Sections 120.16 and 120.17 of the New York Penal Law. In accordance with the Stop Campus Hazing Act, Brooklyn Law School reports no incidents of hazing during the 2026-2026 academic year. The Law School’s hazing statistics are included in the crime statistics reported in the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report.  The Law School provides research-informed hazing prevention programming to student leaders and Campus Security Authorities on an annual basis and to faculty, staff and students upon request. The hazing prevention programming addresses: The definition of hazing under Law School policy, How to report hazing at the Law School The Law School’s investigation and response to incidents of hazing, and Primary prevention strategies including bystander intervention, ethical leadership, and strategies for building group cohesion without hazing.   The following statistics reflect hazing incidents in the last three years: September 1, 2022 – August 31, 2023: 0September 1, 2023 – August 31, 2024: 0September 1, 2024 – August 31, 2025: 0 Requests for training can be made to the Director of Student Life, the Director of Campus Safety, or the Dean of Students.

Fellowships Launch Careers, Open Doors Brooklyn Law School students compete for an array of prestigious fellowships that provide career and networking opportunities in New York City—and far beyond. By Jen Swetzoff Brooklyn Law School fellowships—offering enriching opportunities for law students to prepare for and lead in their chosen career fields—are highly competitive and span a wide range of disciplines, including social and criminal justice, international business, and trade secrets. The Law School has a long tradition of creating fellowships that address critical and emerging areas of the law, stimulate intellectual growth, and advance the research agendas and training of outstanding scholars and professionals. For Jean Paul Stefan ’19 (left), the International Human Rights Fellowship was a pivotal experience that changed his career trajectory. Growing up in Boca Raton, Fla., he planned to join the military after high school. At 18, he even filled out the paperwork to enlist. But his parents, both physicians who served as combat medics in Colombia after they completed their medical degrees, insisted that he go to college first. Trade Secret Institute (TSI) fellows, L–R, Kelsie Kelly ’19, Thomas Landman ’19, and Samuel Goodstein ’19, with Professor Christopher Beauchamp Lili Rogowsky ’16, Nancy and Stanley Grossman ’67 CUBE Innovators fellow Professor Cynthia Godsoe (L) with Marsha Garrison Family Law and Policy fellows, L–R, Caitlyn Garcia ’20, Whitney Gulden ’20, and Elizabeth Ildefonso ’19 Judy Kim ’17, TSI fellow Terry Frederic ’19, International Business Law (IBL) fellow Craig McAllister ’18, IBL fellow Connie Raffa ’76 Health Law and Policy fellows, L–R, Tino Illiparambil ’20, Rashmini Sookraj ’20, Madeline Huang ’20, Reuben Gottlieb ’20, Matthew Gagliotti ’19, Professor Karen Porter, Veronica Mishkind ’19, Bailee Brown ’19, Hayley Bava ’19, and Max Ezoory ’18 --> “What I wanted most was to help people,” Stefan recalled. “And I wanted to see more of the world. My parents were role models to me. But I saw, through their professional experience, how tough it was to work in medicine. So, for me, I thought the law would be a better way to make a difference and reach the most people.” After graduating from Nova Southeastern University, Stefan was thrilled to receive a scholarship from Brooklyn Law School. Although he found the first two years of law school harder than he expected, he focused on his work and making connections with professors. His extra effort paid off. Interim Dean Maryellen Fullerton, who taught Refugee Law, recognized Stefan’s achievements and his interest in international law. She encouraged him to apply for the International Human Rights Fellowship. “The International Human Rights Fellowship funds students to work abroad at organizations promoting human and civil rights,” explained Professor Stacy Caplow, associate dean of experiential education, who serves with Fullerton as co-director of the fellowship. “For a student with the goal of working in international law, the experience of working and living in another country is a huge asset. It demonstrates a high level of adaptability and capacity to deal with challenging situations.” Stefan spent the summer before his third year of law school working in the special investigations unit at the General Prosecutor’s Office in Bogota, Colombia. He focused on researching past precedents in international law, supporting the prosecutors during the country’s peaceful government transition. Another Brooklyn Law School student, Alec Nelson ’19, was also recognized with the International Human Rights Fellowship and worked with the Malaysia U.N. High Commission for Refugees in Kuala Lumpur. “Going to work in another country was an incredibly powerful experience,” Stefan said. “I met so many smart and inspiring people. I explored a new culture. I learned how to work with minimal supervision and dig deep into research, even when some of what I read was incredibly upsetting—horrific incidents of terrorism, rape, and other atrocities. Most important, I left Colombia feeling more fulfilled by what I had accomplished and much more like a citizen of the world.”   JUDY KIM ’17 Trade Secrets Institute Fellow Intellectual Property Associate at Venable “The TSI fellowship provided an opportunity to formulate scholarly research and develop strong mentoring relationships with faculty and alumni. Tracking and covering trade secret cases in real time to provide a platform for discussion prepared me well for the research required to handle constantly evolving case law and legal research questions.”   PHILIP M. GUFFY ’15 Barry L. Zaretsky Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Fellow Bankruptcy and Restructuring Associate at Blank Rome “Preparing materials for the Zaretsky Roundtable gave me a chance to work on legal issues that were timely and relevant to the bankruptcy community. The best part was meeting current practitioners in bankruptcy, including judges and scholars. Being recognized as a Zaretsky Fellow gave me the opportunity to meet and engage with people who are at the cutting edge of bankruptcy law.”   VERONICA MISHKIND ’19 Connie Raffa ’76 Health Law and Policy Fellow Associate at Aaronson Rappaport Feinstein & Deutsch “Entering law school as a registered nurse, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in health law. My fellowship gave me the ability to work with incredible professors who mentored me, exposed me to the expansive breadth of the health law field, and provided a platform for excellent networking opportunities.” --> A LONG TRADITION OF FELLOWSHIPS Some fellowships, such as the Pretrial Justice Fellowship and the Nancy and Stanley Grossman ’67 CUBE Innovators Fellowship, were established in the last several years. Others, such as the Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship and the International Business Law Fellowship, were created more than 30 years ago. The Sparer Fellowship, established in 1985, provides a 10-week summer internship with a public interest organization overseas or in the United States. Named for Edward Sparer ’59, a prominent lawyer and teacher whose focus on the rights of those in poverty changed social welfare policy during the 1960s, the fellowship was developed to help students carry on Sparer’s legacy. It was one of the first public interest programs at any U.S. law school. “Sparer, today a nationally recognized program in public interest law, is intended to build a community for public interest legal advocacy at Brooklyn Law School,” said Professor Elizabeth M. Schneider, who founded and has directed the program since its inception. “The program carries a great deal of weight in the public interest world, because potential employers know how thoroughly our fellows are vetted.” Schneider also leads the Sparer Fellowship Committee, an outstanding group of faculty with a strong commitment to public interest law. Students in the Sparer Leadership Group plan programming for the academic year, including the annual Sparer Forum, which brings public interest lawyers and advocates together to explore a topic of current interest. Many Sparer alumni attend the forum to reconnect with one another and to meet current fellows. Students also hold a summer Sparer Legal Theory/Practice program. While Sparer Fellows learn and practice lawyering skills over the course of their summer internships, they also get an inside look at building and developing a public interest legal organization, and they network with mentors and potential employers. “I had candid discussions with practitioners regarding their practice and how best to approach legal issues and hone my writing,” said Marvin Espana ’18 (right), a Sparer Fellowship recipient. “I developed skills and learned the intricacies of immigration practice, preparing me to reason as an attorney from the beginning of my career. Ultimately, the fellowship helped me create lasting bonds that provide ongoing guidance and support.” Espana is currently an immigration staff attorney for the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project at the Bronx Defenders. HIGHLY COVETED EXPERIENCES The Law School’s highly coveted fellowship programs are a huge draw for students. “Brooklyn Law School provides many opportunities that allow students to engage in hands-on work that gives real context to their law school learning and real skills to take with them out into the world of lawyering,” said Professor Jocelyn Simonson, co-director of the Center for Criminal Justice, who launched the Pretrial Justice Fellowship program in 2016. Students in this innovative fellowship program engage deeply with on-the-ground issues of criminal procedure in New York City and the state of New York. “Students are not just learning about policy,” said Simonson. “They are changing policy by, for example, investigating fraud committed by bail bondsmen or writing reports after court-watching in criminal court.” In addition to the public-sector fellowships, the Law School offers programs that provide industry experience to students in for-profit sectors. The CUBE Fellowship at the Law School’s Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship provides students a training ground for legal work with startup entities, an evolving field where the legal landscape is continually adapting to the marketplace. “The CUBE Fellowship was a big factor in my decision to attend Brooklyn Law,” said Lili Rogowsky ’16 (left). “Law school was a time of exponential growth for me, and the CUBE Innovators competition was paramount in that experience.” Rogowsky participated in the CUBE Innovators Invitational as a student competitor and fellowship recipient in 2016, as a speaker in 2017, and as a judge in 2018. “The competition was full of important ‘firsts’ for me,” Rogowsky said. “What stands out was finding my voice as a public speaker. CUBE was the first time I felt comfortable pitching an idea to a critical audience. This has been imperative to my success at various times in my career.” Rogowsky, who calls herself “innately entrepreneurial,” left her job as in-house counsel at a tech company to start her own law firm, just one year after graduating from the Law School. Now, Rogowsky is the chief experience officer at Whistler Partners, a legal recruiting firm specializing in the tech/media space. She credits the CUBE Fellowship for furthering her network and approach to her career. “I have always been a creative thinker, but receiving the CUBE Fellowship was the first time I felt empowered to bring an idea to life. That experience has been crucial in developing self-awareness of my capabilities and has stayed with me through every challenge I have encountered since,” she said.   TERRY FREDERIC ’19 International Business Law Fellow “This fellowship has been a highlight of my law school experience. I now have a much stronger grasp of the ‘big picture’ of international economic law, and the global implications of current events. Professors Robin Effron and Julian Arato challenged us to think critically about the reading material and to write our responses with clarity and concision. These are transferable skills that will serve me well throughout my legal career.” Frederic will clerk at the U.S. Court of International Trade this fall.   ALEX PETKANAS ’20 Pretrial Justice Fellow “My fellowship has not only exposed me to passionate and hardworking attorneys in our city, but it has also given me a chance to learn from Professor Simonson about criminal procedure and to connect with like-minded students who want to change the system. There is an impressive network of attorneys dedicated to working against systems of oppression, and I am eager to officially join that team.” This summer Petkanas will serve as an intern at the New York Legal Assistance Group Public Benefits Unit.   MARIO FITZGERALD ’19 Brooklyn Law Students for the Public Interest Fellow “My fellowship funded my internship at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, which combines grassroots movement building with legal direct services for transgender and gender nonconforming individuals. The experience shaped my ideas regarding what it means to be a community lawyer and solidified my decision to pursue public interest law immediately after law school.” Fitzgerald will join Brooklyn Legal Services as a housing staff attorney this fall. --> STUDENTS FRONT AND CENTER The Trade Secrets Institute (TSI), which provides neutral coverage of key trade secret cases and legislation via its website, annually awards fellowships to students. TSI connects users to summaries of filed and decided cases and to supporting documents such as briefs and motions. TSI Fellows, who are tasked with maintaining the website and organizing the annual TSI symposium, are given a unique opportunity to engage with trade secrets subject matter in real time. The Fellows work with faculty and practitioners to compile case law, legislation, and regulatory initiatives to include on the website. TSI’s annual symposium is entirely student-run. Fellows determine the topics, select noteworthy speakers, and work with the speakers to develop in-depth discussions for an audience of students, faculty, alumni, and other professionals. Recent fellows have led panel discussions on issues such as trade secrets in government algorithms, labor mobility and noncompete agreements, state-sponsored economic espionage, cybercrime, and international trade. “Our TSI Fellows are able to engage professionals we don’t have preexisting relationships with,” said Professor Christopher Beauchamp, faculty advisor to TSI. “They have the opportunity to drill down with experts across the trade secrets field, and having the students front and center in that effort shows the Law School in a great light.” The International Business Law (IBL) Fellowship provides students opportunities to develop specialized knowledge and contacts across a wide variety of fields—for example, cross-border transactions, transnational litigation, and international economic law. Fellows attend programs of the Dennis J. Block Center for the Study of International Business Law and take a wide assortment of courses in the international and business fields to provide the necessary background for successful practice. Fellows also participate in a variety of mentoring and enrichment experiences that prepare them to launch fulfilling careers. “The program is designed to balance exposure and depth. Through participating actively in the colloquium and the annual lecture, fellows come into contact with a broad array of ideas and career paths relating to the pursuit and regulation of business beyond the state,” said Professor Julian Arato, director of the IBL Fellowship and co-director of the Block Center. “At the same time, students are expected to produce scholarly works digging deeply into specialized questions of their choosing, requiring sustained study of particular complex international legal problems. Our students leave the fellowship with a sense of both the expansiveness of international business law and an understanding of how to methodically chart their own paths within the field.” “Through my fellowship, I developed lasting relationships with practitioners and scholars, and it presented me with professional opportunities that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise,” said Craig McAllister ’18 (right), who is a clerk for Hon. Claire Kelly ’93 at the U.S. Court of International Trade. BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL FELLOWSHIPS Arthur Pinto Public Service Fellowship for LGTBQ Rights Created by Professor of Law Emeritus Arthur Pinto, this fellowship supports a summer internship for a current student at a nonprofit or government agency that works on behalf of LGBTQ rights or represents LGBTQ individuals. Barry L. Zaretsky Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Fellowship This fellowship offers a select path of study for a student who has demonstrated outstanding academic achievement in either bankruptcy or commercial law, and is interested in pursuing a career in either of those fields. The fellow works closely with faculty members and alumni on scholarly and community activities, including the noted Zaretsky Roundtable series. Brooklyn Law Students for the Public Interest (BLSPI) Fellowship Fellowships are awarded by BLSPI, an entirely student-run nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting public service. Fellows work during the summer at nonprofit organizations and government agencies in New York City, nationally, and internationally. Connie Raffa ’76 Health Law and Policy Fellowship This one-year fellowship with the option of an additional year includes mentorship, events, and a research project on a legal or policy issue related to medicine, healthcare, public health, science, or biotechnology. Criminal Justice Fellowship Students work to support the activities of the Center for Criminal Justice, including assisting with the Professor Robert M. Pitler Program on Criminal Law, Procedure, Evidence, and Ethics. Dennis J. Block Judicial Intern Fellowship This fellowship supports the summer public service program for students who work as interns for federal judges. The program was established by Dennis J. Block ’67, a member of the Board of Trustees. Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship This program includes a 10-week summer internship with a public interest organization in the United States or abroad, mentorship, and regularly held events that highlight current public interest issues. International Business Law Fellowship Fellows are provided with mentorship and enrichment activities through the Dennis J. Block Center for the Study of International Business Law. Fellows are invited to attend all programs of the Block Center, including special programs to introduce them to the many facets of international business law. International Human Rights Fellowship This summer fellowship allows students to engage in 10 weeks of legal work overseas under the supervision of an attorney for a nongovernmental or intergovernmental organization concerned with international human rights. Marsha Garrison Family Law and Policy Fellowship The fellowship is designed to give students interested in family law an opportunity to engage in a significant research project, as well as to interact with other students, faculty, and alumni in this field. Nancy and Stanley Grossman ’67 CUBE Innovators Fellowship Student fellows with the Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship participate in and contribute to CUBE’s work through leadership positions, scholarship, event planning, and public programming, including the CUBE Consultation Center and the CUBE Innovators Invitational. Paul Windels Jr. Fellowship This fellowship supports students who work as interns at the Securities and Exchange Commission or at the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York or the Southern District of New York. Pretrial Justice Fellowship Students in this innovative fellowship program engage deeply with on-the-ground issues of criminal procedure, such as fraud committed by bail bondsmen, in New York City and the state of New York. Trade Secrets Institute Fellowship TSI fellows manage the TSI website, which provides timely, in-depth coverage and critical analylsis of key trade secret cases and legislation. The fellows assume full responsibility for organizing the annual trade secrets symposium. Veterans’ Rights Fellowship This summer fellowship offered through the Public Service Law Center supports students who are working with veterans and veterans’ issues. The Law School also offers fellowships that extend beyond graduation Public Interest/Public Service Fellowships (PipS) This two-year program starts during students’ last year of law school and continues with work experience at nonprofits and government agencies during their first postgraduate year. Robert M. Pitler PostGraduate Fellowship This program, designed to help reduce student loan debt, is open to graduates who have worked at public criminal justice organizations for at least five years and who commit to remain working in the public service sector for at least two additional years.

Ready to Work Brooklyn Law School’s robust externship program takes students beyond the classroom and empowers them with real-world practice By Kaitlin Ugolik Phillips and Andrea Strong ’94 Early last year, Ashley Hellberg ’18 made her way through a blinding blizzard to the Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) offices in Times Square. The weather was treacherous and the stakes were high: Hellberg and her mentor, AEA’s eastern regional director, were embarking on several long days of negotiations with the League of Resident Theatres. Hellberg recalls that time as one of the most memorable periods of her legal education. “I saw such passion from both sides,” she says. “I watched actors and stage managers advocate for themselves with help from AEA’s support staff. And I learned invaluable lessons about the theater industry, the union, and labor law.” Thanks to Brooklyn Law School’s externship program, which is part of the nationally recognized clinical program, Hellberg has completed three externship experiences, receiving critical preparation for a career in the entertainment industry with a focus on union representation. Prior to her externship at the AEA, she worked with Sony Music, where her duties included reviewing music industry agreements and helping write detailed contract summaries. In spring 2018, she spent two days a week with the Dramatists Guild of America working on copyright law issues. The Value of Externships Hellberg is one of the nearly 400 Brooklyn Law School students who complete an externship each academic year. In addition to their fieldwork—168 hours are required per semester—externship students are assigned to one of a dozen companion academic seminars that augment the learning experience, providing for a deeper knowledge and understanding of the law. An externship closely mirrors an academic course in that students must complete a series of required written assignments, including a learning plan, time records, reflective essays, drafting assignments, periodic assessments, and a final essay. “What makes our externships so valuable is that, from the get-go, we treat them as an educational enterprise,” says Jodi Balsam, associate professor of clinical law and director of externship programs. “We want students to become reflective practitioners, and the best practice for doing that is to develop a curriculum of companion seminars. That is a real signature achievement of our program.” Students at Brooklyn Law School have numerous externship opportunities to choose from in legal practices, judicial offices, and nonprofits—thanks to the close collaboration among Balsam, her fellow faculty members, and the Career Development Center. Fei Zhong, the Law School’s director of employer relations, and Jaime Perrone, associate director of the Public Service Law Center, tirelessly recruit and vet law offices to participate in externship program. The Law School also offers two specialized externship courses: Health Law Practice and Policy, taught by Professor Karen Porter, and Real Estate and Community Development, taught by Professor Debra Bechtel. At the Heart of Emerging Legal Issues During the summer of 2017, Amanda Lipari ’18 worked at the Gender Equality Law Center in Brooklyn as part of her Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship. It was a powerful experience for Lipari, who hopes to provide civil legal services for low-income women and people in the LGBT community after graduation. Through the externship program, she continued working for the center during the fall, which put her right at the center of addressing sexual harassment in the workplace. Although the #MeToo wave began with stories about celebrities and high-powered executives, as lower-income workers began to speak out, Lipari, who is especially interested in employment law, was inspired. “The low-wage workers who chose to come forward and demand a stop to harassment, despite the enormous risk, provided a constant source of motivation,” she says. “While assisting in multi-plaintiff sexual harassment litigation at the Gender Equality Law Center, I had the opportunity to write a policy memorandum critiquing the current federal law standard for sexual harassment and its sometimes erroneous implementation.” Lipari, who had previously taken the Safe Harbor Project and the Employment Law clinics, also completed an externship for Magistrate Judge James Francis of the Southern District of New York in fall 2016. There she observed numerous settlement conferences, criminal arraignments, oral arguments, and trials. She drafted three opinions related to Social Security disability, settlement enforcement, and a Fair Labor Standards Act default judgment. The experience helped improve her legal writing and research skills, and she gained considerable knowledge of federal civil procedure. For Matthew Grosbard ’19, externship opportunities delivered the in-depth understanding of New York civil procedure that he was looking for, especially his first externship at the New York State Kings County Supreme Court with Judge Donald S. Kurtz ’82. “The Civil Procedure course that most first-year law students take across the United States mostly deals with the federal rules of civil procedure,” Grosbard explains. “But most graduates from New York law schools will practice within state courts and therefore must be familiar with New York civil procedure. My externship with Judge Kurtz gave me the practical experience necessary to be prepared for New York–based civil litigation.” Grosbard also was placed at the New York County District Attorney’s Office, where he supported ADAs in investigations and hearings, doing everything from conducting witness interviews to drafting subpoenas. “I had a front-row seat to the real-life application of rules of evidence and trial advocacy,” he says. The History of Hands-On Learning The first law school clinics and externships were developed in the 1960s, but the real push toward hands-on learning took root in the 1980s and 1990s, when critics of legal education from both the academic and practice realms stressed the importance of stepping outside the Socratic method. Around the same time, the American Bar Association started regulating these kinds of programs. The ABA realized that law students needed to learn not just so-called hard skills, like negotiation and contract writing, but also soft skills, such as empathy, attention to detail, and professionalism. Responding to these trends and the movement to refashion legal education along the lines of medical school, which strongly emphasizes clinical work in addition to classroom work, the ABA revised its rules regarding experiential learning in 2016. The new standards required six experiential credits for graduation, defined as law clinics, externships, or simulation courses. Recently named by the National Jurist as “one of the best law schools in the nation for practical training,” Brooklyn Law School has been at the forefront of experiential learning since long before the ABA requirements were issued. Starting in the late 1970s, under the direction of Professors Gary Schultz and the late John Ronayne, students were doing externships in criminal and civil practice. In the early 1980s, a more formal program was developed with the support of faculty including Professors Michael Gerber and Stacy Caplow offering “three streams” of experiential learning—civil, criminal, and judicial—with courses that complemented students’ practice work. In 2014, the Law School instituted a requirement for “live practice experience” (either an externship or a clinic) for all students. Balsam, who previously taught in the lawyering program at New York University School of Law and the legal practice program at New York Law School, joined Brooklyn Law School four years ago to lead the externship program. Her objectives as director are to nurture and develop the Law School’s externship programs, cultivate more opportunities for students, improve the training for supervising attorneys, and enrich the program’s companion seminars. Balsam is also active in the legal academic community, serving as cochair of the Externship Committee of the Clinical Legal Education Association and an active member of the Externship Committee of the Association of American Law Schools. “We have always been committed to experiential learning for our students,” Balsam says, “and my role is to continue to grow that pedagogy and tradition.” Helping a student develop as a professional is something we owe to our profession. — Robin Kaver ’91, Nielsen Preparing Students for the Future Under Balsam’s direction, the externship program has introduced a two-tier system of companion seminars to ensure that students are not sent into the real world of lawyering without solid academic support. These on-campus seminars are taught by a member of the faculty and help students process and learn from their fieldwork experiences. “There’s nothing like being thrust into the world of practice, which is not student-centered,” says Balsam. “It’s chaotic and functions around the life of the law and clients. Externships can show students what kind of professional experiences they like, and what may not be the right fit for them. They give students invaluable skills beyond what they learn in the classroom, like resilience, adaptability, and how to manage strategic interactions in an unpredictable setting. But it’s also important to discuss those experiences in a classroom setting.” All first-time externship students enroll in Learning from Practice, a foundational seminar that covers active observation, analytic reflection, and self-evaluation. The seminar also includes professional competencies such as communication skills, making presentations, networking, and ethics. During their second or third externship, students can take a more tailored seminar aligned with the type of work they are doing, such as entertainment law, government practice, transactions, or litigation. “Students learn how to do a client intake and how to cross- examine a witness,” Balsam explains. “They also get a sense of the ethical, behavioral, and cultural values that lawyers need to understand and cultivate.” New seminars, such as Tech Tools for Law Practice, that reflect changes in legal practice are frequently added to the curriculum. Through demonstrations, guest speakers, and practical exercises, students in that particular seminar learn about the theoretical and practical underpinnings of evolving technologies for law practice management, cloud computing, virtual lawyering, and more. Externships can be a road map for postgraduate employment. “We’ve hired many externs from the Law School,” says Barry Hochhauser ’89, a deputy director in the Office of Fraud Protection and Market Intelligence at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). For an extern, “it’s a helpful way to learn what it’s like to be a lawyer and it’s an invaluable way to network and find your way in your career.” Balsam agrees. “One of the advantages our students have is that many of these offices prefer to hire someone who has externed there,” she says, explaining that while an externship is not intended as a means of getting a job after graduation, the experience does give students a leg up, along with a professional network. As a result, employment opportunities do often result from externships. “Externships expand students’ social and professional networks, which are critical to landing their first jobs out of law school,” says Zhong, director of employer relations. “Most employers prefer and tend to hire someone they know, and it’s usually through a previous work experience or a recommendation from a mutual contact. Externships expose students to these key contacts in the relevant industry who can make the recommendations and become mentors and/or potential employers. More important, these network contacts are valuable not just in the beginning but throughout the entire duration of the graduate’s career.” Mentor Attorney Development The externship experience, by its very definition, is a learning opportunity that takes place outside the four walls of the Law School. The value of an externship, therefore, depends heavily on the quality of the attorneys supervising the students. For this reason, every supervising externship attorney is considered a “mentor attorney” and is given support and training to ensure that students have meaningful educational experiences while working in their placement. “These attorneys are basically volunteer teachers, and we need to support them in that,” says Balsam. Mentor attorneys, many of whom are graduates of the Law School, are required to deliver meaningful practical learning experiences that foster a broad range of lawyering skills and give students a greater understanding of professional roles and responsibilities. The Law School supports the mentor attorneys in myriad ways, with roundtable discussions, a comprehensive handbook, and regular communication from the Law School throughout the semester. In addition, a consortium of New York law school externship program directors came together three years ago to address a growing need for training programs for the attorneys supervising externship students. The consortium decided to take this a step further and provide a CLE program focused on information and skills relevant to attorneys who supervise junior people, whether they are students or junior lawyers. Last year, the program took place at Brooklyn Law School, attracting 150 attendees. “It reinforced that Brooklyn is, more than ever, integrated into the practice community,” says Balsam. Mentor attorneys find the experience incredibly rewarding. When Robin Kaver ’91 joined the Nielsen Company in 2011 as associate general counsel, she asked the general counsel if she could take on externs from the Law School. “We had commercial transaction lawyers, privacy lawyers, and a number of other subject matter specialists and I felt this would make a great place for students to learn,” she says. Kaver’s supervisor was in favor of the idea, but only if Kaver ran the program. Since then, Kaver has brought on externs from the Law School consistently during the academic year, and she hired Jessica Jiang ’14 and Julia Mehlman ’16 straight from law school, something the company had never done before. Today, Kaver, who externed at the Brooklyn D.A.’s office while a law student, is also an adjunct faculty member at the Law School teaching the Externship Seminar on Corporate Counsel. Kaver’s externs learn how to draft contracts and licenses, how to negotiate with adversaries, and how to “second chair” meetings. She also is quick to note that the mentor commitment is real, and she will continue to offer students a place at Nielsen because of the impact an externship can have on a student’s career. “It is so important to the students,” she says. “It helps them understand what the work is really like and [helps them] make an informed decision about a career path, and it also gives them incredible substantive experience.” Kaver hopes that other alumni will consider taking on externs. “I think that helping a student develop as a professional is something we owe to our profession. Someone has to teach and look backward and help bring up the next generation,” she says. The sentiment is shared among other alumni who are mentor attorneys. “I am a strong believer in the externship program,” says FINRA’s Hochhauser, who has been a mentor attorney since the early 1990s and is also a member of the externship seminar faculty. He explains that his commitment to the program comes from his own experience; while at the Law School, he was an extern for four semesters at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and he was hired by the NYSE after graduation. Like Kaver, Hochhauser began taking on externs, in his case first at the NYSE and then at FINRA. “It has been a great way for me to keep in touch with what is going on at the Law School,” Hochhauser says. “It also helps me give back to the students all of the skills that I was able to gain when I was an extern. When students are here with us, they’re not only learning securities laws but also the importance of professionalism. It’s the best way to educate a complete lawyer.”

The Real Deal Makers Meet Brooklyn Law School graduates working at the center of today’s booming M&A business By Jen Swetzoff Illustrations by Bonnie Gayle Morrill When you hear the latest news about a blockbuster multibillion-dollar deal, chances are pretty good that a Brooklyn Law School graduate was at the helm. Amid recent economic trends, and as more startups choose a sale over an IPO, corporate dealmaking is once again a booming business. In fact, 2017 was a record year for mergers and acquisitions (M&A). More than 50,000 deals were announced worldwide (according to data from Thomson Reuters), the highest number since 2007. That momentum continued into the first quarter of this year, with M&A activity across the world hitting a 17-year high. Several market conditions are responsible for the dealmaking surge, according to a recent analysis in American Lawyer. For one thing, companies are taking advantage of the economic stability in North America and Europe. Meanwhile, equity prices have allowed many acquiring companies to make their purchases in stock. And still-low interest rates are encouraging companies to take on more debt. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the Trump administration’s tax reform plan, also is expected to be a major factor in the surge of deals, encouraging U.S. companies to repatriate overseas cash, which they are increasingly likely to spend on acquisitions. It’s no surprise that alumni dealmakers are leading the way on many of the biggest transactions in recent years. Just a quick subway ride from Wall Street, the Law School long has been a hub for preparing lawyers to work on both the buy side and the sell side of financial transactions. Nationally recognized for scholarly work and teaching excellence in corporate and business law, the Law School is home to the Center for the Study of Business Law & Regulation and the Dennis J. Block Center for the Study of International Business Law. In addition, the Brooklyn Law Incubator and Policy (BLIP) Clinic helps prepare lawyers who will represent emerging tech, internet, communications, and new media companies. And the annual Business Boot Camp, a four-day “mini MBA” course held during winter session, has garnered national attention as an innovative program offering students the opportunity to learn from alumni business leaders and entrepreneurs. The popular program is led by Professor Michael Gerber and presented in collaboration with Deloitte Financial Advisory Services and John P. Oswald ’84, president and CEO of Capital Trust Group and a member of the Board of Trustees. Below, eight prominent dealmakers share insights from their own careers, forecast trends ahead, and explain the role Brooklyn Law School has played in their success.  Dennis J. Block ’67 Senior Chairman of Global M&A and Shareholder Greenberg Traurig BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL TRUSTEE BIG DEALS Westinghouse’s acquisition of CBS Corp.; JPMorgan Chase’s acquisition of Bear Stearns Companies; Hanson Trust’s acquisition of SCM. MEMORABLE LESSON FROM BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL The importance of substance and style—I learned how to communicate clearly and make a point in my own voice. PROUDEST OF The relationships I’ve built with all kinds of people—among them law students, law school professors, other lawyers, CEOs, and even leaders of our country. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet and work with so many talented and outstanding individuals. BIGGEST CAREER SURPRISE That I lasted 50 years as a lawyer when I initially thought I’d be a dentist. Oftentimes, I think what you do in life is more serendipitous than planned. SUPERPOWERS Patience, listening well, and having a positive attitude. OUTSIDE THE OFFICE I teach corporate law at Brooklyn Law School; play tennis and spend time with my wife, my three married children, and my six grandchildren. BEST ADVICE RECEIVED The client comes first. Pay close attention to your clients’ needs and communicate with them clearly. BEST ADVICE TO GIVE Read three newspapers every morning. Ask questions until you fully understand your assignment. Always outline what you want to write or say before writing or saying it. M&A FORECAST Technology acquisitions, particularly related to innovative intellectual property and artificial intelligence, are areas to watch. Eileen Nugent ’78 M&A Partner and Co-Head of Global Transactions Practice Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL TRUSTEE BIG DEALS Warner-Lambert Company in its planned $84 billion merger-of-equals with American Home Products Corporation and its ultimate $90 billion acquisition by Pfizer (represented by Dennis Block); Carter Hawley in its defense of a hostile takeover and the resulting spin-off and leveraged recap; Cephalon in its $6.8 billion acquisition by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries; Endo Pharmaceuticals’ $2.9 billion acquisition of American Medical Systems Holdings. MEMORABLE LESSON FROM BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL As Professor Joe Crea used to say, “Don’t drop your briefcase and run.” With reminders like these—to stop and think—and through the incredible clinical experiences I had, I didn’t just learn the law. I also learned how to practice the law. NOTABLE HONORS Named one of the top legal “Trailblazers” by the National Law Journal, 2015; listed as one of the “Top 10 Agents of Change,” Financial Times. PROUDEST OF Being seen as a valued advisor and helping other people, particularly women, build their own careers. I was the first person in my family to finish college, and I received a scholarship to Brooklyn Law School. That opportunity helped me get where I am today, and I’m so proud to be in a position to give back. SUPERPOWERS Tough, fair, hardworking, and self-deprecating. OUTSIDE THE OFFICE I spend time with my husband and my two stepchildren (ages 32 and 24), who also live in Manhattan; teaching, writing, and public speaking. BEST ADVICE RECEIVED Never question your instincts and views; your judgment and opinions count, no matter what your age or your position. BEST ADVICE TO GIVE Be yourself. Watch everyone around you and absorb the best parts of what you see, like a sponge, but don’t try to be someone you’re not. Also, always keep an open mind to opportunities. All of life is a learning experience. M&A FORECAST In the short term, we’ll see more strategic consolidations coupled with spin-offs, and activism will continue to have an effect on companies. Francis J. Aquila ’83 Partner Sullivan & Cromwell VICE CHAIRMAN, BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL BOARD OF TRUSTEES BIG DEALS InBev’s successful unsolicited bid for Anheuser-Busch and its follow-on acquisitions of Grupo Modelo and SABMiller; Kraft in its merger with Heinz to form Kraft Heinz; Diebold in its merger with Wincor Nixdorf; Panera Bread in its acquisition by JAB; Andeavor in its pending $36 billion combination with Marathon Petroleum. MEMORABLE LESSON FROM BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL How the law applies to real life. I had extraordinary professors such as Joel Gora and Roberta Karmel, but I also gained insights from my classmates, among them a priest, a doctor, police officers, firefighters, teachers, nurses, and bankers. PROUDEST OF Being recognized as a thought leader in the profession. I was a columnist for BusinessWeek. I have also spent a lot of time over the years writing and speaking about issues and trends related to M&A, corporate governance, and shareholder activism. BIGGEST CAREER SURPRISE The cyclicality and how the more things change, the more they stay the same. M&A today is really not very different than it was in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. There are clear patterns in how the best dealmakers approach transactions and get deals done. SUPERPOWERS Focus, creativity, and finding common ground. OUTSIDE THE OFFICE In jeans in Soho, surrounded by family, enjoying all that New York has to offer, or relaxing at one of my other homes in New Jersey and Florida. BEST ADVICE RECEIVED Be creative. Try to find a way to say yes more often than no. Above all else, work with your clients to understand the nuances of what they want to achieve—and then help them do it. BEST ADVICE TO GIVE Come to the practice of law with an open mind and find the area of practice that fulfills you. If you like and enjoy your work, you are going to be successful. M&A FORECAST Globalization and corporate consolidation are here to stay. In fact, the threat of new tariffs and potential trade wars will lead business to become more global. Whether intended or not, we will see more and more cross-border M&A activity. Steven G. Scheinfeld ’85 Partner and Chair of Corporate Department Fried Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson BIG DEALS NorthStar Asset Management Group’s three-way public company merger with Colony Capital and NorthStar Realty Finance Corp., which created Colony NorthStar; multiple transactions leading to the creation of a new capital and operating structure for Tradeweb Markets; Merck & Co. in the $30 billion spin-off of Medco Health Solutions; CVS Health’s $1.9 billion acquisition of Target’s pharmacy and clinic businesses. MEMORABLE LESSON FROM BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL As managing editor of the Brooklyn Law Review, I learned how to manage a demanding role in an intellectually stimulating and fast-paced environment. I also learned how to work as part of a team to achieve a common goal. SUPERPOWERS Intense focus on client service, willingness to work hard, and ability to remain calm no matter the challenge. BEST ADVICE TO GIVE Know your clients’ businesses, and treat every client and every matter equally and with the highest priority. M&A FORECAST We’re monitoring a more vigorous regulatory environment. As the Committee on Foreign Investment continues to broaden its reach, companies will need to take a broader view of potential risks and factor that into their acquisition process. Warren Lazarow ’86 Partner and Co-Chairman of the Corporate Department O’Melveny BIG DEALS Closing a $400 million round of financing at a $4 billion valuation for Houzz, the leading online platform for home remodeling and design; the $10 billion sale of Microsemi, a provider of semiconductor and systems solutions, to Microchip Technology. MEMORABLE LESSON FROM BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL People are the biggest differentiator; I learned as much from the diverse student body as I did from my excellent professors. BIGGEST CAREER SURPRISE Honestly, I didn’t think I’d be this successful. I feel fortunate that I’ve had a very rewarding career. SUPERPOWERS Honesty, ability to understand the points of view of others, and a sense of humor. OUTSIDE THE OFFICE I love to spend time in Sonoma County with my wife; both of our sons are working on the West Coast (one works as an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell in Palo Alto and the other for a physics professor in Berkeley). BEST ADVICE RECEIVED Take the time to train people well and treat people well. You have to care about other people’s careers if you want to retain talent. M&A FORECAST I expect continued high levels of M&A activity, particularly in the tech sector where I focus. On the buy side, U.S. tax reform will give acquirers more cash for acquisitions; on the sell side, we’ll continue to see more startups exit by M&A than by going public. Angelo Bonvino ’96 Partner and Co-Head of the M&A Practice Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison BIG DEALS KPS Capital Partners’ acquisition of TaylorMade Golf Company from adidas AG; KPS Capital Partners’ sale of Waupaca Foundry to Hitachi Metals. MEMORABLE LESSON FROM BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL How to merge my accounting background with my law degree; how to be the quarterback in a deal and in a boardroom. PROUDEST OF Mentoring associates and having them become great lawyers. BIGGEST CAREER SURPRISE The genuinely close and meaningful relationships I’ve built with my clients, many of whom now trust me so much that they come to me for personal issues as well as business transactions. SUPERPOWERS Practicality, listening skills, and a sense of humor. OUTSIDE THE OFFICE I love spending time at sporting events with my wife, 17-year-old son (an avid golfer), and 15-year-old daughter (a competitive equestrian rider) in Long Island. BEST ADVICE RECEIVED M&A is a team effort. BEST ADVICE TO GIVE Make a conscious effort to have balance in life. M&A FORECAST In terms of private equity, the robust M&A period we’re experiencing now will only become more competitive. Denise Faltischek ’00 Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. BIG DEALS I have completed more than 40 strategic transactions, but as an example, we [Hain Celestial] recently acquired Tilda, a basmati rice brand, which provided an entry point into a new category and helped us enter markets in India and the Middle East. MEMORABLE LESSON FROM BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL Strong analytical and communication skills. PROUDEST OF My role in helping to grow The Hain Celestial Group from a company with approximately $600 million in revenue to a company with just under $3 billion in revenue, all while staying true to its purpose of changing the way the world eats and leaving the environment in a better place for the next generation. BIGGEST CAREER SURPRISE After almost 20 years, I still love what I do. I’m grateful to be part of such a great company in the health and wellness space. SUPERPOWERS Passion, hard work, and business acumen. OUTSIDE THE OFFICE I live in Port Washington, N.Y., with my husband Ken Faltischek ’00 and our two daughters (ages 10 and 11). BEST ADVICE TO GIVE Develop your legal skills and business acumen at a law firm before going in-house. Once in-house, focus on understanding strategic and operational goals. As lawyers, our job is to help the business achieve its mission and goals. M&A FORECAST Deals will continuously get more expensive in the natural and organic products space. If you’re a business owner thinking about your exit strategy, invest in your brands, your processes, and your people. That’s where you can show real value during the due diligence phase of a transaction. Matthew V. Soran ’05 Partner Fried Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson BIG DEALS Boulder Brands in its $975 million sale to Pinnacle Foods; Catalent Inc. in its $950 million acquisition of Cook Pharmica; AEA Investors in the $1 billion cross-border sale of Houghton International to Gulf Oil. NOTABLE HONORS Recognized as a “Next Generation Lawyer” by Legal 500 in M&A: Large Deals; Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow. PROUDEST OF Never wavering from my desire to be in M&A, dedicating myself to honing my craft over the years, and learning to adapt to the fast-paced environment in a way that allowed me to grow professionally and become a partner at the firm. BIGGEST CAREER SURPRISE The impact of the work we do for our clients. There aren’t many professions in which you can collaborate with the CEO of a Fortune 500 company to help him or her achieve a goal. BEST ADVICE TO GIVE I encourage anyone who is looking for a challenge to consider a career in M&A. No two deals are the same, the work is interesting, the environment is collaborative, and you get to advise sophisticated clients on some of their most complex matters.

Defending Justice Against the odds, graduates of Brooklyn Law School are deeply engaged in defending clients in need By Kaitlin Ugolik Phillips On a Saturday afternoon in August, a young black man with close-cropped hair stood in front of a judge in a small courtroom at the Kings County Criminal Court in downtown Brooklyn. He told the judge that he would like to plead guilty rather than face a trial for his alleged crimes. It’s a conversation that plays out hundreds of times a day in courtrooms all around the country—about 94 percent of felony convictions at the state level and 97 percent at the federal level are the result of plea bargains, with very few cases going to trial. In jurisdictions around the country, public defenders must navigate dozens of similar scenarios every day. The job is complex and can be wearing—criminalization of nonviolent crimes such as turnstile-jumping and possession of small amounts of marijuana contributes to the high number of low-income people who end up charged with criminal offenses, and a shortage of public defenders and resources to fund their work in some areas of the country helps to fuel the already high incarceration rate. Brooklyn Law School has a long history of producing graduates who are attracted to public defense because of a desire to make a difference and, despite the hurdles, have long and successful careers. “A person involved in the criminal justice system is at one of their most broken moments in their lives, and that’s when a person needs someone fighting for them the most,” said Kristie Ranchurejee ’17, who now works for the Legal Aid Society in New York. This sentiment is representative of many Brooklyn Law School graduates who choose to enter this field. For some, like Tina Luongo ’02, that means advocating policy; she is attorney in charge of the criminal practice at the Legal Aid Society, where she oversees more than 1,000 attorneys. For others, like Robert Riether ’08, a senior staff attorney at Brooklyn Defenders, it means standing by clients in court and making sure they have the resources to avoid being caught back up in the system once their cases are adjourned. As public defenders at the state, federal, trial, and appellate levels, as well as leaders of criminal defense organizations, Brooklyn Law School graduates—including seven members of the Class of 2017—handle thousands of cases and push dozens of measures that they hope, bit by bit, will help make the criminal justice system more equitable. Riether began his career on Wall Street, but came to the Law School as a night student with the goal of beginning a more fulfilling career. Now, at Brooklyn Defenders, he handles mostly felonies, including many domestic violence cases. He is in the Kings County Criminal Court two or three times per month, picking up 10 to 20 new cases each time. Riether acknowledged that there is often tension between the prosecution and the defense, but he lives by the credo that “so long as the D.A.s act professionally and play by the rules, you catch more flies with honey.” He happens to be married to a prosecutor: Natalie Riether ’02, a senior ADA at the Kings County D.A.’s Trial Bureau Blue Zone covering the neighborhoods of Brooklyn Heights, Red Hook, East Flatbush, and Bay Ridge. The criminal court at 120 Schermerhorn Street is open 365 days a year, and Riether usually juggles 70 to 80 cases at a time. “I’ll have this case for at least a year,” Riether explained of the rape case he’d been handed that day. It may sound like a lot, but it’s nothing compared to the 180-plus cases that many public defenders in other parts of the country carry. “We have it good in Brooklyn, especially compared to other jurisdictions around the country,” Riether said, noting the resources dedicated to representing indigent clients. Brooklyn Defenders, for example, is one of the top public defense organizations in the country, and the city itself has many more resources than others. There are a lot of alternatives to incarceration, especially for youth, and Brooklyn Defenders prioritizes “self-care” to ensure good attorneys aren’t lost to burnout. “The toughest part is that you have 100 balls in the air at a time, and you have to manage it by triaging,” he said. “The work is rewarding and challenging, and you see results every day; you see changes in clients’ lives. But it also takes a certain kind of person to do this—you’re dealing with things that most members of polite society are not dealing with. If you tend to wear your heart on your sleeve, there are cases that will break it.” As Riether sat on the bench in the courtroom waiting for the judge to call his case, a large man in a Jets Jersey, arms behind his back, hands in cuffs, walked slowly into the courtroom from a holding cell. He quietly took a seat in the corner as Riether took notes. He had just met the man about 30 minutes before and learned of the charges against him—rape in the first and second degree. He knew his client was being prosecuted for the alleged 2010 rape of a young girl, who later went on to give birth to his child. Riether was there to ask the judge to release his client on his own recognizance until more evidence could be gathered, known as “ROR.” There was a lot in the balance: the life of this man, but also of the mother of his child, and of the child. With bail set at $100,000, he would likely head straight from the courtroom to Rikers Island, where he would remain for some time before seeing a judge again. Riether noted that his client previously had custody of the child and was by all accounts an involved father. He also had no prior arrests, worked full time, and was not considered a flight risk. After contemplating for a moment, the judge issued an order of protection and released the man on his own recognizance until his next court date. If the complainant didn’t cooperate by that time, the case would be put up for dismissal. When Riether moved back toward the audience benches along with his client, he looked relieved his client had been released without bail. He flashed a quick grin. “$100,000 bail,” he said, seeming to marvel a bit at what had just happened. “That’s a lot of money.” Then it was on to the next arraignment. “Everybody Is in an Emergency State” In 1961, Clarence Earl Gideon was arrested for allegedly breaking into a pool hall in Panama City, FL. Unable to afford representation, he was sent to prison. His case reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in 1963 in the landmark decision Gideon v. Wainwright that every American has a constitutional right to an attorney. Although Gideon has improved the plight of defendants unable to afford attorneys in the decades since the ruling, today many areas of the country are struggling to adequately and efficiently represent indigent clients. In under-resourced areas, public defenders routinely handle dozens of cases in a day, often juggling nearly 200 open cases at once, including a mix of misdemeanors and felonies. “Everybody is in an emergency state,” attorney Travis Williams said in “Gideon’s Army,” the award-winning 2013 documentary chronicling the lives of several overworked public defenders in the Deep South. In a stark example of how dire the situation has become in some parts of the country, the American Bar Association and the Baton Rouge–based consulting firm Postlethwaite & Netterville released a study in early 2017 showing that the state of Louisiana had only one-fifth of the public defenders needed to handle the nearly 150,000 cases per year that involve an indigent defendant. In Missouri, where the system is 100 percent state-funded, Michael Barrett, the director of the public defender system, last year sent a letter to Gov. Jay Nixon that went viral. Barrett planned to call on any private attorney in the state—including Nixon—to take on indigent defense cases that overloaded public defenders could not handle. In New York, where funding for public defense is split about 60–40 between counties and the state and operates on a county-based delivery system, the picture is more hopeful. Public defenders have a limit of 150 felony and 400 misdemeanor cases at a time as dictated by law. Other more recent reforms, such as a law shifting funding back to the state, have improved the outlook for public defenders and their clients. And Brooklyn Law School graduates continue to push for more effective representation of indigent clients. You're dealing with things that most members of polite society are not dealing with. If you tend to wear your heart on your sleeve, there are cases that will break it. - Robert Riether '08 Karen Smolar ’92, who was an Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellow, is now trial chief at Bronx Defenders. She works constantly to train attorneys to triage cases as professionally and effectively as possible. She created and directs the Defenders’ Academy, which teaches trial skills to public and private attorneys around the country. The program includes instruction from artists, actors, voice coaches, and storytellers, as well as legal experts, and is aimed at improving attorneys’ courtroom skills no matter how many cases they are carrying. “The ability for public defenders to actually get that kind of training is pretty limited—the budget for training is often one of the first things cut,” said Smolar. “The effect is that you have lawyers who are being saddled with very significant caseloads and really complicated cases, and some are not able to adequately defend their clients.” Bronx Defenders takes what it calls a “holistic” approach to lawyering, in which defendants have a whole team of attorneys behind them in every aspect of their case, plus any collateral consequences that stem from the case such as housing or employment issues. But it is the beginning of the process—the arraignment—that can often be the most important, according to Smolar, and it is often the most fraught because of an ongoing controversy involving which defendants must be locked up before facing trial. “What happens to a person at arraignment changes every single thing about what happens afterward,” she said. “It's very easy to say let’s just take nonviolent offenders and let them out of jail,” but that’s not actually solving the problem either. Our jails and prisons are filled with people who are charged with serious violent offenses, but there aren’t a lot of people assessing whether keeping them in is actually a thoughtful, useful, productive thing for either that person or society.” New York City is home to some of the biggest and most innovative public defense organizations in the country, but even here, said Luongo of the Legal Aid Society, it can feel like the “deck is stacked.” “As public defenders, it’s our job to be on the front line of reform efforts that talk honestly about the issues, the past, racism, and oppression, and try to be proactively involved in holistic approaches that make things better,” she said. Legal Aid works to set standards for speedy arrests and practice vertical representation of clients, staying with them for their entire case. Many other public defense organizations around the country do the same. In hopes of cutting down on the number of clients in need of public defense, Legal Aid is currently working on many reform efforts, such as New York’s gravity knife law, which jails people who carry knives that can be flipped open, and the organization is responding to a recent uptick in activity by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New York City courtrooms. In 2015, the organization created a “cop accountability” database to give public defenders easier access to police misconduct records. “What amazes and inspires me is the number of people coming out of law school wanting to do this work,” said Luongo. “We win a hearing, win a suppression, win a trial—there are those wins. But we quickly learn, in our work, how to redefine a win. It must be about how we practice, not about legal wins.” Professor Jocelyn Simonson, who spent five years as a public defender in the Bronx, said she had to make the same kind of mental adjustment. “I had more than 2,000 cases during that time. A lot of them were just five-minute arraignments; some were monthlong trials. I was a darn good attorney, but was it really possible for me to be a good attorney in less than five minutes?” In addition to teaching at the Law School, Simonson is still trying to make a difference in the lives of indigent defendants. She is a prominent voice in the bail reform movement, writing often about the emerging practice of creating community bail funds and the movement to end cash bail, which keeps 450,000 criminal defendants in jails every day because they cannot afford to pay. Click here to read more about Brooklyn Law School's esteemed criminal justice faculty. Making Change Around the Country Brooklyn Law School alumni in other parts of the country are also working hard to defend justice for indigent defendants. As an appellate public defender in Minnesota who represents clients in both state and federal court, Leslie Rosenberg ’83 has a caseload full of serious felonies, and the defendants are often juveniles. She handles post-conviction proceedings in district courts, as well as direct appeals to the Minnesota appellate courts, and occasionally she finds herself appealing to the nation’s highest court. She recently filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court for a client convicted of shooting a store clerk and two eyewitnesses. The juvenile defendant was given three consecutive life sentences for the crimes, with no possibility of parole. Rosenberg is challenging whether the sentence violates the 2012 Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama, which held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits a juvenile from being sentenced to mandatory life without the possibility of release. Rosenberg admits that it takes a certain kind of emotional strategy to do the job day in and day out, especially since at the appellate level she and her colleagues lose most of their cases because the standard of review is against them—their clients already have been convicted. But she believes the simple fact that they are there, doing this job, as evidence of the system working. “Even if we lose our cases, we are still maintaining that system of checks and balances. That is how the Constitution is sustained and protected—just by us being there to appeal. “I try to remember that I’m just one person doing my best,” said Rosenberg. “I can’t blame myself for losing cases where the law is against me and the facts are against me. What’s hard about being a lawyer for many people is that you might be a bright, high-achieving person used to doing well at school, but as a lawyer you can’t control whether you win.” Michael J. Novara ’87 is the first assistant federal public defender for the Western District of Pennsylvania, which includes Pittsburgh. He started his career with a federal judicial clerkship in Pittsburgh, which showed him the power of the federal government generally, and the Department of Justice in particular. He was drawn to the role played by assistant federal public defenders in keeping that power from overwhelming the rights of the individual. Novara joined the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania in 1992, and has been second in command of the office of more than 40 attorneys since 2004. Novara’s work includes pretrial hearings, research, investigations, and sentencing memoranda similar to those of other public defenders, and he also occasionally handles cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. “At the end of the day, I know in my heart that I am helping people at some of the most vulnerable moments in their lives—fighting to keep the government honest—and that feeling will hopefully keep me motivated and going for many years to come,” he said. In San Francisco, former Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellow Anita Nabha ’09, deputy public defender in the Office of the San Francisco Public Defender, typically spends her days in various courtrooms handling arraignments, trials, and settlements, and in jails visiting clients in custody. “The cool thing about being a public defender is that you can get knee-deep into all kinds of issues you didn’t know anything about,” she said. She hadn’t had a fingerprint case until recently, and suddenly found herself doing research about the forensics of fingerprint evidence because of a residential burglary case in which the only evidence was a single print. Many public defenders would love to spend time doing that kind of work, but the reality is that they often don’t have the time or resources to devote to this kind of deep investigation; even when they do, cases end in plea deals. The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office is an example of what many public defense offices aspire to, especially when it comes to training. Attorneys there must spend about two years in the misdemeanor unit and are allowed to go into the felony rotation only after they’ve done 20 misdemeanor jury trials. Alumni of the Law School are among the thousands of public defenders working through a thicket of laws, policies, and institutional problems to provide fair and efficient representation to their clients. There are no easy answers. Whether they work in New York, California, or elsewhere in the country, many face the same difficulties, but all come to the work with a sense of mission that keeps them going. “When I am faced with high-risk situations and very difficult decisions,” said Nabha, “I assure my clients that I am going to give them what we call ‘the best defense that money cannot buy.’”

Spotlight on Intellectual Life Law School Launches Center for Criminal Justice The Brooklyn Law School Center for Criminal Justice was launched this year to serve as a dynamic center for critical conversations, education, and sharing of expertise on the most vital issues and topics in criminal justice law and policy today. The center builds on the existing strengths of the Law School’s nationally recognized criminal law faculty and the thousands of graduates practicing in the field in New York City and around the country. Under the direction of Professors Stacy Caplow and Jocelyn Simonson, the center sponsors speakers and events, awards student fellowships, and provides CLE opportunities for attorneys practicing in the area of criminal justice. “The center allows us to build on the incredible strengths of our faculty in this field, and our history of producing lawyers— both prosecution and defense—as well as judges who devote their careers to criminal justice,” Caplow said. “We hope to build more bridges to both the community of scholars and practitioners who think about, and those who work on, the never-ending complex issues related to criminal justice.” This fall, the center is hosting several important programs, including a full-day CLE program on criminal law, procedure, evidence, and ethics that honors the legacy of the beloved late Professor Robert M. Pitler. Other programs include an event with Professor Heather Ann Thompson of the University of Michigan, author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, which has been nominated for the 2016 National Book Award; and a conversation with Hon. John M. Leventhal ’79 and Professor Liz Schneider on the domestic violence crisis. Leventhal is author of My Partner, My Enemy: An Unflinching View of Domestic Violence and New Ways to Protect Victims. The center also has awarded the Robert M. Pitler Post-Graduate Fellowship for 2016 to 10 graduates who have worked at public criminal justice organizations for at least five years and are committed to remaining in this field for at least two more years. The recipients are: Lindsay B. Ashwal ’06, Keith Baumann ’07, Vincent Louis Bocchetti ’10, Nora Christenson ’07, Leila Hull ’09, Victoria A. Levin ’08, Brooke K. Schiferle ’09, Brendan P. Tracy ’10, Jason Trager ’10, and Katie Dee Wasserman ’08. Under the direction of Simonson, four students will be awarded fellowships to work with the Brooklyn Bail Fund, where they will commit to working in a structured setting for at least one year as Pretrial Justice Fellows. Valerie Casali ’17, Christine Einerson ’18, Edward Ray ’17, and Robert Zitt ’17 were chosen as Criminal Justice Fellows to support the activities of the center, including assisting the Criminal Law, Procedure, Evidence and Ethics program. In addition to Caplow and Simonson, faculty affiliated with the new center include Professors Miriam Baer, Bennett Capers, Cynthia Godsoe, Susan Herman, and Adam Kolber. Scholars Consider the Post-Carbon Future In February, renowned legal scholars and social theorists gathered at the Law School to discuss the urgent issue of climate change and the specter of a post-carbon world as part of the David G. Trager Public Policy Symposium “The Post-Carbon World: Advances in Legal and Social Theory” sponsored by the Brooklyn Law Review. Vice Dean William Araiza (pictured above) welcomed participants and audience members, emphasizing that the annual Trager Symposium is a special event at the Law School that “furthers our core mission, which has guided our law school in its first hundred years: legal work and scholarship in the public interest.” Professor Gregg Macey who organized the full-day symposium, framed the issues that would be considered by the distinguished panelists. “As much as the green energy transition promises at least a partial answer to the climate crisis, we should be wary of such claims,” he said. “There is no simple transition, there is no easy fix.” That fact became clear as panelists presented their ideas and research throughout the day. As much as the green energy transition promises at least a partial answer to the climate crisis, we should be wary of such claims," The panels covered how “decarbonizing,” or transitioning away from fossil fuels and toward zero-carbon sources of energy, can cause its own unique political, environmental, and economic problems that decision makers should not ignore; systemic approaches to the durability and susceptibility to change of the energy system; how energy law can act as a disruptive force in the industry; how the use of so-called smart grids and smart meters might impact future energy systems; and the barriers to mobilizing grassroots support for a post-carbon world. The day concluded with a roundtable discussion that involved all panel participants, who outlined a cross-disciplinary research agenda. The symposium honors the late Honorable David G. Trager, who was a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of New York for more than 10 years and served as dean of Brooklyn Law School from 1983 to 1993.  The Future of the First Amendment In February, Brooklyn Law School welcomed distinguished scholars and commentators to campus for a full-day symposium, “Free Speech Under Fire: The Future of the First Amendment.” Sponsored by the Journal of Law and Policy and organized by Professors Joel Gora and Andrew P. Napolitano, the event included panels on hate speech, money and speech, corporate and commercial speech, surveillance and speech, and the future of free speech at large. “For free speech, it is the best of times and it is the worst of times,” said Gora, a nationally recognized expert on the First Amendment and campaign finance law. “It is imperative that the Supreme Court continues to make it quite clear that free speech must be the rule and government censorship the rare exception.” Occurring less than two weeks after Justice Antonin Scalia’s sudden death, keynote speakers drew attention to the U.S. Supreme Court. While extending free speech protection on a number of fronts, the Roberts Court has also drawn fire from critics who contend that the decisions are inconsistent with the democratic and egalitarian purposes of the First Amendment. There is nothing new about freedom trumping safety," “For free speech to thrive, there must be, at some level, restraint and tolerance,” said Dean Nick Allard in his introductory remarks. “Where that line should be, and how it is judged and enforced, is what we will be considering at this promising symposium.” “There is nothing new about freedom trumping safety,” said Napolitano, a distinguished visiting professor at the Law School and a senior judicial analyst for Fox News, who spoke on the fundamental importance of freedom of speech in all arenas of American life. “It is indeed a value enshrined in the First Amendment and without it there would be a welcome mat for tyranny.” During a discussion on hate speech, Greg Lukianoff, president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), argued that hate speech occasionally has worth. “I think it is hopelessly naive to think you’re safer not knowing what people actually believe,” he said. Professor Susan Herman, president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), led a discussion on surveillance and asked participants to consider where the First and Fourth Amendments meet in our technologically advanced society. “I think the framers saw privacy as essential to our freedom of speech and to our relationship to the government in a democracy,” she said. Heading up the last panel, Stephen R. Shapiro, national legal director of the ACLU, raised challenges such as the labeling of something as government speech, which immediately means the First Amendment no longer applies. “I think we are in a moment of history where there is a lot of doctrinal instability in the First Amendment in ways that we have not seen,” he said. Professor Nelson Tebbe said he has hope for the future of free speech. “I have tremendous optimism in the ability of the people to influence the Court,” he said, “and make sure the government is doing what it should to make sense of these ideas.” Examining Buckley v. Valeo 40 Years Later Earlier this year, the Brooklyn Law School Federalist Society and the Brooklyn Law School ACLU co-sponsored an event that drew legal scholars from around the country to mark the 40th anniversary of Buckley v. Valeo, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case on campaign finance. “Buckley v. Valeo remains a landmark of political freedom,” said Professor Joel Gora, who helped litigate the case before the Court in 1976. “The core principle—that the people, not the government, should decide how much free speech they want and need in order to challenge the government—remains an essential foundation of democracy.” Gora and other major figures in the case, including the Hon. James L. Buckley, a former U.S. senator from New York and U.S. Circuit Court judge, who served as lead plaintiff, and Ira Glasser, former executive director at the American Civil Liberties Union, came together at the Law School to discuss the decision’s impact on both campaign finance and First Amendment law. “A healthy democracy should encourage competition in the political marketplace,” said Buckley, “rather than increasing the difficulties.” Glasser discussed the ACLU’s role in Buckley, in which it filed an amicus brief, noting that “the original sin of campaign finance advocacy is the notion that any speech in an election year on an issue that was critical of, or [praising] of, a candidate for federal election might affect how people vote… and therefore it was construed as a campaign act instead of free speech.” CUBE Innovators Competition Awards Prize Money to Students with Innovative Ideas Nine Brooklyn Law School students won seed money to launch new startups at the third annual Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship (CUBE) Innovators Competition. The competition awards funds to winning proposals for entrepreneurial ventures and legal services for entrepreneurs. Elise Balaban ’16 and Luke Pontier ’16 won the $2,000 grand prize for their proposal, Futurus Trademark Search, an easy-to-use trademark search engine that would simplify the procedure of filing a trademark. “Using machine learning and natural language processing, alongside the algorithms that power Google Images, Futurus Trademark Search allows startups to determine the probability of receiving a trademark registration expediently and at low cost,” Pontier said. The second-place prize of $1,500 went to the team of Jeremiah Ledwidge ’18, Robert Engelke ’17, Mike Myones ’17, and Andrew Zeyer ’18 for The Bench, which would be a new source of information on legal issues targeted to a general audience and delivered via email. “Reading The Bench is like having an interesting conversation over a beer with a friend at the local pub,” Ledwidge said. Christopher Whelan ’18, Brandon Perlman ’18, and Amel Spahija ’18 took third-place for DripSnip, a nonprofit organization with the mission of monitoring and reducing water usage and bills for low-income families. The prize money was made possible through the Nancy and Stanley M. Grossman ’67 CUBE Fellowship Fund. After the competition, CUBE hosted a reception and panel discussion, “Brooklyn: The Sky’s the Limit,” that examined how the borough is one of the most innovative and entrepreneurial urban areas in the world. The keynote was delivered by Kathleen D. Warner ’92, executive vice president and managing director of the NYC Economic Development Corporation’s Center for Economic Transformation. Panelists included David Ehrenberg, president and CEO, the Brooklyn Navy Yard; Jonathan Marvel, principal, Marvel Architects; Ron Shiffman, cofounder, Pratt Center for Community Development; Todd Sigaty, director of legal affairs, SHoP Architects; Brian Streem, cofounder and CEO, Aerobo drone developers; and Lee Wellington ’13, executive director, Urban Manufacturing Alliance.    An Evening with Paul J. Fishman Paul J. Fishman, United States attorney for the District of New Jersey, spoke at the Law School in March about his office’s work, focusing in particular on the prosecution of corporate crime. After his remarks, Fishman was joined by Professor Miriam Baer for a discussion that delved deeper into the intricacies and controversies of corporate crime law. The event was co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Business Law and Regulation and the Center for Criminal Justice. Technology and Compliance in the Financial World In March, the Center for the Study of Business Law and Regulation, in partnership with the Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial and Commercial Law, held its annual symposium. This year’s symposium, “The Role of Technology in Compliance in Financial Services: An Indispensable Tool as Well as a Threat?” explored the inseparable function of technology and compliance in financial services. “Technology facilitates certain compliance tasks, particularly for surveillance purposes,” James Fanto, Gerald Baylin Professor of Law and codirector of the Center for the Study of Business Law and Regulation, said in his opening remarks. “It helps very much with what I’d call legal compliance, but it may adversely affect values, strategic, and advisory compliance.” Technology facilitates certain compliance tasks, particularly for surveillance purposes." The first panel on the question of whether technology is a benefit or a threat to compliance was moderated by Centennial Professor of Law Roberta Karmel, who is codirector of the Dennis J. Block Center for the Study of International Business Law at Brooklyn Law School. The panel included Fanto; Sean J. Griffith, T.J. Maloney Chair and Professor of Law, Fordham Law School; Jane A. Kanter ’73, chief operating officer, general counsel, and partner, ARK Investment Management LLC; David Lui, principal, Galliard Capital Management; and John Walsh, partner, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP. “Firms have gotten so huge, the business is so complex, and there is so much regulation, but the basic problems of running a firm are very much the same,” Karmel said. The second panel, moderated by Block Center associate director Professor Miriam Baer, focused on the role of whistleblowers in cybersecurity compliance and how to preserve human agency as surveillance becomes increasingly automated. Participants included Jennifer Pacella, assistant professor of law, Baruch College Zicklin School of Business, City University of New York; Onnig Dombalagian, George Denègre Professor of Law, Tulane University Law School; Christina P. Skinner, assistant professor of law, Brooklyn Law School; and Rebecca Sheinberg ’03, principal, the Carlyle Group. The final panel, moderated by Professor Arthur Pinto, focused on branding compliance, and how compliance and technology have helped create the modern world of finance. Participants included Mercer Bullard, professor of law, University of Mississippi School of Law; Tom C.W. Lin, associate professor of law, Temple University Beasley School of Law; Jonathan A. Gottlieb ’92, managing director, senior counsel, RBS Securities Inc.; H.J. Willcox ’95, managing director and chief compliance officer, AQR Capital Management; and Robert G. Leonard ’85, partner, Proskauer. The symposium concluded with a roundtable discussion during which participants shared their experiences with the impact of technology on compliance and offered insights about the future of the industry.  The Future of Careers in Health Law The Center for Health, Science and Public Policy hosted a panel discussion, “Brave New World: Exploring Today’s Health Law Career Paths,” in March. The discussion addressed legal issues surrounding digital medicine, cybersecurity, and changes in compliance and state regulations, among other topics. Speakers included Ingrid Green Jones, assistant general counsel for compliance of the College Board; Adjunct Professor Salvatore Russo, senior vice president and general counsel of the Health & Hospital Corporation of New York City; Danette Slevinski ’05, senior vice president and chief of corporate compliance & HIPAA privacy officer at the NYU Lutheran Medical Center; and Robert Swidler, vice president of legal services at St. Peter’s Health Partners. “Sweeping changes are underway that will transform the health care industry and, consequently, the role of lawyers both in terms of skill set and knowledge base,” said Karen Porter, associate professor of clinical law and executive director of the Center for Health, Science and Public Policy. The event was cosponsored by the New York State Bar Association’s Health Law Section Health Law Diversity Committee. The Center for Health, Science and Public Policy serves as a resource to members of the Law School community, health service providers, and policymakers by providing programs in three core areas: scholarship and faculty development, legal education and student services, and public education and community service.

Alternative Dispute Resolution Honor Society Hone your legal skills in negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and client counseling The Alternative Dispute Resolution Honor Society (“ADRHS”) is Brooklyn Law School’s distinguished accredited honors organization that prepares students for success in the newest trend in the legal profession. Students participate in alternative dispute resolution competitions across the country in various areas of the law, such as the intellectual property negotiation, international mediation, baseball arbitration, and the securities law triathlon. ADRHS is committed to fostering an inclusive environment and equipping its members with practical skills in the field of ADR that will prepare them for the practice of law. This commitment includes deliberately creating and maintaining conditions that enable all members to be valued as they are. ADRHS creates points of entry for new members to participate while remaining fair and impartial. We are continually and collectively invested in the growth and development of our members and the Brooklyn Law School community. Students hone their legal skills in preparation for competitions in four areas of alternative dispute resolution: negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and client counseling. Preparation for competitions through written briefs and contracts, and simulations allows students to gain experience in a unique skill set that allows them to become a better advocate for their client and a more creative problem solver. These particular legal skills are essential to becoming a successful attorney and universally applicable to all practices of the law. Students may earn academic credit for participating in competitions and for coaching other competitors. 2026-2027 Executive Board PresidentMaria Zeman Vice President, Competitive AffairsLauren Carole Ritter Vice President, Administrative AffairsHallie RobinExternal Affairs DirectorsEnyo Okeoma Internal Affairs DirectorsOmer Erez Events and Engagement DirectorsIsabela Llevat and Alexa Gluzman Faculty AdvisorProf. Alissa Bauer 2025-2026 ADRHS Members Athlete Endorsement Negotiation Competition Members of Brooklyn Law School’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Honor Society (ADRHS) and the Brooklyn Entertainment and Sports Law Society (BESLS) established the Athlete Endorsement Negotiation Competition (AENC) in 2024 to give law students the opportunity to participate in a unique sports law experience based on the modern social, legal, and economic climate. Each team will represent a party to athlete endorsement agreements, including but not limited to athletes, professional sports teams, fashion brands, and more. Participants are invited to connect with fellow competitors as well as judges, who include an impressive group of professionals in sports law, management, and entertainment. The Competition is completely student-run each year—organized and directed by members of ADRHS and BESLS. Award-Winning Teams 2026 2026 ABA Mediation Competition: Nationals Coaches: Ali Khatami and Raquel ZoharCompetitors: Gianna Barcia and Noa Scheinfeld  2026 William and Mary Law School Negotiation Competition: Semifinalists Coaches: Elizabeth Lebci and Anya SkorCompetitors: Enyo Okeoma and Daniel Strauss 2026 ABA Client Counseling: Semifinalists Coaches: Ramani Seethamraju and Sabrina Schamroth Competitors: Christian Krug and Maureen Maher-Patenaude University of Maryland 2026 Health Law Regulatory & Compliance Competition: Fourth Place Coach: Lea RudowCompetitors: Omer Erez and Erin Salehani 2026 Robert R. Merhige, Jr. National Environmental Competition: Semifinalists Coaches: Bebe Chancellor and Sybil EklofCompetitors: Alexa Gluzman and Adam Karabinos 2026 Robert R. Merhige, Jr. National Environmental Competition: Quarterfinalists Coaches: Adam Brandwein and Daniel StriapkoCompetitors: Madison Miraglia and Allie Sullivan 2025 2025 Tulane Entertainment Negotiation Competition: Most Valuable Negotiator Competitor: Abagail Fernandez 2025 Tulane Entertainment Negotiation Competition: Quarterfinalists Coach: Christian Leddell Competitors: Kashish Shamsi and Olivia Zykoff 2025 Family Harmony Mediation Challenge: Second Place Coaches: Sam Dumas and Sonia Paz Canton Competitor: Hayley Schulman 2025 Villanova Baseball Filing Day: Semifinalists Coach: Madison Miraglia Competitors: Adam Brandwein, Sophia Hartman and Michael Havens 2025 ABA Arbitration Competition: Regional Finalists Coaches: Anish Vaidya and Dolores Zhao Competitors: Chandani Shah, Meaghan Brady, Akshatha Achar, and Syd Oliver 2025 ABA Mediation Competition: National Finalists Coach: Kyle CrawfordCompetitors: Kate Larson and Raquel Zohar 2025 ABA Client Counseling: First Place Coaches: Keely Redhage and Evan SponderCompetitors: Sabrina Schamroth and Sophia Hartman 2025 New York Law School Soccer Sports Law Competition: Second Place Coach: Jillian FinnCompetitors: Hailee Lansville and Noa Scheinfeld 2025 Villanova Law Professional Football Negotiation Competition: Quarterfinalists Coach: Chris OrjuelaCompetitors: Anya Skor, Emily Osgood, and Noah Yuro 2025 New York State Bar Mediation: First Place Coach: Joanna GarnerCompetitors: Alena Wertalik, Maureen Maher-Patenaude, and Samantha Dumas 2024 2024 Cardozo Invitational Negotiation on Entertainment, Media, and Art (CINEMA) Competition: Champions Coach: Raegan BrizekCompetitors: Megan Carchidi, Drew Katz 2024 UMiami Negotiation Competition: Champions Coaches: Shiara Robinson & Ashley SchafCompetitors: Matthew St. Jeanos & Logan Rudman 2024 ABA Mediation: Regional Finalists Coach: Zachary ElvoveCompetitors: Elisabeth Mayer & Cara Szeles 2024 ABA Client Counseling: Regional Finalists Coaches: Sloane Forbush & Sofia VescovoCompetitors: Gabrielle Troya, Jiayu Zhao 2024 ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition: Best Opening Statement Coach: Neda SalamzadehCompetitors: Katie O'Connell, Caroline Golub, Kyle Suba 2024 NY Law School Soccer Sports Law Competition: Semifinalists Coach: Ryan RaschellaCompetitors: Jillian Finn & Michaela Johnson 2024 William & Mary Law School Negotiation Tournament: Semifinalists Coach: Douglas WaltzerCompetitors: Jason Arnold, Zoe Mazzu 2024 National Mediator Competition – UHLC: Champions Coach: Cara SzelesCompetitor: Alena Wertalik 2024 National Sports Law Negotiation Competition: 2nd Runners-Up Coach: Jeffrey MilesCompetitors: Sharif Farag-Habela, Sukhleen Thind 2024 Villanova Baseball Filing Day Competition: Quarterfinalists Coaches: Natalie Linero, Jeffrey MilesCompetitors: Jeffrey Chan, Madison Miraglia, Rodney Cannon 2024 ABA Regional Negotiation Competition: Semifinalists Coaches: Gabrielle Troya, Nika NejadCompetitors: Christopher Maiolle, Brittany Wolfe 2024 ABA National Negotiation Competition: Semifinalists Coaches: Mitchell Parrish, Shay MitchellCompetitors: Anike Tella-Martins, Ian Reinicke 2023 2023 National Sports Law Negotiation Competition (NSLNC): Finalists Coach: Nick ConnollyCompetitors: Matthew Hans, Jeffery Miles 2023 Southwestern National Negotiation Tournament: Semifinalists Coach: Naomi BoicoCompetitors: Lucas Pozzuto, Matt Sobel 2023 ABA Arbitration: Regional Champions Coaches: Martha Dallman, Selma TabakovicCompetitors: Nicolas Forella, Kim Ira, Joanna Garner, Stephanie Flores 2023 ABA Negotiation: Regional Champions Coaches: Shay Goldberg, Mitchell ParrishCompetitors: Ian Reinicke, Anike Tella-Martins 2023 National Mediator Competition - UHLC: Champions Coach: Neda SalamzedahCompetitor: Caroline Golub 2023 ABA National Arbitration Competition: Semifinalists Coaches: Ryan Dame, Katherine Boyko.Competitors: Selma Tabakovic, Martha Dallman, Xinyi Geng, Zach Elvove  2023 Syracuse Law Hall of Fame Negotiation Competition: Semifinalists  Coaches: Ashley Shin, Veronica Krass. Competitors: Lilly Pollak, Cara Szeles  2023 Tulane Law Professional Football Negotiation Competition: Semifinalist & Best Brief  Coaches: Francesca Casalino, Joe Cairo. Competitors: Jake Rubinstein, Nick Connolly  2023 New York Law School Soccer Negotiation Competition: Finalist Coaches: Yael Golan. Competitors: Mitchell Parrish, Nicole Reed  2023 Southern University - Music Contract Negotiation Competition: Champion Coach: Ellen Piazza. Competitors: Ryan Raschella and Joe Cairo  2023 Southern University - Music Contract Negotiation Competition: Semifinalist Coach: Casey Mefford. Competitors: Mitchell Parrish, Shiara Robinson  2023 University of Miami Sneaker Law Competition. Champion Coach: Case Mefford. Competitors: Anthony Damon, Katherine Hennessy, Marina Barron.  2023 New York State Bar Mediation Competition. Champion  Coach: Deborah and Jonathan Van Dusen. Competitor: Sydney Parks, Yash Tiwari, Stephen Dawson.  2023 New York State Bar Mediation Competition. Best Mediator  Competitor: Sydney Parks  2023 INADR Mediation (Italy): Top Place Advocate/Client Team, Top Place Mediator, 3rd Place Mediator Team overall  Coach: Deb Teslyar. Competitors: Danielle Terracciano, Nick Connolly, Jonathan Van Dusen.  2023 Fordham Basketball Negotiation Competition Quarterfinalist Coach: Francesca Casalino, Sam Caldarone. Competitors: Jonah Kaye, Logan Rudman  2023 Fordham Basketball Negotiation Competition Semifinalists Coach: Emma Conaway, Michelle Hayek. Competitors: Matthew St. Jeanos, Matthew Sobel  2023 Cardozo Invitational Negotiation on Entertainment, Media & Art Competition Finalist Coach: Casey Mefford. Competitors: Shiara Robinson, Ellen Piazza  2023 Cardozo Invitational Negotiation on Entertainment, Media & Art Competition: Best Advocate  Competitor: Natalia Perez Flores  2023 William & Mary Law School Negotiation Competition Champion Coach: Wilson Baer. Competitors: Laura Alosio, Naomi Boico  2023 NEBLSA Nationals Negotiation Finalist Coaches: Keanu Velez, Khendrick Beausoleil, Sydney Parks Competitors: Theron Pickett, Anike Tella Martins.      2022 FINRA Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon First Place in MediationKeanu Velez, Neda Salamzadeh, and Henry CallanderCoaches: Yael Golan, Jonathan Van Dusen 2022 University of Houston Law Center National Mediation Competition SemifinalistMadeline Martinez Coach: Nina Schroeren 2022 ABA Negotiation Competition - Regionals FinalistsKathryn Hennessey, Zane ElsisiCoaches: Megan McCarthy, Casey Mefford 2022 Villanova MLB Filing Day QuarterfinalistsBrendan Ruiz, Jacqueline Martin, Lucas PozzutoCoach: Jake Rubinstein 2022 Breanu Mediation Competition ChampionsDanielle Terracciano, Imad RafiCoach: Maceo Torres-Trujillo Third PlaceKaitlin O'Connell, Veronica Krass, Jenny ChenCoaches: Julia Lee, Shina Bharadwaja Top MediatorsVeronica Krass, Kaitlin O'Connell, Danielle Terracciano Top Client/Advocate PairImad Rafi, Veronica Krass, Danielle Terracciano, Kaitlin O'Connell 2022 Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition QuarterfinalistsRosaleen Maresco, Francesca Casalino, Erica Thompson Coaches: Samantha Shoff, Yaro Radtsevich 2022 Tulane Football Negotiation Competition QuarterfinalistsTom Emmonds, Gus Ipsen Coaches: Mike Meyers, Olivia Rose 2022 ABA Client Counseling Regional Competition SemifinalistsJonathan Van Dusen, Janae NewmarkCoach: Camille Mangiaratti 2022 Tulane Pro Basketball Negotiation Competition Second PlaceSherry Lin, Eamon O'NeillCoaches: William Doheny, Audrey Ziari 2022 Sneaker Law Case Study Competition at University of Miami Law ChampionsCasey Mefford, Zane Elsisi Coach: Spencer Goodson 2022 New York State Bar Mediation Tournament ChampionsKat Giunta, Kevin Trimmer, Rosaleen Maresco Coaches: Eric Raff, Megan McCarthy Second PlaceJonathan Van Dusen, Subha Tasnim, Julia LeeCoaches: Hasan Tariq, Sherry Lin Best Mediator AwardJonathan Van Dusen 2022 CPR International Mediation Competition - Brazil (Virtual) Third PlaceDeb Teslyar, Michelle Hayek, Ryan Dame Coaches: Angelina Sanchez, Sam Bhat Best Counsel AwardDeb Tesylar Best Client AwardMichelle Hayek 2022 Transatlantic Negotiation Competition FinalistsEllie Sands, Stutti TilwaCoaches: Meghan Johnke, Yaro Radtsevich Best Advocate AwardEllie Sands-->       2021 International Peacekeeping and Conflict Resolution Competiton - India (Virtual) FinalistsSherry Lin, Austin Dowdle, Shina Bharadwaja Coaches: Yaro Radtsevich, Gus Ipsen 2021 University of Houston Law Center National Mediation Competition ChampionAngelina SanchezCoach: Xinxin Zhou 2021 National Sports Law Negotiation Competition ChampionEllen Piazza, Anthony Dimauro Coaches: Yaroslav Radtsevich, Evan Tancil 2021-2022 ABA National Arbitration Competition National ChampionsHayley Bork, Stutti Tilwa, Monica Rashed, Ryan DameCoaches: Allie Bravi, Olivia Rose, Cara Anstey 16th ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition Fourth Place / SemifinalistsSusan Kritzmacher, Noelle Stone, and Melissa RonanCoach: Robert Butlien and Kat Teng 2021 Tulane Professional Football Negotiation Competition Second PlaceYaroslav Radtsevich, Michael MeyersCoach: Alexa Bennett, Drew Fryhoff 2021 ABA Client Counseling Competition First PlaceSari Kreutzer, Taylor ArluckCoach: Eliza Simons 2020 ABA Arbitration Regional Competition First Place Allie Bravi, Daniel Landau, Evan Tancil, and Megan Feeney Coach: Jill Davis and Missy Ronan Finalists Alex Rahmanan, Tom Emmons, Spencer Goodson, and Meghan Johnke Coach: Pat Kelly and Katherine Teng Semi-Finalists Olivia Rose, Xinxin Zhou, Jahi Liburd, and Sari Kreutzer Coach: Susan Kritzmacher and Eliza Simons 2019 UHLC National Mediator Competition First Place Jordan Johnson Coach: Noelle Stone 2019 International Chamber of Commerce Competition Distinction for the Performance of a Team from a University Participating in the Competition for the First Time Rob Price, Justin Heller, Taylor Bleistein Coach: Danielle Robinson 2019 New York Law School Intellectual Property Law Negotiation Competition First Place Ryan Blum and Matthew Ryan Coach: Mitchell Bower Third Place Diego Gomez and Sarah Meyers Coach: Katherine Wilcox   2019 ABA Arbitration Regional Competition First Place Lance Bond, Jill Davis, Missy Ronan and Eliza Simons Coaches: Nick Carra, Montene Speight and Joshua Sycoff 2019 Judith S. Kaye Arbitration Competition “Best Opening” and “Best Direct” Awards Katherine Teng, Patrick Kelly, Susan Kritzmacher Coaches: Taylor Bleistein, Danielle Robinson and Emilia Foto--> Honor Society Tryouts The Alternative Dispute Resolution Honor Society Tryouts take place in the spring semester during February or March. This highly competitive mock negotiation will determine who will be invited to join the society for the following competition year. The tryout competition is comprised of two separate rounds of multi-party negotiations that will be judged by current ADRHS members. Participants will be sent a general fact pattern and respective private facts depending on the party that they will be assigned to represent. Participants will be told certain concessions their clients have authorized and certain demands they need to meet on behalf of their client. Performance will be scored on a rubric that considers factors such as professionalism and ethics, comprehension of client’s goals, and ability to work alongside other negotiating parties. Participants will be e-mailed the rubric prior to their tryout. The number of students admitted to join ADRHS vary based on the society’s competition needs for the following year. Typically, ADRHS offers memberships to those who score in the top 15% of all participants. Contact ADHRS for more info: adrhs@brooklaw.edu Transfer Students Transfer students may be eligible for membership in ADRHS in the competition year for which they matriculate at Brooklyn Law School. Transfer students who are interested in becoming members may inquire to ADRHS at adrhs@brooklaw.edu. Have Questions? Contact Us General Inquiries: adrhs@brooklaw.eduTryout Inquiries: adrhs.recruitment@brooklaw.eduAENC Inquiries: aenc@brooklaw.eduPresident: maria.zeman@brooklaw.edu joshua.sycoff@brooklaw.edu Vice President, Competitive Affairs: taylor.bleistein@brooklaw.edu-->

Faculty Scholarship Brooklyn Law School faculty members are engaged in scholarly work on critical issues in the law and policy. Their nationally recognized scholarship is published in top law reviews and has a substantial influence in the legal community and beyond. Their work has been cited by courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, shapes law and policy across the country, and fuels the dynamic intellectual life of the Law School. Latest Faculty Scholarship William AraizaVice Dean and Stanley A. August Professor of Law   Animus, Again, 34 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal __ (forthcoming 2025)  With the new administration issuing multiple executive orders targeting immigrants and transgender people, Araiza looks at the legal tools that litigants can deploy to challenge them, specifically equal protection animus. Relying on the Supreme Court’s surprising revival and regularization of the animus idea in 2020, he concludes that animus can be a useful tool for equality litigators in current and future equality- and rights-infringing actions.   Jonathan AskinProfessor of Clinical Law and Director of the Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy (BLIP) Clinic    From Data Co-opting To Data Co-oping: Using New Corporate Structures, Data Corporate-hood, And Data Personhood To Prioritize Data Privacy, 20 UC Law Business Journal UC Law SF Bus. L.J. 177 (2024).  In this article, Askin argues that traditional privacy laws fail to protect individuals from corporate and governmental exploitation of personal data. He proposes innovative structures—such as data cooperatives, trusts, and new corporate forms—that empower communities to reclaim ownership and governance. Exploring concepts like “data corporate-hood” and “data personhood,” the paper envisions a legal architecture that democratizes data governance and safeguards dignity in the algorithmic era.  Jodi BalsamProfessor of Clinical Law Fumbling Antitrust: Fallacies in the NFL Sunday Ticket Litigation, 16 Harv. J. Sports & Ent. L. 235 (2025)  Balsam chronicles the history of and legal frameworks governing sports television rights and distribution and explores the application of antitrust law to broadcasting deals. Against the backdrop of the NFL Sunday Ticket antitrust class action, she exposes the fallacies of (1) using antitrust to condemn legitimate exploitation of game telecast copyrights, and (2) gerrymandering antitrust market definitions to overstate sports league market power.  Aissatou BarryAssistant Professor of Law and Director of the Housing Justice Clinic   Evicting Evictions, 53 Fordham Urb. L.J. 97 (2025). Housing courts have gone from a forum where tenants and landlords resolve lease and habitability disputes to a graveyard for housing security. In nonpayment of rent proceedings, the lack of remedies available to low-income tenants makes evictions a certainty. Barry contends that repudiating evictions as a resolution for these proceedings would allow equitable solutions for all parties.  Alissa BauerAssociate Professor of Legal Writing Teaching Cases: How Legal Writing Textbooks Approach the Rule Support Section, 29 Legal Writing 127 (2025) The article summarizes Bauer’s empirical analysis of the 15 most popular first-year legal writing textbooks and describes the varied ways that they address the rule support section, sometimes called case illustrations, rule explanations, rule proof, or a variety of other terms.  Her analysis finds that the textbooks explain some of the most basic and fundamental questions about the rule support section in different ways.  Anita BernsteinAnita and Stuart Subotnick Professor of Law Making the Best of Semen: Prospects for Law and Regulation (NYU Press, December 2025)   The benefits and harms that semen delivers when it travels onto mucosa are extraordinary. In Making the Best of Semen, Bernstein lays out an unmentionability problem that shields semen from controls and documents the upheavals for which it is responsible. Some of these upheavals harm, or even end, human lives; others are extraordinarily desired and desirable. Regulation can improve both consequences.  Dana Brakman ReiserCentennial Professor of Law Trust and Scale in Global Social Enterprise Law, 22 Stanford Social Innovation Rev. 38 (2024) Social enterprises aim to use business methods to solve social problems. Legal frameworks for them can promote scaling up these organizations and help communicate that these dual mission organizations can be trusted. Brakman Reiser reveals that these two goals for social enterprise law will often conflict, creating a challenging trade-off for legislators, regulators and advocates.  Michael T. CahillProfessor of Law and Emeritus President & Dean   Markel and Abolition, 52 Florida State University Law Review __ (forthcoming 2025)  In this short article, written for a symposium honoring the memory of the late Professor Dan Markel, Cahill discusses the relationship between Markel’s work and contemporary abolitionist scholarship in criminal law.  Stacy CaplowProfessor of Law and Maryellen FullertonSuzanne J. and Norman Miles Professor of Law    Immigration Venue Exceptionalism, 111 Cornell L. Rev. __  (forthcoming 2026)  By claiming the sole power to determine when and where to initiate deportation proceedings, the government can strategically set removal hearings in maximally inconvenient locations that are notorious for immigrant-unfriendly law. Using the highly publicized case of Mahmoud Khalil as an exemplar, Caplow and Fullerton expose the significant role of immigration venue exceptionalism, the unfairness that has developed in recent years, and the urgent need for reform.   Jon EndeanAssistant Professor of Law   Tariffs as Taxes: A Framework for Understanding Delegation of the Taxing Power, 63 San Diego L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2026)  Endean argues that there are two principles that emerge from understanding the history of the taxing power: (1) taxes can only be imposed with the consent of the governed and (2) taxes are distinct from other Article I enumerated powers. He argues for a structural canon under which purported delegations of the taxing power to the President be evaluated and be permitted only when Congress has clearly stated its intent to specifically delegate its taxing power.  Kerry FulhamAssistant Professor of Legal Writing   Punishment without Principle: HIV Criminalization and the Sex Offender Registry, 28 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol’y __ (2026).  Fulham critiques HIV-specific criminal statutes that mandate sex offender registration, arguing that such laws impose one of the harshest penalties absent transmission, intent, or proportional justification. Examining these statutes through the lens of punishment theory, she contends they reflect stigma and moral panic rather than coherent penal principles, and calls for reforms aligning criminal law with justice, proportionality, and public health.  Cynthia GodsoeAssociate Dean for Faculty Research and Scholarship, Dean’s Research Scholar, and Professor of Law with Shanta Trivedi Parenting as a Crime, 15 Cal L. Rev. Online 13 (2024)  Godsoe and Trivedi address the recent high-profile prosecutions of parents when their children commit school shootings, arguing that while the emotion driving these prosecutions is understandable, they are legally unsound and ignore the real, structural causes of these cases, such as the adolescent mental health crisis and the lack of gun control. This approach is flawed, and these prosecutions will, if anything, make children and society less safe.  Michael HaberAssistant Professor of Law & Director of the Community Development & Movement Infrastructure Clinic    When the Executive Accidentally Supported the Movement: Participatory Democracy and the Rise of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, 15 Colum. J. Race & L. 1285 (2025)  Criticism of the role of the nonprofit sector in constraining social movements (sometimes called the “nonprofit industrial complex”) has been an important intervention in studies of grassroots social change. This article traces the implementation of 1964’s Community Action Program (“CAP”), arguing that efforts to rein in CAP’s “maximum feasible participation” mandate were a pivotal moment in the development of the nonprofit industrial complex.  Alexis Hoag-FordjourDavid Dinkins '56 Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Criminal Justice    Universal Public Defense, 60 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 661 (2025)  Hoag-Fordjour introduces a provocative thought experiment: state-funded defense counsel as a universal mandate for all people facing criminal charges. The Article invites readers to envision a reality where defendants with means are placed on the same footing as those without, and to consider how this new defense model might impact the criminal adjudication system and the actors within it.  Additional Recent Scholarship Vijay RaghavanProfessor of Law The Radical Potential of Consumer Financial Protection, 66 Boston College L. Rev. 1345 (2025) This article retheorizes consumer financial protection as a counter to legally structured domination in money and finance. Tracing twentieth-century fights over fringe lending, Regulation W, and credit discrimination, Raghavan argues consumer financial protection works best when embedded in market governance, defends the reform efforts of the last 15 years and outlines lessons for future reconstruction and reform.  Consumer Law's Equity Gap, 3 Utah Law Review __ (forthcoming 2022)--> Jayne ResslerAssociate Professor of Law   Juror Privacy via Anonymity, 93 Fordham L. Rev. 611 (2024)  Ressler assesses the institution of anonymous juries through the lens of juror privacy. She argues that anonymous juries should become the default practice in most criminal and civil trials. Ressler explains how routinely impaneling anonymous juries can meet the challenge of protecting juror privacy in the twenty-first century while safeguarding fair trials and protecting public access to the judicial process.  Anna RobertsDean’s Research Scholar and Professor of Law Interrogating the Facts of the Case, 101 Ind. L.J. __ (forthcoming 2026)   Canonical criminal cases rely on the alleged results of interrogation for their “facts.” Roberts argues that criminal law professors should include interrogation in their first-year classes, to get students curious about such things as (a) the relevance of resources to understandings of “guilt”; (b) the government’s role in creating the “facts” of the cases that they study; and (c) the government’s role in creating “crime.”    Additional Recent Scholarship Lauren RobertsVisiting Assistant Professor of Legal Writing   The Cost of Showing Up, Northwestern University Law Review Online, Vol. 120, (2025)  Roberts examines the heavy burdens of mandatory in-person misdemeanor criminal court appearances on disadvantaged populations. It proposes that people charged with misdemeanors be permitted to waive in-person appearances for nonessential court dates, preserving judicial and public resources while mitigating the punitive effects of prolonged court involvement on criminal defendants and their communities.  Additional Recent Scholarship Jocelyn SimonsonHerman Badillo ’54 Professor of Law   The Part IV Problem in Legal Scholarship, 126 Columbia Law Review Forum (forthcoming 2026) (w/Sabeel Rahman)  The authors call for an end to the de facto requirement that a law review article conclude with a list of actionable and feasible prescriptions, usually law or policy reforms, that respond to the article’s analysis. Rather than abandoning prescriptive work, rethinking Part IV conventions enables our academic writing to match our wildest, most idealistic dreams, and the interventions, big and small, feasible and fanciful, that can achieve them.  Additional Recent Scholarship Danielle TullyProfessor of Legal Writing   Behind The Curve: Rethinking Norm-Referenced Grading in First-Year Legal Writing Courses, 29 Legal Writing 1 (2025). In addition to reporting on the current grading landscape, Tully contextualizes this data within a grade curve trend that began in the 1970s. She also argues that law schools should reevaluate grading policies and adopt new methods for communicating student achievement to meet both their student equity and belonging goals and the needs of the profession and the public.    2024 Faculty Scholarship William AraizaStanley A. August Professor of Law   One-Offs, 109 Cornell L. Rev. 263, (2024) Araiza examines the phenomenon of "one-offs": court opinions that are rarely cited by the issuing court, and that that do not explicitly generate further doctrinal development. His analysis of three such cases from the U.S. Supreme Court finds they play a surprisingly legitimate role in legal and doctrinal development. Jodi BalsamProfessor of Clinical Law and Director of Externship Programs False Start on NIL: Public and Private Law Should Treat College Athletes Like Any Other Student, 11 Tex. A&M L. Rev. 785 (2024) Instead of specialized private rules and public law that govern how student athletes monetize their name, image and likeness (NIL), Balsam writes that there should be a principle of nondiscrimination that deals in the same way with all college students who seek to benefit from and monetize their identities and publicity rights. Alissa BauerAssistant Professor of Legal Writing One Tort, Four IRACs, and Five Lessons About Rule Support Cases, BrooklynWorks, Faculty Scholarship. 1559 This article explores the significance of rule support cases, sometimes called case illustrations, rule explanations, or rule proof, in the IRAC structure. It uses a negligent infliction of emotional distress fact pattern to demonstrate five important lessons regarding how rule support cases help students set up effective and targeted application. Anita BernsteinAnita and Stuart Subotnick Professor of Law Renewing Products Liability with Semen, DePaul Law Review, Vol. 73, No. 2, p. 211, 2024, Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 768 To renew is to combine old and new. Extending Bernstein’s earlier writings on the formation of new torts that located this combination in tort innovation, this article applies the lens of “renewing” within products liability to one product in particular, semen. Bradley T. BordenProfessor of Law   Tax-Law Analysis, 18 Brook. J. Corp. Fin. & Com. L. 385 (2024) Congress recognizes that there are areas of uncertainty in tax law and only imposes penalties if the authority supporting a reporting position is not adequate. To determine the strength of a reporting position, a tax advisor must be able to identify and analyze legal authority that relates to the reporting position and determine whether the weight of authority that supports the desired reporting position is sufficiently strong to outweigh the authority that is contrary to it. Borden explores how tax rules direct practitioners to accomplish this weighing process. Maryellen FullertonSuzanne J. and Norman Miles Professor of Law   Temporary Protection for Ukrainians in the European Union: Why Now and When Again, 57 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 91 (2024) The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine led to a successful rollout of the first EU-wide temporary protection program since legislation was enacted in 2001. Civil society played a central role in assuring legal status within the European Union for more than four million displaced individuals. Fullerton explores the patterns of civic engagement and social solidarity to strategize fruitful responses to future refugee crises. Temporary Protection in the United States and the European Union: Same Words, Vastly Different Meanings, 9 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Public Affairs 1 (2024) “Summary Procedures” (with W-Y. Chen) Comparative Procedural Law and Justice (eds. B. Hess, M. Woo, L. Cadiet, S. Menétrey, and E. Vallines García) (2024) Immigration and Nationality Laws of the United States: Selected Statutes, Regulations and Forms Thomson West Publishing Co. (with T.A. Aleinikoff, D. Martin, H. Motomura, J. Stumpf, P. Gulasekaram, and R. Cuison-Villazor) (2024) Heidi GilchristProfessor of Legal Writing and Co-Director of Legal Research and Writing   Ukraine, Moral Outrage, and International Law, 84 Ohio St. L.J. 1465 (2024) Using the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a focal point, Gilchrist explores the role of emotion, specifically moral outrage, in international law. The paper addresses the question of whether the international community can harness the incredible moral outrage at the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine to hold Russia accountable. Cynthia GodsoeProfessor of Law Disrupting Carceral Logic in Family Policing, 121 Michigan Law Review 939 (2023) Using a review of Professor Dorothy Roberts’ book, Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World, as a springboard, Godsoe explores the carceral logics of the family-policing system and, particularly, the role of lawyers in maintaining and legitimating these logics. Criminalizing Community, Policing Space: Conspiracy, Young Thug & the “Stop Cop City” Protestors, Harv. L. Rev. Blog (Aug. 28, 2024) Kinship Care and Adoption Myopia (Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 784, December 2024) A Perfect Storm: Young People, False Confessions & Prosecutorial Involvement (Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 783, December 2024) Edward J. JangerDavid M. Barse Professor of Law Equity for Intermediaries: The Resolution of Financial Firms in Bankruptcy and Bank Resolution, Yale Journal on Regulation, Vol. 41, p.965, 2024 In this essay, Janger considers recent bank failures and bankruptcies of crypto intermediary to develop general principles for bankruptcy courts and other resolution institutions to mitigate the harms to customers and the financial system caused by financial misdeeds and regulatory failure. Functional Tort Principles for Internet Platforms: Duty, Relationship, and Control, 26 Yale J.L. & Tech. 1 (2023) Enterprise, Liability, and Insolvency: An Essay in Honor of Aaron Twerski, 18 Brook. J. Corp. Fin. & Com. L. 115 (2023) Impact Ipsa Loquitur: A Reverse Hand Rule for Consumer Finance Susan Block-Lieb, Edward J. Janger, Cardozo Law Review, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2024; Fordham Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 4802893; Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper Forthcoming Yuvraj JoshiAssociate Professor of Law Racial Time, 90 University of Chicago Law Review 1625 (2023) Racial time describes how inequality shapes people’s experiences and perceptions of time. This article argues that U.S. law embodies dominant interests in time. By inscribing dominant experiences and expectations of time into law, the Supreme Court enforces unrealistic timelines for racial remedies and “neutral” time standards that disproportionately burden subordinated groups. Racial Equality Compromises, 111 Cal. L. Rev. 529 (2023) Joy KanwarProfessor of Legal Writing   Writing and Analysis in the Law, Foundation Press (April 2024) This standard-bearing book’s 8th, co-written with Elizabeth Fajans and Helene S. Shapo, provides a guide to legal writing, focusing on thoughtful, thorough analysis and clear organization in written communications. It responds to legal education’s increased attention to professional identity and cultural competence, provides an expanded section on inclusive language, and discusses generative artificial intelligence. Catherine Y. KimDon Forchelli Professor of Law   Citizenship Outside the Courts, 57 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 253 (2023) To what extent should political actors determine constitutional citizenship? Kim examines three pivotal episodes from U.S. history involving the contestation of citizenship for Black Americans in the early to mid-19th century; the denial of citizenship to Chinese Americans in the 1882 -1943 Exclusion Era; and the stripping of citizenship from American women who married noncitizens pre-1922. Adam KolberProfessor of Law   Punishment for the Greater Good, (Oxford University Press, June 2024) In this new book on criminal punishment, Kolber asks: What, if anything, justifies the suffering and deprivation of liberty associated with incarceration and other forms of punishment? He defends a “consequentialist” approach that focuses on deterring, incapacitating, and rehabilitating offenders over the more common “retributivist” approach that focuses on deserved suffering. Shirley LinAssociate Professor of Law Race, Solidarity, and Commerce: Work Law as Privatized Public Law, 55 Ariz. St. L.J. 813 (2023) What if work law allowed us to understand racism as central to legal liberal frames, rather than ancillary or topical? Deploying history and political theory, Lin demonstrates how public/private dyads within work law generated unworkable, often divisive conceptions of race and commerce, hindering our pursuit of a thriving, multiracial democracy. Christina MulliganProfessor of Law Diverse Originalism, History, and Tradition, 99 Notre Dame Law Review 1515 (2024) The Supreme Court's New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen decision appears to be an originalist opinion, ostensibly looking for the meaning of the Constitution's text through the public's understanding of its language. But the court failed to follow a public meaning originalist methodology, leading to two unfortunate outcomes. Naveen ThomasAssistant Professor of Law Mythical Adverse Effect, 73 Emory L.J. 887 (2024) The material adverse effect definition is among the most intensely negotiated provisions in M&A contracts. Challenging conventional wisdom, Thomas applies legal and economic analysis to explain that, under Delaware law, parties should not customize these definitions and should devote their limited time and leverage to more impactful terms instead. Stratos PahisAssociate Professor of Law Appeals After the Appellate Body, 23 World Trade Rev. 296 (2024) (peer reviewed)The Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has not heard an appeal since 2019. This article explores how adjudicators and member states have navigated WTO dispute settlement in this post-AB world. Rethinking International Investment Law: Form, Function & Reform 63 Va. J. Int'l L. 447 (2023) Anna RobertsProfessor of Law Models and Limits of Federal Rule of Evidence 609 Reform, 76 Vand. L. Rev.1879 (2023) Federal Rule of Evidence 609, which permits the use of certain convictions to attack the “character for truthfulness” of witnesses, is widely criticized. Roberts presents three responses, including a model for how one might rewrite the rule, a set of proposals for judges and prosecutors, and an exploration of abolitionist concerns. Maria TerminiProfessor of Legal Writing and Co-Director of Legal Research and Writing Negative Language in Legal Writing, Legal Communication & Rhetoric: JALWD 20 (2023) Conventional wisdom holds that legal writers should be positive; however, recent legal writing scholarship has explored the benefits of negativity that stem from “negativity bias.” Termini distinguishes between two types of negative language used in legal writing: negation and negative valence, and proposes six principles to guide legal writers in choosing between positive and negative language.

The Power Behind the Scenes Brooklyn Law School graduates are lighting up New York City’s entertainment industry—from music to television to film. Story: Andrea Strong ’94 | Photography: Ron Hester Long considered a global cultural capital, New York City in recent years has been experiencing a renaissance in the music, film, and television industries. In 2015, more than 46 episodic television series, such as Girls, The Americans, The Good Wife, and Law & Order, and 336 films, including Brooklyn, Bridge of Spies, and The Intern, were shot on locations around the city—including the Law School— generating at least $8.7 billion for the local economy. Brooklyn, in particular, has become an increasingly popular home for movie and television studios, as well as live music, creating thousands of job opportunities. Brooklyn Law School is right at center stage in New York as well as in Hollywood, and was recently ranked number 10 on The Hollywood Reporter list of “Top 12 Entertainment Law Schools.” The Law School’s vast and strong alumni network in the entertainment world from coast to coast includes the six leaders profiled here, all working in New York City at powerhouses like the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, HBO, BET Networks, Universal Music, ASCAP, and Barclays Center “Brooklyn was my first choice because of its reputation in entertainment law,” said Keith Bloyd ’16, co-president of the Brooklyn Entertainment and Sports Law Society. “The school does a phenomenal job of preparing students to excel in what has become one of the most competitive industries in the world.” Nicole George-Middleton ’01 SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF MEMBERSHIP ASCAP In 2011, Nicole George-Middleton ’01 (left) was named one of Billboard magazine’s “Top 40 Women in Music,” and it’s easy to see why. As senior vice president of membership at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), George-Middleton has worked with some of the group’s top talent, including Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Jay Z, and Usher. She advocates for the musicians’ interests, develops creative partnerships, puts songwriters together with producers, hosts workshops and events, and connects emerging artists with mentors. “My job is to promote and nurture everyone in our organization, from developing songwriters to accomplished composers like Ne-Yo,” she said. George-Middleton has spearheaded a number of initiatives for ASCAP’s more than half a million members, including a lunch series called “Break Bread” that invites songwriters to participate in jam sessions at its offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. “We were hearing that our members want to spend time with other artists,” she said. “They come here to have fun and just vibe and play and eat lunch. It’s been amazing.” She and her team are also responsible for creating ASCAP’s annual “Women Behind the Music” event, which celebrates women in music during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, and “Check It Out” events, where the organization rents space for songwriters to play their music in front of studio heads and industry heavyweights. The idea is to give ASCAP members more opportunities to get their music in front of important audiences. Even if it doesn’t result in a strategic partnership, the writer receives helpful feedback and benefits from having a broader network of contacts. George-Middleton, who holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, began thinking in on negotiations with artists and to help draft their contracts. After graduating, she joined what was then known as Woods & Middleton, a small boutique entertainment firm (now the Middleton Law Group), where she spent seven years representing talent like DMX, Kelly Price, and Foxy Brown. “The work allowed me to form strong relationships in the entertainment industry and build my knowledge of copyright law and issues facing songwriters and artists,” she said. Returning to the label side, she joined the RCA Label Group’s Jive Records in house as director of business and legal affairs. For three years, she negotiated recording agreements and music publishing agreements. Then in 2008, ASCAP recruited her to join its urban rhythm and soul department, largely because of her legal training and the strong relationships she had built in the music industry. “Music is the soundtrack to life,” she said. “At ASCAP, we want people to enjoy it, and we want to make sure that writers and musicians are properly compensated for it.” Daniel Getz ’95 SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR BUSINESS AND LEGAL AFFAIRS Universal Music Group, Republic Records “I don’t sing or play instruments very well myself, but I’ve always been a music lover,” said Daniel Getz, senior vice president of business and legal affairs for Republic Records at Universal, the largest U.S. music company. “After law school, I worked hard to build up my credentials so that I would be ready when the right job came along.” That job certainly came along for Getz, who now negotiates and drafts contracts in connection with some of the biggest names in the music business—including Nicki Minaj, The Weeknd, Zac Brown Band, Jessie J, and the recent winner of The Voice Jordan Smith. He received his bachelor’s degree in literature and economics from the University of Michigan, then attended Brooklyn Law School as the first step toward a career in entertainment law. Following graduation, he held a variety of jobs including managing bands and working with record companies, while always trying to network and make connections in the industry. In 1998, he landed his “first legit gig,” representing artists and companies at the law firm of Leibowitz, Roberts & Ritholz, where clients included NSYNC, Lisa Loeb, and the New Kids on the Block. Getz relished his time at the firm, but an opportunity presented itself that seemed too good to pass up: He was offered the position of general counsel at a startup called Music Vision, which handled advertising and representation for website publishers in the music and entertainment world. Unfortunately, the company folded a couple of years later during the first Internet crash, but that cloud had a silver lining: Universal hired Getz in 2002 as the junior lawyer in the Universal Motown Republic Group. Today, he manages the negotiation and structuring of deals with major talents on the Republic label. Having been in the business for more than 20 years, Getz has seen a dramatic transformation of music technology, from CDs to the streaming trend that currently dominates how people purchase and listen to songs. It hasn’t been an easy storm to weather, but Getz is optimistic. “I’ve watched the industry shrink from a $14 billion business to around half of that, as technology and the Internet allowed albums to be disaggregated from downloads of singles,” Getz said. “Now I think we’re seeing more people purchase streaming subscriptions, which is leveling out revenues for artists and their labels. It may be a real savior for the industry.” He advises young lawyers with a passion for music to get traditional legal experience and to be aware of key players in the entertainment world. “The music business is always changing, which makes it interesting and challenging,” Getz said. “To succeed, it’s critical to be thoughtful and dynamic.” Anne del Castillo ’11 CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND GENERAL COUNSEL New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment “Our city is the backdrop for some of the most iconic moments in cinema history; our streets and skylines are coveted around the world,” said New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. A key force in making the city such a vibrant hub for movies and television shows is Anne del Castillo ’11, chief operating officer and general counsel of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME). The agency supports the filmed entertainment industry, which contributes nearly $9 billion annually to the local economy. Del Castillo oversees MOME’s operations, including policy development and strategic initiatives. With a staff of nearly 80 people, MOME comprises two divisions: the Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcast, which manages all production activity throughout the five boroughs, and NYC Media, the city’s official broadcast network and media production group. MOME also supports a number of industry development initiatives, such as the “Made in New York” Marketing Credit Program, which promotes New York City–based film and television projects, and the “Made in NY” Production Assistant Training Program, which has already prepared more than 600 New York residents for careers in film and television. “As a born-and-bred New Yorker, I just love this city and all it has to offer. It’s extremely rewarding to know that every day, I get to go to work and help find ways to sustain our city’s role as a true creative capital,” Del Castillo said. “By supporting content development, production innovation, and investment in industry, we are creating more and more opportunities for New York City residents in media and entertainment.” Del Castillo brings to her position more than 20 years of experience in media and the arts, focusing on film production, fundraising, business development, and legal affairs. After receiving dual bachelor’s degrees in English and mass communications from Boston University, she began her career in film and television. She got her start at the Independent Feature Project and went on to work with some of the most prestigious producers at PBS: Sesame Workshop, American Masters, and Frontline. Del Castillo later moved to Austin, Texas, where she worked for the Austin Film Society and was part of the task force that developed the Austin Studios. Upon her return to New York in 2002, she joined American Documentary, producers of the acclaimed PBS series POV, where she oversaw fundraising and business affairs. It was during her tenure at American Documentary that Del Castillo realized just how much she enjoyed the business aspects of her job, and she decided to pursue a law degree. Del Castillo enrolled as a part-time student at the Law School, taking classes in the evening, while working full time as vice president of development and business affairs for American Documentary during the day. “It was a bit of an adjustment returning to school after being in the field for 15 years,” she said. “But ultimately I think I got more out of it. I truly value the education I got at Brooklyn Law. I got to learn from some of the best and brightest minds in the legal field.” She took a break from media to work as head of development at the 14th Street Y, before she was recruited to join MOME in 2014. Looking ahead, one of Del Castillo’s priorities is ensuring that New York City’s media endeavors continue to embrace diversity and inclusion. “As a child,” she said, “when I saw shows with diverse characters in urban settings, like Sesame Street or The Electric Company, I felt a connection, a recognition of sorts that my experience was valuable enough to be reflected on TV. While advancements have been made, we still have a long way to go for media to truly reflect the depth, breadth, and richness of human experience in all its forms. We live in one of the world’s most culturally rich and diverse cities. With the recent expansion of MOME’s portfolio that now includes music, digital content, and advertising, I am looking forward to maximizing opportunities for more New Yorkers to participate in the evolution of media and entertainment in the city. In doing so, we will move the industry forward in a more inclusive and meaningful way.” Keith Sheldon ’07 SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF PROGRAMMING Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment Bruce Springsteen. Stevie Wonder. Rihanna. Ed Sheeran. Justin Bieber. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Today they are among the major performers and events hosted by Barclays Center in Brooklyn—and Keith Sheldon ’07, senior vice president of programming for Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (BS&E), has been instrumental in bringing them to the stage. In fact, he’s done his job so well that Pollstar magazine last year ranked Barclays Center number two nationally and in the top 10 in the world based on concert and entertainment ticket sales. “I think we’ve done a great job of creating a cool vibe at Barclays Center, which makes it an aspirational place to play for up-and-coming artists, and one that established artists view as a key stop on their tour,” Sheldon said. “Keith is a star himself in the world of major venue entertainment programming,” said Jeff Gewirtz ’94, executive vice president of business affairs and chief legal officer for the Barclays Center, Brooklyn Nets, New York Islanders, and Nassau Coliseum. “In addition to his wide network of key contacts in the music industry, Keith is a tactical negotiator and understands what will move business objectives forward. His legal training really sets him apart from other programming executives, particularly when it comes to complex booking transactions.” We’re focused on continuing to put Brooklyn and Barclays on the map." Sheldon joined BS&E in 2014, after nearly a decade of working in the events arena. He started his career with AEG, one of the world’s leading sports and entertainment presenters, working in business and legal affairs at the XL Center, an 18,000-seat venue in Hartford, Conn. “We weren’t in a ‘must-play’ market,” he said. “So I did a lot of hustling, looking for unique content opportunities and getting to know promoters, agents, and managers.” From there, AEG transferred him to Louisville, Ky., where he ran events for the 23,000-seat KFC Yum! Center. “That venue was set up for major events, in a prime location on most musicians’ tour routes, so it opened my eyes to a different subset of the business,” Sheldon said. “I learned about what your space can do for an artist’s brand identity. So much of my job now is about making deals, so I really focus on relationships and building bridges with the entertainers. My priority is to make the content providers happy, while always considering the company’s bottom line.” Sheldon is also excited about other projects in the BS&E pipeline, including the historical LIU Brooklyn Paramount Theatre with an opening slated for 2019; the reimagined Nassau Coliseum set to reopen within a year; and The Amphitheater at Coney Island Boardwalk, a new 5,000-seat covered amphitheater scheduled to open this summer. He credits the organization’s growth to the vision of Brett Yormark, CEO of BS&E. In his own capacity to further drive business at each of the BS&E properties, Sheldon works closely with a 40-member advisory board, which features some of the most influential executives in sports, entertainment, arts, and media. He also manages a Los Angeles office that mines content relationships on the West Coast. “It’s great to get other perspectives about what live events people want to see,” said Sheldon. “We’re focused on continuing to put Brooklyn and Barclays on the map—nationally and internationally.” Nneka Norville ’01 DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY BET Networks With the U.S. presidential election campaign in full swing, Nneka Norville, the director of corporate social responsibility at BET Networks, is focused on engaging her audience. Leveraging the strength and reach of BET’s brand, she has developed a national initiative—as she has done in past election years—to empower voters with valuable tools and resources. BET VOTE cuts across the network’s portfolio, including an on-air PSA, a custom website, and complementary messaging on social media platforms, amplifying the reach and impact of these important calls to action. “As in a traditional marketing campaign, every place our audience engages with us, they will see our messaging about the importance of voting,” Norville said. This is just one example of Norville’s work at BET. For the last eight years, she has leveraged the brand’s content, platforms,and employees for social good. She serves as a liaison to community, business, and government organizations. She develops mentorship and volunteer programs. She manages public service campaigns, including one related to the recent water crisis in Flint, Mich.; education initiatives, such as BET Next Level, which promotes dropout prevention and diversity in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); and programs highlighting health disparities including BET Goes Pink, which promotes women’s health through breast cancer awareness. Norville has received several awards for her dedication to cause marketing and corporate philanthropy. In 2015, Women in Cable Television named her a rising leader and the Network Journal Magazine included her as one of its “40 Under Forty Achievers.” In 2008, O, Oprah Winfrey’s magazine, honored her as one of its “80 Leaders in Training.” Norville has spent most of her professional career in the entertainment industry. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in communications and marketing from Boston University, she worked in public relations at Sony Music Entertainment before coming to Brooklyn Law School. Norville enrolled in law school to help her develop skills in research, writing, and public speaking that would benefit her career in the long term. “I felt that with a law degree I could do anything and it would make me more marketable,” she said. After graduating, she practiced entertainment law briefly before pursuing her passion for social good. She managed corporate sponsor relationships for the nonprofit LIFEbeat, an organization dedicated to using the power of music industry celebrities to inform young people about HIV/AIDS and wellness. In 2005, she won the National Urban Fellowship (NUF) award, which offers a 14-month academic and leadership development experience in the public sector. Through NUF, Norville earned her MPA from the Bernard M. Baruch School of Public Affairs and worked with the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, a $1 billion family foundation focused on global education, reproductive rights, and environmental sustainability. At Packard, Norville supported the head of communications with domestic and international grantmaking as well as grantee communications strategy. “I was able to travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and help rebrand a communications strategy for a national health program,” she said. “It was an incredibly rewarding experience.” In 2006, Norville was hired as a program officer in the entertainment media partnerships division at the Kaiser Family Foundation. In this role, she managed campaigns with publicand private-sector partners such as Viacom, BET, CBS, FOX, Univision, and the NBA to leverage brand equity for social good. In 2008, BET Networks recruited her to join its corporate social responsibility team. Norville takes seriously her responsibility at BET. Recently, she worked with producers of the hit BET show Being Mary Jane, to address a storyline in which a character commits suicide. Norville put together a campaign that included suicide prevention information embedded in the show, as well as suicide prevention hotline information on screen at the end of the episode. She also hired a psychologist do a live Twitter chat during and after the show, highlighted facts about suicide on all BET social media platforms, and engaged talent from the show to leverage their social media for the same messaging. The result? The partner for the episode, the American Association of Suicide Prevention, reported a 50 percent increase in web traffic, a 60 percent increase in hotline calls, and a 45 percent increase in followers on its Instagram account. “I feel so fortunate to have this role,” she said. “It’s rewarding to engage with our audience beyond entertainment and help move issues forward in an innovative way.” Meeka Bondy ’94 SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF LEGAL AFFAIRS HBO Meeka Bondy, senior vice president of legal affairs at HBO, has had a front-row seat to the television industry’s dramatic change from network cable TV to multiple—and multiplying— platforms like Netflix and Hulu for original television content. Throughout her career, she has worked at the center of disruptions in media and technology. “The TV business is still going through a lot of change now,” Bondy said. “There’s talk about whether Internetdelivered content cannibalizes the core business, but I think that you have to put it all out there and see how consumers react. There was a time when HBO was the only one doing original content, but now so many people are in the game. We are in the golden age of television.” Bondy has worked with HBO for more than a decade, joining the company as senior counsel in 2004. Her role at that time focused heavily on film acquisitions that pushed the boundaries of technology. She worked on the first wireless mobile content deal with Cingular wireless, for example, and executed the first international wireless deal with Vodafone. Today, she is responsible for HBO’s global licensing business, licensing of original HBO programming to networks in other countries, and the licensing of HBO library collections to Amazon Prime. She also manages corporate services, real estate, facilities, vendor relations, research, and foreign regulatory matters such as the European Union’s Digital Single Market reforms. We are in the golden age of television." “We only license earlier seasons of shows, not the current seasons,” she said. “We want to expand access to our programming while being mindful of our own subscribers and our own bottom line.” Bondy, like George-Middleton, received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania before enrolling at Brooklyn Law School. An involved student at the Law School, she served as the president of the Asian American Law Students Association (AALSA) and as executive editor of the Brooklyn Journal of International Law. She also met and later married classmate Joseph Bondy ’94, a well-known criminal defense attorney, with whom she has three children. After graduation, she spent several years at a computer and technology law firm before joining the new media group at Time, Inc., as associate counsel in 1998. Hooked on the entrepreneurial side of the media business, Bondy jumped at a chance to join Time Warner Interactive Video Group in 2002, acting as general counsel for Mystro TV. The main initiative there was to develop and commercialize on-demand cable television service. Her team also developed a service that would sell interactive advertising and collect data (within the boundaries of privacy law) on viewers’ watching habits and then sell it back to programmers. In 2011, HBO selected Bondy to attend the Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) Betsy Magness Leadership Program, a group of 27 women leaders from across all areas of the cable industry. She attended five sessions starting at the Center for Creative Leadership on work-life topics such as how to manage your time, stay energetic, manage a team, deal with crisis at work, and develop a personal brand. “The program changed the way I approached my job,” she said. “It helped me correct my blind spots, things I never saw in myself. In addition, I now have a group of women who I can count on and learn from.” Bondy continues to attend the WICT’s annual Betsy Magness Graduate Institute. “We discuss things like how to inspire others, and that makes work more meaningful,” she said. “It’s not just about writing a contract, it’s being able to negotiate well and involve people so they feel like they’re part of something. You can’t just sit in a room and work. You have to learn to lead.”