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Mr. Gordon joined the Career Development Center in February 2003 following five years with Kelly Services where he recruited and placed permanent and temporary professional and administrative staff in law firms and corporations, and advised candidates on career and professional development issues. Mr. Gordon received his J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 1991, where he served as an Editor of the Legislative Services Journal and spent his summers as an intern for both the Civil and Criminal Divisions of the US Department of Justice in Washington, DC. Upon graduation he served as counsel to the Massachusetts Port Authority and later as Assistant Chief Counsel/Chief Investigator in the Massachusetts Office of Campaign & Political Finance. Prior to law school he served as a Special Agent in the Defense Investigative Service of the U.S. Department of Defense conducting counterintelligence and personnel security investigations.

We are thrilled to invite you to REUNIONS 2024 on Thursday, Oct. 24!  This year, we’re celebrating the Best of Brooklyn with an exciting lineup of vendors representing the diverse flavors and vibrant spirit of our borough. From the Caribbean delights of Crown Heights to the savory Italian cuisine of Cobble Hill and the iconic treats of Coney Island’s boardwalk, this event promises to be a culinary journey you won’t want to miss! This event also features a whiskey tasting from Kings County Distillery. What to Expect Delicious Flavors:Savor an array of delectable dishes from Brooklyn’s finest vendors. Reconnect with Classmates:Catch up with old friends, faculty, and fellow alumni. Toast with Dean David D. Meyer:Join us at 7 p.m. for a special welcome address and toast. All-Class Reception:Celebrate with alumni from all years during our lively reception from 7 to 9 p.m.  Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to celebrate our community, indulge in Brooklyn's culinary delights, and create lasting memories with your fellow alumni!   DATE: Thursday, Oct. 24TIME: 5:30 to 9 p.m.LOCATION: Brooklyn Law School, Feil Hall, Forchelli Conference Center, 205 State St., Brooklyn, NY                       SUGGESTED DONATION: In lieu of a fee to attend REUNIONS 2024, please celebrate with us by making a gift in honor of your attendance. Suggested gift amounts are $50 per attendee, $25 per attendee (class years 2015-2024 + all alumni in public service), or an amount of your choice. RSVP: Please register by Tuesday, Oct. 15

Cecilia Caldeira joined Brooklyn Law School this summer as director of international programs. In this role, she will help recruit, advise, and enroll students who are interested in the Law School’s LL.M. program and foster academic relationships and agreements with international institutions. She also will  serve as an adjunct professor of law, teaching Fundamentals of American Law for LL.M. Foreign-Trained Lawyers. She previously led  the international and graduate programs at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Caldeira’s main priority at the Law School will be reinvigorating the LL.M. program, which saw a reduction in students last year due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. This year’s class includes nine LL.M. candidates, five incoming exchange students, and four returning exchange students from countries including India, Ireland, France, and Turkey. She plans to use the lessons of the pandemic to implement new ideas for international study. “I’m excited to be here with a full class again and to carry forward the great work that has been done at Brooklyn Law School,” said Caldeira. “COVID has shown us how very fragile international travel can be, but has also given us an opportunity to innovate and evolve in the way we work with our international students. I’d love for the Law School to be at the forefront of these innovations.” Caldeira graduated from Saint Louis University School of Law in 2011. She also has a bachelor’s degree in economics and English from Bryn Mawr College. In addition, she is pursuing her MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She is a New York State-certified mediator.

By Teresa Novellino A book talk for Advanced Introduction to US Civil Liberties by Ruth Bader Ginsburg Professor Susan Herman, cosponsored by Brooklyn Law School and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), brought together a panel of eminent civil libertarians to discuss the challenges and sources of hope for those championing the cause of protecting individual freedoms. Herman’s 150-page book, applauded by panelists as a concise and essential read, could not be timelier, said President and Joseph Crea Dean David D. Meyer, who introduced the Oct. 13 event. The civil liberties protected by the U.S. Constitution have expanded and contracted over the years, but external events are now the primary driving force, he said. “We meet at a time of unusual uncertainty about the future of the trajectory of civil rights in this country because of the confluence of seismic external events: increasing polarization in our politics that jeopardizes the foundation of our democratic process; changes to the composition of the Supreme Court that have overturned longstanding precedent and invited reconsideration of longstanding doctrine; and, of course, we meet at the end of a terrible and horrific week of violence that ushers in war in the Middle East and dramatic new anxieties throughout our country and the world about the prospect of terror and the state of human rights,” Meyer said. Still, despite the difficulties of forecasting the future of civil liberties under such intense pressure, Herman and the assembled panelists are uniquely positioned to do so, he said. Herman, who has been on the Law School faculty for 43 years, simultaneously served as ACLU president from 2008 to 2021. She described how she first became interested in civil liberties as a third grader who was told that she could only borrow books from the public-school library’s “girls’ section.” Her mother swiftly called school officials and “gave them a piece of her mind,” and within days the policy changed. Recent events show that book banning battles in public schools are still with us, Herman said. “The opening line in my book is a quote from the ACLU's first executive director, Roger Baldwin, who said the battle for civil liberties never stays won,” Herman said. “Much of what my book is about are these pendulum swings. The book lays out how, starting in 1920, the Supreme Court began to recognize various civil liberties, starting with the First Amendment and expanding to many other different civil liberties that would be protected by the courts. But there's always something new, and there are always recurrences of the same old problems.” Panelist Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley School of Law, listed some of those problems, including state voting rights challenges, racial inequality, eroding LGBTQ rights, and the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action. “If there's anything that should come from this discussion, it's the need for all of us to recommit to fighting for the things that Susan and these panelists have, for years, been fighting for,” Chemerinsky said. “The reality is we're not going to be able to look to this Supreme Court to advance equality and freedom… We must look to other paths,” Chemerinsky said. State courts, constitutions and legislatures, including in states where Republicans dominate, can help protect civil liberties, he said, pointing to courts in some conservative states like North Dakota and South Carolina that are now “providing more reproductive freedom than the United States Constitution does,” given the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. “It's harder because it must be bought state by state. It's not going to be just one decision by the United States Supreme Court. But it is possible, and that's what we need to do,” Chemerinsky said. Ellis Cose, a journalist and author who wrote the history of the ACLU for its centennial in 2020, said he thinks of civil liberties as the “rules that protect us from the government” and of civil rights as the rules “that protect us from each other,” and that both are “rather fragile,” as made clear by the rise of Trumpism and political polarization nationwide. “The tradition of protection for the civil liberties and protection of civil rights is not nearly as long-lasting as deep or as broad as we often like to think,” Cose said. “For that reason, we need to get reminders every now and again of what they mean, why they are important and why they are essential to the society that we have today.” The Bill of Rights, he said, has not been consistently respected since its adoption two and a half years after the constitution, and until 1925 did not even apply to the states. “One of many reasons actually that the ACLU is so important is that it really breathes new life into that document,” Cose said. Anthony D. Romero, executive director, ACLU, said the organization’s largest issue is challenges to U.S. democracy, which fall into two buckets. “One is to our norms, rules and procedures and the functioning of our institutions, and you can think about all the different ways in which democracy is challenged that way,” Romero said, citing as examples the denial of individuals’ right to vote, efforts to circumvent or subvert elections -- as seen in the Trump case in Georgia -- or efforts to impeach officials with whom some disagree -- as seen in Wisconsin, where Republicans were recently threatening to impeach a newly-elected state Supreme Court justice. Such cases occupy much of the ACLU’s time. The second bucket relates to human dignity. “Our concerns here are with the efforts to gut the rights and liberties that define democracy and make life in a democracy worth living,” Romero said, such as the ability to “love who you wish and worship any God or no God at all.” He cited the ACLU’s work in protecting abortion rights in five states via ballot referendums, all of which were won, as an impetus for the ACLU shifting somewhat away from the litigation for which it is best known and toward a more politically active stance. “I think the work we're doing today is bringing us back to our roots. When the courts don't provide us an opportunity to make the advances we want, then we will have to necessarily use the political arena and we should be unapologetic about it and unafraid” he said. “We can criticize Republicans, and we can criticize Democrats. We can work with them both, but I think to not engage in the political realm would be malpractice for social justice practitioners like me.” Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law, Emerita, New York Law School and former president, ACLU, echoed other speakers when she said she sees hope in the activism of today’s students, citing the murder of George Floyd as just one impetus behind an activism among young people not seen since the 1960s and 70s. “We had several decades when public opinion polls showed that students were so indifferent to public issues, they didn't even pay attention to the news, let alone become engaged themselves,” Strossen said. “We have now a generation that is hungry for activism, committed to human rights, committed to dignity and equality, exercising their free speech rights with great vigor. It becomes a virtuous circle, especially when they see the great results that Anthony was able to describe.”

This fall, Brooklyn Law School welcomes three visiting professors who will not only teach a range of classes including Torts, First Amendment Law, Corporate Governance and Technology,  and Federal Courts, but also share their pioneering scholarship in areas such as government transparency, the participation of everyday individuals in corporate decisions and profits, and the institutional relationship between the U.S. Supreme Court and the lower courts.  One of the guest faculty members is Visiting Professor of Law Mark Fenster, who teaches Torts and First Amendment Law, and joins us from the University of Florida Levin College of Law where he is a professor and Marshall M. Criser Eminent Scholar Chair in electronic communications and administrative law. As a legal scholar, his research has focused on nondisclosure agreements, government transparency, legal intellectual history, and constitutional limits on government regulation. Fenster is also the author of two books:  The Transparency Fix: Secrets, Leaks, and Uncontrollable Government Information (Stanford University Press, 2017), and Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture, 2nd ed. (University of Minnesota Press, 2008). His articles and essays have appeared in the California Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Iowa Law Review, Hastings Law Journal, and Administrative Law Review, among others.      Visiting Associate Professor of Law Sergio Alberto Gramitto Ricci, who teaches Corporations and Corporate Governance and Technology, joins us from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law where he is an associate professor. Gramitto Ricci specializes in corporate law, with an emphasis on corporate governance, corporate theory, and legal personhood, and with his main strand of research investigating how models of share ownership and the corporate governance infrastructure determine the ability of average citizens to participate in the corporate sector. hip on retail investors and society-led corporate governance appears or is forthcoming in several law journals such as the Boston University Law Review, the Journal of Corporation Law, and the Washington University Law Review. His article on the use of artificial intelligence in corporate boardrooms is published in the Cornell Law Review.  Visiting Professor of Law Ryan Williams, who teaches Federal Courts, joins us from Boston College Law School where he is an associate professor. He teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, federal courts, civil procedure, and the conflict of laws. His research has explored the background and original public understandings of various constitutional provisions, including the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clauses, the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, the Ninth Amendment, and the Guarantee Clause of Article IV. He has also written articles that address, among other topics, the institutional relationship between the U.S. Supreme Court and the lower courts and the relationship between the Constitution and the civil litigation process.   

The numerous arrests made during the protests and curfews following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis have brought community bail funds to the fore after years of on-the-ground advocacy. In recent weeks, Professor Jocelyn Simonson, a leading scholar on the topic, has been cited, quoted, and published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and numerous other outlets. “When you stop and think about bail—about the fact that how much money you have is the thing that determines whether or not you’re in a cage—it appears intuitively unjust after about a half minute,” said Simonson in a feature-length story in The New Yorker. “Now everyone protesting is asking us to think about it for two minutes, and to consider all the different forms of the violence of the carceral state. Maybe we have these minutes, now that we’re sitting at home.” Simonson’s 2017 paper, Bail Nullification, 115 Michigan Law Review 585 (2017), was also cited in the article, as well as in articles in The Atlantic and The Pavlovic Today. Bail nullification “exposes publicly what many within the system already know to be true” about the arrest process, which produces “guilty pleas and longer sentences when an individual cannot afford to pay their bail,” quoted The Atlantic. An article in The Ringer examined social media’s role in the power of bail funds. “Simonson…said that the origins of the tradition root back to slavery, when black communities would quite literally pool their resources to buy their loved ones’ freedom. ‘To me, that corollary really rings true, especially when you think about contemporary abolitionist movements using that term—abolition—to really make us feel the connections between slavery and the carceral state.’” In a bylined article in n+1, Simonson examines the history of bail funds, their recent emergence, as well as their limitations in effecting long-term change. “That it was protests that brought national attention to bail funds rather than the COVID crisis in jails and prisons tells us less about bail funds and more about our collective denial of the everyday devastation of incarceration and its impact on Black and brown bodies,” wrote Simonson. “It is a denial too many are willing to partake in until video footage and massive protests make it simply unignorable.” At the Law School, Simonson teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence, and social change. She is co-director of the Center for Criminal Justice. Her scholarship explores ways in which the public participates in the criminal process and in the institutions of local governance that control policing and punishment. Her articles have appeared or are forthcoming in top law reviews, including the Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, California Law Review, Columbia Law Review, and Georgetown Law Journal. Her work has been cited in two U.S. Supreme Court decisions. View Simonson’s interview with Dean Michael T. Cahill Read the articles in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Ringer, and n+1.