Fordham Law swept two major art law writing competitions this year—the Phil Cowan–Judith Bresler Memorial Scholarship Writing Competition (sponsored by the New York State Bar Association’s [NYSBA] Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Section, and open to students in New York-area law schools) and the nationwide Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation’s (LCCHP) Law Student Writing Competition. Three Fordham Law students who took Adjunct Professor Leila Amineddoleh‘s art law seminar in 2019 and 2020 won cash prizes for their submissions.

“We’ve had a number of Fordham Law students awarded these prizes in the past, but I was happy that Fordham swept all the awards this year,” said Amineddoleh, who has been teaching the course for the past decade. “It’s truly a pleasure working with the wonderful students at Fordham, and it’s always a joy collaborating with them to produce high-quality work.”

Looting and the Law

Wade Speake ’22 won the LCCHP competition with a paper he wrote for Amineddoleh’s class in 2019. It primarily focused on customary international law and the looting of heirloom swords in Japan during World War II. However, the paper also theoretically explored if such a sword was sold in the United States now, could the original Japanese owners have any legal options to sue to get the sword returned.

“The topic Wade chose was related to material that we discussed in class, but he explored an area that I’ve never seen explored in a paper before,” Amineddoleh noted. “He applied his analysis to Japan, rather than what we often read about with looting by the Nazi Party. It was really interesting to hear a different perspective.”

Speake said his interest in Japanese history was piqued during class discussions about the looting of artifacts during wartime. “I’m really grateful we had this art law class and that Professor Amineddoleh taught it because it was something I really didn’t even think about as a field of law beforehand,” Speake said. “I really love doing this kind of research. The course was interesting and allowed me to dive into topics like this.”

Connoisseurship and Risk

Lawrence Keating ’21, president of the Fordham Art Law Society and a recent summer associate at Amineddoleh’s law firm, Amineddoleh & Associates LLC, was chosen as one of the NYSBA winners. Having previously worked at the auction house Christie’s, he was inspired to write about the issues currently faced by art authenticators and a market atmosphere that he says undermines consumer confidence.

In his paper, Keating argues that, as auction house prices continue to break records, the role of authenticators in the market has never been so critical. However, at the same time, he believes these experts have never faced as much scrutiny through a legal lens.

“Buyers with an art-as-asset-class mentality rely on connoisseurship in the place of due diligence to help understand and mitigate risk; however, connoisseurship’s academic roots and imprecise nature have caused growing pains for art investors,” Keating wrote. “Today, millions of dollars can hang in the balance of an attribution, and the fear of litigation over a negative attribution has caused many authenticators to cease offering their services.”

He suggests changes to the New York Arts and Cultural Affairs Law—with the goal of balancing additional protections for authenticators with incentives to educate consumers about the nature and reliability of art authentications. “The recommended approach seeks to more accurately reflect the imprecise, and occasionally indecent, nature of the art world, and the difficult reality that it is often the market, rather than the courts, that has the final say in artwork attribution,” Keating explained.

Keating also emphasized how Fordham Law students interested in art law have the upperhand, given the school’s location in the center of the art market. “Being able to write this paper and hear the thoughts of someone who is respected in this practice and is at the forefront, is a really rare opportunity. I’m grateful to have had this chance and to Fordham for facilitating that.”

Reclaiming Art Stolen During the Holocaust

The other winner of the Phil Cowan–Judith Bresler Memorial Scholarship Writing Competition was Deanna Schreiber ’22, who took Amineddoleh’s class this past semester. She wrote an insightful paper that focused on the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act in the context of Holocaust-era looted art.

“Individuals try cases about the art they lost during World War II and, under the act, most other countries are exempt from being subject to lawsuits in the United States. But, there are certain exceptions within the act that allow our judicial system to hear those cases,” Schreiber explained. “It was being heard in front of the Supreme Court during this session [on Dec. 7, 2020]and I wrote about the different outcomes that could happen in court and how that would affect remedies for people who are struggling to reclaim their art.”

Schreiber said she naturally gravitated towards this subject after learning about it in class and reading additional materials at her Professor’s suggestion. “I knew about Nazi recovery of art, but I didn’t know about this specific issue that was currently going on within the legal field,” she said. “The number varies by source, but over 100,000 pieces of art are still outstanding and haven’t been located.”

Schreiber added, “To see that other people read and valued what I wrote about and thought it was worthwhile was exciting and flattering.”

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Fordham’s Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) has issued a statement condemning the recent Anti-Asian violence. For the entire statement and for more information on APALSA, please visit APALSA’s Instagram.

This hate has not arisen in a vacuum. At this moment, it is critical to acknowledge that white supremacy is invested in the use of Asian Pacific Americans as a “wedge minority” in the perpetuation of anti-Blackness. Asian Pacific Americans have been called the “model minority” in an attempt to criticize other BIPOC communities. This has come at the expense of the erasure of the vast diversity in our community (racially, ethnically, and economically) and sadly, has been weaponized to perpetuate anti-Blackness. In the words of the revered legal scholar, Mari Matsuda, Fordham APALSA refuses to be used in service of white supremacy. These violent episodes are not an excuse to perpetuate harmful stereotypes, nor should they be used for simplistic and reductionist calls for more policing.

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As Fordham Law School celebrates Women’s History Month, we spoke with Zoe Buzinkai ’22 and Krista Gresia ’21—2L president and 3L president, respectively, of Fordham Law Women—about the affinity group’s networking initiatives, the challenges faced by women in law school and the legal profession, advocacy goals, and how they are planning to honor Fordham alumnae.

What have been Fordham Law Women’s goals for the 2020-21 academic year?

KG: We try to hold events related to networking, which include having alumni come and talk to students about their firms, the interview process, and other key networking skills. Then, on the student side, we present panels related to student issues, such as class selection, how to prepare for interviews, and how to properly prepare for your upcoming exams. We also hold some fun events. Last December, for example, we had a virtual workout class that served as our ‘stress reliever’ event. This semester, our main focus is on our symposium and Women’s History Month.

ZB: This year, especially, we wanted to make sure the 1Ls feel involved, just because it is such a strange year to be starting law school. As Krista mentioned, we’ve continued to maintain our mentorship program and have made sure that anybody who has signed up to be a mentor is regularly meeting with their 1L mentee. We’ve also held issue-oriented events this year, like a guest speaker coming in the fall semester to talk about the Equal Rights Amendment and the likelihood it would ever be enacted as an actual amendment. At the end of the day, Fordham Law Women aims to be a holistic organization that not only highlights issues, but is a place and support system for students to feel comfortable and connect with one another.

The year is more than halfway over. Has Fordham Law Women had any major accomplishments so far?

KG: The Trigger Warnings event we held during the first week of February was a major milestone and huge success because it gave light to an issue that a lot of students face in classes. By trigger warnings, we mean verbal or written warnings from professors about sensitive topics that are coming up in the next class, just as a way to forewarn students that have either personally experienced certain trauma and experiences or students that have been historically discriminated against. There was so much bravery from the students who discussed their experiences and provided a lot of good feedback for ways Fordham Law can improve and be an even better place than it already is.

What’s in store for the group this Women’s History Month and how do you plan to celebrate it?

ZB: For Women’s History Month, we’re trying to highlight a variety of alumnae from the Law School and hope to organize more intimate conversations between those alumnae and small groups of students. Each week, we plan to bring in somebody from a different area of the law, so that they can have an open conversation about what it’s like to be a successful woman, what their academic and professional paths were like, and answer any questions students may have. Our third annual symposium—which will be held on Friday, March 5, from 11 am to 2 pm—really focuses on issues that are important to women in general and to women in the law in respect to COVID-19. The experts we’ve invited to talk will not only address these issues, but will also present ways as to how we can move forward.

KG: In the past, our symposiums have always highlighted some type of policy issue related to gender. This year’s symposium, which has been organized into three panels, is about the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on gender. The first panel focuses on COVID’s impact on women in the workforce—for example, examining whether women have had to take a leave of absence or take steps back in their jobs. The second panel looks at COVID’s impact on marginalized women, including how it’s affected people of color, people with disabilities, and those in the LGBTQ community. The final panel is about the response to domestic violence and how COVID-19 has impacted the access to justice and has affected the court system, in light of the pandemic.

If students are interested in learning more about the Fordham Law Women, how can they connect with you?

ZB: Anybody who’s interested in the topics is more than welcomed to come—you don’t have to be a woman to attend our events. The subjects we talk about go beyond certain demographics and we’ve been able to partner up with other student groups for various events, which highlights how many angles there are to every issue. Our Instagram is @Fordhamlawwomen and we also send out weekly newsletters. They can email us at Fordhamlawwomen@gmail.com and we’ll add them to our LISTSERV, which will keep them up to date on all the events we have planned.

KG: As Zoe was saying, we’ve partnered with other student groups in executing events. We held a sports law panel with the Sports Law Society on Feb. 23, and we’ll be co-sponsoring an upcoming workout class with LALSA for a wellness program that focuses on imposter syndrome. It’s really nice to do these get-togethers with other student groups and leaders because it does broaden the number of students who attend. Because, like Zoe said, a lot of times people do think our events are only for women and that’s not the case. We want as many people to come to them as possible because we want to help as many students as possible, no matter the event topic.

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Fordham Law students were recognized by four state senators for their work assisting applicants for New York State’s COVID Rent Relief Program during a Lunar New Year celebration hosted by the senators on February 16, 2021.

Olympia Moy ’21, representing law student and attorney volunteers working with the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY), joined the virtual event hosted by New York Senators Andrew Gounardes, Brian Kavanagh, Toby Ann Stavisky, and John Liu. Sen. Kavanagh presented the group of volunteers with a certificate of recognition.

Assisting Chinatown Residents Impacted by COVID-19

In the summer of 2020, New York State launched the rent relief program to provide benefits to residents who lost income due to the pandemic. Moy wanted to help low-income Chinatown-area residents, many of whom do not speak English as their first language, apply for the program. 

Moy, who grew up in Chinatown and worked there for nearly a decade before law school, says she grew concerned when she met community members who had heard that rent relief was available, but did not know how to apply. Public libraries and assistance offices that would normally provide information and services to the community were closed due to the pandemic. 

Moy reached out to Meng Zhang ‘20, whom she had met through Fordham’s “Language for Lawyers” legal Mandarin class. Zhang was involved with AABANY and also had a connection with local radio station AM 1480. Soon, AABANY and a community partner, the Chinatown Community Land Trust, issued a press release promoting a one-day event to help residents fill out their rent assistance forms, and the radio station ran advertising to promote the initiative.

Within days, the event, held on July 26, drew a strong volunteer response from lawyers and law students, including four students from Fordham Law School. Dianna Lam ’22 coordinated a Zoom training for volunteers the day before the event, led by an AABANY attorney. “I think everyone was really surprised by how fast we put it together,” Moy said. Rent assistance applicants—including 125 who pre-registered and many other walk-ins from throughout New York City—lined up on the sidewalk outside the Florentine School, a Chinatown music school Moy’s family operates. 

In the winter, when the COVID Rent Relief Program was extended for a second round of applications, in-person assistance events were out of the question due to the second wave of infections in New York. But Fordham students, with their colleague Xinyi Shen, a student at Cardozo School of Law, organized again to get information out to the immigrant community. They translated and published the program information and eligibility requirements in local press and invited applicants to contact AABANY’s remote-access hotline for assistance. Nicholas Loh ‘22 helped lead this two-week hotline effort, connecting over 85 callers with volunteers who spoke Chinese dialects of Mandarin, Cantonese, and Fujianese. The group also teamed up with the organization Good Old Lower East Side to provide assistance in Spanish. 

Navigating a Challenging Application Process

Both Moy and Loh said there were significant challenges in helping residents with their application forms. Moy, for example, noted that the assistance provided is only a portion of a recipient’s rent and requires proof of income reduction due to COVID-19. 

In addition, many individuals were living in multi-family arrangements, which created a problem for applicants, who were required to document the entire household’s income. For example, when one applicant was told he would need to provide proof of income for his entire household, he left the clinic to go collect his roommates’ pay stubs, including for a coin laundry in the Bronx and a buffet restaurant out of state. “Being able to see everyone’s income in this three-bedroom was sobering,” Moy said.

Another potential applicant was living with an undocumented family member and decided the amount of rent assistance available was not worth the risk of disclosing the family member’s status in light of the Trump administration’s public charge rule.

Loh and Moy had been classmates in an Administrative Law course and noted the differences between their academic study of the subject and seeing the issues in real time. Moy said, “In law school, we talk about ‘line-drawing’ exercises all the time—determining what’s allowed, what’s not, who’s included, and who’s not. Now we were watching the COVID Rent Relief Program and its criteria implemented from scratch. It was a high-speed, fast-forward rollout. It was all playing out before our eyes.”

New York Senate Recognition

The AABANY program came to Sen. Kavanagh’s attention after Moy had initially contacted his office and other elected officials during the summer. “You played a really pivotal role to make sure folks in the Asian-American community have access to these services and these funds,” Sen. Kavanagh noted during the Lunar New Year program.

The Lunar New Year event featured a number of community groups and frontline workers. “It was really gratifying and an honor to be recognized alongside healthcare workers,” Moy said.

“Law students can be passionate about contributing and giving back to their community so I was grateful for the chance to help facilitate this project,” said Loh.

According to Moy, “We students are going to continue to try to respond as long as there are further rollouts and extensions.”

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Fordham Law’s Dispute Resolution Society (DRS) took first place at the 2021 American Bar Association (ABA) Representation in Mediation Regional Competition, hosted by Cardozo School of Law over Zoom. The two-day competition, held on Feb. 28 and March 1, included 10 teams from law schools across the country. After the first day, both of Fordham’s teams advanced, after completing two ninety-minute mediation sessions, to compete in the final round as the number one and number two seeds. The team of Laura Rann ’22 & Stephen Self ’22 won the event in a “Fordham vs. Fordham” face-off against their fellow classmates Ziva Rubinstein ’22 & Mirelis Gonzalez ’22. As a result of their win, Rann and Self secured an opportunity to compete at the National Finals in April 2021

The competition judges were highly impressed with both teams’ expertise and professionalism when handling the two mediation scenarios. The first dispute involved an age discrimination complaint against a Fortune 500 company, which required the competitors to develop the communication skills required in order to properly discuss these sensitive personal and legal issues. The second problem involved a defective clothing shipment mailed from a popular social media influencer to a small business owner, which called for a different type of advocacy as they needed to develop collaborative, long-term solutions with adversaries.

The competitors, with the help of the entire ABA Mediation team, including Nicholas Gonzalez ’22, Brian Sarfo ’22, Jack Klein ’22, and Brandon Odze ’22, and their student coach, Samuel Black ’21, prepared throughout the semester to improve their mediation skills, draft written representation plans, and develop strategies for possible mediation outcomes. Black’s energy and dedication to the team as he trained them in critical dispute resolution tools throughout the academic year, proved instrumental to the teams’ preparation. 

Congratulating the teams on their success, Black said: “I am incredibly proud of the competitors for so positively representing Fordham in this competition. Throughout the entire process, they exhibited high levels of professionalism, skill, and hard work. I feel very fortunate to have worked with such a strong group of individuals who, despite the challenges of a virtual environment, were able to give the competition their all and master the mediation techniques we aim to teach.”

He added: ”This victory was a joint effort, both with the teams who competed, the entire ABA Mediation Team, and everyone within DRS who helped the teams moot throughout the semester!”

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Fordham Law Review and newly appointed Editor-in-Chief Tatiana Hyman were included in a Law.com article highlighting the record number of Black students in leadership roles at law reviews.

Read the full article.

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Hema Lochan ’21 was recently awarded third place in the inaugural Legal Tech Fictional Writing Competition sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division, for her short story about the inherent biases of an artificial intelligence court security system.

Lochan’s story, “F(A.I.)LIED US,” followed Melanie, an attorney of color, as the court’s facial analysis technology for security screening failed to recognize her while a white male colleague passed through without incident. At the end of the story, Melanie’s client received an unfair sentence from the A.I. sentencing software, despite mitigating circumstances.

Art Imitates Life

Hema Lochan ’21

Lochan drew from her own experience during the summer after her 1L year when she interned for a family defense legal services organization. As a woman of color, she noticed that she often received additional screening at the court entrance while interns who were white did not appear to be singled out in the same way.

“Court officers would mistake me as a client rather than an attorney,” Lochan says.

“It reminded me of in my professional responsibility class my 2L year we had this conversation about biases in law,” she said. “This was a creative opportunity to talk about it.”

Lochan says that her experience in using fiction to make observations about human behaviors is rooted in her undergraduate work in anthropology, where she often took a creative approach to writing not often available in legal writing. “I wrote the story in about two hours,” she said. “It just flowed so quickly. It made me think about the law in a way I hadn’t thought of in a while.”

The themes of human interactions with technology were also inspired by her experience with remote learning during the pandemic. “Something this semester has lacked in human connections,” she said. “All of this feels surreal.”

Currently, Lochan is a semi-finalist for a Fulbright Scholarship. If she receives the scholarship, she hopes to earn a master’s degree in indigenous studies in New Zealand. Looking ahead, she eventually pictures herself in a “JD advantage” position where her law degree would be a benefit, though not required, allowing her to combine her background and creativity with her interest in law.

“This made me feel as though law and creativity could live hand-in-hand,” she said.

The competition was co-sponsored by the Access to Justice Tech Fellows and LexBlog. All of the entries are available to read on the ABA for Law Students website.

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Abdulai Turay ’22 was named the 2021 Law Student of the Year by The National Jurist. Read more.

Abdulai Turay learned about America from afar, by watching TV. To the young Turay, who was born in the war-torn West African nation of Sierra Leone, America seemed amazing. There were things he had never seen before, such as skyscrapers and freeways.

…

He was particularly fueled by the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. He was in high school when Trayvon Martin got gunned down. He’s well aware of the pattern.

“It’s the same story every single time,” Turay said.

Floyd’s death seemed a tipping point, though. Protests over police brutality erupted throughout the nation, and many people of all races ached for change.

And here was Turay, now in a position to make a difference. Like many other Black law school students, he was not about to stay silent.

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Fordham Law School welcomed 57 law student oral advocates to compete in the annual Irving R. Kaufman Memorial Securities Law Moot Court Competition, held from March 12 through March 14 

The competition is named after Judge Kaufman, who graduated from the Fordham Law School in 1931. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy nominated Kaufman to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where he served from 1961 to 1992. Seven of Judge Kaufman’s years on the bench were spent as Chief Judge. Over the past 46 years, the Kaufman Competition’s final round has been presided over by a distinguished panel of judges, including Supreme Court justices and commissioners of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Students from 21 Law Schools Face-Off Over Zoom 

This year’s competition looked a bit different than in years past. Twenty-one law schools and twenty-four teams competed entirely over Zoom over the course of three days.  

“The Fordham Moot Court Board worked tirelessly to ensure that the competition ran smoothly over Zoom,” described Erin Guiltinan ’21, this year’s Kaufman Competition Editor. “We wanted the competitors to have a great experience despite the fact that they were not able to travel to New York City to compete in-person.”

Last year’s competition was unfortunately canceled due to the coronavirus lockdown, but the slated final round panel of distinguished jurists pledged to return in 2021. New York University School of Law and William & Mary Law School faced off in the final round before a panel composed of Judges Paul Kelly, Bernice Donald, Richard Sullivan, and Pamela Chen. 

Ultimately, New York University’s team, made up of Julia Bruce and Graham Ellis, took home the top prize, but William & Mary did not leave empty-handed. William & Mary’s Megan McCarthy and Alec Young won Best and Second-Best Oralist, respectively, and the team, which also included William Spotswood, took home the Best Brief award. NYU walked away with the Second-Best Brief award, and Jake Young of University of Virginia Law School tied Alec Young for Second Best Oralist. 

“We were incredibly lucky to have this distinguished panel of judges agree to preside over the Kaufman final round not one, but two years in a row,” said Jack Sullivan ’21, managing editor of the Fordham Law Moot Court Board. “Executing a competition of this scale takes a village, but seeing competitors argue the problem you’ve edited and a panel of judges vigorously interrogate the issues is worth every drop of blood, sweat, and tears.”

Fraud, Standing, and Liability

This year’s problem covered a securities fraud private action involving a medical device company’s public offering of securities through a novel direct listing transaction. The problem featured two issues: 1) whether purchasers of shares of a class of stock issued in a direct listing have standing to bring a claim under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933, even though they cannot trace their purchased shares to a registration statement; and 2) whether investment bankers acting as financial advisors in a direct listing are statutory underwriters for purposes of Section 11 liability.

“At the end of the day, we are enormously proud of the competition the board administered,” noted Ashley Slater ’21, editor-in-chief of the Moot Court Board, “but we’re hopeful that Erin does not have to pass down her blueprint on how to run a virtual Kaufman Competition. With any luck, this year’s board can look forward to attending the 2022 Kaufman Competition in person as alumni judges.” 

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On March 5, Fordham Law Women held its third annual symposium, focusing this year’s event on issues important to women in general and to women in the law, through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic. A panel of scholars and practitioners explored a range of topics related to COVID’s impact on women in the workforce, on marginalized women, and on access to justice, in light of the ongoing pandemic.

Pressures Build on Women in the Legal Profession

Adjunct Professor Lisa Teich moderated the first discussion, exploring ways in which the pandemic has deepened pre-existing inequalities for women and exposed vulnerabilities in social, political, and economic systems. Panelists included Naomi Cahn, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy Distinguished Professor of Law, Nancy L. Buc ’69 Research Professor in Democracy and Equity, and Family Law Center director at the University of Virginia School of Law; Poonam Kumar, partner at DLA Piper LLP; Dr. Nicole Mason from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research; Linda McClain, Robert Kent Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law; and Stephanie Scharf, partner at Scharf Banks Marmor LLC.

The panelists discussed how female attorneys—particularly those working in large law firms—have seen their home and work lives blend together while taking care of young and elderly family members. They also added that the feelings of being overwhelmed and pressure to keep up with responsibilities has exponentially increased, leading to burnout and disengagement at work.

“I also think this pandemic kind of showed us that even with flexible hours, even with … good salary jobs, and supportive partners, women will end up taking a big brunt of this type of work,” Kumar said. “Something bigger needs to change.”

Dr. Mason pointed out that some women, however, are experiencing inflexibility at the workplace. “We’re getting to a place where we realize it’s not an individual problem or a family problem,” she said. “It’s a systemic and structural problem that has gone unaddressed for many, many, many years—decades even.”

One solution, Scharf argued, is that organizations, including law firms, could reframe who they are and how they want to move forward. “How are we going to keep our people trained?” she rhetorically posed. “How are we going to allow the flexibility in work time that many people want? How are we going to keep people engaged in this enterprise that we call a law firm and keep the culture that we want to have?”

Examining Disparities Among Marginalized Women

To discuss disparities among marginalized communities, Fordham Law Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Director Kamille Dean spoke with Amanda McRae, director of UN Advocacy at Women Enabled International, COVID + Disabilities; Sahar Moazami ’17, United Nations program officer at OutRight Action International; and Seema Mohapatra, associate professor and dean’s fellow at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

Mohapatra said that while the infectious nature of COVID-19 emphasized how we are all interconnected—regardless of race, class and immigration status—structural discrimination has impacted some people’s abilities to shelter at home and seek medical care (including COVID-19 testing, treatment, and vaccinations).

McRae explained how her group received reports from people with disabilities around the world who have not been able to access clean water and food due to lack of income, accommodatable transportation, and accessible information. Government social assistance programs—which may not even exist in some locations—as well as disability barriers (like inaccessible applications or possessing identification cards that say you’re a person with a disability) have been critical hurdles.

The pandemic also exacerbated disparities within the LGBTIQ community. Challenges faced by LGBTIQ people, as OutRight Action International reported in May 2020, include devastation of livelihoods, elevated risk of domestic and family violence, societal discriminations, and abuse of state power. Moazami said that, while there can be a change of law, implementation may take longer to occur.

“What allies can do is really take the conversation beyond legal and policy change and have more discussions around where do these experiences of violence and discrimination come from?” Moazami said. “How can we actually have a robust conversation—not only about changing anti-discrimination or implementing anti-discrimination laws in statute, but also going into homes of having these conversations; having them in workplace?”

However, the disability community has found silver linings in the pandemic, like developing new peer-to-peer support systems across borders and across languages. “[It’s] bringing people together in these Zoom rooms to see each other and to speak to each other from their homes where they’re otherwise really socially isolated … sharing some of the experiences that they have,” McRae said.

Finding New Ways to Help

The final panel focused on the pandemic’s impact on the response to intimate partner violence, domestic violence, and access to the justice system. The conversation was moderated by Amy Barasch, executive director at Her Justice, and featured Hamra Ahmad, director of law & policy at Her Justice; Cindy Kanusher, executive director of Women’s Justice Center; Kavita Mehra, executive director of Sakhi for South Asian Women; Darlene Reda, program administrator at the Westchester County Office for Women; and Honorable Joy Watson, Nassau County District Court.

Mehra explained her team quickly called survivors of domestic violence, implementing immediate safety plans and reviewing what it means to shelter in place (especially for those living with a person who inflicts harm). “Early on in those conversations, what was coming up were orders of protection being violated,” she said. “We saw a greater number of those who are inflicting harm, forcing their way back into the house. We saw COVID being used as a mechanism for power and control.”

Judge Watson, who was one of the first judges to conduct arraignments remotely, explained she had an inventory of 475 cases before the pandemic. By the beginning of March 2021, that number nearly doubled to 930 cases. “Managing that is extremely difficult, but the good news is that from the very beginning the courts were not completely closed,” Judge Watson said. “We were outfitted with laptops within a matter of days after the pandemic hit, which gave us the opportunity to do conferencing [and]gave us the opportunity to have a link to the jails.”

Kanusher noted the digital divide later kept people from accessing the courts when they began operating again. So, the Women’s Justice Center worked with five Westchester churches, providing free technology for people to use in those spaces to privately meet with legal service providers. “It was a whole other level of work we weren’t necessarily always involved with,” Kanusher said. “It was really important for us to be able to work with our partners in the community to help us help our clients with those needs.”

Similar to Kanusher’s situation, Reda said her center extended their hours to be more available for clients, contractors, and victims.

“[Law enforcement] also wanted advice while they were at the scene, so we couldn’t just stick with our 9-5 hours. We really had to be more available,” she explained, saying her team shared their personal phone numbers with police chiefs.

“All the agencies that we work with stepped up [and]everyone really went above and beyond to really serve the victims. I’m just really proud to be a part of that.”

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This semester, Fordham Law launched the new Rule of Law Clinic, overseen by Dean Emeritus and Norris Professor of Law John D. Feerick ’61 and Visiting Clinical Professor John Rogan’ 14. The clinic’s 10 students conduct research and participate in a weekly seminar class. They are focused on the legal and political issues related to Northern Ireland’s future, post Brexit.

This clinic will further Fordham’s long-standing relationship with Ireland, which includes the law school’s Belfast/Dublin Summer Program.

“Partly influenced by my Irish immigrant parents who hailed from County Mayo, I had taken Fordham Law to Ireland in the 1990s and launched the Fordham-Ulster Conflict Resolution Program with Professor Jacqueline Nolan-Haley,” Dean Feerick explained. “Collective efforts between our alumni and faculty, as well as with Queen’s University Belfast and University College Dublin, resulted in an enormous commitment to peace in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.”

“We have made many friends in both countries throughout the last 25 years and counting,” he continued. “The Rule of Law Clinic is designed to make a neutral and objective study of issues surrounding the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement that was reached on April 10, 1998.”

Issues the clinic is analyzing include fostering reconciliation, protecting human rights, potential future constitutional arrangements for the island of Ireland, and how voters might express their views about the island’s political future. “We’re not advocating for any particular outcome,” Rogan said. “This work is about the importance of increasing understanding of issues that might arise in the future.” 

The students are working collaboratively in teams and conducting interviews with experts in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, England, and the United States. At the end of the semester, the student teams hope to prepare and present papers to interested U.S. parties about their research on these issues.

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On Sunday, March 21, Fordham Law’s Dispute Resolution Society (DRS) team won the Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot—placing first out of more than 140 teams from around the world. This marks the first time that Fordham Law has won the Vis East Moot.

“I am so proud of our VIS team, their coaches, professors and DRS members.  This great victory resulted from the hard work and dedication of the whole DRS family,” said Professor Jacqueline Nolan-Haley, director of Fordham’s ADR & Conflict Resolution Program.

The Problem: A COVID-19 Patent Dispute

The Vis problem was released in October 2020, and the team spent the past six months mastering the nearly 60-page record, conducting research on scholars and case law, and preparing arguments. This year’s timely problem centered around patent licenses for a COVID-19 vaccine. The competition, typically held in Hong Kong, was conducted remotely this year.

Competitors Ian Bollag-Miller ’22, Fallon Sheridan ’22, and Nikol Oydanich ’22 competed virtually in the general rounds from Sunday, March 14, to Wednesday, March 17. As a result of their impressive performances in the general rounds, the team advanced to the elimination round of 32 teams. Bollag-Miller and Sheridan prevailed over Bucerius Law School in the round of 32, and, competing at 3:00 a.m. EST, they triumphed over NALSAR University in the round of 16. Due to a scoring error from the general rounds, the Fordham competitors faced two rounds of eight, against both Universitas Katolik Parahyangan and Unipê-University Center of João Pessoa. After securing a victory in each of these rounds, the competitors advanced to the semi-final round on Sunday, March 21, at 12:30 a.m. EST. Despite minimal sleep while competing on Hong Kong time, the team prevailed against Albert Ludwigs Universität Freiburg and advanced to the final round.

For the final round, Bollag-Miller Sheridan faced Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster at 7:00 a.m. EST. The teams had the honor of pleading before Xavier Favre-Bulle, president of the Arbitration Court of the Swiss Chambers’ Arbitration Institution (SCAI), Hon. Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma, second Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, and Janet Walker, Chartered Arbitrator and scholar.  The moot was broadcast to the public over Facebook Live. After an excellent round against Team Münster, Fordham Law was announced the winner of the Vis East Moot.

Fordham Garners Additional Recognition

During the awards ceremony, the Fordham Team garnered additional honors. The Fordham Team was awarded Honorable Mention for the David Hunter Award for Best Claimant Memorandum. The memoranda for this year’s Fordham Team were written by the incredible Vis Bench Team (Peter Morrison ’22, Natilie Thomas ’22, Madison Pesce ’22, and Melissa Benerofe ’22). Moreover, all three of Fordham Law’s Vis East competitors (Bollag Miller, Sheridan, and Oydanich ) were awarded with Honorable Mention for the Neil Kaplan Award for Best Oralist.

The Fordham Vis East Team also owes its success to its other four Vis West competitors (Ryan Hor ’22, Becca Spendley ’22, Heather Cameron ’22, and Chris Haughey ’22), who all competed at the Vis West Moot beginning Saturday, March 27. The Vis West Moot, typically held in Vienna, is the sister competition of the Vis East Moot and was also held virtually this year. 

The Vis West team finished in the top 64 teams out of 380 teams from across the globe. After a week of incredible oral arguments, the Vis West team made it into the playoffs for the first time in over seven years. Competitors Rebecca Spendley ‘22 and Chris Haughey ‘22 received Honorable Mention for Best Oralist. Together they brought Fordham’s total awards to 7 this year, further making Fordham history.

The Fordham team could not have succeeded at the Vis Moot without the invaluable guidance of their coaches—Adjunct Professors David Gallo and Ellen-Louise Moens and students Tatum Sornborger ’21 and Brennan Power ’21. The coaches spent countless hours reviewing the problem and working with the Vis Bench Team and competitors.

“The Fordham team is incredibly thankful to its fellow DRS members, the DRS Executive Board, and all of the Vis alumni that attended the many virtual rounds and offered their words of encouragement,” said Sornborger. “We couldn’t have done it without them!”

The post Fordham Law Wins Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot appeared first on Fordham Law.

This spring semester, the Center for Judicial Events & Clerkships (CJEC) hosted four distinguished members of the state and federal judiciary through its View from Chambers series.

Last year, the CJEC piloted the View from Chambers initiative as part of its judicial engagement through education initiative. Given the positive response by the Fordham community, the CJEC expanded the initiative to spotlight a diverse slate of judges and range of courts on the federal and state levels.

This year’s visiting jurists included: Judge Gary Katzmann of the U.S. Court of International Trade; Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis ’00 of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida; Judge Jack Sabatino, deputy presiding judge of the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division; and Justice Maria Araujo Kahn ’89 of the Connecticut Supreme Court.

The student audience ranged from 1L to 3Ls. Some students attended to explore clerkships as a career path while others attended simply to learn about the work of specific courts and types of judges. The audience also included students who had already accepted a clerkship and attended to gain insights in advance of their clerkship commencing.

The visiting judges provided unique insights into the work of their particular court including duties and powers as well as their role as judges on that court. Moreover, the judges shared with the students their personal path to the bench, including the role their clerkships played in their career.

This year, each of the judges were joined by their clerks allowing the attendees to hear about how the work of the court is furthered by judicial clerks directly from the clerks. Moreover, students were able to witness the unique relationships forged between a judge and his/her clerk.

To best mimic an in-person event, each View from Chambers was set up as a Zoom meeting allowing for an extended Q&A period and informal dialogue between the judges and students.

Views from Chambers: Insights

On Feb. 23, Judge Katzmann—who was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as a judge on the United States Court of International Trade in 2016—discussed the work of his court and how it regularly sits by designation on three-judge panels of the United States Courts of Appeals. Judge Katzmann also shared insights about his career trajectory, professional development, building professional relationships, and pursuing one’s interests and passions in the law.

“The Court hears cases that have wide-ranging implications for the environment, domestic industries, labor, the economy, and more,” said Corey Matthews ’21 who attended the event. “I think Judge Katzmann’s visit helped to underscore the unique opportunities Fordham students have to learn from the work the Court is doing.”

Magistrate Judge Louis spoke about her work as a magistrate and the specific role of magistrates on the Southern District of Florida as opposed to other districts on March 9. Emilia Brunnello ’18, current clerk for Judge Louis, provided insight into the role of the law clerk to a magistrate judge. Eric Lim ’21, incoming clerk to Judge Louis also joined the event.

“I am happy students were able to hear from Judge Louis and learn more about her exciting career and the fast-paced work of the Southern District of Florida,” Lim said. “The event was also a great way for students to learn more about the integral role of the U.S. Magistrate Judges within the federal court system.”

Lim added that he’s excited to serve as one of Judge Louis’s law clerks.

On March 11, Judge Sabatino discussed his work as the deputy presiding judge on the New Jersey Appellate Division, the work of the appellate division, and how it engages with the trial level and Supreme Court.

Judge Sabatino was joined by current Fordham law clerk Hanna Feldman ’20, former Fordham clerk Eliel Talo ’19, and incoming Fordham clerk Elena Cicognani ’21.

“I hope hearing from Judge Sabatino, Eliel, and myself provided current students with a greater perspective on how the clerks and the judge interact in chambers, as well as the applicability of skills learned during the clerkship to post-clerkship employment,” Feldman said.

“Some valuable things I’ve learned from my clerkship are the importance of a first draft in all manner of writing (especially when you are expected to produce a high volume of documents); the attributes of an effective advocate during oral arguments (including preparedness, elocution, and forthrightness in responses); and the pricelessness of receiving active feedback and daily correspondence with Judge Sabatino for continually making me a better lawyer.”

On March 18, Justice Kahn talked about her work on the Connecticut Supreme Court, how it engages with the lower courts in the state, and generally about the role of state courts of last resort. She was joined by her current Fordham Law clerk, Reece Pelley ’19.

“We are so pleased by how the Fordham community and student body have embraced our initiatives,” said Suzanne M. Endrizzi ’96, CJEC Assistant Dean. “We also recognize how incredibly lucky we are to have such a wonderful cohort of judges who are alumni and friends of Fordham willing to volunteer their time to invest in the education of our students.”

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The Fordham Law Moore Advocates have achieved huge milestones in the spring semester thus far. For the first time in Fordham Law School history, the Moores advanced teams to both the Texas Young Lawyers Association (TYLA) Nationals and American Association for Justice (AAJ) Nationals in the same year.

“It’s always very exciting when the students bring home trophies rewarding them for their hard work and extraordinary accomplishments. But it’s even more gratifying to see how, year after year, so many students find themselves as lawyers by doing simulated trials,” said James L. Kainen, professor of law and Brendan Moore Chair in Advocacy.

He continued, “Even those who do not become litigators report that the analytic and advocacy skills they learned in the Brendan Moore Center are central to their success in whatever career they pursue.”

2Ls Dominate at AAJ Competition

Second-year Moore Advocates Chehak Gogia, Alex Cosio-Marron, Kacie Candela, and Dominic Conoshenti won the Region 3 Championship of the AAJ Student Trial Advocacy Competition, held from March 4 to 7. They triumphed over a team from Yale in the finals and will compete next in the Nationals, which took place April 15 to 18.

“I could not be more proud of these students and how they handled themselves in competition,” said Moore Advocacy Center Director Adam Shlahet ’02, who also gave a shout-out to their coaches, Michael Hardin ’15 and Brittany Russell ’13. “We’re excited to see them return next year.”

“It felt really good to win after we put so much time and effort into it,” said Gogia, noting she and her teammates practiced at least 12 hours a week leading up to the competition weekend. “[The last day] was a marathon, but it was totally worth it. I’m so happy I got to work alongside such amazing people because it really was a team effort.”

Russell—who has coached for four AAJ competitions so far since graduating in 2013—noted the team’s comradery did not go unnoticed throughout the seven weeks of practice and during the competition.

“All four of the students were paying attention to every word that was said during that competition and were helping one another—taking notes for each other, getting ready to help out with the closing,” Russell said. “It was really satisfying as a coach to see them learn so much, get so much better, and see them helping each other. They tried a great case.”

She added, “And what I’m the most proud of them for are their ethics and professionalism, which are really what carried the day for them.”

Top (L-R): Brittany Russell ’13, Chehak Gogia ’22, and Alex Cosio-Marron ’22 / Bottom (L-R): Michael Hardin ’15, Kacie Candela ’22, and Dominic Conoshenti ’22

A Double Championship Weekend

Third-year students Ahmed Halim, Sophia Porotsky, Nina Riegelsberger, and Gabriella Weick beat out 15 teams—including Harvard University—to win the Southern Classic Trial Advocacy Competition, hosted by the University of Mississippi School of Law from Feb. 12 to 14. The team was coached by Adjunct Professor Karen Alunkal and Joseph Rivera ’12.

“One thing we emphasized to the team the entire time was not sticking to a specific script,” Rivera said, also highlighting the team’s willingness to work hard and be flexible. “There was a lot of reactive thinking and acting in the moment as opposed to going along with whatever you had written down.”

Weick—who tied for the Best Overall Advocate Award with Riegelsberger—said their team practiced tirelessly in the four weeks leading up to the competition as they developed evidentiary arguments and perfected their case theory.

“I’m so grateful for the practical trial skills I learned from my coaches and my teammates over the past four semesters,” Weick said. “Being named one of the best advocates in the competition was an amazing way to close out my time in Fordham’s trial advocacy program.”

Rivera said, “I couldn’t be happier or any prouder of the students’ performances. It was one of those times where I wished we were here in person because I don’t think my smile over the Zoom screen did it justice.”

3Ls Finish Final Year With a Prestigious Win

While the Southern Classic competition was taking place virtually in Mississippi that weekend, the TYLA teams were also virtually competing in Florida. TYLA, as Shlahet noted, is one of the oldest and most prestigious trial competitions in the country.

Third-year students Carolyn McGuigan and Katelyn “KJ” Colman won the TYLA National Trial Competition Region 6 Championship. Jeff Briem ’05, Mike Higgins ’08 and Shlahet coached the duo.

Colman noted that while the preparation was rigorous, she said it was a privilege to represent the Brendan Moore Trial Advocacy Center at the competition.

“I am so grateful for the countless hours our fellow students and alumni coaches donated to helping us become the best advocates we could be. Our win in the competition is a testament to their dedication,” Colman said.

“More than anything, I am just happy to have had an opportunity to bring home a championship to a program that has been the most rewarding and important aspect of my law school career.”

McGuigan said the alumni who volunteered their time to moot their team were instrumental to their success. Those alumni included: Patrick Beath ’11, Aishling Fitzpatrick ’20, Zach Green ’14, Michael Hardin ’14, Robert Iodice ’16, Yash Manjunath ’16, Gabriel Mendoza ’11, Lauren Riddell ’19, Cassandra Rohme ’14, Brittany Russell ’13, Mary Cate Simeone ’19, Bethany Smith ’17, and Sarah Stein ’20.

“One of the things that is so exceptional about the Moore group is the active involvement of our alumni,” McGuigan said. “A lot of them are trial attorneys and litigators and have insane workloads. Yet, they still committed themselves to coaching us and spending hours and hours every week with us—discussing and thinking about what, at the end of the day, was a fake trial.”

“The willingness and number of people who are willing to help every team—no matter the competition—really sets Fordham Law apart,” she continued. “I think we have all benefited from that so hugely.”

3L students John Hobbs and Michelle Orchard also competed as another team, representing Fordham Law at the TYLA Competition. Orchard won the Best Cross-Examination Award.

“We could not be prouder of these very special student advocates,” Shlahet said. “Jeff, Mike, and I were honored to coach them.”

Top (L-R): Coach Adam Shlahet ’02 and Katelyn “KJ” Colman / Bottom (L-R): Coach Mike Higgins ’08 and Carolyn McGuigan

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When the Center for Judicial Events & Clerkships (CJEC) launched in 2019, Faculty Director Daniel Capra and Assistant Dean Suzanne Endrizzi knew that they wanted to create a vehicle for student leadership recognizing how critical peer engagement is to promoting and fostering a clerkships-oriented culture at the Law School.

At the start of its second year, the CJEC launched its inaugural Peer Clerkship Council (PCC) comprised of six members of the J.D. Class of 2021—Zach Huffman, Alex Jacinto, Kendra Kumor, Corey Matthews, Caroline Schulte, and Saniya Suri—who worked extensively with the CJEC to secure their clerkships.

The inaugural Council was eager to pay it forward and build the foundation for an enduring peer initiative that touched on peer-to-peer informal support through office hours, peer planned programs and workshops and peer developed resources, as well as serving as a crucial bridge for current students to the vast alumni clerk community.

Peer Engagement

In the fall semester, the PCC primarily focused their efforts on peer engagement and getting the word out that they were a resource for exploring the notion of clerking and 2Ls navigating the planning process.

Toward that end, the Council hosted weekly virtual office hours for 1Ls and 2Ls to come and ask them their perspectives. Those office hours continued into the spring semester and, in April, the PCC is hosting themed hours for 2Ls as they began to prepare their applications to provide insider tips on application materials and strategy.

In November, the Council hosted a panel, “What I Wish I Knew: Looking Ahead to the Spring Semester” during which 2Ls planning to apply for clerkships heard from PCC members about their decision-making and reflection processes, how to approach course selection, and how to network with alumni.

The PCC also sought to develop a partnership with the Office of Professionalism via its 1L House System. The goal was to collaborate in creating a resource to guide 1Ls on how to effectively develop strong relationships with faculty.

Earlier this month, Jordana Confino, director of the Office of Professionalism, circulated the guide via the 1L House System as part of its mandated learning “Building Faculty Relationships” module presented by PCC members Schulte and Huffman. They shared tips and advice for how to start to build, maintain, and develop these critical relationships.

Building Bridges to Alumni Clerks

In the spring semester, the Council also focused its energies on building bridges to the vast alumni clerk community.

First, there was a series of themed virtual coffees with alumni clerks—including first-generation clerks, public interest-oriented clerks, and court-specific clerks from district, circuit, and New Jersey State. Clerk alumni from around the country Zoomed in to talk with current students who are thinking about clerkships as a possible career path. Kumor, who spearheaded this initiative, carefully planned the events to follow the CJEC’s judicial engagement initiatives and build upon the momentum.

And coffee leads to lunch! PCC members Matthews and Suri picked up on Kumor’s initiative and led the Council’s “Virtual Lunch with a Clerk” event at the end of March. This capstone event was kicked off with a panel—”What is a Clerkship and Why Should I Clerk?”—which was moderated by Endrizzi and featured alumni with significant clerkship experience on the federal and state courts.

Immediately after the panel, the attending students had the opportunity to attend break-out sessions with alumni clerks. After each break-out session the larger group reconvened to have informal discussions and an open Q&A. Participating students also had the opportunity to hear and engage with more than 35 former and current judicial clerks.

Through the PCC’s efforts, 50 current and former clerks came back to engage with 1Ls and 2Ls.

Clear Impact

“The Peer Clerkship Council has been more impactful than either Dan or I envisioned,” Endrizzi said. “We are awestruck by their boundless energy and enthusiasm.

“I am constantly hearing from students about something a PCC member did to support them,” she continued. “It’s truly amazing.”

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This spring, Fordham Law School welcomes six new first-year students to the Stein Scholars Program in Public Interest Law and Ethics. The program is aimed at fostering the next generation of public interest lawyers through academic and specialized discussion series, mentorships, and volunteer work with public interest organizations.

“The last year has highlighted not only how much we need strong advocates doing public interest work, but how important community is to us all in striving to create a more just world,” said Aisha Baruni, director of public interest scholars and counseling. “Each of the students brings a strong passion and commitment to public interest work.”

Baruni added, “The Stein Scholars community is the home of many Fordham Law students and alumni who are public interest leaders.”

Each year, the Stein Scholars program admits a handful of new students in the spring. The six new Steins are members of the class of 2023 (day division).

Lea Aftimos ’23

Lea Aftimos is a Lebanese-American and 2018 graduate of New York University, where she majored in French and Global Liberal Studies with a concentration in Law, Ethics, and Religion and a minor in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. During her time at NYU, she wrote a thesis on Algerian immigration to France, post-Algerian independence, and the racial inequities that remain in France today. While studying abroad in Paris she worked at a legal aid clinic that served victims of Islamophobia. Lea is excited to be a Stein Scholar at Fordham Law and plans to use her degree to pursue her interests in immigration and asylum law. 

Kendra Blandon ’23

Kendra Blandon double-majored in Religion and International Studies (Latin America & Caribbean) and graduated from the University of Florida summa cum laude in 2016. As an oral historian, she interviewed Civil Rights Movement leaders, community elders, and activists in the Southeast United States and produced materials archived with the Library of Congress. The daughter of Nicaraguan and Cuban political asylees, Kendra works on the National Immigration Detention hotline—organizing financial, legal, and social assistance for detained migrants in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. She is building a career dedicated to providing excellent representation for immigrants and refugees and creating a more just immigration system.

Gabrielle Diaz ’23

Gabrielle Diaz graduated from Yale University in 2018, where she majored in history with a focus on Latin America. While in college, she became involved in New Haven politics and community organizing and was energized by the many forms of collective action present in the city. Upon graduation, she worked as a legislative aide in the Connecticut State Senate for the Chair of the Public Health Committee. Gabrielle is excited to collaborate and learn from her fellow Stein Scholars as they together work towards greater equity in the justice system. 

Kevin Green ’23

Kevin Green has been living and working in New York City since graduating from Bennington College in 2013. He spent 3 years working for an education nonprofit serving New York City public schools and later worked for a city-based start-up called Managed by Q (acquired by WeWork), where he supported a large workforce of hourly maintenance workers. These experiences have contributed to Kevin’s interest in issues of economic justice. He’s excited and honored to join the Stein community to better learn how legal advocacy can support marginalized communities.

Olivia Johnson ’23

Olivia Johnson is a 1L who is interested in civil/human/women’s rights. She is a longstanding member of NAACP and served as president of her collegiate branch at Syracuse University and her local branch of the NAACP as second vice president. In college, Johnson triple-majored in newspaper and online journalism, political science, and African American studies. She currently serves on Montefiore Hospital’s Consumer Advisory Board and is an active member of the video squad for Color of Change. Prior to law school, she worked for Edelman, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Soledad O’Brien, and the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign. 

Seamus Ronan ’23

Seamus Ronan graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2016, where he majored in political science and peace studies. Before law school, he taught middle school literature for four years in Harlem as an ACE/AmeriCorps Teaching Fellow while earning his M.Ed. from Notre Dame. He is interested in applying critical race theory and restorative justice principles to eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline and promote educational equity.

The post Meet the Newest Members of the Stein Scholars Program appeared first on Fordham Law.

On April 8, Fordham Law School’s Public Interest Resource Center (PIRC) recognized hundreds of students at its 30th Annual Public Interest Students Award Ceremony, held virtually this year. The Class of 2021 contributed over 135,000 hours of pro bono clinical and community service work during their time at Fordham Law. Speeches made during this year’s ceremony can be viewed at the end of post.

Professors Marcella Silverman and Beth Schwartz—who both strengthened and supported Fordham Law’s public interest community and will both be retiring this year—presented the Archibald R. Murray Public Service Award to 302 students. The Archibald R. Murray Public Service Awards are given to graduating students who have devoted 100 or more hours to pro bono and community service work during their time as Fordham Law students. Of the 303 students, 145 members performed between 100 and 249 hours of service; 72 members completed between 250 and 499 hours of service; 52 members completed between 500 and 999 hours of service; and 33 members completed 1,000 or more hours of service.

Fifty-two members of this year’s graduating class were also presented PIRC Student Leadership Awards for their outstanding commitment and efforts, on behalf of the Fordham Law community, to PIRC student organizations. Twenty-three members were named recipients of the Stein Scholars Graduation Certificates for completing the Stein Scholars’ program requirements in ethics and public interest law. Fourteen pro bono scholars were also recognized for performing 12 weeks of full-time, pro bono work on behalf of indigent and low-income clients.

“We are grateful for the energy, knowledge, heart, and love you have brought to our public interest community and to Fordham Law School more broadly,” said Leah Horowitz, assistant dean for public interest and social justice initiatives.

Honoring a Pioneer in Public Service

Public service—long valued at Fordham Law School—is expressed in large part by the annual activities of nearly 500 Fordham Law students who participate in some form of pro bono, community service, or advocacy work through PIRC. The Center’s emphasis on student-initiated public service broke the mold at the time of its inception in 1991. Today, the Center continues to set the standard for law schools nationwide by assisting and inspiring students who seek to be committed to, rather than merely comply with, the spirit of pro bono publico—work for the public good.

Dean Matthew Diller presented the 2021 Louis J. Lefkowitz Public Service Award to Thomas Schoenherr, who retired as assistant dean of PIRC last May. Schoenherr launched PIRC more than 30 years ago with just three student pro bono groups. Now, it has expanded to 22 groups with about 500 students who participate annually in various PIRC initiatives and projects.

“He not only has transformed Fordham Law School, [but]he has transformed legal education by creating the model of the public interest office that is adopted by law schools around the country with a singular core common denominator in point—which is the students come first,” Diller said in reference to Schoenherr.

Upon accepting the award, Schoenherr thanked Fordham Law School colleagues, members from other law schools and legal services offices, various bar associations, and professional organizations (like National Association for Law Placement, Equal Justice Works, and the Association of American Law Schools) for their support and mentorship across nearly three and a half decades. He thanked the student body for inspiring him, and also elaborated on how Fordham Law students’ deep dedication to people and causes most in need of legal attention and advocacy have consistently amazed him.

“With all the pressures and competing demands of law school, you still devoted so much time, hundreds of hours to public service. And this is what has always inspired me to do whatever I could to help clear the way for all of you and all your projects,” Schoenherr said. “It was from you and all of your zeal, energy, and new ideas that really helped push to expand PIRC’s reach and impact over the years.”

Recognizing Stand-Out Students

Aaron Gladstone ’21 was named this year’s public interest valedictorian. Given his strong commitment to labor unions as an instrument of social progress, Gladstone helped revive and grow the Workers’ Rights Advocates group at Fordham Law. Within the last year, Gladstone also worked with the Community Economic Development Clinic—helping new mutual aid groups figure out how to become fully-fledged organizations and helping these groups address the immediate need for grocery and medicine deliveries, child care, and rent relief during the pandemic.

“As lawyers, we have the responsibility and the honor of putting our hands on the wheels of society and pushing as hard as we can towards that [fight for democracy],” Gladstone said prior to thanking his family and friends, as well as PIRC faculty and staff and Fordham Law for giving him and his classmates the tools needed to fight for justice.

‘While no one of us is strong enough to push the wheel all the way, when we all push together as public interest lawyers and as members of the movement, I know that we can achieve that democracy.”

Stein Scholar Nicholas Loh ’22 received this year’s 2L Public Interest Student of the Year award. Loh has been working for the NYC Commission on Human Rights and UnLocal on a variety of local immigration and human rights issues. Within Fordham Law, Loh is proactive on the Stein Council; a member of the Brendan Moore Trial Advocacy group; co-vice president of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association; and serves on the Dean’s advisory council on diversity, working directly with the Law School on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues.

Loh reflected on how public interest doesn’t happen in a vacuum. “It happens when you get to collaborate with passionate fellow students and colleagues,” he explained. “Someone calls you up with an idea and you run with it.”

Stein Scholar Aleezah Merali ’23 received this year’s 1L Public Student of the Year award. Merali is a 1L representative to the Fordham Advocates for the Incarcerated group and serves as an advocate for both the Courtroom Advocates Project and Suspension Representation Project. She will continue this line of work this summer as an public defender intern with the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem.

“It’s easy to make this general proclamation of an intent to do good, but what’s harder is to foster an environment that nurtures this desire and cultivates opportunities to pursue this goal,” Merali said. “Fordham Law’s motto—”In service of others”—provides the framework for doing just that.”

Watch the speeches below:

Introduction by Leah Horowitz

The post Public Interest Resource Center Honors Students and Founder Thomas Schoenherr at 30th Annual Awards Ceremony appeared first on Fordham Law.

By the time Darius Johnson enrolled as a Stein Scholar at Fordham’s School of Law in 2018, he was feeling very sure of his decision. The Mobile, Alabama, native was active in the pre-law group at Morehouse College, where he majored in English literature. In the summer of 2017, attended St. John’s University School of Law’s Ronald H. Brown Pre-Law Prep Program.

His arrival at Fordham Law brought some twists though. Intrigued by the progressive transformative justice policies going on at the Kings County District Attorney General’s office, he interned there the summer of 2019. But he became discouraged by the many repeat offenders cycling through the office in the short time he was there. He decided instead to intern remotely with the Center for Constitutional Rights, to learn more about international human and civil rights litigation. There he became interested in movement law.

“I gained so much exposure to different attorneys who were doing all kinds of work, not only at CCR, but across the nation and internationally, and I found that experience gave me some insight as to what the day-to-day work of a litigator who’s practicing movement lawyering would look like,” he said.

Movement lawyers support and advance social movements, both through traditional lawyer work in areas such as trials or housing, and through community events, like organizing free weekend classes for citizens to learn more about their rights under the law.

“The role of the movement lawyer isn’t a confined or restricted activity. It’s many different things, and it’s based on what the community needs and what the community is demanding. It’s another way of just simply empowering people,” said Johnson, who is one of Fordham Law’s Stein Scholars—a diverse group of law students committed to public interest law.

After his CCR internship, Johnson still felt a yearning to work directly with clients. Last fall, he began working with the Law School’s Family Advocacy Clinic.

“I had trepidations about doing only direct services work, because I care about institutional and systemic issues, but I realized there can be a balance of the two in various ways, and that’s where creativity comes into play,” he said.

His final internship, with the group Movement for Family Power, confirmed for him that empowering local communities is what he wants to do. This fall, he’ll join the staff of the Bronx Defenders as an entry-level attorney.

Johnson channeled that commitment to empowerment on campus as well; during his second year, he was president of the Black Students Law Association. The group helped the Law School craft a plan to address systematic racism within the college.

“I had a number of students who I worked alongside to try to make Fordham a better institution,” he said, singling out current and past students Christina John, Taylor Carter, Hema Lochan, Dana McBeth, Diana Imbert, and Leena Widdi.

“They’ve had a tremendous impact on my ability to develop and lead, as well as figure out my own path.”

Johnson acknowledged that completing his studies was difficult. As someone who didn’t know his father and had few male role models growing up, he said that the guidance of Professor Ian Weinstein, his Stein Scholar faculty mentor, helped him a great deal. Adjunct professor Kenneth Montgomery, whose trial advocacy class Johnson took, was also an inspiration.

“As a Black man, he showed me who I could become and how I could do it,” he said.

Johnson was raised by his mother and grandmother, who he said gave him “a sense of identity.” But it wasn’t always easy.

“I watched my mom struggle every day to make life bearable and enjoyable, and she did her absolute best. But I also saw throughout my own city that my reality was quite common. I witnessed a lot of the injustices that were happening, whether it was in the education system or the rampant homelessness or the hidden history of my city when it came to enslavement,” he said.

Literature played a part in Johnson’s developing identity as well, particularly Toni Morrison’s 1970 novel The Bluest Eye, which he read his senior year at Morehouse.

“It really put into perspective the ways in which Black youth are robbed of their innocence, and how that has a lingering effect throughout one’s lifetime.”

It was a different way of understanding how literature could be written, and how we can share our real-world experiences with others. That’s something that I try to bring into my legal work whenever possible.”

Leah Hill, a clinical professor of law who oversees the Family Advocacy Clinic, said Johnson displayed a sense of humility and commitment to lifelong learning that would serve him well. She noted that to be a successful movement lawyer, one needs to engage people of all walks of life respectfully. She saw that in Johnson when she first met him, and again at the clinic.

“He knew how to show compassion and empathy without being paternalizing or condescending, or pitying clients. He was just really a pleasure to work with, because I could see how deeply committed he was to social justice,” she said.

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Third-year student Raila Cinda Brejt ’21 was recently awarded second place in the 2020 American Bar Association (ABA) Health Law Student Writing Competition for her paper “Food Regulation and the Nondisclosure of Ingredients: Ignorance is Not Always Bliss.”

Her interest in the subject matter was first piqued when she was working in a doctor’s office before her first year at Fordham Law. At the time, one of the patients, who was suffering from Clostridium Difficile (also known as c-diff) began keeping a food diary when the potentially deadly bacterium of the gastrointestinal tract failed to improve with medication. Working with the doctor to eliminate certain processed foods from her diet, the patient eventually achieved remission. 

In the spring of 2020, Brejt combined her experience at the doctor’s office with her interest in federal regulation through an independent study with Professor Clare Huntington. Brejt had previously worked with Huntington during her 1L Legislation and Regulation class, where she studied the limitations congressional statutes place on federal agencies.

Bringing Awareness to Consumers

Inspired by the patient who was able to achieve remission of her c-diff by eliminating foods that contained certain additives, Brejt explored the way in which food manufacturers avoid disclosure of such ingredients in processed foods. Although food labeling laws require ingredients to be listed on the nutrition facts panel, it is possible due to the definitions of terms in the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (FDCA) that some ingredients can be listed simply as “spices” or “flavorings.”

“Apparently, the presence of certain substances in the body can impede the effectiveness of medications or the virulence of bacteria,” Brejt says. “For an individual that realizes a particular substance may be harmful, it can be hard for them to avoid it if that substance fits into one of the ingredient categories exempt from disclosure on the label.”

Brejt brought her idea to Huntington during the spring 2020 independent study, and says the professor helped her explore the heart of the issue. “I wrote the article hoping to bring awareness to the issues of not providing consumers the full information of what substances are actually present in their food,” Brejt notes.

Fordham Support During Pandemic

“Despite the unique circumstances of the semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor Huntington made herself readily available to me for feedback and was incredibly supportive,” Brejt says. Although she spent half of her three-year law school experience studying remotely due to the pandemic, Brejt says Fordham Law staff were always helpful, whether they’d met her in person or not. “It was a wonderful experience,” Brejt says of Fordham. “A great family-type community.”

During her time at Fordham, Brejt has been able to explore a diverse range of interests. She spent her first-year summer at a judicial internship, and worked remotely in personal injury litigation during her second summer. The same week that the ABA announced the winners of the health writing competition, her student note, “Abridging the Fifth Amendment: Compelled Decryption, Passwords, & Biometrics,” appeared in the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal. “I write whatever interests me,” she says.

Brejt’s award-winning paper appeared in the April 2021 issue of The Health Lawyer magazine.

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On April 28, the Fordham Black Law Students Association (BLSA), the Fordham Irish Law Students Association (ILSA), and the Fordham Latin American Law Students Association (LALSA) hosted a webinar entitled “Global Civil Rights: Shared Inspirations,” attended by more than 100 people. In addition to the student-led organizations, the Fordham Center on Race, Law & Justice, Leitner Center for International Law & Justice, Feerick Center for Social Justice, and Fordham’s Alternative Dispute & Conflict Resolution Program also served as co-sponsors.

The webinar focused on the ways in which various civil rights movements across the globe influence and inspire one another. The idea for the event was sparked by the work of Fordham’s new Rule of Law Clinic, which focused on issues related to Northern Ireland this semester. 

“During our time in the clinic this semester, under the guidance of Professor John Rogan and Dean Emeritus John Feerick, Dylan and I learned that the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 70s was directly inspired by the civil rights movement here in the United States,” said ILSA President John Winton. 

“In speaking with experts during our clinic work, it became apparent that this is true of many civil rights movements across the globe. We decided, after speaking with representatives from BLSA and LALSA, to put together an event that would explore these connections in greater detail beyond the Northern Ireland context,” Dylan McGowan, ILSA Vice President, added.

From the U.S. to India to Ireland, Civil Rights Struggles Feed Off One Another

The panel was composed of legal academics and human rights experts with a wide range of experience studying social movements and global civil rights. Professor Kevin Brown of the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University–Bloomington, spoke about the ways in which the African American civil rights movements and groups in the United States motivated the Dalits in India.

“[Dalits] have been inspired by the African American struggle…Back in the early 1970s, a group called the Dalit Panthers, a group inspired by the Black Panther Party, was created to reach for liberation of Dalits by any means necessary. In addition, the Dalits have created Dalit Capitalism…inspired by Black Capitalism,” said Brown. “They in fact created Dalit Enterprise magazine, inspired by Black Enterprise magazine. And even before you saw the global embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement this summer, the Dalits had already created Dalit Lives Matter, once again inspired by Black Lives Matter.”

Brown also noted that slogans and songs that would be familiar to many here in the U.S. were adapted for use in the Dalits’ cause, “Indeed, they even sing the iconic civil rights song ‘We Shall Overcome’ in some of their own rallies.”

Brian Dooley, a human rights expert, highlighted the connection between civil rights in America and Northern Ireland. He noted that in the mid-19th century it was the Irish struggle for equality that helped influence the abolition and civil rights movements in the United States.

“For the hundred years, more or less, between the mid-1800s and the mid-1900s, the two movements fed off each other,” he said. “The struggle for rights and liberation in Ireland, and the struggle for rights and liberation in the US. But most of that traffic in terms of influence across the Atlantic washed from East to West, in that the US struggle was, by and large, influenced by the Irish experience. Frederick Douglass goes to Ireland in the 1840s…and learns a lot about the Irish struggle. A generation later, Marcus Garvey is in London, and sees this embryonic but then thriving movement of a new surge in Irish nationalism, and he deliberately copies the iconography and the slogans of the young Sinn Fein movement…He designs the African liberation flag and includes Green in it as an homage to the Irish struggle. He’s in contact with some of the Irish revolutionaries during the 1920s, and the Harlem Renaissance too, on a more cultural level, borrows very deliberately from the Gaelic revival of 20 or 30 years before.”

Dooley also described how the influence changed directions in the 1960s and 1970s, with the Irish finding inspiration from Dr. Martin Luther King, Kr. and other prominent African American civil rights leaders. “That brings us up to the mid-20th century…After that, the influence tended to wash back more the other way. Bernadette Devlin McAliskey [an Irish civil rights leader]told me that they saw what was happening in the US in terms of the Freedom Riders, the push to desegregate public facilities, ‘In our protests they sat down, so we sat down” Dooley recounted. “There was an absolute copycatting of tactics there…Really it was the Irish struggle that was adopting from the American.” 

Professor Ediberto Román, professor of law at the Florida International University College of Law, spoke about the experience of immigrants in America in recent years as the country has experienced increased nationalism and isolationism. “When I look at social movements, they’re about engendering an understanding,” he said. “One of my goals is to be able to have the person listening situate themselves in the position of the victim, to understand the pain and the struggles of the aggrieved, because absent that, they always remain as an other.”

Román continued, “I think it’s the role of [older people who have experienced these movements]to remind us of prior movements, of successes, of challenges, of failures…[It’s important] to remember the efforts of Latinos and Latinas, be in it terms of the Chicano studies movement, that resemble the 1960s movement.”

The discussion was moderated by Fordham Professor and Director of the ADR & Conflict Resolution Program Jacqueline Nolan-Haley, who has worked extensively in Northern Ireland and in Ghana, emphasizing the role that the mediation process can serve in enhancing human understanding and dignity. Following the panel’s opening remarks, panelists fielded questions from Nolan-Haley and the audience on topics ranging from the role international law plays in civil rights movements to how present day Irish-American sentiments may conflict with past connections and the way social movements interact, both positively and negatively, with theories of nationalism. 

The program can be viewed in its entirety here.

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