Fordham Law Professor Robin Lenhardt received the Constance Baker Motley Award and Stein Scholar Derick Dailey ’17 was selected regional chair-elect during the 2016 Northeast Black Law Students Association Regional Convention.
The annual convention, held this year in Elizabeth, New Jersey, brought together students, professors, alumni, and administrators from law schools across an eight-state region.
Dailey, the convention coordinator, presented Lenhardt the award named after Motley, the late civil rights activist, lawyer, federal judge, New York state senator, and Manhattan borough president.
“The idea that any of the work I am doing in class with students or outside, in terms of scholarship or with the center, reflects any of the principles she advocated means a great deal,” said Lenhardt, the director of the Fordham Center on Race, Law and Justice that launches February 29.
Lenhardt also moderated a panel titled “Race Matters: Law Schools and Diversity” featuring administrators from law schools across the Northeast, including Fordham Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Nitza Escalera. Lenhardt credited Dailey for having the vision to make the panel happen.
“The panel confirmed for me that this dialogue Dean Matthew Diller has invited the Fordham community to engage in is really important,” Escalera said, noting this was not true at all law schools across the region.
Participating in the panel and hearing student feedback about their law school experiences reminded Lenhardt that, while much progress has been made since the days of Motley and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, greater strides are needed to ensure students have “the tools necessary to address issues of race in their communities and the legal context overall.”
She expressed confidence that the new center she is leading, in collaboration with associate center directors and acclaimed race scholars Professors Tanya Hernandez and Kimani Paul-Emile, would provide such tools to the Law School’s students.
One of those students is Dailey, who chose to attend Fordham Law because of its religious- and service-oriented ethos. Dailey received his MA in black religion in the African diaspora and ethics from Yale University.
Dailey served on the executive board for the Northeast region of BLSA for the 2015-16 calendar year. As regional chair for 2016-17, he aims to offer support to chapter leaders across the region, establish new partnerships for BLSA, and lead with integrity and confidence that motivates others to do more on issues of race and social justice.
“It’s a significant honor that comes with a tremendous amount of responsibility to lead,” Dailey said, adding he was “extremely humbled.”
He credited Professors Sheila Foster, Bruce Green, Russell Pearce, and Lenhardt for the mentorship and wisdom they have shared with him.
“I made the best choice I could have made,” Dailey said of law school. “Fordham has been exceptional, not just in terms of academic instruction but also professional guidance.”
Lenhardt called Dailey a person of “great talent, capacity, and potential” as a national and regional leader on issues of race and social justice.
“I think he will be able to very eloquently and persuasively offer leadership on that front,” Lenhardt said, adding he is also a leader at Fordham Law.