Putting Down Roots Former students and teachers gather to celebrate a decade of ensuring fair treatment for immigrants. rofessor nancy morawetz ’81, the pending matter of Flore founding director of the Immigrant Figueroa v. U.S. In their brief, Rights Clinic, confessed “a little and in strategy assistance embarrassment” at the flood of trib- given to plaintiff counsel, utes she received last March when half Gittleman and Johnson arher 150 former clinic students met to cel- gue that workers who submit ebrate the IRC’s 10th anniversary and to to employers falsified docushare lessons learned in advancing social ments containing randomly justice for a largely defenseless population. created Social Security num“The dream was there,” said Morawetz, as bers should not be subjected she reflected on the clinic’s genesis in an to the “aggravated identity interview, “but there was no way back in ’99 theft” penalty that warrants a that we could have completely envisioned mandatory two-year jail sentence. The clinic’s agenda has expanded far bewhere our work would take us.” Ten years later, the destination includes yond NYU Law as some who have co-taught the highest court of the land. Morawetz alongside Morawetz have replicated the and her small but strongly idealistic army program at Yale Law School, the City Uniof law students were involved in the bulk versity of New York School of Law, and the of immigration matters before the U.S. Su- University of Texas at Austin School of Law. preme Court over the past decade. Even Recently, IRC alumnus Peter Markowitz after graduating, many clinic alumni have ’01 launched an immigrants’ rights clinic at stayed in the field. Now as practitioners, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Isaac Wheeler ’03, today a staff attorney they are fanned out across America and points overseas to apply the clinic’s for- at the Bronx Defenders, spoke for his felmula of legislative effort, community ad- low celebrants in explaining Morawetz’s vocacy, and media outreach in addition to continuing influence. “Whenever I think, impact litigation. (See “The Hard Line on there’s no way, no chance for this case, I hear Nancy’s voice saying, ‘Oh, you can do Immigration” on page 24.) This year, for instance, students Andrea this!’” said Wheeler. “I am forever warped,” Gittleman ’09 and Sara Johnson ’09 drafted he added. “So thanks, Nancy.” Rachel Rosenbloom ’02 spoke of doubt an amicus curiae brief to the high court on behalf of the Supreme Court Immigration on first exposure to Morawetz’s fierce view Law Working Group, a coalition of major that young lawyers have a responsibility to immigrant rights organizations monitoring accept the growing needs of immigrants,
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Who’s Who in the U.S. Financial Bailout All hands on deck! In the aftermath of the global financial meltdown, lawyers and judges with expertise in such areas as fiscal policy, bankruptcy, investment banking, mediation, and mortgage lending have been called into service. Herewith is a diverse group of alumni who have been involved in helping to right the U.S. economy. Neil Barofsky ’95, special inspector general of the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, is responsible for overseeing Congress's emergency bailout plan for the financial industry.
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James Clarkson ’69, director of regional office operations in the SEC's Division of Enforcement in Washington, D.C., served as acting regional director of the SEC's New York office from October 2008 to June 2009.
especially in a post-9/11 climate hostile to them. “In class, I would secretly wonder— is she crazy?” said Rosenbloom, a former supervising attorney at the Post-Deportation Human Rights Project at the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College. “But I’ve learned that being a graduate of Professor Morawetz’s clinic means that in the world of criminal deportation, doors open anywhere in the world.” Enthusiasm for the clinic is perhaps best demonstrated by Alina Das ’05, an IRC alumna who became Morawetz’s coteacher in 2008. “I remember thinking after my year as a clinic student, wouldn’t it be great to do this forever?” said Das. “So, it’s been great getting a job here.” Mayra Peters-Quintero ’99, now a program director of migrant and immigrant rights at the Ford Foundation and Morawetz’s former co-teacher from 2004 to 2008, graduated the spring before the clinic was begun. ▷
Eric Dinallo ’90, superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department from 2007 to 2009, stabilized the bond-insurance industry and played a key role in the bailout of AIG. James Duffy ’75 was appointed interim CEO of NYSE Regulation in March after serving as executive vice president and general counsel since 2006. Dennis Dunne ’90, leader of the restructuring group at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, heads the firm's team representing the creditors' committee in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.