ALUMNI ALMANAC
The Dean’s Strategic Council Ends on an Ambitious Note Releases final recommendations for business law, the Graduate Tax Program, alumni facing retirement and a new capital campaign.
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wo years ago Dean Richard Revesz formed the Dean’s Strategic Council to harness the deep resources of the alumni and to define the goals and aspirations of the NYU School of Law. In May 2005, the council released its final report recommending program changes and an ambitious capital campaign before throwing its own farewell party and dissolving, its job done. The council held its inaugural meeting in November 2003—to identify the issues NYU School of Law would face in the coming
decade. “I wanted to get a new generation of alumni involved in leadership positions in the Law School community by making them knowledgeable about issues facing the Law School and asking them to come up with good ideas for shaping the next phase of NYU’s development,” said Revesz. Eighty-one alumni drawn from finance, real estate, media and entertainment, government, cultural institutions, public service, academia, business and, of course, the nation’s top law firms, took a fresh look at the challenges ahead for the NYU School of
Building a bridge: Dean Richard Revesz with Strategic Council Chair Eileen FitzGerald Sudler
Shawn Creedon ’02 looks on as Rachel Robbins ’76 and other alumni help shape the Law School’s future.
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THE LAW SCHOOL
Law and came up with ambitious and innovative recommendations. The council’s final report endorses a capital fundraising campaign focused on supporting students and faculty, rather than bricks and mortar, with money dedicated to programming, scholarships and expanding the faculty in areas of excellence. The $400 million campaign is the largest in the school’s history. “The most surprising thing I learned as chair of the Dean’s Strategic Council,” said Eileen FitzGerald Sudler ’74, “was that the Law School’s astonishing successes over the last 20 years have been built on a comparatively thin base of resources.” Sudler, Florence Davis ’79, Wayne Perry (LL.M. ’76) and Kenneth Raisler ’76 are now serving as vice chairs of the capital campaign steering committee, with trustee Anthony Welters ’77 as the campaign chairman and 32 alumni as committee members. In addition to strategizing about fundraising, the council also created a blueprint for the Law School in a number of other areas, including ancillary income programs, fundraising strategies and the foreign LL.M. program. The council’s Committee on Business Law proposed ways for the Law School to interact more productively with the legal and business communities of New York City. “We want to give business-oriented students the practical training and hands-on experience already extensively available to [those] interested in public service careers,” said Revesz. The Committee on the Graduate Tax Program addressed important “second generation” goals of fine-tuning. And the council’s creativity in setting an agenda was nowhere more apparent than in the work of the Committee on Public Service and Careers in Transition. Having identified a growing number of alumni who are reaching retirement or are pursuing new careers in public service, the committee proposed counseling programs to assist in the transition. In true NYU tradition, Sudler initially embarked on a career in public service, working for the Legal Aid Society in the South Bronx and later in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey. Even after she moved to private practice, she continued to affect her community through a range of charitable endeavors. Crediting the Law School for making this values-oriented service ethic part of who she is, Sudler remarked that the council’s most significant discovery while forecasting the next 10 years was realizing that enthusiasm and deep commitment to academic development were predominant characteristics of the alumni. “I have always been proud to be an NYU alum, now more than ever,” she said. ■ AUTUMN 2005