Harry Subin, 1935–2011
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later added the Federal Defender Clinic after recruiting the late Professor Chester Mirsky, with whom he also co-authored a book on federal criminal procedure. In 1989, Subin started the Prosecution Clinic in conjunction with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. In addition, he helped to create two courses that he continued to teach throughout his career: Criminal
Procedure and Practice, and Professional Responsibility in the Practice of Criminal Law. Subin wrote extensively on these topics and, in 1985, received the New York State Bar Association’s award for outstanding work in the field of criminal law education. Before joining the Law School, Subin played an instrumental role in reforming the federal and New York State criminal justice systems. After graduating from Yale Law School in 1960, he was accepted into the honors program in the Justice Department. There, for the next several years, Subin worked as a member of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, investigating and prosecuting cases involving leaders of La Cosa Nostra, as well as political corruption cases. As an attorney in the Office of Criminal Justice, he authored Criminal Justice in a Metropolitan Court (1973), which led to a wholesale reorganization of the District of Columbia’s Court of General Sessions. Subin also helped to draft the Bail Reform Act of 1966, which was the first major change in the law since the 18th century. “Harry was beloved by generations of students,” says Fiorello LaGuardia Professor of Clinical Law Martin Guggenheim ’71. “His Criminal Defense Clinic was the most oversubscribed clinic NYU offered for many years. He was an innovative, dynamic teacher with a wonderful sense of humor.”
Paula Ettelbrick Paula Ettelbrick, an adjunct professor at NYU Law since 1998, passed away from cancer on October 7. A leader on legal issues in the LGBT civil rights movement over the course of three decades, Ettelbrick had been legal director of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, legislative counsel to the Empire State Pride Agenda, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and, most recently, executive director of the Stonewall Community Foundation. Ettelbrick played a large role in state-level grassroots civil rights efforts across the country. In advance of the 2000 U.S. Census, she launched a national campaign urging same-sex partner households to let themselves be counted as she insisted upon the importance of LGBT visibility in demographic statistics. (The same-sex couple tally in 2000 was a threefold increase over the 1990 count.) In recent years, as the marriage-rights movement gained steam, Ettelbrick steadfastly continued her work to protect the rights of non-traditional families. All of the major LGBT nonprofit organizations mourned Ettelbrick’s untimely death, including the Human Rights Campaign, whose then-president, Joe Solmonese, said in a statement, “We mourn the loss of a tremendous force in the LGBT community and honor her unrivaled commitment to the full equality of all people.”
W W W. L A W. N Y U. E D U
1955-2011
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John Johnston Jr. 1932–2011 John D. Johnston Jr., Professor of Law Emeritus, passed away on December 18 after a battle against cancer. Johnston was a member of the NYU Law faculty from 1969 until his retirement in 1990, teaching courses in property law, trusts and estates, and land use regulation. He received his LL.B. from Duke University School of Law, where he was a member of the editorial board of the Duke Bar Journal. After several years in private practice with J.P. Morgan & Co. in New York and Wright & Shuford in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, he began his career as a law professor in 1962 at Duke, where he taught until he joined NYU Law. Johnston was a brilliant and passionate scholar. He wrote a leading treatise on land use and numerous articles on this subject, and he explored the history of discrimination against women, writing several articles in the 1970s. One in the New York University Law Review, co-authored by Max E. Greenberg Professor of Contract Law Emeritus Charles Knapp, focused on sexism in judicial opinions; another frequently cited piece in the UCLA Law Review evaluated the Supreme Court’s progress in resolving the constitutional issues of gender discrimination. Johnston challenged his fellow professors to address discrimination as part of the curriculum and encouraged his students to be aware of these significant issues as they made their way in their careers. Lewis Kornhauser, Alfred B. Engelberg Professor of Law, gratefully remembers the pivotal role Johnston played in his own academic career, calming him down after a particularly trying moment during his first year of teaching when he was ready to quit. “Jack gave me the sense that I was appreciated,” says Kornhauser. “He convinced me to stay.”
JOHNSTON: PATRICK PAGNANO
arry subin, professor of law Emeritus, passed away on September 4, 2011. A member of the faculty from 1969 until his retirement in 2000, he pioneered NYU School of Law’s clinical program, building the foundation of what would become the leading program in the country. He introduced the Criminal Defense Clinic in 1969 and