Elisabeth Haub School of Law Alumni Magazine 2022

HAUB LAW Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University ALUMNI MAGAZINE • SUMMER 2022

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Environmental Law Program Ranked #1 (Again)!

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Haub Law Launches Far-Reaching Access to Justice Project

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A Historic Commencement Celebration

DEAN OF HAUB LAW

MANAGING EDITOR & WRITER

DESIGN

Horace E. Anderson Jr.

Jessica Dubuss ’09

Carling Design

ASSISTANT DEAN FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRSS

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

PHOTOGRAPHY

Rex Bossert Renee Brown-Cheng Norman Hall Gabriella Mickel Mattison Stewart

Jörg Meyer Photography Dmitriy Kalinin Studio Don Hamerman Photography Liflander Photography Stockton Photo

Rachael M. Silva EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Jessica Dubuss ’09

The Haub Law Alumni Magazine is published annually under the auspices of the Dean, and is distributed digitally free of charge to alumni and friends of Haub Law. PLEASE ADDRESS CORRESPONDENCE TO:

Haub Law Alumni Communications 78 North Broadway, White Plains, NY 10603 plsalumni@law.pace.edu The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the magazine staff or of individuals enrolled at or employed by Pace University or of Pace University itself.

Pace University admits, and will continue to admit, students of any sex, gender or gender identity, race, color, religion, creed, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran status, national and ethnic origin to all rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. It does not, and will not, discriminate on the basis of sex, gender or gender identity, race, color, religion, creed, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran status, national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarships and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

HAUB LAW Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University ALUMNI MAGAZINE • SUMMER 2022

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Message from the Dean

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OF NOTE Environmental Law Program Ranked #1 (Again)!

Haub Law Alumni Help Secure Land Use Entitlements for Frito-Lay Haub Law Trial Advocacy Program Launching the Sustainable Business Law Hub Green Amendments for the Generations Expansion of Haub Law’s Health Certificate Program The Philip Foglia Summer Legal Internship

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HAUB HEADLINES

• Artist-in-Residence Geoffrey Stein • Two Global Advocates Honored by Haub Law • Food and Beverage Law Clinic Gets a Boost • Yankwitt LLP Establishes Scholarship • GCELS Plays Integral Role at IUCN WCC • Emerging Scholar Award in Gender & Law • Alumnus Anthony J. Enea Establishes Scholarship • A Change-Making Collaboration • NYSBA Honors PWJC with 2021 Legal Aid Awards • The Beth S. Nelson Memorial Scholarship • Five Join Haub Law’s BOV

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S T U D E N T & R E C E N T G R A D U AT E P R O F I L E S

• From Siblings to Classmates • John Notoris • Decnis Pimentel • ‘Kye’ Krittika Shah • Mattison Stewart • Rhea Mallett, Esq.

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F E AT U R E Haub Law Launches Far-Reaching Access to Justice Project

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EVENTS

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Commencement

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FA C U LT Y Faculty Highlights Recent Haub Law Faculty Publications Book Feature: Menstruation Matters Selected Faculty Book Publications DigitalCommons@Pace Article Excerpt: Law Faculty Experiences Teaching During the Pandemic

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FA C U LT Y P R O F I L E S

• Professor Josh Galperin • Professor Randolph McLaughlin

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ALUMNI Class Notes In Memoriam Letter from the Alumni Board President

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ALUMNI PROFILES

• Sara S. Price ’08 • Chioma Deere ’06 • Umair Saleem LLM ’21 • Chris Rizzo ’01 • Kevin Sylvester ’14 • John Lettera ’99 • Susan Brown Galvão ’93 • Sheryl Sanford ’01

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SUMMER 2022

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MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

Dear Haub Law Alumni, We wrapped up the 2021-2022 academic year on a high note with the University’s first in-person graduation ceremony in three years. US Congresswoman Grace Meng delivered the commencement address to our law graduates, and she also received an honorary doctorate. This year also marked the first year that Pace University held a combined ceremony for graduates of its campuses in New York City, Pleasantville, and White Plains , with the ceremony held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens. Notably, the graduation ceremony recognized not only the class of 2022, but also the classes of 2021 and 2020, who were not able to have a traditional celebration due to pandemic-related restrictions.

Over the course of the last year, our Pace community once again remained resilient and responsive as we transitioned from two years of law school learning in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic to having many of those restrictions eased. Our hallways were once again filled with students, faculty, and staff, and our campus came alive with many events. As you will see in the pages of this magazine, the Haub Law community was able to return to many of its traditions with the in-person celebration of our annual Law Leadership awards dinner, the awarding of the Robert S. Tucker Prize, and more. Though we have had to evolve to a new norm on more than one occasion, the Law School community continues to remain determined and flexible in doing so, all the while launching new programs and initiatives along the way.

This year, we officially launched the Pace Access to Justice Project (Pace A2J), which is the focus of our feature story in this year’s magazine. Pace A2J is housed and coordinated within Haub Law’s Public Interest Law Center and is serving as a hub for community collaborations, programs, scholarship, policy initiatives, and hands-on innovative academic and non-credit bearing experiential law student and alumni opportunities. Through Pace A2J, our students will be actively engaged in learning about and contributing to real-world efforts to address the access to justice gap.

Our Environmental Law Program was once again ranked #1 in the country by U.S. News & World Report.

This is the second year in a row, and the third time in four years, that Haub Law has received the number one ranking for Environmental Law, marking the latest major success for the school’s Environmental Law Program.

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Our environmental law program is consistently at the forefront of developing innovative solutions to today’s and tomorrow’s environmental concerns. You can read about our latest venture, The Sustainable Business Law Hub inside these pages. The Hub will promote a healthier climate future by training lawyers in sustainable business practices. The Hub serves as an incubator space, a research endeavor, and think tank devoted to addressing local and global sustainability challenges through policy and research projects, relationships with the business community, and capacity building in private environmental governance. At Haub Law, we do more than teach in the classroom, we want our graduates to employ the tools and deploy their learning to achieve real world impact—the Hub program is a prime opportunity for Haub Law to meaningfully contribute to the enhancement of good corporate citizenship.

Our trial advocacy program also had another stellar year. Led by Lou Fasulo, Director of Advocacy, Moot Court and Client Counseling Programs, Haub Law’s trial advocacy program was once again ranked in the top 15% of law schools, coming in at #26 according to U.S. News & World Report. This past year, in addition to regularly placing at or near the top in competitions, Haub Law hosted its first Advocate in Residence, Gillian More, a lifelong prosecutor with a worldwide reputation in advocacy, and the Haub Law Advocacy Board launched

The Advocate’s Advantage, the official blog of the Haub Law Advocacy Program. We are eager to see what new heights the program soars to this upcoming fall.

Within the pages of this magazine, you will learn about additional highlights of our 2021-2022. We conferred the Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy on Ugandan climate justice advocate Vanessa Nakate and Professor Wang Xi, an environmental law scholar and advocate with Kunming University of Science and Technology in China. Several new scholarships were established by generous alumni and supporters of Haub Law. Our Advanced Certificate in Health Law and Policy was expanded to accommodate the increasing demand for legal education in the health care sector. Five distinguished alumni joined our Board of Visitors. We held several annual law school lectures with prestigious speakers on timely topics. Professor Bridget Crawford was recognized by Pace University as a Distinguished Professor, which is the highest honor that Pace University bestows upon faculty. These are just a few examples of our achievements this year.

Our faculty continues to lead as teachers and thinkers, publishing cutting edge scholarly work while mentoring our students to become the next generation of legal minds. In a ceremony held in April 2022, we celebrated seven distinguished faculty members who retired over the past three years. Fellow faculty, alumni, students and colleagues gathered together for the first time since the pandemic to thank them for their years of teaching, scholarship and service to the law

“Though we have had to evolve to a new norm on more than one occasion, the Law School community continues to remain determined and flexible in doing so, all the while launching new programs and initiatives along the way.”

school. We also welcomed new faculty, including Josh Galperin, who teaches Contracts, Environmental Skills, and Administrative Law. We continue to attract top-notch students with a variety of backgrounds. For example, 2L Decnis Pimentel, a first-generation college student from the Dominican Republic, credits her mother as her biggest source of power and inspiration. Decnis wants to serve as an example for women of color, and Latinas in particular, that you can achieve anything you set your mind to. Krittika “Kye” Shah, a 2022 graduate, was born in India and raised in Singapore. Kye was attracted to Haub Law for its location and reputation for an amazing advocacy program and will join the New YorkCity Law Department after she takes the bar exam. While volunteering to protect a local river, LLM Candidate Rhea Mallett recognized how much more effective she could be if she knew more about wetlands, groundwater, and land use law—so she turned to Haub Law as a result of its premier environmental law reputation.

Recently, while pursuing her LLM degree at Haub Law, Rhea was elected a Village trustee in Briarcliff Manor.

As you read this year’s alumni magazine, please take note of the strength of our alumni community and its many successes. You will read about the involvement of two of our graduates in helping secure land use entitlements for Frito Law, about the summer legal internship opportunity created at the NYC Office of the Inspector General’s Office in memory of dedicated alumnus Philip Foglia ’80, about the generosity of John Lettera ’99 and why he feels it is so important to give back to his alma mater, and more. We are exceedingly proud of our alumni, who continue to stand committed to our institution—providing internship opportunities and post-graduate employment for our students, giving us wise advice when consulted, serving as leaders of the bar, bench, business, and non-profit communities, and generously donating to the law school. Our alumni are critical to the success of our institution and we thank you for your continued support.

As we are now in June of 2022, we have much to be proud of, and with the summer comes an opportunity to reflect. Though we are still living through the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects, which are proving to be long lasting, we can see that light at the end of the tunnel and I am proud to have been surrounded by the Haub Law community through it all. I wish you all a safe and healthy summer, filled with the time to make memories with those who are important to you. I look forward to seeing you all at a future event.

Sincerely,

Horace E. Anderson Jr. Dean

SUMMER 2022

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We’re Number 1 (Again)!

Haub Law’s Environmental Law Program receives Top Ranking for the Second Consecutive Year

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ACE UNIVERSITY’S Elisabeth Haub School of Law is once again ranked number one in the country for Environmental Law by the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings.

This is the second year in a row, and the third time in four years, that Haub Law has received the number one ranking for Environmental Law, marking the latest major success for the school’s Environmental Law Program.

Consistently rated among the very best in the country, the program continues to recruit top faculty, establish leading-edge programs to address the most pressing environmental challenges, and attract students who seek to become the environmental law leaders of the future.

“Our Environmental Law Program is known globally for its impact on environmental law and policy,” said Pace University President Marvin Krislov. “Its continued Number 1 ranking reflects the extraordinary depth and breadth of our program and its ongoing focus on innovation. Congratulations to the faculty, staff, students, and alumni of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law on this recognition, and many thanks to the Haub family for their ongoing commitment to the environment and to our law school.”

The Environmental Law Program is widely known for signature programs including the Environmental Litigation Clinic, the Food and Beverage Law Clinic, and the Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition. Recently, the program also initiated the Environmental Law and Policy Hack Competition

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for law schools throughout the country. This year, the Law School launched the Sustainable Business Law Hub, which will create opportunities for training, policy, and research that addresses global environmental challenges. The Law School also hosts lectures and panels throughout the year featuring environmental scholars, advocates, and policymakers, and it recognizes leading international environmentalists through the annual presentation of the Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy, considered one of the world’s most distinguished awards in the field of environmental law.

“I am thrilled that the work of our Environmental Law Program has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report for the second year in a row with a number-one ranking,” said Jason J. Czarnezki, Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law and Associate Dean and Executive Director of Environmental Law Programs. "Our program prepares students to hit the ground running once they graduate and begin their careers as environmental lawyers in law firms, non-profits, environmental NGOs, companies and government agencies.”

Haub Law offers more than 40 environmental law courses. Students can research emerging areas of environmental law through the Environmental Law Program’s various centers and institutes, including the Pace Energy & Climate Center and the Land Use Law Center, and can directly represent clients through

OF NOTE

the Environmental Litigation Clinic and the Food and Beverage Law Clinic.

Haub Law is one of only two law schools worldwide to be a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which provides students with the opportunity to draft memoranda, debate issues, and attend IUCN meetings, including the World Conservation Congress and US National Committee meetings. The Law School is also CoSecretariat to the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, helping to nurture environmental legal education and promote the conceptual development of environmental law internationally. Through the United Nations Diplomacy Practicum, students provide assistance to UN country Missions by attending their meetings and preparing research on issues such as climate change, renewable energy, fisheries protection, and forest management. These opportunities provide Haub Law students with the tools they need to be national and international leaders in environmental law.

The Elisabeth Haub School of Law’s Dispute Resolution program also rose significantly in the rankings this year, moving up to number 32 from number 67 last year. Haub Law is proud to offer students a wide variety of ADR classes, ranging from Environmental Dispute Resolution to the endowed Amelia Gould Representation in Mediation Clinic, and is a founder of the William C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. The School’s part-time program increased in the

rankings as well, moving up to number 47, a significant increase from prior years’ rankings. This improvement reflects Haub Law’s expansion of its part-time program with flexible scheduling options that enable working professionals and others to take their core law school classes on the evenings and weekends.

Additionally, Haub Law’s impressive trial advocacy program once again ranked in the top 15% of law schools, coming in at number 26 this year. Over the last few years, Haub Law has had 28+ Mock Trial and Moot Court Teams, with an average of over 124 student participants on these teams as a whole. The Law School’s Mock Trial and Moot Court teams regularly place at or near the top in competitions. In the fall of 2021, Haub Law hosted its first Advocate in Residence, Gillian More, a lifelong prosecutor with a worldwide reputation in advocacy.

“Since its founding decades ago, our Environmental Law Program has been at the forefront of training the environmental leaders and advocates of tomorrow,” said Dean Horace E. Anderson Jr. “We are very proud of the leadership positions that our alumni have attained at government agencies, law firms, and NGOs, and of our program’s consistent recognition as being at the pinnacle of the field. We are also pleased with the strong rankings for our Dispute Resolution program, our Trial Advocacy Program, and our part-time program. I am proud of the work we have done and continue to do each day at Haub Law to provide our students with a stellar legal education.” n

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SIBLING STORY

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From Siblings to Classmates Michael Thompson JD 2022

Jordan Thompson JD Candidate 2024

From a small town in upstate New York, siblings Michael Thompson (3L) and Jordan Thompson (1L) both found themselves interested in attending law school during their college educations. Both Michael and Jordan spent time gaining work experience before beginning law school. Impressed by the clinical and hands-on experience opportunities at Haub Law, choosing to attend Pace for their legal studies was an easy decision.

What brought each of you to law school and Haub Law in particular?

MT: Throughout college and the jobs I had after, I was in the public service sector. I knew, for my longterm career, I would want to continue in it. I knew the most meaningful and interesting career I could follow within that sector was a lawyer. After working in a firm and in a legal unit of the Department of Health, I knew being a lawyer was something I would enjoy. Two years after graduating college, I entered law school. I chose Haub Law for both their clinics and the location. I had heard about all of the clinics and opportunities for hands-on experience and that was important to me. I also knew being close to the city would open more doors for my career and future without being in the center of a busy city.

JT: Prior to coming to Haub Law, I completed a legal fellowship in Massachusetts. Through the fellowship, I got to work as a paralegal at an immigration law firm.

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Growing up, I always loved legal shows and movies, but once I began learning about the lack of legal services available to those who truly need them and just how detrimental that can be, I decided to go to law school to help resolve this problem. In college, I took many classes about the current immigration crisis in the United States and became fascinated by immigration law. I also participated in a Community Service Mini-Term where we assisted and studied how low-income residents in Louisiana were still struggling with the effects of Hurricane Katrina and the lack of legal support ten years later. Between these experiences and my fellowship, I decided to go to law school to help give a voice to those voices that are often forgotten or not heard. My brother chose to go to Haub Law two years before I did. When I was deciding between law schools, I was really impressed by how much he said that Pace cares about their stu-

dents succeeding and setting their students up for future success, especially outside of the classroom.

There is a level of commitment that the Pace community has with ensuring that their students succeed that felt unparalleled to the support I saw from any other law school.

Which professors have stood out to you at Haub Law? MT: Definitely Professors Michael Mushlin and Louis Fasulo. I was involved in the trial advocacy program and I was the Boot camp and Mock Trial Skills Director for the Advocacy Honor Board and have participated on two mock trial teams.

JT: Professor Randolph McLaughlin, who I had for Torts last semester, always made an effort to tie what we were learning in class to current events or describe how it will relate to our future law practice from his own memorable legal career experiences.

He truly cares about preparing all of his students for success and encouraging us to become the best lawyers possible.

Michael, how did the pandemic change your law school experience?

MT: Zoom classes! It was an adjustment period of getting used to having classes online instead of in person. Ultimately, there were a lot of valuable lessons and skills taught as a result of zoom and I believe it has made us all better because of it. It is nice to see how the world is becoming more flexible and using online modes of communication, which has definitely been a plus, in my opinion.

In your opinion, what makes a good advocate?

MT: I would say the ultimate trait of a good advocate is someone who is thoroughly prepared. I believe this to be the biggest take away from law school.

Professor Fasulo taught me best, the lawyer who is most prepared is in a position to be the best advocate. By being thoroughly prepared you can identify and adapt to changing situations, whether it being at trial, a negotiation or counseling your client, etc.

By being able to adapt you are not as limited in what you can do for your client.

JT: A good advocate is a great listener. When you picture a lawyer, you often picture an individual speaking in a courtroom. However, you cannot truly advocate for another person successfully if you have not listened to what they have to say first.

Michael, what are your post-graduation plans?

MT: I am fortunate enough to have accepted an Assistant District Attorney position with the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, set to begin in fall of 2022.

Jordan, aside from immigration law, what other areas of law interest you?

JT: I am also interested in environmental law and hope to take more classes in these areas as I go into my second year. I am also a member of the Environmental Law Society.

What are some of your hobbies outside of law school?

MT: I really enjoy traveling and it is on my bucket list to go to every single National Park in the United States. I also have a dog, Czar, he is a husky with two different colored eyes and just turned 5 in May. I am a big baseball fan, especially the Los Angeles Dodgers. I also enjoy hiking and kayaking.

JT: I love to run and I have been practicing yoga for about four years now. It is not only great exercise, but it also is a great way to de-stress from law school. n

HAUB HEADLINES

Artist-in-Residence Geoffrey Stein Former lawyer turned artist Geoffrey Stein joined Haub Law as Artist-in-Residence in February 2022.

The residency is the law school’s first official yearlong program of its kind, providing enrichment and educational opportunities for both law and art students at Pace University.

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STUDENT PROFILE

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An Affinity for the Environment John Notoris JD Candidate 2023

John Notoris just completed his 2L year at Haub Law. A lifelong environmentalist, after attending a small environmentally focused undergraduate school, John started thinking about a career in law as the best way to make a positive difference in climate change. He chose Haub Law primarily because of their top environmental law program, the location of the school, and a generous scholarship offer. Now, after completing his 2L year, John is more passionate than ever about the environment, conservation, and climate change, but very open to being exposed to different areas of law.

Tell us about your background, what brought you to law school?

I grew up in Suffern, NY, just over the bridge from White Plains in Rockland County. I always enjoyed going on hikes in the local state parks, such as Harriman or Bear Mountain. I am not the type of person that always knew they wanted to be a lawyer. I really had no idea what I wanted to be when I was younger, and then, in high school, I considered being an engineer.

That idea was quickly thrown out the window when I realized math is not my strong suit. During my junior year of high school, I took APES, or Advanced Placement Environmental Science, and quickly fell in love as I have always had an affinity for the outdoors.

This led me to attending Paul Smith’s College, a small environmentally focused school in the heart of the Adirondacks. While there, I took an environmental law class. I really enjoyed the class and became friendly with the professor, who recommended I pursue an environmental law career. I graduated Summa Cum Laude in three years with a Bachelor of Science in Fisheries and Wildlife Science. After I graduated, to

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ensure I wanted to pursue law, I went to my local community college and received a paralegal certificate.

While doing so, I worked as a paralegal at a couple different firms and enjoyed the work. In the end, I felt I could make more of a positive difference for the environment, particularly when it comes to climate change, as an environmental lawyer rather than a field environmental job.

So now you are here at Haub Law with an interest in environmental law, health law, and entertainment law—what about those areas interest you?

I have always been passionate about the environment, conservation, and climate change mitigation.

As most people are now aware, without significant changes, we are currently on an unsustainable trajectory, doomed for disaster. I feel I can make a positive difference in climate change litigation through environmental law and policy. In terms of health law, my interest really piqued after taking a bioethics class here at Pace. I then proceeded to continue to take

health law classes and get involved with the Health Law Society and I noticed the significant overlap between health law and environmental law. With entertainment law, I love sports, movies, television, and video games. Given these passions, I feel I would excel in this area of law. A sports agent has been a career in the back of my mind at times.

You participated in the Federal Judicial Honors Program—how was that experience?

I really enjoyed it. Being in a courtroom and the judge’s chambers was a totally new experience to me.

I love the opportunity to sit in on various conferences, trials, bail hearings, plea hearings, arraignments, and more. Between those sit-ins and my research and writing work, there really has not been many dull moments. I am trying to gain as much experience as I can from as many different areas as possible while I am in school, and FJHP furthered that goal.

HAUB HEADLINES

Two Global Advocates Honored

by Haub Law The 2020-2021 Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy was conferred on Ugandan climate justice advocate Vanessa Nakate and Professor Wang Xi, an environmental law scholar and advocate with Kunming University of Science and Technology in China.

Has there been a moment or experience so far that has stood out to you in law school?

One of my favorite law school experiences thus far was working with some of my peers and Professor Ottinger to amend the IUCN’s climate change motion to, inter alia, encourage world governments to eliminate their uses of fossil fuels and fossil fuel subsidies and include solar and wind power in their definition of “nature-based solutions” when it comes to promoting renewable energy. The amendment was then presented to the IUCN at its last summit and ultimately passed. It was incredible to work on something that will (hopefully) have a significant impact on the world and encourage change. It is exactly the type of work I came to law school to pursue.

From what you have learned thus far, what makes a “good” lawyer or advocate?

The ability to properly communicate. Lawyers are constantly communicating with clients, witnesses, paralegals, other lawyers, judges, officials, etc. It would be impossible to be an advocate for your client if you were unable to communicate and properly understand the desired outcome.

What is your goal for the remainder of your time at Haub Law? I hope to devote the rest of my time at Pace to taking as wide a variety of classes as possible to expose me to different areas of law. While I know that I am passionate about environmental policy, I am open to learning about other areas of law and potentially following a different path than planned! I think it is important to be open to anything. Time will tell! n

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OF NOTE

Haub Law Alumni Help Secure Land Use Entitlements for Frito-Lay H

AUB LAW ALUMNI Jennifer L. Gray ’06 and Nicholas M. Ward-Willis ’93, are attorneys with Keane & Beane, P.C., and both received the Law School’s Advanced Certificate in Environmental Law. Recently, they helped client Frito-Lay secure entitlements for the construction of a new 150,000 squarefoot fulfillment center on a large parcel of land in East Fishkill, NY. Prior to Frito-Lay’s acquisition of the parcel, Jennifer and Nick also assisted in the extensive environmental due diligence for the parcel, which is part of the former IBM East Campus. The company will invest $100 million in the project, which is expected to create 80 full-time equivalent jobs in Dutchess County, plus about 80 construction jobs.

You recently helped your client Frito-Lay North America, the $18 billion convenience foods division of Purchase, NY-headquartered PepsiCo, Inc., secure land use entitlements for a new fulfillment center.

The facility will operate 24 hours a day, six days per week, distributing snack products manufactured elsewhere to the New York metropolitan market.

Can you describe what you did for your client in your role as local land use attorneys?

As local land use attorneys, we play several roles in moving toward the goal of getting “shovels in the ground.” At its core, our role is to ensure the land use entitlement application is being processed in a way that conforms to all legal requirements and creates a strong basis or “record” upon which the local boards will make their decision. Decisions by local boards to approve site plans, special permits and subdivisions, for example, must be based on the “record” before the board at the time the decision is

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made. As land use attorneys, we work to get the appropriate evidence into the record so the board has proper support to grant the application.

What was unique about the Frito-Lay entitlements is the speed at which we were able to secure approvals. Within three months after filing applications for special permit, site plan and subdivision we were able to navigate review by two separate approval authorities (Town Board and Planning Board) to secure approvals for each of those applications for the new 150,000 square-foot fulfillment center. Included in that period was the Town Board’s adoption of a Negative Declaration for this Type I Action pursuant to the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).

Anyone who knows anything about development in New York State knows this schedule is aggressive, at best.

Communication and engagement with local officials and staff was critical in allowing us to achieve this for Frito-Lay. Months prior to filing the formal written applications, we were in regular communication with the Town’s staff, consultants and officials to identify and work through possible issues and familiarize them with the project. The Town had been working for several years to encourage the redevelopment of the former IBM Campus so its officials were receptive and cooperative in working with Frito-Lay. Town Supervisor Nick D’Alessandro was especially helpful in supporting the project, which will bring jobs and tax revenue to the Town.

Early outreach and a receptive jurisdiction made for the perfect combination in swiftly securing the entitlements.

Tell us what is involved in the land entitlement process generally. Are there common principals applicable from project to project?

We could devote this whole magazine to describing the good, the bad and the ugly that’s involved in the land use entitlement process in New York.

Just when we think we’ve seen it all—from arrests at public hearings to tin foil hats worn in opposition to a wireless telecommunication application—another wild thing happens at a local board meeting. Suffice it to say that the fundamental goals applicable to all projects are to secure the entitlements in a timely, cost effective manner that satisfies all substantive and procedural legal requirements with a record that will withstand legal challenge. The manner in which this is accomplished varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but the same principals apply.

Does this work differ significantly from municipality to municipality, or jurisdiction to jurisdiction?

Even though the fundamental goals remain unchanged from project to project there are wide ranging differences in the manner in which an application is processed in each municipality. Every municipality has its own unique application submission requirements, some require pre-application meetings with municipal staff, some utilize the planning board secretary as the point of contact for an application, while others utilize the planning board chairperson, municipal attorney, building inspector, or other municipal staff. Boards themselves each have their own unique procedures for processing an application. Some have strict protocols to follow during meetings, while others prefer a more informal discourse. Some have particular subjects on which they focus their attention, such as stormwater impacts in communities that experience frequent flooding. Understanding these nuances and establishing relationships with municipal officials and staff in the communities in which you are processing applications is an important part of our job as local land use attorneys.

One aspect of the practice that remains the same in most jurisdictions (except, perhaps, Long Island) is the late-night meetings! We sometimes joke amongst our land use colleagues that by traveling from municipality to municipality each night for board meetings we’re following the tradition of our judicial forefathers who “rode the circuit.”

Nicholas, you handled the environmental due diligence work for Frito-Lay’s acquisition of the land for the project. Can you describe what that entailed?

The environmental due diligence work for this site had several layers. We worked with the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to

Jennifer L. Gray ’06

Nicholas M. Ward-Willis ’93

process Frito-Lay’s request to remove the site from the scope of a RCRA permit which covers remaining portions of the former IBM East Campus.

The site is also governed by a Declaration by which IBM put certain restrictions on the future use of the former IBM East Campus. Part of our work involved interfacing with the General Counsel’s office at IBM to confirm compliance with these private restrictions. I regularly worked with FritoLay’s environmental consulting firm, Frito-Lay’s transactional counsel and the seller’s agents to identify and investigate liabilities or risks to the client and then work to reduce or eliminate those risks. Part of the risk mitigation efforts involved securing environmental insurance for the client upon favorable terms. At the end, we were able to offer the client the advice needed to allow it to close on the land acquisition on-schedule before the close of its fiscal year.

Jennifer, you have collaborated with Pace’s Land Use Law Center—can you talk about that?

Jessica Bacher and Tiffany Zezula of the Land Use Law Center have been kind enough to invite me to join them in presenting several training seminars offered to planning boards and zoning boards throughout New York State. Typically, my role has been to discuss a board’s responsibilities under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). Review of the environmental impacts of a project pursuant to the requirements of SEQRA is an important step in the board’s procedures.

Unfortunately, many times project opponents use SEQRA as a weapon against a project. The Land Use Law Center does a great job in empowering boards

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OF NOTE Continued from page 11 to use SEQRA as a tool for improving a project, rather than allow it to be weaponized. Knowledge of the procedural and substantive requirements of SEQRA is the one of the keys for this empowerment.

What other kinds of work do you do for FritoLay and other clients?

In addition to representing land use applicants before boards throughout the Hudson Valley, we both serve as municipal attorneys to various cities, towns and villages. Our private land use clients find this aspect of our practice valuable. It allows us to anticipate issues that may be raised by municipal staff and consultants during review of an applications and utilize strategies for solutions which we’ve found effective amongst our municipal clients. Nick also regularly represents clients on commercial and residential real estate transactions and a wide range of environmental issues such as negotiating orders on consent with estate and federal agencies concerning hazardous waste sites and oil spill sites. In addition to this work, we both handle state and federal litigation that arise from each of these practice areas. In other words, we keep busy!

Jennifer, how did your training at Haub Law prepare you for the kinds of work you do?

The experiential programs and clinics at Haub Law are what prepared me the most for life after

HAUB HEADLINES

Food and Beverage Law Clinic Gets a Boost The Sands Family Foundation and Constellation Brands have agreed to give an additional $600,000 in funding to Haub Law’s Food and Beverage Law Clinic, bringing their total commitment to the Clinic to $1 million.

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law school. Participating in the Environmental Externship in Washington, DC, and working for the US Environmental Protection Agency exposed me to the process of agency rulemaking that is applicable to my everyday work. You quickly learn that every word of a regulation has meaning and the process of crafting the right language to minimize unintended consequences in a law or regulation is quite a process. My work with Lester Steinman at the former Pace University Municipal Law Resource Center was another key piece of training that taught me the art of researching and writing.

Jennifer, in addition to being an alumna you are also a long-time member of the Haub Law Alumni Board. Can you describe the kind of work you do with the board?

I served on the Alumni Board’s Executive Committee for several years with Stephen Brown ’04, and Michael Calandra ’05. I also previously served as a Chair of the Social Committee and helped put on events like Countdown to Graduation. The Social Committee was also responsible for bringing Dunkin Donuts coffee and munchkins to the law school on the first day of final exams each semester. We filled a table outside of the cafeteria with these goodies and the students were always appreciative for the chance to grab a quick treat or last-minute caffeine boost before walking into their exam. Our hope was to calm some nerves and offer reassurances that they will get through it! n

STUDENT PROFILE

You are the change you seek Decnis Pimentel JD Candidate 2023

Growing up in Harlem, New York, Haub Law student Decnis Pimentel experienced racial injustice first-hand.

In part, these experiences led her to law school with the goal of pursuing a career in law to create change and have an impact on our system. “I am a huge believer in being the change you seek and pursuing a career in the law allows for the unique position of being able to help a range of individuals from all backgrounds regardless of their race or economic status. Lawyers have the ability to create change for the greater good of society and I look forward to having a career in law doing just that.”

Decnis is already breaking barriers in her own family. “I am a first-generation student in my family and will be the first lawyer in my entire family. I am Dominican and the oldest of three children. My mother is one of my biggest sources of power. Her resilience and the sacrifices she has made is one of the many reasons I am here today. I am proud of who I am and my background. I want to serve as an example for women of color and Latinas who come from similar backgrounds and show them that regardless of the stereotypes or labels society may want to place on you, you are in control of your own future and are capable of achieving anything you set your mind to.”

Currently, a resident assistant in Haub Law’s Dannat Hall, Decnis is also an active member of the Latin American Law Students Association and the Black Law Students Association. This past fall, she also interned with the Pace Women’s Justice Center. “It was a humbling and empowering experience. I learned a lot, both legal and life lessons.”

Decnis also feels fortunate to have experienced having Professor Randolph McLaughlin during her 1L year, who she notes has “inspired” her. “Taking Professor McLaughlin’s torts class during my 1L year and learning about his extensive career as a lawyer has inspired me and showed me that the work done as a lawyer really does have an impact and can create change in our system. He shared stories about his career, how he navigated being a black man who is a lawyer and the obstacles he faced throughout his career. Learning

“Lawyers have the ability to create change for the greater good of society." about his path and how he persevered motivated me to push through a very stressful 1L year.”

Decnis is pursuing an Advanced Certificate in Health Law and Policy while at Haub Law. So far, aside from her classes, her favorite thing about the Haub Law experience is the people. “Everyone here is extremely welcoming and willing to give a helping hand.”

When asked about her advice for others who may pursue a law degree, Decnis said, “trust yourself and have confidence in your potential. Bet on yourself. Do not compare your journey or story to the person next to you. You have gotten to the current place in your life because of your own talent, knowledge, and potential!

You are the change you seek.”

As for the immediate future, Decnis is keeping her eye on the prize: graduate law school, pass the bar, and land a job in a law firm where she can create change. “I truly believe what I said, you are the change you seek, and I am confident that using the tools I have been given so far at Haub Law, I will fulfill my dream of graduating and having a positive impact on our system.” n

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OF NOTE

Haub Law Trial Advocacy Program Led by Professor Lou Fasulo, Director of Advocacy, Moot Court and Client Counseling Programs, Haub Law’s trial advocacy program was once again ranked in the top 15% of law schools, coming in at #26 according to the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings. This past year, in addition to regularly placing at or near the top in competitions, Haub Law hosted its first Advocate in Residence, Gillian More, a lifelong prosecutor with a worldwide reputation in advocacy.

Additionally, the Haub Law Advocacy Board launched The Advocate’s Advantage, the official blog of the Haub Law Advocacy Program. The blog publishes articles written by both students and faculty pertaining to a variety of trial, appellate, and evidentiary issues.

American Association for Justice Student Trial Advocacy Competition Team, Regional Champions/National Semifinalists

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Haub Law students Meredith Celi and Ryan Contaldi placed second overall in the Transatlantic Negotiation Competition, first of the United States participants

2022 Constance Baker Motley Mock Trial Competition Team, Regional Champions

2022 Louis V. Fasulo First Year Moot Court Competition Puerto Rico Trial Advocacy Competition Team, First Place Champions

By the Numbers

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Mock Trial and Moot Court Teams

146

Student Participants on Mock Trial and Moot Court Teams

273

First Year students participating in the Louis V. Fasulo 1L Moot Court Competition

100%

Job Placement of Board members over the past few years

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G R A D U AT I N G S T U D E N T P R O F I L E

OF NOTE

Impactful Experiences and Lifelong Connections ‘Kye’ Krittika Shah JD 2022

Born in India, raised in Singapore, ‘Kye’ Krittika Shah has always enjoyed public speaking and sharing her worldly perspective. When she decided that she could use this skillset towards a career in law, Kye knew Haub Law was the place she wanted to pursue her education due to the School’s location in New York and also their stellar advocacy program. Three years later, Kye is confident she made the right choice after impactful internship experiences and intense involvement with the advocacy program, including a recent first place finish in the Puerto Rico Trial Advocacy Competition.

Tell us a bit about your background.

I was born in India, grew up in Singapore, went to undergraduate school in New Jersey, worked my first post-graduate job in Singapore, and then came back to New York for law school! Growing up in different countries has given me the ability to adapt and get along with diverse groups of people and have a diverse array of experiences, which expanded my perspective along the way. My family is still in Singapore and I miss them very much along with the tropical beach life; right now, I don’t plan on moving back, but I would never count out the possibility.

What brought you to law school?

I have always enjoyed public speaking and the idea of using that skillset to advocate for others really pulled my interest towards law as a career.

What was it about Haub Law that interested you in particular?

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I really wanted to go to a law school located in New York, as I ultimately wanted to practice in New York.

In my opinion, Haub Law was the best option as they have a great advocacy program, were small in numbers, so students really get that one on one attention, and offer great student financial aid.

Which experiences at Haub Law have been the most impactful for you?

I learned a lot during all of my internship experiences, but my in person internship at the Bronx DA’s office is an experience I cherish. I learned so much throughout this opportunity—namely, how to become a real, practicing attorney. I was pushed to learn more and do more each day, and it made me a better future lawyer. Also, the professors and career services involved in the criminal law path to practice program at

Haub Law have been instrumental in helping me with my career, for which I will be forever grateful.

You are very involved in the Advocacy Program, how has that experience been?

The professors and coaches in the Advocacy Program run by Professor Lou Fasulo have had a real impact on my life. Not only have they made me a better advocate, but also they’ve made me a stronger person. I started my advocacy experience winning the 1L moot competition. And since then, under the guidance of talented coaches, I have advanced in every moot or mock trial competition I have competed in. In April of 2021, my Vis team broke records by advancing for the first time in 13 years, and then advancing for the first time ever to the top 10% out of almost 400 international teams. In April 2022, I was a member of the Haub Law Trial Advocacy team that placed first in the Puerto Rico Trial Advocacy Competition, hosted by Inter American University. It was an amazing experience. The Competition was held in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. After two plus years of virtual competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the first in-person competition for the Haub Law team competitors. It was a very bittersweet moment, as we received a standing ovation we also came to realize this would be the last time most of our team competed under the guidance of our fantastic coaches and in the advocacy program. I am also honored to say that the School has awarded me with the Keith Sullivan Award for Exemplary, Outstanding, and Professional Performance in Advocacy Competitions. This award truly means so much to me since Advocacy played such a big role in my coming to Pace and throughout my time as a law student here as well. I am so fortunate to have been involved in such a wonderful program and so thankful for the guidance of my professors and coaches throughout my time in law school. I have gained lifelong mentors and made lifelong friends through my teammates.

How did the pandemic affect your law school experience?

Being an international student attending law school during the COVID-19 pandemic was a real challenge.

At times, I had to stay with friends due to the pandemic, I had to take final exams from Singapore, and for the most part I did not see my family for three years. The students, staff, and professors at Haub Law tried their best to help me through it and I am so appreciative for that.

What are your plans post-graduation?

I am going to be taking the New York State Bar Exam and then working for the New York City Law Department. I am very excited to start my legal career.

What made you want to pursue a position with the New York City Law Department and what do you hope to learn?

Georgia Pestana began her career at the New York City Law Department and climbed the ladder to the very top. Sylvia Hinds-Radix had an incredible career as a judge before being elected as New York City’s corporation counsel. The Law Department was and is led by inspiring women and I hope to follow in their footsteps. I will be working in the juvenile prosecution unit and I hope to learn about and implement more rehabilitative programs for the youth in our City.

What advice would you give a current law student looking back at your experience?

The advice I give to all my dean’s scholar students is always make sure you don’t compare yourself to your classmates. If you are determined you will pass the bar, get a job, and meet your goals—everything else that happens in law school is just noise that will distract you from that goal. n

HAUB HEADLINES

Yankwitt LLP Establishes Scholarship at Haub Law The newly established Yankwitt LLP Immediate Impact Scholarship will be awarded to an incoming first year student who expresses an interest in social justice and demonstrates financial need.

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OF NOTE

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A Born Advocate Mattison Stewart JD 2022

Mattison Stewart has wanted to be a lawyer for as long as she can remember. “My grandfather is a practicing attorney and was a big part in my decision to go to law school.

I admire him and although my journey is quite different from his, he is one of my biggest inspirations. I also love helping people and public service. In undergraduate, I majored in Political Science with minors in Criminology and Human Rights and Genocide Studies. I immediately came to Haub Law after graduating college.”

Following her gut, Mattison loved Haub Law from the minute she stepped foot on campus. During college, Mattison was interning in the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and was in the same unit as a then-current law student at Pace. “He was talking to me about Pace and the Advocacy Program, and it drew me in. Ironically, now he is one of my coaches on my mock trial team.” During her time at Haub Law, Mattison became one of the co-executive directors of the Advocacy Program at Haub Law and a co-creator and editor of The Advocate’s Advantage, the advocacy program’s blog.

“The Advocacy Program was the highlight of my time at Pace. I could not wait to get involved and was truly so fortunate with the coaches and teammates that I worked with. Law school is a lot more than just learning about the law; it is about practicing it and being part of the action. The Advocacy Program forces students out of their comfort zone and offers the opportunity to compete on a national level against other law schools. I wanted to be an Executive Director to not only recruit other students to join the program but to build up the program and our national ranking. Being able to work with faculty, professors, other students, and especially Professor Lou Fasulo has really helped me grow as an advocate and future lawyer. The Advocate’s Advantage blog was something I didn’t

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think was possible, but it was with the help of the great Professor Jared Hatcliffe that it became a reality.

Professor Hatcliffe and I wanted to provide a resource for students interested in advocacy to write in an open forum about their specific interest. It was a smooth creation with quite a lot of student and faculty interest.

I can’t wait to see how both of these huge parts of my time at Pace continue to flourish.”

Mattison’s involvement in the advocacy program allowed her the opportunity to learn from and gain several mentors. Director of Advocacy Programs, Professor Lou Fasulo served as a professor, boss, and director to Mattison at varying points in her law school journey.

“He truly is a phenomenal professor who brings real life situations into the classroom.” Professor Jared Hatcliffe, Professor Carol Barry, and Professor Arthur Muller also had very positive impacts on Mattison. “Professor Hatcliffe puts all of his time and energy into making students the best they can be, both inside and outside the classroom. He is personable and willing to help every single student with life, jobs, advocacy, and anything we need. Professor Barry has been so influential and helpful in my dream to pursue criminal prosecution. Even

when I am not in one of her classes, she checks in and has helped me obtain interviews and internships that have been invaluable experiences. Although I have not taken a law school class with him, Professor AJ Muller has been my mock trial coach for all four of my competition teams. He has taught me the rules of evidence, advocacy, and real-life lawyering—I would not be the advocate and person I am without his guidance.”

With Professor AJ Muller as head coach, Mattison has been part of the Haub Law Advocacy Team that won two regional competitions in the American Association for Justice Student Trial Advocacy Competition. Notably, in 2021, her team placed as a National Finalist, ranking 2nd out of 192 teams. This year, in 2022, the team competed, again, in Nationals in April. The team competed against the top 20 teams in the nation out of the 160 in the entire competition, representing the five regions of the United States, advancing all the way to the semi-finals before being edged out of progressing to the finals. Additionally, under the guidance of Coach Muller, Mattison was part of a team that advanced to Nationals in the All-Star Bracket Challenge in Fall 2021, overall placing as semifinalists out of 64 nationally ranked teams.

Rounding out her advocacy experience, at Haub Law’s 2022 Gavel Gala, Mattison was awarded the Michelle Simon Leadership Award and the Keith Sullivan Award for Excellence in Advocacy—both in recognition of her dedication to and excellence in advocacy.

Like many others, Mattison’s law school journey was directly impacted by the pandemic. “I never expected my law school experience to drastically change after only one semester. I am grateful to have started

law school “normally” because virtual law school was difficult to adapt to. I didn’t know how to navigate law school yet, and then we were ripped out of the classroom and forced to learn on Zoom. I have to say, Pace handled the transition flawlessly, but it was an up-hill battle as a student. I love in-person learning, I don’t think anything compares to it. Because of the pandemic, I have only competed in mock trial competitions virtually—and that is not something I wanted, but I have learned to live with it and am just grateful I can still compete.”

Now, officially a recent graduate, after studying for the bar exam, Mattison will be clerking for the Honorable Ronald D. Wigler, Superior Court Judge in the Criminal Division in Essex County, New Jersey. “I met Judge Wigler when I was going into my junior year of college, in May 2017. Since then, I have had the privilege of interning for him a few times and I could not imagine a better learning experience. I was an intern in the Essex County Criminal Division and I observed a trial Judge Wigler was presiding over, and it was after that trial that I began interning for him. Ever since then, it has been my dream to clerk for him after law school, and I have worked hard to achieve that goal. Because of my working relationship with Judge Wigler, deciding to pursue a clerkship was the easiest decision I have ever made. The application process in New Jersey is painless because you can apply to so many judges from all different counties—and when you interview, everyone is so friendly and welcoming. I highly recommend judicial clerkships because they are a unique and valuable learning experience. After my clerkship ends, I hope to pursue a career in criminal prosecution.” n

HAUB HEADLINES

Haub Law’s GCELS Plays Integral Role at IUCN WCC The Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies (GCELS) successfully submitted and advocated for the adoption of groundbreaking motions to strengthen human rights and environmental protections at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress, which took place in Marseille, France from September 3 to September 11, 2021. Haub Law is one of only two law schools in the United States that is a voting member of the IUCN. Decisions made at the conference have wide-reaching implications for environmental law and policy around the globe.

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STUDENT PROFILE

OF NOTE

In Pursuit of Learning Rhea Mallett, Esq. LLM Candidate Dec. 2022

Having already completed law school at Columbia, passed the bar exam, and pursued a legal career, it was while volunteering to help protect a local river that Rhea Mallett decided to pursue an LLM in Environmental Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Now, almost done with her studies, Rhea describes her decision to pursue an LLM as one of the best decisions she ever made.

Rhea has been an attorney at a large private firm, to an adjunct professor, worked in government, has been involved in politics and most recently became an elected Village Trustee.

Can you tell me a bit about your background? Let’s jump right in, did you always want to be a lawyer?

Yes, at a very young age I realized the power of persuasion and learned it could be a full-time career as an attorney! I was interested in criminal justice reform since high school when I watched a news program highlighting our prison system and obvious disparities in our sentencing laws. I continued this interest in college, even while majoring in Latin, by writing my senior thesis on ancient Roman law where sentences for crimes were determined specifically by one’s social class. A couple of years after becoming an attorney I became a criminal defense attorney for the Legal Aid Society in NYC, representing those who were arrested and could not afford counsel, and soon after I worked full-time as an advocate for prison reform.

Stepping back in time for a moment then, you have a JD from Columbia University Law School, what made you want to pursue an LLM and, ultimately, why Pace?

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“So if anyone is thinking of focusing on a new area of the law, my advice is do it now— the sooner, the better. I have already gotten everything I had hoped for and more out of my LLM experience.”

I was recently volunteering to help protect a local river when I recognized how much more effective I could be if I knew more about wetlands, groundwater, and land use law generally. I began researching

these issues and the more I learned the more I knew I wanted to focus the next phase of my career on protecting natural resources through sustainable growth and development. As I became more educated on environmental injustices and the disproportionate impact climate change is having and will continue to have on already overburdened communities, it was obvious to me that an LLM in Environmental Law was what I needed to fully pursue my new goals. I applied to Haub Law’s environmental LLM program because of its stellar reputation.

Since starting Pace, who have been some of your most impactful professors?

While all the professors are incredible, two specific professors have had a tremendous impact on my experience at Pace. First, I am not sure I would be at Pace but for the influence of Professor Nicholas Robinson. Professor Robinson generously shared his time with me when I sought out his advice while trying to protect a local watershed. I was so inspired by his intellect, expertise, and experience, that I began thinking about pursuing a career focused on the environment. I was grateful to be able to take a course with him my first semester at Pace. Aware of my background, he encouraged me to combine my experience with prison reform with an analysis of the National Environmental Policy Act, and I was soon authoring a paper on the nexus between prisons and environmental justice concerns. The second professor who made a world of difference in my education and LLM experience is Professor John Nolon. While he is a renowned land use expert, he is even more exceptional as a professor. He focuses on student development, and his confidence in students brings out the best in those he teaches. He also provides students with incredible opportunities to engage in cutting edge research while contributing to the mission of the Land Use Law Center. Even when not in his class, I continued to do research under his guidance, and I am surely not the only one who does this.

What were some of the most impactful experiences that you have had while studying at Pace?

I had a singular experience in an Environmental Justice class taught by Professor Smita Narula.

Professor Narula created an intimate, safe space for students to share their research as well as their concerns about the environment and their future goals. It was a privilege to hear the stories of other students who shared the reasons why they were focusing on environmental justice and how they planned to use their law school education to change the world. I left that class feeling that the future of

“I believe that volunteering and serving on boards is part of my responsibility as an attorney and community member.

I have had amazing educational experiences—such as Pace—as well as a diverse employment history that has allowed me to develop some useful skills as an advocate. “ the law was in great hands with these young, smart, dedicated Haub Law students.

You were recently elected as a Trustee for the Village of Briarcliff Manor—congratulations! What inspired you to run?

While they won’t take credit for it, I ran for office specifically because of my land use class with Professors Jennie and John Nolon! An underlying theme to the curriculum, lectures, and work is that all environmental law is local. Students learn that if their goal is to protect the environment, their focus needs to be on local land use decisions by municipalities, such as villages, towns, and cities. While I was studying for the final exam in land use, the trustee position became available and I saw an immediate opportunity to apply the education and skills I learned at Pace to contribute more fully to my community.

You volunteer a lot of your time and serve on various boards, why is it important to you to give back in this way?

I believe that volunteering and serving on boards is part of my responsibility as an attorney and community member. I have had amazing educational experiences—such as Pace—as well as a diverse employment history that has allowed me to develop some useful skills as an advocate. I became an attorney to help others, and these boards and volunteer positions are opportunities to work with great teams to effect positive change and support others who are doing the same. I guess the short answer is it is why I became an attorney in the first place.

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Launched!

T

HE ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES of today require business to play an active role. Finding sustainable solutions to these increasingly difficulty challenges calls for young professionals with training, business acumen, and legal know-how. Recognizing the need for a new cohort of legal professionals, Haub Law has launched the Sustainable Business Law Hub to train lawyers in sustainable business practices.

“Haub Law continues to successfully train lawyers of the future, and our newly launched Sustainable Business Law Hub now trains the first generation of sustainable business lawyers,” said Haub Law Dean Horace Anderson.

Haub Law’s Sustainable Business Law Hub is more than just an educational venture to empower graduate lawyers with a mind for sustainable business practices; it also helps employ those practices in real-time, benefiting the social spectrum of businesses and the environment. Serving as an incubator space, a research endeavor, and think tank devoted to addressing local

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Haub Law’s Sustainable Business Law Hub to train lawyers in sustainable business practices

and global sustainability challenges through policy and research projects, relationships with the business community, and capacity building in private environmental governance, the Hub program is a prime opportunity for Haub Law to meaningfully contribute to the enhancement of good corporate citizenship.

The Sustainable Business Law Hub functions as a competitive program, with Haub Law students applying for acceptance and taking prerequisite courses.

The rigorous curriculum, with seminars related to environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), and sustainable development, is complemented with opportunities for practical experience through externships and a practicum. Within those settings, the students work in an in-house sustainability or legal department, handling environmental compliance issues, ESG, and assisting with sustainability strategies and policies.

Sam Perlmutter, Class of 2023, served as an intern with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP as part of the Haub Law Sustainable Business

OF NOTE Law Hub, working with the firm’s Sustainability and Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Advisory Practice.

She said the experience provided her with very useful practical training in applying the law to promote sustainable business practices in the private sector.

“As an ESG intern, I worked with the team and helped conduct a human rights impact assessment for a USbased, information communications technology company. I also researched and built out a playbook for the ESG team to use on the intersection of current-day, pressing ESG and executive compensation concerns,” she said.

“Additionally, I helped the ESG team address the myriad questions from clients regarding the recently proposed SEC rule on climate change disclosures, including comments on the rule and GHG emissions reporting concerns. I am grateful for the opportunity to work towards a new standard of corporate responsibility that includes a focus on economic, social and environmental welfare,” Perlmutter said.

Bailey Andree, Class of 2023, who also interned with Paul, Weiss, said it was an “incredible experience” to work with people so knowledgeable in ESG. It also taught her that there’s a lot to lawyering that happens outside the courtroom. “This has certainly given me a more defined

“This Hub is another example of our environmental law program taking things to the next level to help solve reallife environmental concerns and issues.”

“It has been an incredible experience to be able to work with people that are so knowledgeable in ESG!”

Professor Jason J. Czarnezki

picture of what an ESG attorney does. When I entered law school, I barely had an idea of what an attorney did: I thought I was entering a field with non-stop courtroom time! Thankfully (for me, at least), that is not the case. My time with Paul, Weiss, has shown me that I can conduct research and write reports on areas that interest me, focusing more on the behind-the-scenes practices behind a typical law practice. I am excited that my future could look like this and grateful to have the opportunity to experience it in law school,” said Andree, Class of 2023.

She continued, “Through my internship at Paul Weiss with the Sustainable Business Law Hub, I am working with their ESG & Sustainability Advisory Practice. I am primarily researching ESG practices of specific companies and evaluating them for Paul, Weiss. I have had the opportunity to attend a climate governance webinar, write a brief report on the webinar, research the SEC’s Bailey Andree, Class of 2023

Continued on page 24

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Sam Perlmutter, Class of 2023

“I am grateful for the opportunity to work towards a new standard of corporate responsibility that includes a focus on economic, social and environmental welfare.”

Continued from page 23 new climate disclosure proposed rule, and more. It has been an incredible experience to be able to work with people that are so knowledgeable in ESG!” Participation in the Hub is open to qualifying JD law students who have the opportunity to pursue an accelerated JD/MBA joint degree, receive the Advanced Certificate in Environmental Law, and take part in the school’s sustainable business law track in the Business Law Path-to-Practice, as well as receive specialized career mentorship and guidance.

In addition to faculty experts in the field, Haub Law has alumni who serve prominently in environmental law firms, agencies, and non-profit organizations across the US and abroad. The Sustainable Business Law Hub not only draws on the expertise of these exceptional individuals, it also cultivates partnerships between the school and the local legal and business communities to achieve its goals.

The Advisory Board for the Sustainable Business Law Hub consists of a number of legal and business leaders, including Jason Czarnezki, Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law and Associate Dean of Environmental Law Programs and Strategic Initiatives; Professor Achinthi Vithanage, Associate Director of Environmental Law Programs; Anna Marciano Romanella (Haub Law ‘00), Division General Counsel, Nespresso USA & International Premium Waters, Head of US Legal Sustainability at Nestle USA; Colin Myers (Haub Law ’21), Senior Consultant, FTI Consulting; Anna-Sophia E. Haub, ESG Project Manager, Emil Capital Partners LLC; Madhuri Pavamani, Sustainability & ESG Advisory Practice Director at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

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LLP; Haub Law Dean and Professor of Law Horace Anderson; Jon Brown, Professor and Director of Haub Law’s Food and Beverage Law Clinic; and Haub Law Assistant Professor Josh Galperin.

The timing of the launch of the Hub late last year also coincided with the launch of The Lubin Center for Sustainable Business by Pace University’s Lubin School of Business.

The Lubin Center focuses on the integration of business, environmental, social, and governance stewardship. The Sustainable Business Law Hub complements the Lubin Center and functions parallel to it.

As part of the launch of the Sustainable Business Hub, Haub Law will partner with the Westchester County Association, the region’s leading economic development and business advocacy organization, to host a business sustainability conference this summer. The conference will bring together major organizations and businesses, attorneys and thought leaders in ESG to discuss the journey to sustainable business and green cities.

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Creating such opportunities for deep thinking and knowledge transfer among the sustainable business law community is just one facet of the Hub’s potential for positive impact. In providing training and contributing to policy development and research that addresses pressing local and global environmental problems, the Sustainable Business Law Hub is a solid educational foundation for the incoming generation of sustainable business lawyers.

“Haub Law’s environmental law program is ranked number one in the nation. Our innovative and futurethinking curriculum is what continues to differentiate us from other law schools. We have been teaching our students the importance of sustainability for many years through our courses and our clinics. This Hub is another example of our environmental law program taking things to the next level to help solve real-life environmental concerns and issues,” stated Professor Jason J. Czarnezki. n

OF NOTE Continued from page 21 You have been an attorney at a large private firm, an adjunct professor, worked in government, and involved in politics—where do you see your career moving towards in the future—one of these areas or elsewhere?

That is, of course, the million-dollar question as I begin putting what I have learned into practice! I have loved all of my career choices, each position building on my experience while providing new growth opportunities. While I hope my future work will effect positive environmental change, I could see myself engaged in all of those same roles again but now with a focus of protecting the environment. I am in an exciting place right now as I develop these plans!

Do you have any advice for current or future LLM students?

Getting an LLM is one of the best decisions I have ever made! It is never too late to continue your education, and the classes, professors, and research are all geared to helping you become proficient in your chosen expertise quickly. So if anyone is thinking of focusing on a new area of the law, my advice is do it now—the sooner, the better. I have already gotten everything I had hoped for and more out of my LLM experience.

This includes an excellent education in a specialized legal area, an expansion of my skills to help me apply this new knowledge, and an introduction to people with similar interests. An unanticipated benefit is the law school community which is exceptionally supportive and collaborative. Oh—and it is arguably much more fun going to law school the second time around!

What are some of your passions aside from the law?

My passion is being outside and enjoying nearby forests, so I am usually hiking locally or kayaking on a river or lake. I love everything that has to do with the Hudson River, and enjoy heading to its shores for a good sunset. I even joined a local boat club even though my only boat is a kayak! I am grateful to live in an area with such an expanse of great public trails, parks, and access to the river. I also serve as a trail volunteer at the NYS Rockefeller Preserve, which means I basically pick up garbage when hiking, help others follow the rules of the preserve, and, most importantly, share my love of the trails with anyone who will listen! n

HAUB HEADLINES

Haub Law Emerging Scholar Award in Gender & Law Professor Marie-Amélie George of Wake Forest Law School was selected as the winner of the 2020-2021 Haub Law Emerging Scholar Award in Gender & Law for her paper Exploring Identity, 55 Fam. L. Q. 1 (2021). The prestigious award is presented annually in recognition of excellent legal scholarship related to gender and the law published by a full-time law professor with five or fewer years of full-time teaching experience.

HAUB HEADLINES

Alumnus Anthony J. Enea Establishes Scholarship The Anthony J. Enea, Esq. Elder Scholarship, established by 1985 alumnus Anthony J. Enea, Esq., will be awarded to a fifthsemester third-year student who has excelled in elder law courses in their first two years of law school at Haub Law.

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Green Amendments for The Generations L

ARGELY UNNOTICED in the wake of the contentious November 2020 election was the passage of the landmark New York Green Amendment to the state constitution, which states boldly that citizens have a right to clean air and water and a healthful environment.

And behind the Green Amendment is a little-known group, Green Amendments For The Generations, which seeks to secure constitutional protection of environmental rights in states across the nation and ultimately at the federal level. The group was founded in 2013 by Haub Law alumna Maya van Rossum ‘92, after she and her Delaware Riverkeeper Network won a key legal victory that protected Pennsylvania communities from fracking and affirmed the constitutional right of people in the state to a clean and healthy environment.

Following this Pennsylvania victory, van Rossum coined and defined the term “Green Amendment” and launched the Green Amendment movement, seeking to empower every American community to mobilize for constitutional change in order to protect the environment.

Green Amendments For The Generations seeks to advance a national, state-by-state Green Amendment movement to secure the passage of enforceable environmental rights amendments in the Bill of Rights section of every constitution—state and federal—and ensure their strong and meaningful enforcement.

“This state constitutional amendment will ensure that whenever government acts, the environmental benefits and ramifications will be among the elements given highest priority in the decision-making process with a focus on preventing pollution rather than simply permitting it,” said van Rossum. “New York is on the cuttingedge of the new national movement that seeks to secure highest constitutional recognition and protection of environmental rights. Communities and states across the nation who are part of the national Green Amendment movement have been watching New York closely.”

Shepherding the passage of the New York Green Amendment through the state Legislature was

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Maya van Rossum ‘92, Founder of the Green Amendment movement and author of the forthcoming book, The Green Amendment: The People’s Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment

Assemblyman Steve Englebright of Assembly District 4, who has a long track record of defending the state’s environment and environmental rights. He was joined

by New York Senator David Carlucci in 2019 and Senator Robert Jackson in 2021, who proposed parallel language in the New York State Senate.

Among key partners who joined with Green Amendments For The Generations to lead the way to success in New York was a group of prominent attorneys, including Haub Law environmental law professors Nicholas A. Robinson and Katrina Fischer Kuh. “They were key in organizing, educating, advocating, and supporting New York’s Green Amendment proposal and its ultimate passage on Nov. 2,” said van Rossum.

State Bar Task Force Several years ago, Professor Kuh spearheaded the New York State Bar Association task force on environmental issues relating to the state constitution. Assisting Professor Kuh were Haub Law adjunct professor Achinthi Vithanage, who is also Associate Director of Environmental Law Programs, and three Haub Law students (now alumni), Allison Fausner, Madison Shaff, and Patrick DeArmey.

The task force included many attorneys who had experience working with the "forever wild" provisions in the state constitution. Those provisions were added in 1894 and prohibit development in the Adirondacks, a mountainous region that is the source of the Hudson River, and the Catskills, from where New York City draws nearly all its drinking water, according to Professor Kuh. “The task force concluded that it was important to maintain existing protections in the constitution for the forest preserve and that there would be significant value in adding a new environmental rights clause to the constitution, as other states had done,” Professor Kuh said. The Pace Law Review published the Task Force report in a special symposium issue that also included articles authored by Professor Robinson (Updating New York’s Constitutional Environmental Rights) and Haub Law alumnus and Visiting Professor James R. May (LLM ‘91), (Subnational Environmental Constitutionalism and Reform in New York State).

In 2019 the New York Legislature passed legislation to add a right to clean air, clean water and a healthful environment to the state's Bill of Rights. The support was overwhelming: 45 to 17 votes in the Senate and 110 to 34 in the Assembly.

The amendment passed with an even larger margin in 2020. The Senate approved it with a 48 to 14 vote, and the Assembly passed it with a 124 to 25 vote. And on November 2, 2020, New Yorkers voted overwhelmingly to accept the amendment.

The amendment to the State Constitution added that “Each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.” New York is just the third state in the US to recognize protecting environmental rights as an inalienable right. van Rossum is working with communities to secure similar Green Amendment protections in a dozen other states, including New Mexico, neighboring New Jersey, as well as states on the other side of the nation, including Hawaii and Washington.

“I’m delighted that this success is inspiring others to join us in our Green Amendment movement so we can help them seek and secure their own meaningful rights to a clean and healthy environment like New Yorkers now have,” said van Rossum.

“While this is a simple concept, there are many facets that are key to securing meaningful protection, so I ask folks to please partner up with me to advance

Continued on page 28

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OF NOTE Continued from page 27 this in their own states so we can be sure we get it right.

We don’t want a repeat of the 70s where we had lots of states adding environmental language to their constitutions but not securing any meaningful change. And now in New York we need to be sure to set strong and powerful precedent that we can all build upon. It’s time to put the right to best use for the people and our environment,” she added.

Leadership on the environment “That New York state is one of the first to pass the Green Amendment is completely in character because the state has a long tradition of leadership on the environment," said Professor Robinson, who has pioneered environmental law since 1969 and has served as a general counsel of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

The push for a green amendment in New York is in part motivated by the defunding of the state's Department of Environmental Conservation during the Cuomo administration that weakened the enforcement of state laws, he said.

Since 1990, New York has failed to meet its duty to provide an adequate margin of safety for children, the elderly, or those with impaired lungs. This is an environmental justice issue also, since asthma rates for people of color are markedly higher than for others. By invoking their Right to Clean Air, citizens could petition New York courts to order the governor and the DEC to mandate measures that restore healthy air quality, Professor Robinson said.

Haub Law professors Jason Czarnezki and John Humbach also made important contributions to the Green Amendment scholarship in this connection, as did Haub Law alumnus and former faculty member Robert J. Goldstein (LLM '92, SJD '01), a professor in the law department at West Point, and Haub Law Visiting Professor, James May, Professor Robinson said. As a Distinguished Professor of Law, Founder of the Global Environmental Rights Institute, and co-Founder of the Dignity Rights Project and the Environmental Rights Institute at Widener University Delaware Law School, Professor May is a leading voice on environmental rights around the world.

“Pace’s leadership shines through in the leadup to the passage of the Green Amendment—no other law school comes close,” Professor Robinson said.

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By adopting the Green Amendment, voters amended the New York Constitution to provide a right to the environment for everyone in the state. The Constitution’s Bill of Rights now states in Article 1: “Environmental rights. Each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.”

“When New York voters amended the Bill of Rights, they decided that our birthrights to breathe and for potable water and to enjoy a healthful environment deserve the most powerful legal protection our State can afford. New York’s Environmental Rights are expressed more forcefully and gracefully than in any other constitution,” said Professor Robinson.

“We lawyers have a solemn responsibility duty to breathe life into this legal bulwark for ensuring each person’s fundamental birthrights. Our obligation is to serve our Constitution’s Bill of Rights as if life itself depends on our actions,” he said.

The law is now to be applied by all state agencies and local governments. The environmental bar and New York law professors had been advocating for such a selfexecuting right for two decades. A few editorials urged “no” votes, fearing a spate of new litigation. The vote to add this amendment was all the more remarkable because voters on that same ballot declined to adopt other constitutional amendments.

The voters’ decision may reflect their concerns that New York was failing to protect human health. New Yorkers have grown anxious about the increasing effects of climate change recently. New York City is still recovering from Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Voters are experiencing localized flash floods and intense weather events that threaten New York agricultural production and the flora and fauna in New York’s fabled Adirondack & Catskill Forest Preserve.

The Right to Clean Air exemplifies ongoing struggles to secure environmental health. Air pollution accumulates from diverse sources. For several years, New York has failed to strengthen its State Implementation Plan to abate air pollution in compliance with the federal Clean Air Act. The plan is designed to protect vulnerable persons afflicted by asthma or other respiratory diseases.

Oversight by the US Environmental Protection Agency has been lax in requiring New York to attain mandated clean air standards.

The clean water and air in the Green Amendment means that individual citizens can sue to protect their rights. From 2014 to 2016, residents of Hoosick Falls had to endure two years of cooking and bathing

with poisoned water before the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the US Environmental Protection Agency could provide safe water. Local industry had contaminated the aquifers providing their water. Judicial intervention could have imposed remedies securing their right to clean water. During this same time, citizens of Flint, Michigan, sued invoking their constitutional rights to due process of law, and governmental agencies at once began to supply safe drinking water.

A constitutional right accords to individuals a priority in securing relief from threats to life and health.

New era of jurisprudence The Green Amendment ushers in a new era of environmental jurisprudence. Legal victories secured in the only two other states that have constitutional Green Amendments—Montana and Pennsylvania—are demonstrating the power of this pathway for protection, van Rossum said.

She said further that the amendment has been used to strike down bad laws, to void harmful permits, to secure clean-up of long ignored toxic sites, and to guide good government action at the local level that

is protecting water, air, soils, ecosystems and human health. van Rossum is careful to add that to be a “Green Amendment” and raise the environment up for highest constitutional protection, there are certain criteria that must be met, and at this point only three states, now among them New York, have accomplished that.

With environmental security increasingly at risk, New York’s new “Green Amendment” can offset the serious environmental risk. New Yorkers can petition Albany or City Hall to redress their environmental grievances. Individuals can go to court to secure the protections promised by environmental statutes.

When there is a gap in protection, people can turn to their right to a clean and healthful environment to secure needed protection. Freedom entails preserving each individual’s capacities to foster resilience and to protect life, livelihood and property. New York’s Bill of Rights, bolstered by the New York Green Amendment, now provides the foundation for realizing the environmental rule of law.

People who want to become part of Green Amendment efforts in their state can learn more and get engaged at www.ForTheGenerations.org. n

HAUB HEADLINES

A Change-Making Collaboration The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and Pace University’s School of Education were awarded a collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation as part of their Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. The grant will serve to expand STEM and Technical Education Pathways in New York City Schools.

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Rising to the Challenge Haub Law’s Health Law Certificate Program ramps up to meet the increasing demand for legal education in the health care sector

O

VER THE PAST YEAR, Haub Law has ramped up its program in health law and policy to meet the increasing demand for legal education in the health care sector caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and an increased concern for equitable health policies. The virtual and in-person program is spurred by industry growth and a dynamic legal, regulatory and financial environment for health care professionals.

While the Law School has long offered robust training in health law and policy for both lawyers and students enrolled in its JD program, it has expanded its Advanced Certificate in Health Law and Policy online to accommodate practicing lawyers seeking flexible education, as well as health care professionals and administrators who require legal knowledge to adapt to industry changes.

“More and more, health care professionals require a strong understanding of the policy and regulatory context they operate in,” said Jessica Bacher, Adjunct Professor and Director of the Health Law and Policy Program. “Such professionals must be equipped to deal with rising challenges in health equity and human rights. They also must understand how to advise on transactional and compliance matters, and how to influence public policy.”

The new online certificate builds on the law school’s long-standing expertise in health law and expands access to advanced legal education for working professionals from across the region and beyond. Haub Law designed its online Advanced Certificate in Health Law and Policy to deepen students’ understanding of the regulatory complexities that affect the US health care system through live, virtual instruction and asynchronous activities delivered by its expert faculty. Even if they have no legal background, students can enroll in the program on a part-time basis and have the option to finish in just one year, benefiting from a fully online class schedule.

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Specialized knowledge of health law offers increased opportunities for lawyers and professionals to advance their careers in today’s job market. Haub Law faculty are expert practitioners and researchers with decades of experience as leaders in New York health care organizations. Students benefit from small group instruction delivered by professors who are at the intersection of rapid

changes in the field and who can help students integrate new knowledge in their professions.

The Advanced Certificate in Health Law and Policy program accepts both lawyers and non-lawyers, including insurance, risk management and compliance professionals, hospital administrators, clinicians, and leaders in a broad range of allied fields, such as nonprofits and government agencies who are seeking legal literacy. The program consists of 15 credit hours with four core courses, including a workshop in health care lawyering skills. The core curriculum covers topics such as laws and regulations governing the US health care system, practical legal skills for health care-oriented roles, ethics in organ donation and transplantation, access to preventive care and treatment, the role of government in public health, assessing risks, end-of-life decision-making, medical malpractice and fraud and abuse. Specialized electives include insurance law, accounting for lawyers, health care compliance, elder law, environmental law, nonprofit organizations, and the legislative process.

The health care sector is a huge part of the national GDP, and it affords many career opportunities.

Yet the health care system is complicated, involving many different intersecting legal regimes, such as the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid. The Advanced Certificate in Health Law and Policy program

Jessica Bacher, Adjunct Professor and Director of the Health Law and Policy Program

“Health care professionals require a strong understanding of the policy and regulatory context they operate in.”

is unique in the way it focuses on how those statutes work and how the law operates in this sector.

The Haub Law program brings public health law together with its established, number-one ranked Environmental Law program and its new and growing Food Law program, melding a cutting-edge understanding of community health with critical issues of health

Continued on page 32

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OF NOTE Continued from page 31 equity and justice. The program prepares students for careers in a variety of fields, including health care, biotech, public health, and food and environmental health.

Particularly in the region, careers related to the health care and bio-tech industries are on the rise. These jobs sit at the intersection of science, technology and the law.

Haub Law is uniquely suited to provide graduates with the skills they will need to compete in this new marketplace.

The future of health care in the United States will be shaped by several factors, including a heightened concern for public health, the continued adoption of valuebased care models, efforts to expand insurance coverage, high-profile mergers, and new technology for collecting and managing patient data. Each of these changes has crucial legal implications for organizations that already operate in one of the nation’s most regulated industries.

Meeting the challenges ahead requires health care law and policy professionals who can navigate state and federal requirements to empower functions such as care delivery, administration, and finance. The online Advanced Certificate in Health Law and Policy equips students to do more in this dynamic and growing field.

“What sets the Advanced Certificate in Health Law and Policy apart is the way we really get to the nuts of bolts of how those programs work and the role of the law,” said Professor Barbara Atwell, a health law scholar and Haub Law professor who teaches several courses in the program.

Students learn career-oriented skills from professionals with extensive real-world experience in legal practice and compliance leadership. With many connections to New York legal and health care organizations, Haub Law provides students with the strategies and insights to drive changes in world-class health systems, life sciences firms, nonprofits, and government agencies.

During her second and third years of law school, Kayla Conti, Class of 2022, took six courses to earn Pace’s Advanced Certificate in Health Law and Policy.

“But it was writing a paper in Professor [Linda C.] Fentiman’s course on Mental Disability Law that brought everything together for me,” said Conti, who was also Secretary of the Health Law Society.

Conti said further: “The course brought attention to an often overlooked area of law that is personally very important to me. With Professor Fentiman’s guidance and feedback, I was able to write a paper asserting that the False Claims Act can be used to punish and prevent the

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Recent graduate Kayla Conti ’22 earned the Advanced Certificate in Health Law and Policy and was secretary of the Health Law Society while a student at Haub Law. This fall, she will start as an associate at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP, a whistleblower law firm in Washington, DC. abuse of patients in the mental health care industry. This paper is now being considered for publishing in the New York State Bar Association Health Law Journal, thanks to Professor Fentiman’s encouragement. Moving forward, I am confident that I would like to focus on health care fraud—perhaps as an attorney in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit or as a whistleblower attorney.”

Providing Career Opportunities National Health Expenditure data shows that annual spending on care represents more than 17 percent of the US gross domestic product. To operate responsibly in this sector, organizations must prioritize strict regulatory compliance based on accurate legal guidance.

So it is crucial to employ experts in health law jobs who can apply their knowledge of federal and state laws to do the work that shapes better policies.

Professionals may pursue health law careers at legal and compliance departments for health care organizations, government agencies involved in health care regulation, or law firms specializing in health care.

Graduates from an advanced health law certificate program can excel in roles such as: • Compliance Officer • Health Services Health Care Manager • Administrator Risk Manager • Regulatory Analyst Paralegal • • • Legal Counsel Job posting data shows that skills learned from a health law certificate benefit nursing managers and medical secretaries as well, since these professions demand a thorough understanding of health care procedures and regulations. That’s because law and

policy impact every aspect of the health care system.

Providers in the United States spend almost $39 billion annually on compliance-related administrative activities, according to a report from the American Hospital Association. Industry leaders must remain current with federal, state, and local laws in every aspect of their operations, accounting for how regulatory changes might affect their long-term strategies.

Expertise in regulations and compliance empowers health care providers and businesses to operate in accordance with the law without being overly burdened by its complexities. By earning an Advanced Certificate in Health Law and Policy from Haub Law, students get the skills to ensure health care organizations meet their current responsibilities and prepare for the next wave of changes in response to public health challenges and more equitable health policies.

In May, Haub Law faculty held a Health Law & Policy Summit to help clarify the practice of healthcare for lawyers and non-lawyer practitioners who seek to

respond to everyday operations, transactional, and delivery of care challenges and emerging issues. The summit, entitled Unblurring the Lines in Healthcare: Understanding Key Legal Issues for Operations and Transactions and for the Delivery of Care, focused on how healthcare organizations can meet their current responsibilities, prepare for public health challenges, and seek more equitable health policies.

“A core strength of Pace has been its commitment to practical, skills-oriented programs at all levels in all disciplines, and the Law School remains true to that practice-ready mission,” said Linda Martin, an adjunct professor who teaches in the Health Law program and is the Chief Compliance Officer for a large healthcare company in New Jersey. “Students choose Pace for professional advancement and thrive in its collegial and supportive environment.”

Applications are now being accepted for the next start date for the 100% Online Advanced Certificate in Health Law and Policy, which is August 22, 2022. n

HAUB HEADLINES

NYSBA Honors PWJC with 2021 Legal Aid Awards Executive Director of the Pace Women’s Justice Center, Cindy Kanusher Esq., and the Pace Women’s Justice Center each received Denison Ray Civil Awards from the NYSBA in recognition of their impactful work.

HAUB HEADLINES

The Beth S. Nelson Memorial Scholarship The scholarship, established in memory of Haub Law alumna Beth Nelson, who decided to attend law school later in life and had a successful legal career upon graduating, will be awarded to a student who demonstrates financial need, with a preference for a woman who is pursuing a law school education later in life.

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Internship Honors A Dedicated Alumnus W

HEN PHILIP FOGLIA PASSED AWAY on April 21, 2020, the NYC Office of the Inspector General’s Office began to think of ways that they could honor his memory and the impact he had made on the office during his time there. Described by colleagues as the backbone of the Inspector General’s NYC Office and an integral, longtime member of the office, he was known for being a mentor to interns and young attorneys, spending time helping them develop their legal craft and hone their prosecutorial abilities. Soon after the appointment of Inspector General Lucy Lang, she and Deputy Inspector General Jessica Silver together came up with the idea of honoring Phil by creating The Philip Foglia Summer Legal Internship for students at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.

Philip Foglia ‘80

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Phil retired from the Office in 2019 as Chief of Investigations and Special Deputy Inspector General.

"The world lost an inspiring figure when Phil Foglia passed away," said Inspector General Lucy Lang. "His love for the law, passion for justice, and dedication to serving New Yorkers can only be described as enduring and indelible. This internship was created to give students pursuing careers in law an opportunity to gain valuable experience working for the Office of the Inspector General and to honor Mr. Foglia’s commitment, dedication, and service to the Office during his time here."

“Phil was a dogged investigative attorney who was undeterred by the political sensitivity or high-profile nature of a particular investigation and encouraged and supported his staff to do the same,” said Phil’s colleague, Jessica E. Silver, Deputy Inspector General. “In his position as Special Deputy Inspector General and leader of the NYC office, he led numerous significant high-profile investigations. Most notably, Phil led the investigation that uncovered a bid-rigging scandal involving the initial franchise to operate a casino at the Aqueduct racetrack. He also led the investigation into the Nassau County Forensic Evidence Bureau which resulted in Nassau County’s only forensic lab’s closure and reconstitution at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner under new leadership.”

The inaugural Philip Foglia Summer Legal Intern will be Haub Law rising 2L Mandi Bruns. “I applied for the internship to further my interest in government investigations. I worked on government investigation matters while working as a legal assistant at a law firm for many years. I am inspired by Phil Foglia's commitment to fighting organized crime and public corruption, as well as his notorious devotion to community. I hope to honor his legacy and make the Foglia family and Pace community proud with my work at the New York State Inspector General's office this summer,” said Mandi Bruns.

The summer law internship program at the Offices of the Inspector General kicked off on June 13th and runs through August 5th. "The purpose of this internship is to provide law students with the opportunity to work in a

government oversight office, learn about how government entities are run at an operational level, and get first-hand experience in the practice of law for public service," said Lucy Lang, who was appointed by Governor Kathy Hochul to be New York's 11th Inspector General.

"Interns will work with our office in a different kind of way—one that gives them an opportunity to shape the future of the work we do here at the OIG; to build their portfolios so that they can become the next generation of leaders in this State's fight for integrity, transparency, and innovation; and for Phil’s family, friends and colleagues to keep his legacy alive. Phil’s integrity, and commitment to duty will forever be carried forth by the program he inspired."

Haub Law Professor Bennett Gershman remembers Phil Foglia well as both a student and a dedicated Haub Law alumnus. “The loss of Phil Foglia is immeasurable and incomprehensible. Phil was a leader at our law school as a student and alum, a champion in the fight against public corruption, and a hero to all Italian-Americans seeking to preserve their heritage. I am proud to remember Phil as my wonderful student and friend and honored that the Office of the Inspector General will help keep Phil’s legacy alive through this internship in his name for a Pace student.”

“We are honored to carry on the legacy of Phil through this internship opportunity for Haub Law students,” said Jessica E. Silver. “Aside from his dedication to the Inspector General’s Office, Phil had many interests; he was an avid revolutionary war historian, reader, theatre goer (he loved Hamilton), beloved colleague, beloved husband and father. Phil was also an Italian American activist. He was extremely proud of his heritage and campaigned against negative Italian American stereotypes and discrimination. He established the Italian-American Legal Defense and Higher Education Fund and was a founding member of the board of the Italian American Museum. Phil was a key advocate for the inclusion of Mother Cabrini (‘Frances Xavier Cabrini’) in the “She Built NYC” program, which nominated historically significant women who made contributions to New York City. He was appointed to a 19-member commission created to oversee the Cabrini Memorial location and design.”

A member of Haub Law’s Class of 1980, Phil began his legal career at the Bronx DA’s Office. He was later a Special Assistant US Attorney in the SDNY, a partner at a private firm, the Executive VP of SEBCO, and in August 2019, he retired after a lengthy career with the Office of the New York Inspector General as Chief of Investigations and Special Deputy Inspector General. He was also very dedicated to charitable and community work, serving as the pro bono legal counsel for the Bronx Special Olympics and co-founding the Child Reach Foundation.

When Phil retired in 2019 from the Inspector General’s office, a retirement party was held at the historically significant White Horse Tavern in lower Manhattan, honoring Phil’s interest in the revolutionary war. n

HAUB HEADLINES

Five Join Haub Law’s BOV The new members include Jeffrey Delaney, Susan Galvão, Paul Humphreys, John Lettera, and Chris Wallace—all are alumni of the Law School.

Chris Wallace

Jeffrey Delaney

John Lettera

Paul Humphreys

Susan Galvão

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Haub Law Launches Far-Reaching

Access to Justice Project

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T

he Pace Access to Justice Project (Pace A2J), housed and coordinated within Haub Law’s Public Interest Law Center, is serving as a hub for community collaborations, programs, scholarship, policy initiatives, and hands-on innovative academic and non-credit bearing experiential law student and alumni opportunities. Together, Pace A2J is designed to more actively engage students in learning about and contributing to real-world efforts to address the access to justice gap.

Studies by Legal Service Corp. have found that as many as 86% of low-income clients’ civil legal problems receive inadequate or no legal help. Then, two years ago, world-wide Black Lives Matter protests and marches erupted, spurred by horrifying and irrefutable evidence—most notably videos depicting the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery—of the continuing social and legal inequities facing people of color and other disadvantaged and marginalized communities in the United States and worldwide. And, this happened amid a global pandemic that, likewise, revealed and exacerbated these same inequities.

In 2020, the law school responded, announcing a renewed social justice agenda and reiterating its commitment to building upon the school’s longstanding work “in the pursuit of racial and social justice in the United States and in the world.” In announcing that agenda, Haub Law committed itself to ensuring that students, faculty and staff would use its training, energy, and resources to effect change in the way that law is taught, learned, and applied to promote social and access to justice.

Pace A2J marks a significant step toward demonstrating that commitment, and advances several specific goals set by the law school including facilitating additional opportunities for Haub Law students, faculty, and staff to become involved in community social justice efforts, expanding social justice course offerings, and otherwise promoting significantly greater collaboration and engagement locally to improve access to justice in our immediate community.

“It’s truly gratifying to see our vision for our Access to Justice programs coming to fruition,” said Haub Law Dean Horace Anderson. “The new A2J Lab along with the complementary A2J Seminar are uniquely providing our students with the critical skills needed by lawyers today to identify, diagnose, and address access issues using tools and knowledge from multiple disciplines.”

Pace A2J likewise advances several express priorities set out in Pace University’s most recent strategic plan, including offering innovative and interdisciplinary courses, expanding local experiential opportunities by leveraging Haub Law’s location, as well as partnering with external organizations to become a source of innovation and problem-solving. Also part of the strategic plan is creating opportunities to attract external funding for research grants, curricular innovation, and

entrepreneurship, enhancing support to pursue cross disciplinary collaborations and research, and elevating equity, access, belonging, and inclusion.

Professor Elyse Diamond, Director of the Public Interest Law Center, coordinates Pace A2J, in addition to her significant broader Public Interest Law Center responsibilities, including managing all career and professional development advising and programming for public interest-focused students. More staff will likely be added to her efforts. She also designed and teaches the Lab and Seminar.

“I am incredibly excited about leading the Pace Access to Justice Project,” said Professor Diamond.

“And I’m grateful for the support I have received from Dean Anderson and others at the Law School and University for the Access to Justice Lab and Seminar courses and for my work with community partners to develop our inaugural A2J Workshop and expand our pro bono opportunities.”

“This program is an important step in actually demonstrating our stated commitment to expanding our social justice opportunities and course offerings for students and facilitating collaboration, innovation and greater engagement in wide-ranging efforts to address access to justice gaps in our community,” Professor Diamond said.

Pace A2J is an umbrella initiative, which as it develops will have curricular, programmatic, pro bono, scholarship and policy components.

Access to Justice Lab Pace A2J includes a number of notable curricular innovations. The interdisciplinary Access to Justice Lab had its inaugural semester in the fall of 2021 as a two-credit course. It was co-taught by Professor Diamond and Andreea Cotoranu, Clinical Professor and Director of the NYC Design Factory in Pace University’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems.

In the Lab, students were taught to apply a human-centered approach to collaboratively design the prototype for an innovative technology product or app to address a real-world legal A2J problem. Using legal technology to address A2J is a rapidly growing field and involves developing wide-ranging tools, including those to better educate the public about legal rights, court processes, or available legal services, self-help tools and tools that do basic legal tasks, and tools to track and manage data.

The A2J Lab brought together students from across Pace University to apply human-centered design-thinking and legal training to create an innovative technology tool to address a real-world gap in access to justice. Six second- and third-year Haub Law students, Lili Caparosa, Dagmar Cornejo, Pamela Guerrero, Daniel Guarracino, Gabriella Mickel, and Nina Rodriguez, joined five graduate students, Aastha Bhadani, Aram Stepanian, Pravin

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ACCESS TO JUSTICE PROJECT Shinde, Shefali Kamalnakhawa, and Rohan Singhand, and one undergraduate student, Deye Sarr, from Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, to collaborate in the unique, immersive, and interdisciplinary course. The course challenge presented to the students this fall was to help low-income Westchester County tenants facing serious rental apartment habitability issues, and guided students through the research and development of a technology application prototype to empower tenants.

“We tasked students to learn about the complex legal and social systems that impact tenants in Westchester facing health, safety, environmental, and livability issues by engaging directly with community stakeholders, and to identify truly practical solutions,” said Professor Diamond.

“Multiple factors including limited affordable rental housing, multi-step and de-centralized complaint processes that vary by local municipality, and eviction fear, lead many Westchester tenants to feel helpless to address even serious health and safety issues in their apartments,” she said. “Through user personas, stakeholder interviews, outside research, and synthesizing

The inaugural A2J Lab class successfully designed a prototype of a mobile-friendly web application exercises, our team explored where in the process a technology tool could benefit tenants and their advocates and encourage helpful legal and policy solutions.”

During the design process discovery phase, students researched applicable legal information, statistics, and stories, to help them understand this real-world access to justice issue. “We learned that the housing stock in Westchester is old and unaffordable, forcing low-income tenants who do not have enough housing options or income to be selective, to take or

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remain in housing even if it is unsafe,” said Gabriella Mickel, Class of 2023.

According to the Westchester County Housing Needs Assessment, more than 70% of the housing stock is nearly 50 years old, which strongly suggests a high number of homes are in need of major rehabilitation, and more than 11,000 affordable housing units are needed.

Students also interviewed community and legal housing advocates, including Mount Vernon United Tenants Executive Director Dennis Hanratty; Westchester Residential Opportunities, Inc. Executive Director Marlene Zarfes and Deputy Director Andrew Smith; and Legal Services of the Hudson Valley’s Pro Bono Director Christopher Oldi, Litigation Director Marcie Kobak, and Intake Director Shira Galinsky. These stakeholders helped students to understand the relevant legal processes, but also highlighted how effective access to justice technology could be.

After synthesizing information from the research phase, students spent several weeks developing a prototype for a website application meant to help address the power imbalance between tenants and landlords in Westchester. The tool, which would be accessible in English and Spanish, was designed to allow mobile users to learn their rights and to record and track habitability issues in one easy-to-navigate place. It includes a resources section, a record-keeping feature with document generation and a checklist, data analytics to collect anonymous information that can be used for advocacy efforts, and a forum with private messaging.

The Lab culminated in a team presentation and prototype demonstration to select stakeholders and faculty. Students came away from the experience with a deeper understanding about the barriers facing lower income tenants and how to help them navigate local legal and related processes. The inaugural A2J Lab class prototype design is so potentially impactful, that the group is pursuing funding for the web application through private funders and competitions, to make this solution available to the public.

The Lab course is especially timely because legal employers want law graduates to be comfortable using technology tools, and in some cases to help innovate to use tech to improve A2J or practice, and law schools around the country are building A2J awareness and tech training into their curriculum.

“The A2J Lab was a very informative, hands-on experience that challenged me to thoroughly understand the

Professor Elyse Diamond worked with students Gabriella Mickel, Lili Caparosa, and Daniel Guarracino to create a business plan and refined A2J project presentation for a Law Student Innovation Competition where the team ultimately placed first.

individual that I want to help, rather than rely on my prior assumptions,” said Pamela Guerrero, a 3L participant.

“Ultimately, we created a prototype of a mobilefriendly web application that has a resources section with analytics, a record-keeping feature with document generation and a checklist, and a forum with private messaging. After the class, a few of us got to help present the prototype to Majority Leader of the New York State Senate Andrea Stewart-Cousins. We also entered our idea in a Law Student Innovation Competition sponsored by Brooklyn Law School and a second, the Georgetown Law sponsored Iron Tech Invitational,” said Mickel.

The 9th Annual Stanley M. Grossman Innovators Invitational is an annual event held by The Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship (CUBE) at Brooklyn Law School. Competitors are invited to develop and pitch their legal technology startups to a prestigious panel of judges, including industry professionals, entrepreneurs, and investors, to compete for prize money to help launch their ventures. This spring, the Haub Law team of three students from the Lab, Mickel, Caparosa and Guarracino, worked with Professor Diamond to create a business plan and refined A2J project presentation for the competition and placed first, winning the Invitational’s Manne Prize and $9,000 to help launch the project from an idea into reality.

Mickel said further that the most valuable aspect of the class was working on an interdisciplinary team.

“In law school, we are put into a bubble and only work with other law students. In the real world, lawyers are

part of interdisciplinary teams with various expertise, perspectives, and opinions. Learning to work and communicate in this type of setting has better prepared me to work in the legal profession. This lab is a unique opportunity law students should take advantage of.

The professors were also outstanding,” she said.

Daniel Guarracino, Class of 2023, said through his work in the Lab he learned about the power imbalance between tenants and landlords, and issues including habitability that residents face in Westchester.

“The lack of affordable housing pushes people without financial resources to knowingly take unsafe housing. Furthermore, brokers and landlords are putting up barriers to prevent housing voucher holders—and that this disproportionately impacts who are overwhelmingly people of color and people with disabilities—from living all over Westchester. People are afraid to act on their own behalf because they do not know their rights. They think that complaining about habitability issues can get them evicted. We also learned that renters can be more effective when they act collectively. That is why we incorporated a group forum feature into our prototype website.”

Third-year law student Lili Caparosa, a fall 2021 A2J Lab student and part of the law student team presenting the Lab prototype idea at the Brooklyn Law Legal Tech Innovation Invitational and Iron Tech Invitational, shared this about her experience: “I have loved participating in the Lab and the [Innovation] Competitions because they have given me the opportunity to directly address issues within the community. It has been

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ACCESS TO JUSTICE PROJECT

Professor Elyse Diamond

“This program is an important step in actually demonstrating our stated commitment to expanding our social justice opportunities and course offerings for students and facilitating collaboration, innovation and greater engagement in wide-ranging efforts to address access to justice gaps in our community.”

exciting to work with students across different disciplines and see how we can all work to address injustices."

Nina Rodriguez, also a 3L, called the A2J Lab a “one-of-kind experience.”

“I improved my interview and public speaking skills through the class and feel more confident in those skills. I enjoyed learning about the design process in creating apps and websites, which I may not have had the opportunity to do otherwise. I left the class with invaluable experiences that will benefit me in my legal career,” she added.

Access to Justice Seminar Another curricular component of Pace A2J is the Access to Justice Seminar. Offered as a two-credit course each spring and taught by Professor Diamond, the A2J Seminar is a scholarly writing course that satisfies the law school’s upper-level writing requirement.

Seminar students gain a foundation in wide-ranging access to justice issues that are increasingly relevant to both public interest and private sector legal practice, by drafting and presenting a compelling scholarly paper on an access to justice issue.

Students receive highly individualized guidance and feedback, and have the opportunity to brainstorm with and hear from guest speakers on access to justice

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issues relating to the intersection of social justice and technology, climate and other environmental justice, criminal justice, immigration, health law, voting rights, and housing, to name a few issue areas. The work produced in the workshop is hoped to be of a quality that could be refined for publication in a scholarly journal or other legal or social justice periodical, or even serve as a basis for a public interest fellowship proposal.

This spring, the A2J Seminar hosted several guest lecturers, including several Haub Law alumni, who spoke about their work in areas including affordable housing, environmental justice and human rights, voting access, and criminal justice reform. Exposing students to lawyers engaged in this work deepens their understanding about the law and a lawyer’s obligation to improve access, encourages them to think creatively and analytically about solutions, and prepares them to engage with practitioners about current access issues.

A2J Seminar participant Danielle Maffei, whose spring 2022 scholarly paper proposes legislative action to prohibit laws and policies that effectively decriminalize homelessness, said: “I have always wanted to serve the public through law. After learning about [Westchester County’s collaborative criminal diversion program for nonviolent offenders] the Fresh Start Initiative in my Access to Justice Seminar, it inspired

me even more. I was also able to engage about this and other initiatives during my interview process with the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office. I enthusiastically accepted a post-graduate offer from that Office, and I look forward to working as a prosecutor and advancing justice in my home county.”

These courses are designed to leverage and integrate significant participation by lawyers and community advocates working on access to justice—as subject matter mentors, speakers, and experts—which builds the law school’s reputation and relationships and provides extensive networking and other benefits to students.

Experiential Learning and Pro Bono A third key component of the Access to Justice Project involves experiential learning and pro bono dimensions. The project is expanding and formalizing the law school’s pro bono and volunteer opportunities in conjunction with several community and government partners. Haub Law has had discussions with the 9th Judicial District of the New York State Unified Court System Access to Justice Committee; the New York State Judicial Institute and its Dean, Judge Kathie Davidson; contacts at the Westchester District Attorney’s Office; the New York Legal Hand program; a Westchester County Legislator; and major area direct legal services organizations including Hudson Valley Legal Services and Legal Services of the Hudson Valley.

Discussions seek to more formally engage Haub students in shorter term, non-credit bearing A2J pro bono or other volunteer roles throughout the court and legal system. These engagements supplement the more formal externships conducted through the law school John Jay Legal Services clinical and externships.

A few students have already been connected to pro bono opportunities with the Westchester Courts and Legal Services of the Hudson Valley. This spring, for example, through the Public Interest Law Center’s expanded A2J Project pro bono collaborations with the Westchester Courts—and key partners including Court Attorney Referee Sheila Gabay—third-year law student Austin Sharron earned pro bono hours by performing legal research and attending conferences on foreclosure and other civil law matters in the Westchester County Courts.

As these new access to justice projects continue to become formalized, Professor Diamond will manage the opportunities that will fall within the Pace A2J umbrella so that pro bono projects operate professionally and seamlessly transition from year to year without interruption.

A final key component of Pace A2J consists of policy development, scholarship, and advocacy. Haub Law is a thought leader on access to justice issues, and it is promoting innovation and action to fill gaps in access to justice. Working with the New York State Judicial

Institute Board Chair, Dean Anderson has proposed renewed scholarly collaboration between the Judicial Institute and the Law School on access to justice issues. In addition, the Pace A2J hopes to host shortterm public service law practitioners-in-residence on campus to provide career guidance, practice area presentations and research opportunities for students.

Plans are also being developed to convene workshops and forums to translate programs, research and training into concrete solutions, including legislative and policy solutions. Workshop output will form the basis for legislative and policy proposals to public officials. In fact, in March, Professor Diamond, working closely with the Hudson Valley Justice Center Executive Director Virginia Foulkrod, a Haub Law alumna, and its Director of Litigation Director Jason Mays, coordinated Haub Law’s inaugural Access to Justice Workshop: Spotlight on Housing. The workshop brought together community leaders, legal services lawyers, advocates, and law school faculty, staff, and students to engage in dialogue centering on the critical importance of housing access, the current housing crisis, the status of “right to counsel” in eviction cases, and public service careers in housing law and related fields.

Through an expert panel discussion and breakout discussions with the panelists and tenant advocates, this workshop was designed to educate attendees about housing access gaps, advocacy and representation, and careers, and to provide a forum to discuss innovative ways the law school and its students and community partners are and can continue contributing to efforts to address the gaps in housing access in our community.

The panel was moderated by Mays, and the expert panelists were Andrew Scherer, Policy Director, Impact Center for Public Interest Law & Visiting Associate Professor, New York Law School; Marika Dias, Managing Director at Safety Net Project, Urban Justice Center; and Marcie Kobak, Director of Litigation, Legal Services of the Hudson Valley. Westchester resident Marilyn Martinez joined the panel as well to share her personal experience as a tenant who had to navigate multiple cases in Westchester housing court proceedings. The guided workshop generated concrete and innovative ideas and action steps to promote Haub Law student engagement in housing law and access.

Finally, Haub Law is looking for further ways to encourage collaboration and facilitate the New York bench and bar in joining efforts to enhance access to justice locally and beyond.

“These academic experiences, combined with practical training through our partnerships with Westchester County courts, the New York State Judicial Institute and other community partners will lay the groundwork for students to make a real impact in racial and social justice reform,” Dean Anderson said. n

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EVENTS

2022 Robert S. Tucker Prize Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office were awarded with the 2022 Robert S. Tucker Prize for Prosecutorial Excellence.

Tax Alumni Come (Back) to the (Hybrid) Classroom Professor Bridget Crawford hosted her annual Tax Alumni Come (Back) to the Classroom event on Monday, November 9. This year, the event was held in a hybrid format. Six alumni participants joined Professor Crawford’s Federal Tax class to talk about their post-Pace paths, current legal issues they handle, and general career/professional advice. The participating alumni were Christina Ciaramella D’Elia ’05, Erin McKinney ’08, Calli Norman ’20, Kevin Sylvester ’14, Shamik Trivedi ’08, and Jay Vyas ’14. This is the fifth year that Professor Crawford has hosted the event.

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2022 Gavel Gala The Haub Law Advocacy Program held its 2nd biennial Gavel Gala on Thursday, April 14, 2022 at Surf Club on the Sound in New Rochelle, NY. More than 200 students, coaches, alumni and friends attended, reconnected, and celebrated the Advocacy Program’s past, present, and recent successes.

2022 Pioneer of Justice Award The 2022 Pioneer of Justice Award was presented by the Women’s Association of Law Students (WALS) to Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly Member Elizabeth Lee.

An Honorable Visit Judge Philip M. Halpern, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, visited Professor Michael Mushlin’s Civil Procedure Class.

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EVENTS Haub Law Annual Lectures James D. Hopkins Professor of Law Lecture Professor Leslie Y. Garfield Tenzer delivered the James D. Hopkins Professor of Law Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, October 6, 2021 on "Social Media and the Common Law." Dean Horace Anderson appointed Professor Tenzer as the James D. Hopkins Professor of Law for the 2019-2021 term. During the holder's term, the James D. Hopkins Professor delivers a lecture that is open to the entire law school community and members of the public.

Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law Professor Erika George delivered the Annual Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law on Monday, November 15, 2021 on "Incorporating Human Rights: Corporate Responsibility, Equity, and Just Environments." The Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law was established in 1995 in memory of Lloyd K. Garrison, a pioneer in the field. Professor Erika George is the Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law at S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah.

Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Lecture on Environmental Law On Tuesday, February 8, 2022, with over 300 people registered, Roger Martella virtually delivered the 22nd annual Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Lecture on Environmental Law. Mr. Martella is the Chief Sustainability Officer for GE, an American multinational conglomerate among the largest industrial companies in the US The topic of his lecture was “This Decade of Action: How Corporate Social Responsibility Will Define the 2020s as the Most Historic Period of Environmental Progress.”

2022 Philip B. Blank Memorial Lecture on Attorney Ethics On Monday, April 4, 2022, Irene Oritseweyinmi Joe virtually delivered the 2022 Philip B. Blank Memorial Lecture on Attorney Ethics. Professor Joe is a member of the UC Davis School of Law faculty, having joined it in 2016. The topic of her lecture was “Learning from Mistakes: Ethical Considerations for Public Defenders.”

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2021 Pioneer of Justice Award The 2021 Pioneer of Justice Award was presented by the Women's Association of Law Students (WALS) to US Congresswoman Grace Meng.

Environmental Law & Policy Hack Competition Haub Law hosted the second annual Elisabeth Haub School of Law Environmental Law & Policy Hack Competition with the University of Miami School of Law winning.

Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition Instituted in 1989, the Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition (NELMCC) is one of the nation’s largest interschool moot court competitions. Despite the pandemic, Haub Law did not skip a beat and hosted the first ever all virtual NELMCC—allowing students to continue to participate in the highly competitive competition. This year, still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Competition was held virtually once again.

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EVENTS Annual Law Leadership Dinner The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University honored three distinguished leaders of the legal community, as well as outstanding young alumni, during its 27th Annual Law Leadership Dinner, held in person once again at the Rye Country Club on March 10, 2022.

The celebration was the law school’s most successful fundraiser in history, raising vital funds in support of student scholarships.

The Law Leadership Dinner, first held in 1995, is the signature fundraiser for Haub Law and provides the setting for the presentation of the Distinguished Service Award, which honors individuals or organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the legal community, as well as the Rising Star Award, recognizing excellence in practice among alumni in the first 15 years after graduation. This year, Haub Law introduced the inaugural Haub Impact Award to honor an individual who has made a lasting impact on the Haub Law community.

The 2022 Distinguished Service Award was presented to Mayo Bartlett '92, Principal Attorney at the Law Offices of Mayo Bartlett, PLLC, and to Brian S. Hermann, a 1991 graduate of Pace University’s Lubin School of Business and a current Partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP. The firstever Haub Impact Award was presented to John C. Lettera ’99, Founder & CEO, Fairbridge Asset Management. Additionally, the Rising Star Award was presented to Cherie PhoenixSharpe ’07, General Counsel to Connecticut Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz; Fatima Silva ’08, Managing Attorney at Silva Law and Co-Host of Reasonable Doubt on Investigation Discovery at Discovery Inc.; Michael Bauscher ’10, Partner at Carter Ledyard; Kevin Sylvester ’14, Chief of Police at Ossining Police Department; and Cayleigh Eckhardt ’15, Attorney-Advisor at US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

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EVENTS

Commencement 2022!

At the University’s first in-person graduation ceremony in three years, US Congresswoman Grace Meng delivered the commencement address to the graduates from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, and also received an honorary doctorate. This year’s ceremony, held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, recognized not only the class of 2022, but also the classes of 2020 and 2021, who were not able to have a traditional celebration due to pandemic-related restrictions. This year marked the first year that Pace University held a combined ceremony for graduates of its campuses in New York City, Pleasantville, and White Plains. Delivering the commencement address for Pace University was Mayor Eric Adams, who also received an honorary doctorate. Finance and philanthropy leader, Baroness Ariane de Rothschild, a Pace alum, was also recognized.

View Commencement Photos and Award Ceremony Photos on our Flickr Account!

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Class of 2022: Quick Facts 213 Juris Doctor degrees 32 Master of Laws degrees (15 in Comparative Legal Studies, 11 in Environmental Law, and 6 Doctor of Juridical Science in Environmental Law degrees).

9 certificates in Health Law and Policy 30 certificates in Environmental Law 6 certificates in International Law

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EVENTS

Awards Ceremony

Prior to commencement, on Friday, May 13, Haub Law honored outstanding members of the Class of 2022, as well as distinguished faculty and staff at an awards ceremony.

Class Of 2022 Student Awards

Faculty And Staff Awards

DEAN’S AWARD: Madison Renee Shaff

BARBARA C. SALKEN OUTSTANDING PROFESSOR OF THE YEAR AWARD: Professor Bridget J. Crawford and Adjunct Professor Jared Hatcliffe

ADOLF HOMBURGER HUMANITARIAN AWARD: Madison Renee Shaff BRIGHTEST LIGHT AWARD: Yasmin Noora Laskar THE CO-COUNSEL AWARD: Krittika B. Shah

AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING STAFF MEMBER OR DEPARTMENT: Dining Hall

THE COMMUNITY AWARD: Michael Andrew Pabon Jr. THE UNDERDOG AWARD: Michael Robert Thompson

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F A C U LT Y

Baker. Drummer. Scholar. Professor.

Josh Galperin

Professor Josh Galperin joined the faculty of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in 2021. He teaches Contracts, Environmental Skills, and Administrative Law. Professor Galperin is also an avid drummer, likes to bake, and has great advice for law students.

Usually, we start with the academics, but let’s reverse things, what are some of your non-academic interests?

Two things—baking and drumming.

I love cooking and baking. I am both enthusiastic about them and good at them. However, I’m patient, so I’m better at baking. It also allows me to have some space from my kids. I donated a baking lesson at Pitt, the last school I taught at, for a fundraiser.

The winner and I made babka.

Drumming. I was in a band, I was a drummer. I even played drums at my wedding for a song. I had a cameo for La Bomba. My groomsmen were in my band. And, I had the pleasure of playing with the Recess Appointments—the Haub student-faculty band—in April. I look forward to the next gig.

How did you first become interested in the law and eventually, in environmental law?

My dad was a lawyer and he loved his job, but he was a litigator. The schools I went to instilled the importance of the governance process. My dad was nonstop work, so I knew I didn’t want that aspect of law and early on I was interested in policy. I either wanted to run for office or become a professor. In college, I had to take a science credit. Given my schedule, I had to choose between neurobiology and wildlife conservation. The book was too expensive for neurobiology, so I chose wildlife conservation. I absolutely loved the class and decided to minor in that very subject. I was a political science major, so I had little choice other

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"I love teaching because I love working with students, helping prepare the next generation of leaders, helping introduce people to the law, which is a deeply flawed and yet brilliant tool for justice." than to become a lawyer. The wildlife class convinced me to focus on environmental law.

I see your scholarship covers many types of law. What led you to research in all these areas?

I don’t think it’s that diverse. My theme is the core issue of how we structure law so people can participate in the governance process. Food and ag, Conservation, Human health and the Environment, Land Use and the Environment—the theme can run through anything!

Can you tell me about your recent work?

I like my work to have two aspects: scholarship and practical projects. In my scholarship, I like to develop baseline arguments for why governments or policies should work in certain ways. My work on harmonic or administrative democracy falls mostly into the scholarship bucket. With this work, I’m exploring the idea that democracy is about more than just voting and elections. Democracy has a bunch of moving parts. My practical projects are typically government oriented.

One example is with the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). I’m looking into regulatory notice and the ways agencies give notice of what they’re doing. This relates to my scholarship because it can affect how people participate in democracy, whether that participation be through voting or engaging with rulemaking, for example. Another example of my practical work is the Farm Bill Law Enterprise, farmbilllaw.org, of which Professor Margot Pollans and I are founding members and Professor Jon Brown is also a member. Started in 2017, FBLE offers insights and proposals from legal scholars for the farm bill well in advance of the legislative debate. We try to put out reports to help congress ahead of time.

This also relates to my administrative democracy work, as I am incorporating just, equitable, and inclusive governance in the farm bill context.

You have written about food and agriculture law and policy, particularly where agriculture and food law intersect with environmental policy and administrative law doctrine—what do you see as the biggest challenges of the future in these areas of law?

The biggest challenge in administrative law is that the Supreme Court is constantly attacking the administrative apparatus, which makes effective governance impossible. For the last decade, the Court has been on a crusade and this term may be the most brutal yet. The destructive of the administrative state is, in turn, the greatest challenge for environmental protection because we absolutely need the democratic institutions of the federal government to implement environmental policy. International law, private efforts, state and local initiatives, individual change, all of this is necessary, but federal governance must be at the center and without a functioning administrative system that can’t happen.

What are the best parts of being a law professor?

There is only one bad part of being a professor, and that is grading. Everything else is an absolute joy. I love teaching because I love working with students, helping prepare the next generation of leaders, helping introduce people to the law, which is a deeply flawed and yet brilliant tool for justice. I also love to hear myself talk, which makes teaching fun.

Scholarship is so gratifying. It makes me constantly think and gives me so much freedom to develop and shape ideas that, I hope, can make a difference. Even if they don’t make a difference, putting an article into the world is just another way to “hear” myself talk.

Do you have any advice for students interested in environmental law?

Don’t feel like you have to overcommit to environmental classes or know everything there is to know about environmental law in law school. Focus on building the infrastructure for working while you're in law school. Find opportunities to do interdisciplinary work. Get involved in clubs. Do some non-legal work.

Be curious. Ask why do people you disagree with have different opinions? Curiosity is about having lots of questions all the time. Also, don’t be afraid to be excited about things. The goal should be energy and excitement, not getting the grade or the job.

What are some ways you feel we can each make a positive impact for a better environmental future moving forward?

I don’t have a good answer to this question. People need to make individual changes. But people should not rely on those changes. People need to vote, but voting isn’t enough. People need to engage in the democratic process from beginning to end and not let up. None of that is satisfying. n

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Faculty Highlights

Professor Lissa Griffin granted Fulbright Scholar Award

ABA Honors Emeritus Professor Jeffrey Miller with 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award

2021 Goettel Prize for Faculty Scholarship Winner: Professor Noa Ben-Asher

NYSBA honors Professor Bennett Gershman with Ethics Award

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IUCN establishes new global award named after Professor Nicholas A. Robinson

Professor Shelby Green appointed as co-counsel of LULC

Dean Horace Anderson Named to Prestigious “2022 Law Power 100”

Craig Hart, Executive Director of the Pace Energy and Climate Center, named to the “2021 Energy & Environment Power 100”

Pace University Appoints Bridget J. Crawford as University Distinguished Professor 2021 Ottinger Award for Faculty Achievement Winner: Professor Bridget Crawford

Meet our Visiting Professors

Bernard Freamon

James May Professor Karl Coplan and Achinthi Vithanage recognized in Lawdragon 500 Leading Environmental & Energy Lawyers 2021 Guide

Debra Moss Vollweiler

Celebration Honors Seven Retiring Faculty Members Haub Law honored the achievement of seven distinguished retiring faculty members at a celebration held at the law school on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. The honorees, including Karl S. Coplan, Linda C. Fentiman, Margaret M. Flint, Marie Stefanini Newman, John R. Nolon, Audrey Rogers, and Merril Sobie, retired over the past three years. Fellow faculty, alumni, students and colleagues gathered together for the first time since the pandemic to thank them for their years of teaching, scholarship and service to the law school.

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F A C U LT Y Recent Haub Law Faculty Publications Professor Noa Ben-Asher article

The Emergency Next Time, 18 STAN. J. C.R & C.L. 51 (2022) Professor Karl S. Coplan book

Climate Change Law: An Introduction (2021) (with Shelby Green, Katrina Kuh, Smita Narula, Karl Rabago & Radina Valova, eds.)

Professor Bridget J. Crawford b o o ks

Menstruation Matters: Challenging the Law’s Silence on Periods (2022) (with Emily Gold Waldman) Wills, Trusts & Estates: An Integrated Approach (2d ed. 2021) (with Danaya C. Wright & Michael J. Higdon) articles

Estate Planning for Cannabis Business Owners: An Introduction, 41 Actec L.J. 11 (2021) (with Jonathan G. Blattmachr) Menstruation and the Bar Exam: Unconstitutional Tampon Bans, 41 Colum. J. Gender & L. 62 (2021) Tax Benefits, Higher Education and Race: A Gift Tax Proposal for Direct Tuition Payments, 72 S.C. L. REV. 783 (2021) (with Wendy C. Gerzog) Period Poverty in a Pandemic: Harnessing Law to Achieve Menstrual Equity, 98 WASH. U. L. REV. 1569 (2021) (with Emily Gold Waldman) Wills Formalities in a Post-Pandemic World: A Research Agenda, 2021 U. Chi. Legal F. 93 (with Kelly Purser & Tina Cockburn) Law Faculty Experiences Teaching During the Pandemic, 43 St. Louis U. L.j. 1 (2021) (with Michelle S. Simon) book chapters

Teaching with Feminist Judgments, in Doctrine & Diversity: Inclusion & Equity In The Law School Classroom, 241-53 (Nicole P. Dyszlewski et al. eds., 2021) (with Kathryn M. Stanchi & Linda L. Berger)

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A Taxing Feminism, in The Oxford Handbook Of Feminism And Law In The United States (Deborah Brake, Martha Chamallas & Verna Williams eds., 2021) (with Anthony C. Infanti) Commentary on Strittmater’s Estate, in Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Trusts & Estates Opinions (Carla Spivack et al. eds., 2020) (with Lloyd Bonfield) other writings

Estate and Gift Tax Valuation of Cannabis Business Interests: The Myriad State and Federal Rules that Apply to their Creation, Operation and Transfer, TRS. & ESTS., Jan. 2022, at 22 (with Jonathan G. Blattmachr & Mitchell M. Gans)

Narula, Karl Rabago & Radina Valova, eds.) articles

Non-Debt and Non-Bank Financing for Home Purchase: Promises and Risks, 10 AM. U. Bus. L. Rev.437 (2022) The Loud Unspoken Narratives From Confederate Monuments: How And Why We Should Quiet Them In The Public Square, 16 Zarch: J. of Interdisc. Stud. Architecture & Urbanism 54 (2021) Historic Preservation and the Janus Effect of Preserving and Gentrifying Neighborhoods in New York City: What We Can Do to Ensure Inclusive Communities, 49 N.Y. Real Prop. L.J. 12 (2021)

Professor Jason J. Czarnezki

Alexander K.A. Greenawalt

article

article

Sustainable Business Law? The Key Role of Corporate Governance and Finance, 51 Env’t L. 991 (2021) (with Colin Myers)

Advancing Fundamental Principles Through Doctrine and Practice, 35 Temp. Int'l & Comp. L.J. 79 (2021) Book Chapter The Reach of Adjudication, in The Oxford Annual Review Of United Nations Affairs (Joachim W. Muller & Karl P. Sauvant eds., 2021)

Professor James J. Fishman u p d at e s , s u pp l e m e n ts , & n e w e d i t i o n s

Nonprofit Organizations: Cases And Materials (6th ed. 2021) (with Stephen Schwarz & Lloyd Mayer) (plus an accompanying statutory supplement)

2021 Supplement to Nonprofit Law & Practice With Tax Analysis (3rd ed. 2015) (with Victoria B. Bjorkland & Daniel Kurtz) Professor Josh Galperin articles

Legitimacy, Legality, Legacy, and the Life of Democracy, 45 VT. L. REV. 561 (2021) Adapting to a 4°C World, 52 Env’t L. REP. 10211 (2022) (with many contributing authors) Environmental Governance at the Edge of Democracy, 39 U. VA. Env’t L.J. 70 (2021) Professor Shelby D. Green book

Climate Change Law: An Introduction (2021) (with Karl Coplan, Katrina Kuh, Smita

H A U B L AW A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E

Professor Lissa Griffin articles

Environmental Law, Disrupted by COVID-19, 51 Env’t L. Rep 10509 (2021) (with Rebecca Bratspies, Vanessa Casado Perez, Robin Kundis Craig, Keith Hirokawa, Katrina Fischer Kuh, Sarah Krakoff, Jessica Owley, Melissa Powers, Shannon Roesler, Jonathan Rosenbloom, J.B. Ruhl, Erin Ryan, David Takacs) Comparative Judicialism, Popular Sovereignty, and the Rule of Law: The US and UK Supreme Courts, 77 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. Online 323 (2021) (with Thomas Kidney) book chapters

Professional Responsibility and the Corporate Hoodwink: Using the Climate Disinformation Campaign to Examine the Ethical Responsibilities of Attorneys When Corporate Clients Mislead the Public to Avoid Government Regulation (with

Katrina Fischer Kuh), in Environmental Law Disrupted (Keith Hirokawa & Jessica Owley, eds., 2021)

Suicide in the Criminal Justice System: Ethical Considerations, in Suicide And Its Impact On The Criminal Justice System (2021) Professor Jill I. Gross book chapter

Rethinking the Debunking: On Arbitration Myths, Preferences and Legal Theory, in Discussions In Dispute Resolution: The Foundational Articles (A. Hinshaw, A. Schneider, and S. Cole, eds., 2021) u p d at e s , s u pp l e m e n ts , & n e w e d i t i o n s

Broker-Dealer Law And Regulation (5th ed. 2018; 2022 supp.) (with James Fanto & Norman Poser) Professor John A. Humbach article

Corporate Hoodwink: Using the Climate Disinformation Campaign to Examine the Ethical Responsibilities of Attorneys When Corporate Clients Mislead the Public to Avoid Government Regulation (with Lissa Griffin), in Environmental Law Disrupted (Keith Hirokawa & Jessica Owley, eds., 2021)

Professor John Nolon

Canada and the United States (with M.C. Leach) in Research Handbook On Climate Change Mitigation Law (2d ed. 2022)

FDA as Food System Steward, 46 Harv. Env’t L. Rev. 1 (2021) (with Matthew Watson).

Professor Shirley Lin article

Bargaining for Integration, 96 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1826 (2021) Professor Michael Mushlin u p d at e s , s u pp l e m e n ts , & n e w e d i t i o n s

Rights Of Prisoners (Supp. 2021)

Criminal Acts and Basic Moral Equality, 14 Wash. U. Juris. Rev. 341 (2022)

Professor Smita Narula

Professor Katrina Fischer Kuh

Climate Change Law: An Introduction (2021) (with Karl Coplan, Shelby Green, Katrina Kuh, Karl Rabago & Radina Valova, eds.)

book

Climate Change Law: An Introduction (2021) (with Karl Coplan, Shelby Green, Smita Narula, Karl Rabago & Radina Valova, eds.) articles

Adapting to a 4°C World, 52 Env’t L. Rep. 10211 (2022) (with many contributing authors) Scientific Gerrymandering & Bifurcation, 29 N.Y.U. Env’t L.J. 171 (2021) (with Megan Edwards & Frederick A. McDonald) Environmental Law, Disrupted by COVID-19, 51 Env’t L. Rep. 10509 (June 2021) (with Rebecca Bratspies, Vanessa Casado Perez, Robin Kundis Craig, Lissa Griffin, Keith Hirokawa, Sarah Krakoff, Jessica Owley, Melissa Powers, Shannon Roesler, Jonathan Rosenbloom, J.B. Ruhl, Erin Ryan, David Takacs) book chapters

Professional Responsibility and the

book

book chapters

Peasants’ Rights and Food Systems Governance, in The United Nations Declaration On Peasants’ Rights (Mariagrazia Alabrese, Adriana Bessa, Margherita Brunori, Pier Filippo Giuggioli, eds., 2022) Human Rights and Climate Change, in Climate Change Law: An Introduction (Karl Coplan, Shelby Green, Katrina Kuh, Smita Narula, Karl Rabago & Radina Valova, eds., 2021) Achieving Zero Hunger Using a RightsBased Approach to Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture, in Fulfilling The Sustainable Development Goals: On A Quest For A Sustainable World (Narinder Kakar, Vesselin Popovski, & Nicholas Robinson, eds., 2021)

book

Choosing To Succeed: Land Use Law & Climate Control (2021) Professor Margot J. Pollans articles

Eaters, Powerless by Design, 120 Mich. L. Rev. 643 (2022) Professor Nicholas A. Robinson book

Fulfilling The Sustainable Development Goals: On A Quest For A Sustainable World (2022) (with Narinder Kakar & Vesselin Popovski) article

Environmental Due Process: Magna Carta’s “The Law of the Land,” 38 Nat. Res. & Env’t 4 (2022) Dean Emerita & Professor Michelle S. Simon article

Law Faculty Experiences Teaching During the Pandemic, 43 St. Louis U. L.j. 1 (2021) (with Bridget Crawford) Professor Leslie Y. Garfield Tenzer articles

An Emoji Legal Dictionary, 83 Pitt. L. Rev. Online 1 (2021) (with Ashley Cangro) A Period Fail Emoji, Colum. J. Gender & L. (2021) Professor Emily Gold Waldman book

Menstruation Matters: Challenging the Law’s Silence on Periods (2022) (with Bridget J. Crawford) article

Period Poverty in a Pandemic: Harnessing Law to Achieve Menstrual Equity, 98 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1569 (2021) (with Bridget J. Crawford)

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Menstruation Matters

A

pproximately half the population menstruates for a large portion of their lives, but the law is mostly silent about the topic. Until recently, most people would have said that periods are private matters not to be discussed in public. But the last few years have seen a new willingness among advocates and allies of all ages to speak openly about periods. Slowly around the globe, people are recognizing the basic fundamental human right to address menstruation in a safe and affordable way, free of stigma, shame, or barriers to access.

Menstruation Matters: Challenging the Law’s Silence on Periods explores the role of law in this movement. It asks what the law currently says about menstruation (spoiler alert: not much) and provides a roadmap for legal reform that can move society closer to a world where no one is held back or disadvantaged by menstruation. Bridget J. Crawford and Emily Gold Waldman examine these issues in a wide range of contexts, from schools to workplaces to prisons to tax policies and more. Ultimately, they seek to transform both law and society so that menstruation is no longer an obstacle to full participation in all aspects of public and private life.

Professors Emily Gold Waldman and Bridget Crawford

“In this book, we ask what the law would look like if it took menstruation into account. Our goal is to create a blueprint for a society where no one is held back by an involuntary biological process like menstruation.”

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The Law School held a virtual book talk and Haub Law faculty spotlight event this spring.

“The more we delved into the subject, the more we discovered new intersections of menstruation and law.”

F A C U LT Y Selected Faculty Book Publications 2021/2022 Choosing to Succeed: Land Use & Climate Control by John R. Nolon

Fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals— On a Quest for a Sustainable World

by Narinder Kakar, Vesselin Popovski, and Nicholas A. Robinson

Climate Change Law: An Introduction

by Karl S. Coplan, Shelby D. Green, Katrina Fischer Kuh, Smita Narula, Karl R. Rábago, and Radina Valova

Wills, Trusts, and Estates: An Integrated Approach

by Danaya C. Wright, Michael J. Higdon, and Bridget J. Crawford

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FA C U LT Y P R O F I L E

F A C U LT Y

A Force of Justice

Randolph McLaughlin Professor, Civil Rights Attorney, Precedent Setter, Social Justice Advocate. Randolph McLaughlin has been a stalwart on the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University faculty since 1988, teaching civil procedure, torts, and labor law. He also co-chairs the Civil Rights Practice Group of Manhattan’s Newman Ferrara LLP, along with his wife Debra Cohen, an adjunct faculty member at the Law School and Haub Law graduate. Prior to all this, McLaughlin made a name for himself as a civil rights activist and attorney, pioneering new legal strategies to address incidents of racism, voting rights litigation, and more.

Now, some of the very cases and individuals that he represented are at the forefront of a feature film and forthcoming documentary. We sat down with Professor McLaughlin to discuss the influential impact he has had throughout his career and what the future may hold for civil rights attorneys.

A landmark case you handled, which set a legal precedent for today’s court battles on racial violence, is the subject of a forthcoming documentary. The film highlights a racist attack that took place in the home state of the Ku Klux Klan, and showcases the role your strategy has played in decades of civil court victories.

After Klansmen shot and injured five Black women in 1980 Chattanooga, Tennessee, the women were able to take the KKK to federal court using the longforgotten Enforcement Act of 1871. Also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, it was enacted to curb KKK violence after the Civil War. The documentary, some of which was filmed at Haub Law, is scheduled for release this year. Can you tell us about how you developed your strategy in this case?

Four African-American women were out on a Saturday night in 1980 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, when three Klansmen shot at them. More than 100 shotgun

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“I went into teaching in order to expose students to the value and rewards of civil rights practice. While I am a full-time law professor, I also maintain a selective civil rights caseload.”

pellets were found in one woman’s legs. Two of the Klansmen were acquitted of all charges. One of them, who basically confessed, was convicted of simple assault, served nine months of a sentence and got out on good behavior. At the time I was at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which was part of the National Anti-Klan Network, so we sued the Klansmen.

I was an African-African history major, and I remembered reading about Klan violence and Reconstruction, so we looked back at those periods and found this 1871 law, called the Ku Klux Klan Act, which was passed to give a federal cause of action to victims of Klan violence. We dusted it off and waited for the right opportunity, and sure enough we didn't have to wait too long. We filed a suit as both a class action for all the Black residents of Chattanooga, and as a damages action for the five women. We tried the case and won—got over half a million dollars and a judgment. It was the first case using that statute to get a money judgment against the Klan.

I don't think winning a case like that is much of a long shot anymore. Law tends to reflect society.

Judges aren't like some guru living on top of a mountain somewhere, they're reading the same stories, they walk the same streets, they watch the same TV shows we watch. And I think with the Black Lives Matter efforts across the country after the death of George Floyd, and then top that off with the January 6 attempted coup at the Capitol, judges have to realize if they don't step in, then this can happen again.

After the 2020 election, the NAACP used the Act in a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee for systematically trying to disenfranchise Black voters. Also, Representative Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, has more recently sued Trump, his former attorney Rudy Giuliani, and two far-right militia groups under the law, alleging they conspired to prevent lawmakers from certifying President Joe Biden's victory by inciting and participating in the January 6 insurrection.

A feature film that premiered nationwide last September, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain, is based on the true story of a case that you and your wife, Professor Debra Cohen, have worked on for more than 10 years. In 2011, Kenneth Chamberlain, an elderly African American veteran with bipolar disorder, was killed by police officers sent to check on him after his medical alert device was mistakenly activated. The film recounts the police’s forceful response to this non-threatening situation and provides a view of the reform needed in policing tactics and our justice system. Where does that case stand now?

This film provides a great opportunity not only to bring the case into national focus, but to highlight how police respond to calls, how they police in AfricanAmerican communities, and how they are trained for situations involving people in a mental health crisis.

What was done was a text book case of what not to do if their intention was to provide assistance.

When the police arrived, Mr. Chamberlain was sleeping in his bed, and he made more than 60 attempts to explain that he didn’t call for help, did not need help and didn’t want to open his door. When we heard the audio recording, we were shocked at the inhumanity demonstrated by law enforcement.

Debra and I were asked to join the case by colleagues and fellow Haub Law alumni Mayo Bartlett and Wali Muhammad in 2012. A $21 million civil rights lawsuit was filed in federal court against the City of White Plains and several police officers. The legal fight for justice has spanned over the past 10 years, with a case currently still pending in federal district court in White Plains. Less than one year into legal proceedings, a grand jury declined to vote for an indictment, causing an uproar in the community and among social justice advocates. Another letdown came in 2017, when the district court dismissed most of the claims contained in the lawsuit and excused several of the original defendants, including police officers.

Following four-years of litigation, including a trial, in 2020, the Second Circuit US Court of Appeals restored claims of unlawful entry and excessive force. We are now preparing for trial and hope that with the need for police reform gaining traction across the country, justice for Chamberlain can finally be achieved.

Twenty-six years ago, you and your wife Debra handled the case of Charles Campbell, who was killed by an off duty New York City police officer at a deli in Dobbs Ferry, New York. The officer was convicted of second-degree murder in a criminal trial. You and Debra successfully tried the subsequent civil case before US District Judge Constance Baker Motley, a civil rights icon, with the help of Pace students. How do you view working with students in such cases?

I went into teaching in order to expose students to the value and rewards of civil rights practice. While I am a full-time law professor, I also maintain a selective civil rights caseload. Whenever possible I involve students in that work. My students have served as active members of a trial team, participating in the writing of briefs and sitting in the courtroom with the other attorneys. I involve the students in all aspects of the case and share with them my strategies as we pursue justice for our clients.

Continued on page 62

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F A C U LT Y Continued From page 61 How did you get your start in civil rights law?

Racism didn’t directly affect me that much growing up in New York City, but I was fascinated by the law.

By age 10, I was reading law books. William Kunstler was a hero to me. In high school, the Chicago Seven trial was all over the news. It was the binding and gagging of Black Panther Bobby Seale in the courtroom that made me say, this is wrong, I’ve got to get involved.

During my second year at Harvard Law School, legendary defense attorney William Kunstler came to speak. He’s saying things like, “I need black lawyers to get involved in this kind of work with us because we can’t do it on our own.” He’s up there on the stage with Black Panthers and Native American activists, and there I am. I was a really shy kid. But after the lecture I worked my way up and said, “I’ve followed your career since I was a kid and I want to do what you do.”

He looked at me and said, “Here’s my card. Look me up when you get back to New York.” And I did.

How did you build a civil rights law practice?

Lucas A. Ferrara, the co-founder of Newman Ferrara in Manhattan, had been practicing real estate law for more than 25 years, he wanted to expand the work of the firm into the civil rights field.

The firm asked Debra and me to co-chair the civil rights practice group at the firm. When I brought up the controversial nature of some of their cases, they said, “We love controversy. Bring it on.”

It’s been a happy marriage. Lucas and Jon Newman have both assisted us in our civil rights cases, and their insight has been invaluable. Ultimately, if you can create a workable business model, then the good work can expand. There’s more than enough injustice to go around.

For victims, the legal process itself can be a kind of therapy. When I see a client who first comes to us really almost in post-traumatic stress, they can’t get through a conversation without crying. Within a few months, they’re giving it back to us, saying, “Well, what about this?” and “I want to do this.” They are starting to feel empowered and engaged, and the hopelessness is dissipated. Whether we win or lose the case, they feel at least a small amount of closure.

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How did you begin practicing law with your wife?

Debra was 39, a former salesperson and marketer, when she applied to Haub Law in 1995. She was interested in civil rights law, and the school’s catalog listed me as a social justice lawyer. She signed up for my class. A few weeks into the class, I announced I had a new civil rights case and needed interns, and Debra sent me her résumé.

At the end of our interview, she stopped at the door and asked me if I had heard about a case involving the shooting of an African-American man, Charles Campbell, in a deli parking lot in Dobbs Ferry.

By that time the family of the victim had already contacted me about representation. She said that she lived there and every weekend she joined family and friends of the man who was shot to demonstrate at the deli and to keep visibility on the case and pressure the district attorney to prosecute the police officer who shot him. After she graduated, I hired her, and that’s how it began. We worked together on the Campbell case. In 2001, we were married, and we hung a shingle in the Bronx not long after.

What do you see as some of the challenges facing civil rights lawyers today?

Frankly, the Supreme Court. With the six conservative judges in the majority we could face an onslaught of reversals in the civil and constitutional rights fields. Most notably, the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade is under attack and could be reversed this year. With the respect to voting rights, the Supreme Court in Shelby County v.

Holder, gutted Section 5 (preclearance provision) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and now the Court is primed to eliminate Section 2 of that Act that has been critical in securing minority representation at all levels of government. In the police reform area, the Supreme Court seems reluctant to reverse decisions such as Graham v.

Connor that set a very high burden on plaintiffs in police misconduct cases. So the future is not bright in the Supreme Court—for now. But that does not mean that there is nothing for us to do today. The struggle continues. The forces of justice have been fighting in this country since 1619 to achieve equal rights and justice.

At the same time, the opponents of freedom are just as active now as they have been since the founding of this country. The question for each of us, as lawyers, is where do you stand on the barricades—with the people or the enemies of the people. n

DigitalCommons@Pace The Law School’s Digital Commons is an open-access repository that collects our faculty scholarship as well as all issues of all three Pace Law Reviews. It can be accessed at: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/law.

118,339 215,305 4,458,065

In 2021, Haub Law faculty articles were downloaded over 118,339 times from the Law School’s Digital Commons Articles from the three Pace Law reviews were downloaded over 215,305 times Total downloads for all time for the Law School collections surpassed 4,458,065 in 2021

The top three most downloaded faculty writings in 2021 were: Tampon Taxes, Discrimination, and Human Rights, 2017 Wis. L. Rev. 491 (Professor Bridget J. Crawford & Carla Spivack) Equal by Law, Unequal by Caste: The “Untouchable” Condition in Critical Race Perspective, 26 Wis. Int’l L.J. 255 (2008) (Professor Smita Narula) Judging Judges Fifty Years After–Was Judge Julius Hoffman’s Conduct so Different, 50 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 839 (2019) (Professor Bennett L. Gershman)

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F A C U LT Y

Law Faculty Experiences Teaching During the Pandemic

BY BRIDGET J. CRAWFORD & MICHELLE S . SIMON

The following excerpt is from Professors Bridget J. Crawford and Michelle S. Simon’s 2021 article, Law Faculty Experiences Teaching During the Pandemic, which was published in Saint Louis University’s Law Journal.

INTRODUCTION When US law schools abruptly shifted to online teaching during the Spring 2020 semester, all attention (appropriately) was on our students. Most students did not enroll in law school in the Spring 2020 semester thinking they would be taking distance education classes, but soon they were. Professors, too, had to make changes— in some cases quite literally overnight—to keep law schools’ virtual doors open during the initial months of the coronavirus pandemic. Our anecdotal observation as faculty members teaching during the Spring 2020 semester is that colleagues nation-wide were very much focused on delivering an excellent education to our students with the least disruption possible, taking into account that many students lacked a quiet place to study, reliable internet, or access to a printer. Many students experienced physical and economic dislocation, faced health uncertainties for themselves or family members, or became full-time caretakers for children, siblings, sick parents, or other family members, all while trying to maintain a rigorous course load in law school.

Just a few weeks into the pandemic, one of us administered a survey of the ninety-nine students enrolled in our Corporations & Partnership class at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. The survey asked students about their access to technology, their study spaces, and what they wanted their professors and classmates to know. In an anonymous survey, students detailed the enormous emotional stress and upheaval they were experiencing. “Family members are sick and it can be very stressful,” one student explained. “Mental health-wise, my anxiety has been pretty bad,” another student revealed. “This is such a

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difficult time and most of my belongings are scattered across 3 states, including my means of transportation.

It is increasingly difficult to study in a space that is not my own,” said another. Many students reported that they did not have reliable internet and did not have any privacy at home. In multiple emergency faculty meetings, we shared what we knew about students’ situations, and worked with school administrators to get emergency financial and other aid to students in need.

Because of the extraordinary and involuntary shift to online legal education, our home institution—and most US law schools—adopted a variation on pass/fail grading for the semester.

Before the pandemic, each of us had different degrees of experience teaching online. Perhaps because of that experience we were less daunted than some of our colleagues who had never taught online. Even so, we admit that we found online teaching during the early months of the pandemic (and beyond, as the public health crisis continues) to be incredibly challenging.

Throughout the Spring 2020 semester, we had the support of many wonderful local and national colleagues who were generous in sharing ideas and materials. Every single colleague we spoke with was focused foremost on creating conditions for students’ academic success in these unusual times. Very rarely, a colleague might confide that she felt “overwhelmed,” or joke that she was “losing it.” How were faculty members doing during the pandemic, we wondered. With all the focus on the students, was anyone focused on how the faculty was doing? Might it be perceived as selfish or self-indulgent to even ask how faculty members were doing?

At the end of the Spring 2020 semester, we sent a survey to sixty-one colleagues we thought might be

Michelle S. Simon

“Every single colleague we spoke with was focused foremost on creating conditions for students’ academic success in these unusual times.“

willing to share their experiences with online teaching by responding to a short survey of about twenty-three questions. The recipients included a few at our home institution; the others taught at schools around the country. The colleagues to whom we sent the survey taught at schools from New York to Florida to California and many states in between. The recipients taught at both private and public universities of every rank and distinction. The survey was anonymous and we indicated that we would not disclose to the general public the names of the recipients of the survey. With the initial email, we included a link to the survey, so recipients could share the survey with interested colleagues, which we encouraged them to do. We indicated that we would use the survey results as the basis for a series of blog posts and possibly a law review essay (this one). We received thirty-seven responses to the survey.

We cannot confirm the identity of those who completed the survey, and anyone with the link could have responded. Thus, the survey was not designed to be and cannot be interpreted to have any scientific validity at all. Even so, the responses in aggregate provide a snapshot of law faculty experiences teaching during the pandemic during the Spring 2020 semester. In presenting the results here, this essay suggests that faculty members experienced significant upheaval in their professional lives, and took measures to adapt their teaching to the new online environment. The essay organizes around six themes. Part I presents respondents’ self-reported data about their levels of teaching experience and home lives. Part II explores the methods of instruction that professors found effective before and after the switch to online education, and the level of faculty extracurricular engagement with students during the pandemic. Part III investigates faculty self-reported satisfaction with teaching online and asks faculty about their perceptions of student satisfaction with online education.

In response to open-ended questions, faculty shared what they want their students to know (Part IV), what they want their colleagues to know (Part V), and what they want their deans and other administrators to know (Part VI). With these small (and unreliable) survey results in hand, law school faculty and administrators might choose to survey their own faculties to identify the types of particular support that faculty need during the pandemic. Support for faculty in online teaching (pandemic or not) ultimately will lead to a better experience for students. Asking others about faculty experiences is also a way administrators can express support and identify new bases for collaborative engagement.

As one of the surveyed faculty members explained, “Empathy is a valuable tool to use and model.” n For purposes of this excerpt, footnotes have been omitted.

Bridget J. Crawford

The full version of this article was published in Saint Louis University’s Law Journal: 43 St. Louis L.J. 1 (2021).

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ALUMNI Class Notes 1980

1984

The Honorable Terry Jane Ruderman was appointed Presiding Justice of the Appellate Term, Second Department, 9th & 10th Judicial Districts.

Anthony Schembri was the conference chairman of the 2nd and 3rd Global Webinar on Forensic Science.

He also chaired and presented at the Global Scientific Guild’s 2nd Global Webinar on Forensic Science David Karas was appointed as Hitachi’s first Chief Compliance Officer.

1989

1981 Steven Rosenfeld joined Kiernan Trebach as a partner in the firm’s NYC office.

1982

1988

The Honorable William J. Giacomo retired from the bench after serving over 19 years as a Judge, most recently a Justice of the New York Supreme Court for 16 years.

Martin Louis Posner retired and has moved to Henderson, Nevada.

Grace Hanlon was elected for a 14year term as the Supreme Court Judge for the 8th Judicial District. Judge Hanlon notes, "I was the first openly gay person elected to the Supreme Court Justice in the 8th Judicial District."

Bart G. Mongelli joined Mandelbaum Barrett PC as a partner.

1990

1985

Eric J. Ploumis has joined Rivkin Radler's Uniondale Office as Of Counsel in the firm’s Health Services Practice Group

1992 Mayo Bartlett was featured on CBS News regarding Westchester County examining dozens of police reform recommendations.

Steven Epstein received the President's Award for Outstanding Contributions to the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers at their annual meeting and awards ceremony as well as being recognized as a Cannabis Industry Power Player.

John Rapisardi was honored as a 2022 Dealmaker of the Year by The American Lawyer Magazine.

1983 Harold E. Kaplan , principal of Kaplan Dispute Resolution located in Fairview, North Carolina, served as a presiding judge for the North Carolina Mock Trial Program’s regionals and finals. Kaplan, an active community member, has also served as a volunteer attorney for Pisgah Legal Services in Asheville, NC where he won a case for the wrongful refusal to pay life insurance death benefits.

He continues to focus exclusively on nationwide arbitration of health care and contract disputes and arbitration case consultation.

Edward Mills published a book which focuses on the events, conditions and policies that created the 2007-08 housing and financial crises and resulted in the global great recession.

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Kent Nevins was elected a co-managing partner at Shipman & Goodwin LLP. He also serves on the firm’s Management Committee.

Neale R. Bedrock joined the MNAA leadership team as its new executive vice president, general counsel, and chief compliance officer.

Kevin O’Dell was featured in the article Legal Weapon.

Lisa Colosi Florio joined the appellate law practice group of Abrams Fensterman, LLP in White Plains. Florio previously served as counsel to Judge Janet DiFiore, the state appellate courts' chief judge.

1986 Charles C. DeStefano was appointed Law Chair of the Democratic Party of Richmond County, the Chair of the Judicial Screening Committee, and the Chief Judge of the Appellate Division, Second Department.

The Honorable Anne E. Minihan was appointed as Administrative Judge for the Ninth Judicial District.

1987 Bill Holzhauer joined Barclay Damon’s Environmental, Energy, and White Collar & Government Investigations Practice Areas.

H A U B L AW A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E

1993 Anthony Pirrotti Jr. was listed in the Top 100 2021 New York Metro Super Lawyers.

Wendy Grispin was nominated as a judge to the Superior Court by Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont.

ALUMNI PROFILE

From Behind the Bench Sara S. Price ’08

District Court Magistrate, 17th Judicial District, Colorado Haub Law alumna Sara Price grew up in Larchmont, fifteen minutes from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law Campus. Coupled with the fact that her mother, Elaine Price, attended Haub Law, she was familiar with the law school long before becoming a student there.

“As an undergraduate student at the University of New Hampshire, I fell in love with environmental policy and sustainable urban development. After taking an Environmental Law and Policy class in college, I decided I wanted to study environmental law and one day head the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s how I ended up at Pace. I knew about the environmental law program initially because of my mother, but the more I researched the breadth of it, the more I knew it was a perfect fit for me,” said Sara.

Once she was at Pace, Sara had a very positive experience. “I really liked all my professors, and I could talk a lot about them. Professor Cassuto was incredible; his Animal Law class really opened my eyes to issues I had never previously thought about. Professor Crawford deserves a medal for making tax law interesting, accessible, and fun. Thanks to Professor Gershman I developed a love for criminal law, and I can’t think of prison reform without thinking of Professor Mushlin.”

After graduating from law school, Sara had spent over 20 years in Westchester and wanted a change.

“I had spent some time visiting friends in Colorado and felt that it would be a good fit for me. I moved to Denver right after graduation, studied for the bar and struggled through the recession like the rest of us new lawyers at that time. I began an internship with a Judge which turned into a clerkship. As soon as I started my internship at the court, something clicked and I knew my place was in the courtroom. It was then I knew my path was to the bench.”

Today, Sara is a Magistrate Judge for the 17th Judicial District in Colorado. “One thing I love about my job is that the day to day is always changing. Primarily I have a probate docket so I’m conducting hearings related to estates, trusts, guardianships and conservatorships.

I also conduct protection order hearings and non-contested divorces. I rule on all the motions filed in the probate cases, I also get to review, and sign arrest warrants.

"Pace helped shape my career path because it opened my eyes to all the possibilities that come with a law degree."

Finally, we have a really great team of Magistrates in the 17th Judicial District so we’re always training in other divisions so that we can cover for each other.”

While Sara learned early in her career that her place was in the courtroom, she did not necessarily know that it would be in her current capacity as a Magistrate Judge, but she felt very prepared for it based on the variety of experiences she opened herself up to prior to that point.

“My advice for current students would be to not pigeonhole yourself to a certain area or practice and to learn with an open mind. If you start studying something that piques your interest, lean into it. Everyone has a different path and what you learn along the way is going to be helpful in ways that you could never anticipate. Pace helped shape my career path because it opened my eyes to all the possibilities that come with a law degree. The law is such a big field and as an attorney your opportunities are endless.”

When Sara is not behind the bench, you can find her running, paddle boarding, playing tennis, traveling, and enjoying all that Colorado has to offer. n

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ALUMNI PROFILE

ALUMNI

The Twists and Turns of Life on the Road to Success Chioma Deere ‘06 Founding and Managing Partner, Deere Law Firm

Driven from a young age to be a lawyer, Chioma Deere had her son while she was applying to law school.

Ultimately, Pace provided the flexibility to allow Chioma to accomplish her dream while balancing her family life. Now, Chioma Deere is the founding and managing partner of her own firm, Deere Law Firm, in West Palm Beach, Florida with a focus on wills, trusts, and estate planning.

Let’s jump right in, what was your path to law school?

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be a lawyer. After college, I was accepted to three law schools in the tri-state area. It was right around that time that I had my son. While he was still a baby, I went to paralegal school to get my certificate in Paralegal Studies from Mercy College in New York. While working as a full-time paralegal, I went to what was then called Pace Law School, at night for four years. I chose Pace because of the proximity to home and my then 24-month-old son, as well as the collegial and welcoming way that the students and teachers who were going to “night school” came together. It was certainly a trial by fire going to law school for four years at night; I made some lifelong friends there. Somehow, when I got there, I knew Pace was the one for me.

What experiences from Pace stick with you?

There were many memorable moments: studying in the library in my little spot on the third floor, going for drinks with my classmates after class on Friday, crunching through the snow to the parking lots to

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drive home, and meeting incredible individuals who were embarking on the journey of law at various ages and stages of their careers. And, of course, Professor Bridget Crawford. My most memorable times were in classes I had with Professor Bridget Crawford. I am originally from Jamaica, and moved to the Bronx as a teenager. My thesis in undergrad focused on socioeconomic belonging of immigrant women from the Caribbean, so I gravitated to Professor Crawford’s topics as well as her style of teaching. I truly felt seen and welcomed when I was in her classes.

You are the founding and managing partner of your firm, Deere Law Firm, in West Palm Beach—how did that evolve and what brought you to West Palm Beach?

Most of my family had moved to West Palm Beach at the time I was graduating from Pace. It made sense

for me to move there to be with my family. I was also dating the person who was later to become my husband.

Since being admitted to the Florida Bar in 2008, I’ve practiced in the area of complex hurricane claims litigation, insurance defense litigation, personal injury, arbitration, and employment litigation in state and federal courts. In 2017, while still in litigation, I expanded my practice areas to estate planning and probate law. Then, in 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, I opened Deere Law Firm to help clients with estate planning, asset protection, probate, and trust administration.

When I first launched my firm, during the pandemic, it was much easier for me to start a virtual law practice. With increased social distancing, many people were operating remotely. It was easy for me to connect with clients virtually while being safe. I joined an estate planning association, the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys (AAEPA), and the Florida Bar’s Real Property Probate and Trust Law (RPPTL pronounced “reptile”) Section, which provided guidance, resources, and a support network.

What I also believe benefited me during this time was that I am a certified technology lawyer.

Providing legal services in a digital age is an important niche of mine. Ensuring that we attorneys use technology to make life easier for our clients as well as for ourselves is one thing that I stress, especially now as the chair for the Technology Committee of the Palm Beach County Bar Association. I love all things tech. I’ve been teaching attorneys and judges about electronic discovery and litigation and how to use technology to be better attorneys for about 10 years now. With technology, there are so many avenues and ways that attorneys can practice law while taking care of their clients and their communities.

What is it about the areas of wills, trusts, and estates law that interest you?

A mentor of mine here in West Palm Beach, who went on to become a judge, encouraged me to explore other areas of life and the law. Estate planning and probate allowed me to help families while making a living here in West Palm Beach. I also find that there are few black women estate planning attorneys helping black families and people of color to maintain and preserve their wealth. The wealth gap has been a big issue lately, and I feel that I am in a good position to not only educate communities, but also help people to save and preserve the wealth they have built and pass it onto the next generation.

I will always be a litigator at heart. My litigation experience helps me to look at situations from many

perspectives. I find that my years of litigation practice lend well to many situations in estate planning and probate law because they both require flexible and creative thinking.

The other day during the sessions to put together their trust, a client of mine remarked that although this process could be daunting for those who may feel fear and trepidation when thinking about death, they felt comfortable speaking to me about these things. In those moments, I feel as though I found my calling in the law.

How did Pace shape your career path?

Pace allowed me to continue to work while pursuing my childhood goal of being an attorney. Very few law schools were offering in person law school at night. I felt blessed to have had Pace in my backyard so that I could still work and take care of my family while earning my law degree. I don’t think anything would have stopped me from getting my law degree. However, Pace changed my life by making it so accessible for someone like me, with a baby in tow, to go to law school.

What are some of your passions aside from the law?

I love many different types of music and love to dance. I love orchids and I am slowly expanding my orchid collection.

Do you have any advice for current or future law students?

I’ve been blessed to have had many mentoring opportunities with high school students as well as law school students. I would tell them to cultivate relationships that they have in law school, learn the art of networking, and give of themselves to causes and areas in the law that matter to them. The possibilities are endless as to the type of legal work that someone could end up doing over the course of their careers.

What is the some of the best advice you have received?

When I was in college, one of my mentors told me that the road of life is not a straight line, that it had many twists and turns to success. You see, at that time I believed that I had to do certain things a certain way in order to achieve the goals that I had in my mind, fuzzy and distant though they were. How her words have echoed and have rung true at every major crossroads in my life. I’m grateful that the main reason I've been able to take all of the roads, sidewalks, and pathways, including creating my own pathways, has been because of the love and support of my family, as well as those individuals who have poured into my life their love and support as though they were my family. n

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ALUMNI PROFILE

ALUMNI

A Formative Experience Umair Saleem LLM ‘21 Umair Saleem is a practicing advocate of High Courts in Pakistan. He handles advisory and transactional work, arbitrations, and litigation pertaining to diverse areas of laws for commercial clients and government sector entities. After receiving degrees from prestigious universities in Pakistan and then Belgium, Umair decided to pursue a second LLM at Haub Law and follow his growing passion for environmental law.

Despite completing his LLM during the COVID-19 pandemic, Umair left Pace having fulfilled his goal to acquire the tools and vision to actively work towards establishing a strong foundation of environmental law within Pakistan.

What was your path to law school?

I have always been a keen learner and an astute observer of the systemic injustices prevalent in the society I grew up within and that has fostered my desire to pursue many educational pathways.

I always envisioned a future where human rights were not violated, and society offered its best to all individuals equally. Once I had avowed to set on this journey towards bringing a change in the oppressive structures of the society, law arrived as an easy conclusion. I completed my college education at Government College Lahore and had a stellar academic record, which eventually led me to receive a scholarship at one of the most prestigious universities in Pakistan—Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). After graduating with a degree in law, I was fortunate to find the right opportunities to work in corporate law firms and with prominent legal minds in Pakistan for five years. This helped me discover my passion for different fields of law. At this point, I decided to undertake an LLM from KU Leuven in Belgium in International and European Public Law. After that, I began my second

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LLM program in Energy and Climate Change Law from Pace University’s Elisabeth Haub School of Law because of my true passion for environmental justice.

My time at Haub Law radically shaped my career pursuits and my vision for the future.

What inspired you to choose Pace to pursue an LLM? After graduating from LUMS, I worked with two prominent environmentalists in Pakistan, Justice Jawad Hassan and Dr. Parvez Hassan, who fueled my passion for environmental law. Justice Jawad Hassan is also an alumnus of Pace and played a significant role in my decision to choose Pace for furthering my vision and goals. Pace is also the top environmental law institute in the United States. For all of these reasons and more, I enthusiastically decided to attend Pace to complete my LLM, which became a formative step in my vision to actively work towards

establishing a strong foundation of environmental law within Pakistan.

What experiences stick with you from your time at Pace?

When I joined Pace, the COVID-19 pandemic was on the rise so there was no on-campus interaction at the time. However, the positive school ethos of the institute became evident to me in the way my distant learning experience was mediated and encouraged through facilitated interaction and understanding among not just peers but also professors. It proved equally fortifying to my growth not just as an academic but also as an individual and lawyer in Pakistan. The professors at Pace were always eager to help me work towards my goals and this became one of the most exciting parts of my journey and still proves invaluable to my growth in the field. In particular, Professors Nicholas Robinson and Katrina Kuh had the most defining impact on my growth and shaping my direction and passion for environmental laws.

How did your experience at Pace influence your outlook on environmental law?

Pace had a life changing impact on me—before completing my LLM, I only possessed a fleeting understanding of the environment, but it shaped my in-depth understanding of environmental and legal issues embedded within our everyday lives and practices.

Furthermore, my understanding was further enriched when I engaged with legal aspects and approaches globally through my interaction with a diverse group of people from all over the world. My time at Pace instilled even more passion and optimism within me.

Upon my return, I approached it with newfound vigour and environmental law took a precedence over other facets of my practice. I continue to draw and utilize insights from my experience at Pace during professionally challenging situations even today.

Can you speak a bit about your current career?

I am a practicing advocate of High Courts in Pakistan and handling advisory and transactional work, arbitrations, and litigation pertaining to

diverse areas of laws for commercial clients and government sector entities. A typical day in my life starts early morning with court hearings, drafting for matters I am working upon, meetings with current and prospective clients and managing my associates.

What benefit does an LLM degree hold in today’s world?

The growing impetus of change demands that you broaden your horizons and are open to learning from people belonging to various social strata and cultural backgrounds as it would enhance your understanding of legal issues in the future.

It also enhances your understanding as you get a comparative outlook of different legal systems and their handling of various issues.

What are some of your future goals?

I am thrilled to share that I aspire towards contributing to policymaking and eventually enforcement through judicial work and to become one of the future green judges in Pakistan. I want to give a multiplying effect to the environmental training that I have received at Pace by leading environmental litigation, teaching, writing books and articles and pave way for a greener future within Pakistan.

What are some of your passions aside from the law?

Since my initial motivation of studying the law was also to change the existing imbalances within society, I always strive towards changing that through other arenas of my life. I engage in volunteer and community work to try to give back to society largely and specifically my local community where people lack an awareness of career prospects to be able to change their futures. It gives me true joy to be able to make a difference within my community.

When I am not working or researching, I also enjoy hiking, traveling and exploring new sites and places.

I enjoy interacting with people from diverse cultures and communities and learning from their unique experiences. n

"Pace had a life changing impact on me—before completing my LLM, I only possessed a fleeting understanding of the environment, but it shaped my in-depth understanding of environmental and legal issues embedded within our everyday lives and practices."

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ALUMNI Edward B. Stevenson was selected for the 2021 New Jersey Super Lawyers and Rising Stars List. He was also featured by Morris/Essex Health & Life Magazine for his practice areas of Corporate Finance and Mergers & Acquisitions. He is an attorney with Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC practicing in Mergers & Acquisitions.

In the NYSBA Environmental and Energy Law Section publication, The New York Environmental Lawyer (volume 41, no.

1, page 19), a profile was published on Marla E. Wieder (authored by Aaron Gershonowitz).

1994 Robert H. Crespi was selected for inclusion in 2021 New Jersey Super Lawyers and Rising Stars List. He is an attorney with Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC practicing in environmental law.

real estate developers for an important discussion on sustainability, technology, and connectivity in commercial and residential real estate. He was also named to City & State’s Telecommunications Power 50. Christopher was also appointed Vice-Chair of the Westchester County Association.

Anthony B. Gioffre III has been named the next Managing Partner of Cuddy & Feder.

Christopher B. Fisher , Managing Partner with Cuddy & Feder LLP, was honored with the 2021 C- Suite Award presented by Westfair Communications. The C-Suite award celebrates outstanding leaders who create innovative ideas that propel progress and success in their organizations. He was also a panelist at the Westchester County Association’s 2021 Real Estate Summit which brought together government officials, business leaders and

Alumni Association Board of Directors OFFICERS Andrew Teodorescu ‘13

Adele Lerman Janow '90

Alumni Association President Lisa E. Gladwell '10 Alumni Association Vice President

Sameera Ansari Kalra '09

Gail M. Mulligan '09

Alumni Association Treasurer Leanne Shofi '94 Alumni Association Secretary MEMBERS

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Jasmine Hosein '12

Michael Kremen '08 James M. Lenihan '91 Hon. Carole Levy '83

Director Emerita Caesar Lopez '12 Benjamin Lowenthal '13 Andrea Madrid '12 Joseph M. Martin '91

Patricia Bisesto '92

Director Emeritus

Michael A. Calandra Jr. '05

Lt. Col. Joseph W. Mazel '97

Aharon Diaz Jr. '12

Mark Meeker Dec. ‘09

Jeremy Wm. Farrington '11

John Mulligan '88

Hon. Sandra A. Forster '79

Susan Mulliken '11

Stephen Forte '08

Diana E. Neeves ’16

Michael A. Frankel '03

Jacqueline A. Parker ’95

James A. Garvey III '80

Nicholas Pasalides ’11

Rebecca Gigliotti '18

Patrick Paul ’16

Michael G. Gilberg '07

Raymond Perez '00

Michael T. Goldstein '06

Thomas Persico ’18

Jennifer L. Gray '06

Christopher M. Psihoules '12

George B. Haddad '15

Judson K. Siebert '85

H A U B L AW A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E

After 16 years in Israel , David R. Herz launched his firm, Herz PLLC. Carrie Nolting Morrissey began a new job as General Counsel to the Marine Corps Systems market segment at Sikorsky Aircraft.

Mark T. Starkman was nominated to run for New York State Supreme Court, 9th Judicial District, in 2020 and again in 2021.

1995 Odalys Alonso was the 2021 Thomas E. Dewey Medal awardee from Bronx County.

John Louis Parker had his article— 2021 Legislative Forum Report published in the NYSBA Environmental and Energy Law Section publication, The New York Environmental Lawyer.

1997 Laura Cooper has joined BlockFi, a financial services company dedicated to building a bridge between cryptocurrencies and traditional financial and wealth management products, as Chief People Officer.

1998 Lynda Liebhauser joined Kiernan Trebach as a partner in the firm’s NYC office.

Robert S. Migliorelli joined Mandelbaum Barrett PC as a partner.

Deidre Robokos joined Kiernan Trebach as of counsel in the firm’s DC office.

1999

Carlo Scissura was appointed by Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, as president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

1996 Robert Brabston was recently named Executive Director of New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU).

Robert leads and manages the technical divisions of NJBPU (Audits, Clean Energy, Energy, Reliability and Security, State Energy Services, and Water) as well as the Office of Cable Television & Telecommunications. As Executive Director, Bob provides policy guidance and direction to the technical divisions and translates the decisionmaking and policy development of the BPU into operational activities.

Vernon Brown was again named as one of Billboard's Top Music Lawyers.

Michael J. Derevlany is the president of the Rensselaer County Bar Association, a professional body of lawyers serving Rensselaer County, NY. Lance Johnson is Vice President, Spectrum Strategy & Gov’t Affairs of Anterix, Inc.

Kerri Alessi has joined Blank Rome's New York office as of counsel in the Real Estate practice group.

Mary DiPalma was promoted to First Vice President of Human Resources at Ulster Savings Bank.

2000 After spending more than 20 years with an Am Law 200 law firm, Partner Philip DeNoia has joined Fullerton Beck LLP, a White Plains-based, women-owned law firm.

2001 Deepa Badrinarayana and 2020 Haub Law Visiting Scholar, published an op-ed in Bloomberg Law, IPCC Report Drives Urgent Agenda for World on Climate Change.

2002

ist Green Book during the height of segregation as a vital resource to quell fears, find safe havens, and travel with dignity.”

2006 Michael Goldstein , MD, JD had a letter to the editor published in the Wall Street Journal—How to Address the Doctor Shortage.

Christie D’Alessio was elected to a judgeship in the Ninth Judicial District of the state Supreme Court, securing 1 of the 5 open seats.

Kevin Meade is now Chief Legal Officer at Godiva Chocolatier. Previously, Kevin was an attorney with Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. Kathleen E. Sheridan accepted a position as a Senior Attorney with the NYS Commission on Judicial Conduct in Albany, New York after serving thirteen years with the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office (where she interned during her time at Pace!).

2005 James Hyer was elected to a judgeship in the Ninth Judicial District of the state Supreme Court, securing 1 of the 5 open seats.

Phillip Musegass Vice President of Programs and Litigation at Potomac Riverkeeper Network, spoke at the event Indian Point Powers Down: A Historic Day for the Hudson.

Janée Woods Weber won an Ambie Award for her podcast Driving the Green Book, a living history collection the publisher describes as testimony of “how Black Americans used the historic travel guide The Negro Motor-

Initiatives, overseeing and administering the Chief Judge's Presumptive ADR Program in the Courts inside NYC. Sean Dixon was appointed soundkeeper and executive director of the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance.

Andrew Frisenda co-authored Estate Litigation Tidbits 2020 in the Fall 2020 Westchester Bar Journal.

Andres J. Bermudez Hallstrom has been appointed as a Deputy Assistant State’s Attorney for the Fairfield Judicial District/GA-2 in Bridgeport, CT.

2008

2004

Siobhan O’Grady was promoted to Partner in November 2020 at her firm, Miller Zeiderman LLP.

Seth Shelley has been hired as an attorney in the new Conviction Integrity Unit established by Virginia’s Attorney General Mark Herring. This hire is part of Attorney General Herring’s efforts to expand his new Conviction Integrity Unit created to identify and overturn wrongful convictions in Virginia.

James L. Simpson had his article— Outside the EPA Update published in the NYSBA Environmental and Energy Law Section publication, The New York Environmental Lawyer.

Denise Alvarez was named partner at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden.

Kawan Clinton was featured in a profile done by John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Kawan is a Supervising Attorney at The Legal Aid Society.

ing the work she is doing. Nina is an attorney in California with Alexander Law Group LLP.

Todd Spodek is representing Juror 50 from the Ghislaine Maxwell trial. The Parade Magazine article, Who is Todd in Inventing Anna? All About Anna Delvey’s Lawyer Todd Spodek, prominently features him and his representation of Anna Delvey, as does the Netflix documentary, Inventing Anna, where actor Arian Moayed portrays Todd Spodek and his representation of Anna Delvey.

Assemblywoman Latrice Monique Walker was named New York State Assembly Election Committee Chair.

2007 Doug Jones was recently named as a partner with Husch Blackwell LLP in the firm’s Austin office.

Cherie Phoenix-Sharpe was selected as a 2020 Hebsgaard Award Recipient, given by the Lawyers Collaborative for Diversity. She was also nominated as a judge to the Superior Court by Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont.

Damon Anthony Schwartz opened his own law firm, handling estate planning and immigration matters. The Schwartz Law Firm, APC is located in Huntington Beach, CA. Nina Shapirshteyn has been fundraising for the Ukraine, with a focus on raising funds for night vision goggles.

She was born in the Ukraine and was interviewed by ABC news regard-

Imran H. Ansari is a legal analyst with the Law & Crime Trial Network.

He is also partner at Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins PC. Shamik Trivedi started a position as Deputy Associate Counsel and Senior Tax Counsel at The White House.

2009 Rahat Chatha was nominated as a part-time municipal court judge in Jersey City.

Lisa Denig serves as Counsel to New York State Chief Judge Janet DiFiore.

Prior to this role, she served for over two years as Special Counsel for ADR

Najia Khalid was named the Diversity Initiative Winner by the Connecticut Law Tribune at their 2021 Connecticut Legal Awards. Najia was an Immigration Justice Clinic student attorney during her time at Haub Law. She is now partner at Wiggin and Dana focusing on immigration law. She is also a Co-Chair of the Inclusion, Diversity & Equity Committee.

Keep In Touch!

Have you recently changed firms, careers, or made partner? What is your practice area? Do you want to connect with other alumni colleagues within your practice area? Do you have personal information you want to share—a marriage or birth? Where are you living? We want to receive these updates and help connect with you and connect you with others.

Submit your update to plsalumni@law.pace.edu. Please include your name, year of graduation, and any relevant information.

Photos are welcome!

You can also update your information online by visiting www. law.pace.edu/alumni-update-form.

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ALUMNI PROFILE

ALUMNI

Precision Focus on Environmental Law Chris Rizzo ‘01

Partner, Carter Ledyard and Milburn LLP Director of the Environmental Practice Chris Rizzo is a Partner with Carter Ledyard and Milburn LLP and Director of the Environmental Practice at the firm. From the moment he decided he wanted to attend law school, Chris knew that he was specifically going to focus on environmental law. From participating in the environmental litigation clinic, to environmental law review, and ultimately graduating with an environmental law certificate, Pace provided the environmental legal education he sought out.

When did you decide that you wanted to be a lawyer?

That was probably in my sophomore year of college.

I was studying political science and biology. I had a biology professor, and I expressed to him my deep interest in biology, particularly environmental biology. And he said to me something like “no, no, no, no, Chris, do not become a scientist or biologist.

You should become a lawyer, an environmental lawyer. Lawyers get everything done.” He didn't say this with kindness. He said it with resentment. But he was very clear with me that he thought I should go towards law school. I took it to heart, and I never looked back.

And from there, how did you choose Haub Law? Well, I knew that I specifically was going to law school to focus on environmental law. So I sought out a law

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"All of the robust environmental course offerings really gave me a foundation in various areas of law, which was helpful later." school where I could specifically focus on that area with the intention of practicing in that area.

I received a full academic scholarship to come to Haub Law, which was a huge motivation for me. I was very leery about taking on any student debt, and worried about what that would do to my professional flexibility in the future. I was admitted to a number of other law schools and while the full scholarship

was a motivating factor, it was not the only one. At the time, a few other schools I looked at did not have the robust environmental law program that I was seeking and I thought they were not of any use to me. I wanted to be an environmental lawyer. Why would I go to a law school with two course offerings and an underdeveloped environmental law program?

Haub Law had the environmental law program that I was looking for and combined with the scholarship it was an easy choice.

What were some of the more impactful experiences you had while at Haub Law? The environmental litigation clinic is a very transformative program. Part of that was the oversight of Karl Coplan. When I had him, Professor Coplan was a very demanding and very good professor. The environmental litigation clinic really, really helped refine my legal skills. I also made a number of connections outside of Pace as well working on those matters, and I still find them valuable today.

You were an articles editor on the Pace Environmental Law review, and you graduated with the environmental law certificate. Would you recommend those experiences?

Yes. I had to write a note for the law review and that was a very useful process. It wasn’t so much what I wrote, but the process of writing such a complex law journal is incredibly helpful. I think anybody that participates in a law review winds up being a better lawyer because you're forced to learn how to write, research and edit.

I also think the certificate program is useful. I think exposing law students to topics, concepts, and legal acronyms is helpful and gives you a running start in your career as an environmental lawyer. I think it's really invaluable and that's one of the reasons I came to Haub Law. All of the robust environmental course offerings really gave me a foundation in various areas of law, which was helpful later.

You are a partner with Carter Ledyard and Milburn LLP and director of the Environmental Practice—how did your career start out and how has it evolved?

My career definitely morphed over time. When I first started practicing law, I did a lot more traditional environmental work than I'm doing these days. I worked with RCRA and CERCLA, which are two federal hazardous waste laws. I worked heavily with NEPA and SEQRA. I worked on a lot of historic preservation matters involving federal, state, and city preservation laws. I also worked on some brownfield matters, the Clean Water Act, and more. The past

“It is important to fill your resume with meaningful experiences in the area you want to practice...” few years I've started doing a lot more real estate related work. That’s because my practice is very focused on New York City and this is a real estate town.

Helping clients resolve their land use, construction, and real estate problems has become a big driver of my work.

What advice do you have for law students who want to work in the field of environmental law at a law firm upon graduating?

I find that Haub Law students are pretty good about aggressively seeking out internships and experiences and opportunities in the areas that are meaningful to them. Whenever I see a Haub Law resume I'm always impressed, there are internships at the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Environmental Litigation Clinic, and all sorts of things. It is important to fill your resume with meaningful experiences in the area you want to practice in, but also networking in those areas. And this is true, not just for environmental law, it's true for any subject matter you want to practice. It is really about networking, meeting as many people as you possibly can who might become future employers.

To that end, you should become a student member of the New York State Bar Association or the New York City Bar Association. You can sit on committees as students, and I would do that aggressively and participate. You must prioritize making connections outside the law school even more than making connections inside the law school.

That is very good advice. Outside of the law, tell us a bit about yourself and your hobbies.

Well, I have 3 young kids, so that takes up a lot of time.

So aside from my family, I also love exploring New York City and New York State. My family and I love national, state and city parks—we travel all over the place to visit them. I am also a big fitness enthusiast—I run 5ks and bike to work and do whatever I can to stay fit. I think prioritizing your personal life, physical fitness and mental health is very important. There is no question that I am a better lawyer because I dedicate time to these things. You need to have a healthy balance and if you don’t have that balance you wind up being less of a professional. n

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ALUMNI Board of Visitors OFFICERS Alfred E. Donnellan '81 Board of Visitors Chair MEMBERS Mayo Bartlett '92 Brian T. Belowich '99 Vernon J. Brown '96 Steven J. Chananie '83 Jeffrey J. Delaney '92 Lisa M. Denig '09

The Honorable Alexander W. Hunter Jr. The Honorable Linda S. Jamieson '79 Diana B. Kolev '05 John C. Lettera '99 Senator Shelley B. Mayer The Honorable Sondra Miller William M. Mooney III '92 Leslie Morioka '93 Richard L. O'Rourke '81

Kathleen Donelli '85

Joseph Pastore III '91

Anthony J. Enea '85

Anthony Pirrotti Jr. ‘90

Christopher B. Fisher '94

John J. Rapisardi '82

Susan E. Galvão '93

Jerold R. Ruderman

Angela M. Giannini '88

Paul Saunders

Peter S. Goodman '86

The Honorable Anthony A. Scarpino Jr.

The Honorable Philip M. Halpern '80 Paul Humphreys '09

Christine Paska transitioned from juvenile prosecution at the NYC Law Department to the Special Prosecutions Division at the Westchester County DA's Office.

2010 Jessica Cardichon will serve the Department of Education as Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development.

Chris Wallace '97 Russell M. Yankwitt

Inc., where she is a regular consultant to the Land Use Law Center at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. This article was written in conjunction with the Land Use Law Center’s Land Use, Equity, and Human Health Project.

2012 Jon Crain was named to Albany Business Review’s 40 Under 40 list. He is a partner with Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP. Brian Kim joined White and Williams LLP as an associate in the firm’s Newark location.

Troy Lipp was promoted to partner at Cuddy Feder.

2013 Beren Argetsinger was promoted to Partner at Keyes & Fox LLP. Lauren Bachtel 's article You've Come a Long Way, Baby! Or Have You? was published by the American Bar Association.

Vittoria Crea will serve as the Housing Rehabilitation Program Manager with the Community Development Partnership in Cape Cod. Henry Gordon Vice President and Trust Real Estate Manager for First Horizon Bank, was named to American Banker Association’s 40 Under 40 in Wealth Management.

Adam C. Weiss was included on the Hudson Valley Top Lawyers list for 2021 as an exceptional attorney in the area of plaintiff's personal injury.

2014

2011

Hana Heineken started a new position as Senior Attorney, Climate Financial Strategies at Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).

Joseph Marutollo has been appointed Chief of the Civil Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Meg Byerly Williams published “LowCarbon Land-Use Laws” in the April, 2022 edition of the American Planning Association’s Zoning Practice. She is in-house counsel for Skeo Solutions,

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Rebekah Blake was elected partner at Jones Day. Bryn Goodman became partner in the Labor & Employment Department at Fox Rothschild LLP.

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Alison K. Morris was named a Senior Attorney in the Westchester Office of the Cuddy Law Firm and joined Haub Law as an Adjunct Professor in Fall 2021, teaching Law and Education.

Additionally, her article, The Negative, and Often Inconsequential, Impact Remote Learning Has Had on Students With Disabilities During COVID was

published in the Fall 2020 Westchester Bar Journal.

Ryan Thompson was recognized by NYU Law with the 2020 Grunin Prize for Law and Social Entrepreneurship from NYU Law. The Grunin Prize recognizes lawyers for their role in developing innovative solutions to advance the fields of social entrepreneurship and impact investing, and Ryan was part of the winning team at the law firm Goldstein Hall where she is Special Counsel of the firm.

2015 Samantha Garrison joined Disero Martin as an Associate.

Erik Roth joined Shipshape as the Director of Enterprise and Utility Partnerships.

2016 W. Paul Alvarez recently opened his own law practice, the Law Office of W. Paul Alvarez PLLC in Pleasantville, NY. Paul is also a trustee in the Village of Pleasantville.

Lauren C. Enea was honored at the Westchester County Bar Association’s Virtual Annual Meeting and Pre-Spring Social with the Outstanding New Lawyer Award. She also authored the article Disinheriting a Child.

Drew Victoria Gamils was appointed to the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association Local and State Government Bar Section as well as featured in the New York State Bar Association Environmental and Energy Law Section’s Fall 2020 publication of “The New York Environmental Lawyer” (Vol. 40, No. 1.).

Rosemarie C. Hebner recently joined Goldberg Segalla as an associate in the firm’s Toxic Tort and Environmental Law groups in Newark.

Nicole Wiitala joined Sanford Heisler Sharp as a co-ombudsperson at the firm.

J. Justin Woods of The Law Offices of J. Justin Woods PLLC has opened a second office in Ithaca, NY.

2017

2018

Sheila Arjomandi has joined the firm of Romer Debbas, LLP. She primarily focuses on representing commercial lenders in real estate finance transactions throughout the country.

Sachee Arroyo (née Nahata) is now a proud Austin resident and works as an administrative law judge for the Texas Workforce Commission. She is also aiding a high-volume firm in opening a branch office in the Austin metropolitan area. Sachee and her husband recently welcomed the family’s newest addition, Elena.

Hannah C. Bartges joined Murphy Schiller & Wilkes LLP. Tyson-Lord “T.L.” Gray is a visiting assistant professor at the UA Little Rock Bowen School of Law and also has a scholarly affiliation with Bowen’s new Center for Racial Justice & Criminal Justice Reform.

Luis Leon was promoted to lead immigration attorney at Make the Road New York.

Eve Lincoln was elected as Town of New Windsor Councilwoman, the youngest town board member to ever serve her town. Additionally, Eve was honored by the New York State Young Republicans as a Rising Star. She also welcomed her second child in June 2021.

Courtney Dunn has rejoined Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney's sports law group as a legal associate in the firm's New York City office.

Marisa Finkelberg a criminal defense attorney with Putnam County Legal Aid Society, Inc., was included in 2021’s “40 under 40” in Putnam County.

Delonie Plummer is a National Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Inaugural Ambassador.

Brieanne Scully joined Fox Rothschild as an Associate in the Intellectual Property Department and was selected to the 2021 New York Metro Rising Stars list.

David Solimeno joined Barclay Damon’s Regulatory and Project Development Practice Areas and Energy Team as an associate. His primary office location is Albany.

2019 Jeff Deskovic had multiple articles featured in the Davis Vanguard.

Mackenzie M. Peet was selected as a Top Lawyer 2021 as featured in the November issue of Delaware Today magazine.

2020

Scott Wenzel joined Yankwitt LLP as an associate.

Samantha L. Mortensen joined Feldman, Kleidman, Coffey & Sappe LLP, a Fishkill, NY based law firm.

Aaron George Marrero was appointed as a Brooklyn ADA. Marjeta Papa Nikolovski was appointed as a Brooklyn ADA. Carl Pavetto began serving as Visiting Professor of Environmental Law at Vermont Law School in fall 2021.

Sahana Ramdas was featured in the article Meet Sahana Ramdas, one of India's fewest Animal Rights lawyers, who is standing up for nature's furry friends.

2021 Kendall Pipitone 's article Can’t Touch This: How the European Union is Keeping its Citizens’ Data from Reaching the United States was accepted for publication by UC Davis' Journal of International Law and Policy. The article was written for Professor Tom McDonnell’s International Human Rights Law Seminar last semester.

In Memoriam Barbara Ann Dalton ‘88 passed away peacefully at home on January 13, 2021.

Jordan Montoya was hired as Associate Counsel at the NYC Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice as of July 2021.

Joseph Moravec (and his former colleagues, including Nick Phillips, a former Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow with the Pace Community Law Practice) had a major victory in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the case of Braithwaite v. Garland.

Morgan Dowd ’s article titled, Mandating the COVID-19 Vaccine: A Legal Analysis was published in the Health Law Journal, a publication by the Health Law Section of the New York State Bar Association.

Tala DiBenedetto and Alli Fausner drafted a report that was published on the Farm Bill Law Enterprise website, which Pace is a part of. Tala DiBenedetto ’s article Coordinating NHPA and NEPA to Protect Wildlife was published

by William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review.

Dennis James Kenny, long-time member of the Law School’s Board of Visitors, whose support and partnership has made an impact on Haub Law students, passed away on October 1, 2021.

Katheryn Linehan Ritchie ‘88 passed away peacefully on January 3, 2022.

Wendy Williams died on February 27, 2022 at her home in Peekskill, NY at the age of 84. She formerly served as an Assistant Dean at the Law School.

Myron Marcus, 89, died peacefully in White Plains on March 8, 2022 with his beloved family by his side. He was a former member of the Board of Visitors of the Law School.

Carol Grisanti passed away on Thursday, March 17, 2022. Carol was a former faculty assistant at Haub Law. Carol has been described by faculty as "down to earth with a great sense of humor," a "wonderful person," and a "good friend to all".

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ALUMNI

Love What You Do Kevin Sylvester ‘14 Chief of Police, Ossining Police Department

Chief of Police with the Ossining Police Department, Kevin Sylvester’s path to law school was not on the straight and narrow. After being kicked out of college, Kevin took time to reflect on what path he wanted both his life and career to take. From the Marine Corps to becoming a police officer to having his first child during his second year of law school, Kevin’s journey to where he is today has been nothing short of interesting and a true display of determination.

Did you go straight to law school from undergrad?

I got kicked out of college the first time I attended.

It wasn’t that I was having too much fun. I was just an immature kid who was probably depressed and unprepared for living independently and studying full time. I stopped going to class and I left there with lots of credits, but no direction. It was the best thing that ever happened to me because it allowed me to reset and find my fire. I thank god I didn’t scrape by and finish because I’d probably be stuck in a job I hate, doing something that bores me. After leaving school, I joined the Marine Corps and then the police department.

With a police and military background, what made you decide to go to law school?

I always wanted to go to law school. Though most people finish high school, go to college, and directly to law school, I wasn’t ready for that. I didn’t finish my undergraduate program until I was 30. By that time I was working overnight shifts in a police department. Police officers in New York can retire

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"Networking is everything in this business. My alumni network is where I go for professional advice, for friendship, and for motivation." after twenty years so I figured a law degree would give me the opportunity to retire and work a more “normal” schedule.

Do you remember your first day at Haub Law? Absolutely. Most of the students were nervous but I’d been through so much. Many people feel an obligation to perform when they get to law school,

but I already had a good job. I knew I didn’t HAVE to be here. I could have walked out at any time. I was here because I wanted to be here. I chose to be here.

It’s a completely different perspective and really allowed me to enjoy my time here. I met some of my best friends that day. Hi Kaitlyn!

What were some of your biggest struggles during law school?

My son was born the first week of my 2L year. If you ever thought law school was tough, imaging reading cases in the delivery room! That’s not even an exaggeration. Nothing in law school came natural to me. I had to work hard and grind. When my son was born, I was terrified I would fall behind and never catch up so his first book was Contracts: Cases and Doctrine.

Looking back, what do you miss most about law school?

I live for the challenges. I truly miss the long days and nights of studying in the library. Even though we were stressed out and felt a ton of pressure, we did it together. It may have been difficult but I have really fond memories of the nights we locked in to prepare for exams, loaded with snacks, together with friends.

I really appreciated the opportunity to work with so many incredibly smart students who went on to be wildly successful attorneys. I keep in touch with many of my former classmates. Networking is everything in this business. My alumni network is where I go for professional advice, for friendship, and for motivation.

Moving on to present day, you are the police chief for Ossining—what is your day-to-day like?

During orientation at Haub Law we visited Cuddy + Feder LLP and the managing partner, Chris Fisher, was asked, “as a partner, what is your day like.” His response changed my life. He said, “I’m a business owner—my day is from when I open my eyes to when I close my eyes.” That moment changed my life. I want to spend my time working on projects I believe in. When I know my energy is benefiting others, I never want to stop. My work day now really is when I open my eyes (around 5:00am) until I close my eyes (around 10:00pm). People rely on me to keep them safe, to help raise their children, and to keep them informed. If done right, it’s a heavy burden and the work never really ends.

What is most rewarding about your job?

I love making people smile. Sometimes it’s speaking with their kids and sometimes it’s offering comfort in a difficult situation or with clients I might help them solve a complex problem. I really appreciate having the opportunity to help people better understand their world. I want to give people something to believe in.

Do you also maintain a law practice?

I started slow, but my practice is growing. I have a solo firm, supported by quite a few alumni who have taught me everything. Most of my work is transactional real estate work but I’m branching out and learning new things every day.

What are some of your passions aside from law enforcement?

This is the hardest question because I love to love things. I coach my kids in little league and I’m a huge fan of youth baseball. I love winter sports and recently switched from skiing to snowboarding. I love endurance sports—distance running, triathlon, anything except the obstacle course races. Those aren’t for me. I love spending time with my kids and my dog, but when I go to bed at night, I can’t wait to get to work in the morning because I forever have something exciting I want to work on.

They say if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life. That’s a lie. I work… a lot.

But I love what I do so I don’t mind long hours. The thing I learned through the military, policing, and a legal career, is to spend your time doing things you can believe in because it makes it all worthwhile.

Had you not followed the path of law enforcement what do you think you would be doing?

I think policing saved me. It taught me so much about life and community. I’m afraid to think of what I’d have become without all the people I met throughout my career.

What is some of the best advice you personally have received?

One of my mentors told me that my debt for all her guidance was to pass it on. For all the good experiences I’ve had and all the support I’ve received, it’s my turn to pay it forward. My story might not resonate with everyone but I bet there are a couple of students still trying to find their “why.” If that’s you, let me know. A cold call may feel weird but I can’t count the number of friends I’ve made by reaching out to people who inspired me and making a connection. n

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ALUMNI

The Importance of Giving Back

John Lettera ‘99 CEO and Founder, Fairbridge Asset Management J

OHN LETTERA is a 1999 magna cum laude graduate of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and served as the Managing Editor of Law Review. He is the CEO and Founder of Fairbridge Asset Management, formerly RealFi Financial LLC. Fairbridge is a leading, technology driven, alternative investment management firm with expertise in real estate credit strategies. Mr. Lettera’s involvement with the law school has been tremendous.

He is a member of the Law School’s Board of Visitors and an Adjunct Professor at Haub Law. Most recently, he made a generous donation to the Law School which will serve as a five-year grant to name its Investor Rights Clinic after Fairbridge Asset Management—Fairbridge Investor Rights Clinic.

He has also been an adjunct pro-fessor at the Law School since 2010, teaching courses in Real Estate Finance, Corporate Finance, and Venture Capital. Mr. Lettera has also supported the Law School through hiring many alumni over the years, generously sponsoring alumni events, and volunteering with the Center for Career and Professional Development. In 2013 and 2022, he received the Distinguished Service Award as part of the annual Law School Leadership Awards Dinner in recognition of his ongoing support.

How did you end up choosing Pace to pursue your legal education?

Pace was a perfect fit for me, as I wanted smaller class sizes and the chance to establish close relationships with other students and my professors. I wanted a collaborative environment, and I relished the opportunity to engage with other students and work together to complete projects.

You have an interesting professional background, can you speak about that briefly?

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I’ve been investing in real estate since 1990, and as an attorney, I’ve specialized in this area for over 23 years, so I have a lot of insight and experience in handling complex transactions—bridge loans, equity and debt financing and investing, acquisitions, etc. Unlike a lot of global bankers or financiers, I like to think outside of the box, more like an entrepreneur than a banker. I learned very early on that this type of investing is very legal intensive so law school was a natural progression and one that has served me very well.

What impact has your legal education at Pace had on your career?

Pace gave me the knowledge and foundation to get recruited to Milbank while also instilling in me the intellectual passion to venture out on my own. Being a part of Pace continuously reminds me that the practice of law is a profession besides being a business and as lawyers we can do good besides just doing well.

Thanks to Pace, that commitment is firmly embedded in the culture of its students and in the future of the legal profession.

You are also an adjunct professor at Pace—how do you find that experience?

I always enjoyed classes taught by adjunct professors.

I liked learning about their experiences firsthand; it allowed the students to view the world they want to enter through their lens. As an adjunct professor myself, I speak directly to how theories learned in class apply to real life applications and point out the pros and cons of different scenarios that students may not be able to anticipate at their current level. My love for learning fuels my passion for teaching. I am addicted to the challenge of how to get students even more engaged in learning. I can’t teach every student in the world, but I can make a difference for the ones I teach. Knowing that the impact I can have on their lives can stay with them throughout their years of schooling and beyond is incredibly inspiring.

“Giving back is also an opportunity for me to channel my passion and allow it to thrive on campus long after I’m gone. It is a way to invest back in areas I wish to see Pace flourish."

You have been a generous supporter of Pace over the years—thank you. Why do you feel it is important to give back?

There are so many reasons including showing my appreciation for the education that Pace provided me and to give others a chance to have a similar experience. Also, I compare my degree to having equity in a company; I have a personal interest in ensuring that Pace’s prestige grows. For my corporate finance students, it is like owning an investment where valuation changes based on reputation rather than earnings.

The onus is on us, alumni, to bolster the reputation of our alma mater to protect and enhance our investment over time. Giving back is also an opportunity for me to channel my passion and allow it to thrive on campus long after I’m gone. It is a way to invest back in areas I wish to see Pace flourish.

and the list goes on. I also continue to support externship programs where several students work with my company for credits.

What advice would you have for a future or current law student?

I tell my students that the most crucial variable to your success in business is you. Experience has taught me that if we go to work every day on the internal, the external success we crave will undoubtedly show up along the way. The remarkable thing about working on ideas like inner passion and purpose is that your progress comes out so authentically in all manners of external interaction. When people can genuinely feel that you care about what you are engaged in, you are a persuasive salesperson, without actually trying to sell anything. It takes a lot of courage to work on the internal, but as Anais Nin so eloquently put it, “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage”.

Success, however you choose to define it, is a continual work in progress. While many factors come into play when building a business, I believe that the most important ones have nothing to do with innovation, balance sheets, finance, or marketing. The most important variable to your success in business is you. You are the author of your own life, and it’s never too late to replace the stories you tell yourself. n

What are different ways, aside from financial, that you feel an alumni can and should support their law school?

Alumni often think that they are not ready to support Pace. This is usually on the premise that monetary contribution is the only way to give back. While financial support is an important way to engage, contribution with your time can be an equally enriching experience, if not more. Volunteering to be mentors and guest speakers allows alums to stay current and engaged with bright minds of the future. Those interactions can lead to potentially hiring interns or future lawyers. Also, be sure to hire current and graduating students as this is the best way to promote Pace.

Over the years, I have hired countless students from Pace. Today, I am proud to say that several of my former students have top positions in my company, including a partner with the asset management company, general counsel with the mortgage company, counsel to the asset management company,

Dean Horace Anderson and John Lettera '99

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ALUMNI

Faith, Family, and Giving Back Susan Brown Galvão ‘93

Managing Partner, Bleakley Platt & Schmidt Susan Brown Galvão is a Managing Partner at Bleakley Platt & Schmidt and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Thankful for the opportunities that her education at Haub Law afforded her, Susan continuously gives back to her alma mater, as a member of the School’s Board of Visitors, an active participant in the Women in the Law group, and more. When Susan is not practicing law, you can find her spending time with her family, reading, at the beach, or watching baseball.

Let’s start off with learning a bit about your background.

I am from a big Catholic family—nine children—and I grew up in Westchester County. My father was a plumber and a teacher, and my mother was a stayat-home mom. We grew up in a modest house, full of activity. Education was a big point of emphasis for my parents, as was our faith. We never had a lot of material things, but I had an extraordinarily happy and stable upbringing. I attended Fairfield University in Connecticut and went straight to law school from college.

Was the profession of law always something you aspired to?

Not really. I was an English major, with a writing concentration, in college. I loved to read and write, and I guess I always enjoyed arguing. I sort of fell into the law, as I neared the end of my college career and realized I had to pick a direction. However, once I started law school, I knew it was a good fit for me.

I very much enjoyed reading cases and analyzing points of law. To me, the law made a lot of sense, and I felt confident I could hold my own in the profession.

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How did you end up choosing Pace?

I had no lawyers in my family (at least at that point) and I had very little sense of how or where to pursue law school, but I applied to Pace because it was not very far from my home in Westchester, and it seemed within reach. I felt immediately comfortable and at ease when I visited to learn more about Pace. When it came time to decide where to attend law school, I was thrilled to receive a generous scholarship from Pace, and I felt it was a “no brainer” from there. I never regretted going. It has served me well, all these years. I had excellent professors, interesting and smart classmates, and an opening into a profession that has been meaningful and enriching to me.

You are one of two Managing Partners at Bleakley Platt & Schmidt and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee—how did that evolve and what is your day to day like?

Professor Jay Carlisle was instrumental in helping me get a two-year clerkship with the New York State Court of Appeals, right out of law school. I did not necessarily have a plan when I was in law school, but the clerkship was fantastic and shaped my life and career in many ways. The clerkship crystalized my direction pretty early on towards litigation and appellate advocacy. I enjoy litigation, despite all its inherent pressures and deadlines, because I like to write persuasively and advocate for a cause. Litigation can be demanding and stressful, but there’s real satisfaction in making your case to a court and achieving success for your clients. There are, of course, many occasions when you’re disappointed with the results—and you feel the court got it wrong—but the victories make it all worthwhile.

For the first half of my career, I did almost all commercial litigation; however, I expanded my practice to include Trusts and Estate litigation about 15 years ago, when my firm was handling some big cases and my colleagues needed some assistance with the workload. I think that’s one of the beautiful things about our profession. There’s always more to learn, and you must be flexible and willing to grow and expand your skills to meet the needs of your clients and remain relevant in the profession.

I’ve been with Bleakley Platt since I completed my clerkship at the Court of Appeals. I started as a “newbie” associate—and I’ve spent my entire career here, learning and evolving my practice and skills with each new opportunity. I work with a wonderful group of attorneys and staff, many of whom I count among my closest friends. The practice is busy and demanding, but it is rewarding.

You remain very involved with Haub Law, as a member of the Board of Visitors and otherwise—thank you— why is it important to you to remain involved?

I believe that, as lawyers and as human beings, we have an obligation to “give back” to the community and the world. My parents always reminded me growing up that, “[t]o whom much is given, much will be required.” (Luke 12:48). Haub Law was unbelievably influential for me, as a lawyer and a person, and the generous scholarship I received from the Law School made my pathway into the law possible.

I have enjoyed my career immensely, and it has afforded me and my family so much opportunity and privilege. I am indebted to Haub Law and its

benefactors. My involvement with the Law School is part of my effort and obligation to “give back,” even to a small degree, so that future students can have the opportunities that I had, and so that Haub Law can continue to provide an excellent, well-rounded, and fruitful education to its students.

You are also very involved with the Women and the Law group at Haub Law—can you talk about the importance of that and the goal of that group?

As a female attorney, I am keenly aware of the fact that—across our profession—women have historically had fewer opportunities to rise to the top and lead law firms or other businesses. Still, my law firm has provided me with wonderful opportunities over the years, including by elevating me to a partner while I still was on something of a “flex” schedule due to my childcare needs, and by allowing me to serve in a management role on our Firm’s Executive Committee (which was, previously, only comprised of men). I am proud and honored to work with the Women in the Law group at Haub Law because I feel like it provides an important opportunity to meet, support, and learn from other women attorneys—and to show our younger, newer attorneys that there is a path forward for them. I am hopeful that we can continue to grow the group and afford avenues for female attorneys to connect and assist one another in any way possible.

What are some of your passions aside from the law?

I am blessed to have a good husband (who I met during the course of my clerkship!) and four amazing children, a very large extended family, and a network of good friends—all of whom enrich my life immeasurably. I am most “passionate” about time spent with those people and about my faith, which sustains me in hard times. But I also very much enjoy a good book, a glass of red wine, a quiet day at the beach, and watching baseball (whether it be my sons or the Yankees).

Lastly, what would your advice be for current or future law students?

Be open to exploring diverse opportunities and practice areas, as you look for internships or other work experience during law school. In my experience, it’s very difficult to know, while you’re in college or law school, what the practice of law really entails and what practice area will be a good “fit” for you. If you focus only on where you can make the most money, you will likely end up uninspired and disappointed. I would encourage you to look for a practice that intrigues, inspires, and motivates you—and the success (and the money) hopefully will follow. n

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ALUMNI

Trailblazing Woman in the Law Sheryl Sanford ‘01 Founding Partner, Black Marjieh & Sanford LLP

Sheryl Sanford is a founding partner of the 100% women-owned law firm Black Marjieh & Sanford LLP. Positive that she wanted to be a lawyer from a young age, she took her first law school class in high school and never looked back. As an insurance defense attorney, she handles construction-related accidents, represents many non-profits, gyms, churches, schools, and also specializes in retail cases as she also has hands on experience working in the supermarket industry prior to law school. When she isn’t in the courtroom, you can find her spending time with her daughter, playing volleyball, or singing karaoke.

Can you tell me a bit about your background?

I was born and raised in Queens, New York. I was the first in my family to go to college. My parents worked hard and put 100 percent into everything they did. I began working as soon as I could at age 14 and grew up with the mentality that you can achieve anything with hard work and dedication.

Did you always want to be a lawyer?

As a child, I wanted to be either a police officer or an attorney. I went to a specialized high school, Francis Lewis High School, where I took my first law class and never looked back. I remember the “introduction to the law” teacher posed a problem where the class debated whether something was a crime and, if so, how it could be defended which spurred a lively debate. After that class, I knew that I wanted to be an attorney and be able to present compelling arguments for others.

What was your path to law school and then ultimately to pursuing a law degree at Pace?

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"Years ago, they told women that you can have a family or a career, but you can’t have both.

I am proud to be in the position to say, ‘Yes, you can.’”

I attended John Jay College of Criminal Justice because I loved criminal law and I was contemplating becoming a police officer in the event I was unable to pursue law school. The NYPD called me in my last year of college, but by that time I had already applied to law schools and taken the LSAT. I chose Pace over two other schools because Pace allowed me to come and sit in one of their classes in which there

was an oral argument. I remember sitting on the edge of my seat rooting for the students and listening to the constructive feedback from the Professor.

I loved the people, the campus, and everything I saw and heard about the school.

Which experiences at Pace had the greatest impact on your law school experience?

My most impactful experiences at Pace were the many practical ones, including participating in the externships that Pace had to offer. I took a civil litigation clinic that taught me how to litigate and think like an attorney. I also externed at the Attorney General's office and Bronx County Legal Aid where I was able to "shadow" two fabulous attorneys and mentors who brought me to court and gave me the type of assignments I would be given as a new attorney. The externships at Pace provided valuable hands on experience that I otherwise would not receive in law school.

Who were some of your favorite professors at Pace?

Professor Janet Johnson (Torts) and Professor Michelle Simon (Civil litigation). They are both admirable, successful women, but they taught in a way that was clear and they inspired critical thought as opposed to just memorizing elements and rules.

Do you remember your first day of law school?

Yes, I looked around the room and realized everyone looked just as scared to death as me.

You are a founding partner of Black Marjieh & Sanford LLP—what is your day to day like?

As a partner at Black Marjieh & Sanford LLP, every day is different. One day, I may be taking a deposition or arguing a motion and the next day I am dealing with office-related issues, always mindful of prioritizing our firm culture of putting our employees first.

How has the pandemic shaped the way you practice?

The pandemic reinforced our firm's mentality that our firm is resilient. We invested in technology from the inception of our firm in 2017, which was instrumental in managing through the pandemic. I now just need to keep up with technology, which I must admit scares me. I am trying to be open to learning new things like utilizing technology in litigation.

Which practice areas do you concentrate in and why those areas in particular?

Our firm handles insurance defense, which covers a wide spectrum of practice areas spanning from construction accidents to slips, trips, and falls, which often times raise complex issues. I represent many

non-profits, gyms, churches, schools, and I also handle retail cases. These types of cases interest me because I worked for a supermarket chain for eleven years (from age 16 until I graduated from law school at age 27) and I was trained on how to complete accident reports. As a litigator, I now see why the wording and initial investigation into occurrences is key.

You remain very involved with the Law School—thank you—why is it important to you to remain involved?

I had wonderful mentors through my various externships, internships, and some of the best Professors who provided me with valuable advice. It is important to me to pay it forward and help law students because I was in their shoes not too long ago and it is important to me to do what I can in return.

One way that your firm has consistently supported Haub Law is by hiring many graduates—thank you! What sets Haub Law graduates apart in your experience?

We offer an internship program from which we have hired Haub Law students that have demonstrated that they are not only intelligent, diligent, and hard-working, they also exercise sound judgment, common-sense, independent thinking and, importantly, they fit in with the culture of our firm which focuses on team work.

What does it mean to you to be a “woman in the law”?

Our firm is a 100 percent women-owned firm. I am chair of the Haub "Women in Law" work life balance committee and a member of the Westchester County Women's Bar Association. I have heard stories from women in these groups where they discuss the discrimination they faced years ago and how they bravely paved the way so that women like us can follow in their footsteps. Years ago, they told women that you can have a family or a career, but you can't have both. I am proud to be in the position to say, "Yes, you can."

Do you have any advice for current or future law students?

Yes. Believe in yourself and believe that you can do it all because you can—it just takes hard work and dedication.

What are some of your passions aside from the law?

I am passionate about my family and my daughter who makes me SO proud to be her mom. I also love volleyball and I am passionate about karaoke... although some people do not appreciate it when my cousin and I pull out the karaoke machine and sing. n

SUMMER 2022

85

LETTER FROM THE ALUMNI BOARD PRESIDENT

Dear Fellow Alumni,

I write to you as I am completing my first year as President of the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors.

I am happy to report that the Board continues to be resilient and active during the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. Having held our meetings virtually over the last two plus years, we are now in the midst of planning our first hybrid in-person meeting.

Additionally, we continue to post our meeting minutes on the law school’s website for all alumni to access in a continued effort for increased accessibility and transparency and we encourage members of the alumni community to attend a Board meeting.

As always, the support of our students remains one of the Board’s utmost priorities.

Towards that end, this past year, the Board once again donated to the Bar Pass Initia-

Andrew Teodorescu, Esq. ‘13

tive at the Law School. The School was very appreciative of the donation and it had a direct and positive impact on our students.

The Law School Alumni Association has recently started engaging with the Pace University Alumni Association Leadership Council. Board Member Mark Meeker will serve as our alumni liaison with the Council. We anticipate developing a closer relationship with the Pace University Alumni Association and possibly collaborating on events and initiatives in the future.

As we close out this academic year, I look forward to the next and I remain grateful to my fellow officers of the Alumni Association and all of our Board Members for their hard work and dedication to our law school. I continue to welcome any suggestions that you may have regarding the Alumni Association. The best way to reach me is via email at andrew.teodorescu@gmail.com. I look forward to continuing to serve as the Association President.

Sincerely,

Andrew Teodorescu, Esq. ‘13

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H A U B L AW A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E

Get Involved With Haub Law Follow @HaubLawatPace on social media

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Volunteer to speak to student groups,

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come back to campus, mentor students, judge a moot court competition, or let us know how you would like to be involved!

Attend Haub Law events! Network with fellow

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alumni, current students, faculty, staff, and more.

Update us on personal and/or professional news!

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Law to hiring managers or donating to your alma mater.

Did you know you can target your giving? Support the program that means the most to you.

SAVE THE DATE

Upcoming Alumni Events FALL 2 02 2 • NYC environmental alumni event

(9/7/22)

• Two part CLE: Ways to Plan for the Future featuring Haub Law alumni Anthony J. Enea, Esq. & Lauren C. Enea, Esq. (9/13/22 & 9/22/22)

• Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law followed by White Plains environmental alumni event (9/15/22) • Albany environmental alumni event • Law School Reunion

(9/30/22)

(TBD)

SPRIN G 2 02 3 • Law Leadership Awards Dinner

(TBD)

Learn about more upcoming events!