News

Brooklyn Law School Career Services Office is offering for the first time a three-part series on career management, growth, and change for experienced alumni.  read more

Daniel Fisher, a Forbes blogger, features Professor Jason Mazzone and his response to a recent The New York Times article about the Supreme Court.  read more

The National Law Journal profiled Professor Jason Mazzone and his recent research on the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts, particularly focusing on the relationship between federal and state courts.  read more

Professor Jonathan Askin spoke with E-Commerce Times about Consumer Watchdog’s short video that blasts Google for privacy invasion.  read more

During the summer of 2010, Brooklyn Law School hosted a five-week legal education Summer Law Institute for rising 9th-grade students from all five boroughs.  read more

On Monday August 30, 2010, ABC Eye Witness News profiled Brooklyn Law School’s partnership with Legal Outreach, a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing middle and high school students from underserved communities in New York City.  read more

The Brooklyn Law School community mourns the tragic loss of its recent graduate, Irina Shekhets ‘10, who was killed in a plane crash in Nepal on her 30th birthday.  read more

In a recent decision, a majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit sided with the plaintiff in the case of Swanson v. Citibank, saying that the plaintiff’s complaint concerning a Fair Housing Act claim was sufficient and reversing the District Court judge who had dismissed the plaintiff’s case.  read more

On Sunday, August 15, Brooklyn Law School proudly welcomed the entering class of 2010 at its annual Convocation Ceremony.  read more

Three members of the Class of 2010, Caitlin Coan, Nicholas Z. Enrich, and Elyssa B. Feins, have been selected for the prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship Program.  read more

In a humorous guest post for technology blog TechCrunch, Professor Jonathan Askin compared the controversy surrounding the Google-Verizon deal with the turn of Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side in the Star Wars films.  read more

USA Today reported on the progress of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Index, Vietnam’s decade old stock exchange.  read more

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act remains a heated topic.  read more

With the resignation of Hewlett-Packard’s CEO last Friday, business experts are beginning to compile a list of potential replacements to lead the company. Professor Miriam Baer, whose expertise includes corporate compliance, was quoted by The New York Times on the qualities to look for in a new CEO.  read more

With the sinking American economy, recent studies are showing that levels of domestic violence rise with financial difficulties. Newsday spoke to Professor Lisa Smith, who runs the BLS Family Justice Center Clinic, who connected the depressed economy to the negative environment in the homes of potential domestic abusers.  read more

Michael Pope ’10 was awarded a two-year Equal Justice Works Fellowship as the new Director of the Community Youth Reentry Project (CYRP) at the non-profit organization, Youth Represent. Pope’s passion for social justice is what brought him to Brooklyn Law School.  read more

A federal judge in California overturned the state’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage on Wednesday, August 4, 2010. Associate Professor Nelson Tebbe, who has extensively researched the court's views of marriage, commented on the ruling.  read more

An article by Professor Jayne Ressler was featured in the Los Angeles Daily News concerning suspicious civil contempt confinement policies.  read more

Professor Derek Bambauer recently contributed to the U.S. Department of State's eJournal USA issue on "Defining Internet Freedom."  read more

Professor Derek Bambauer, an expert on Internet Law, spoke to Intellectual Property Watch about China's online censorship laws and their potential violation of World Trade Organization rules.  read more

On July 15, Diane Mirabile Rafal ‘11, a student in Professor Ursula Bentele’s Capital Defender and Federal Habeas Clinic, argued before the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on behalf of the Clinic’s client, Jerry McBee who has been in prison for felony murder since 1999.  read more

The Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy Clinic (BLIP) has been tapped to assist in the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) Amicus Brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in response to Schwarzenegger v. EMA.   read more

Professor Derek Bambauer explains the challenges of patent infringement cases.  read more

On July 13, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Communications Commission must revise its policy on fining broadcasters thousands of dollars for “fleeting expletives” unintentionally aired on television.  read more

A New York web designer is suing Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg for up to 85% ownership of the company for breach of contract.  read more

Brooklyn Law School recently hosted the Inaugural Annual Law and Religion Roundtable, a new forum designed to give scholars of religious freedom a place to share cutting-edge works and engage in discipline-shaping conversations. The Roundtable focused on sessions in which scholars presented works in progress.  read more

Jill Backer, Associate Director for Employer Relations at the Brooklyn Law School Career Center, gives advice to students and recent graduates in the Daily Business Review: Network, network, network. She offers 10 action items to rev up networking skills to land the right opportunity in a tough financial market.  read more

Stuart Subotnick, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Brooklyn Law School, announced today the search for a new dean. Effective July 1, Joan G. Wexler will be the Law School’s President and Professor Michael A. Gerber will serve as Interim Dean.  read more

2010 has been a very good year for Jason Mazzone. A professor and noted scholar of constitutional law, intellectual property, and legal history, Mazzone has been on the receiving end of a number of coveted honors from the Federalist Society, the American Law Institute, the Copyright Society, and Brooklyn Law School.  read more

Professors Edward Janger and Derek Bambauer hosted a reporters roundtable with over a dozen international reporters at Brooklyn Law School to discuss U.S. and E.U. privacy rules and their impact on business practices.   read more

As the Brooklyn Law School alumni base continues to expand worldwide, the Law School has sought ways to continue to reconnect with these graduates and keep them informed on the latest news.  read more

Brooklyn Law School will host the 7th Prawfsfest! faculty workshop from July 6-7, 2010.   read more

Following the passage of the final financial reform bill, experts and critics are sifting through the legislation to assess the fate of all those involved.   read more

Professor Roberta Karmel explores how the Securities Exchange Commission balances corporate governance laws on the federal and state levels.  read more

The Career Center at Brooklyn Law School is home to a team of seasoned experts who educate current students and alumni about the skills they will need to succeed as lawyers, open their eyes to opportunities that exist at BLS and elsewhere, and facilitate relationships among employers, mentors, students, and alumni. Recently, two Career Center staff members – Jill Backer and Tamara Stephen, both experienced lawyers in their own right – published career advice articles for lawyers.  read more

On average 95% of Congressional incumbents are re-elected despite their low job approval ratings.   read more

On June 15, the New York State Senate approved a bill that would allow divorces to be filed without naming which party is at fault, making New York one of the last states to implement a no-fault divorce system.  read more

Generic-drug maker Mylan Inc. is the most recent company being put under investigation by the Securities Exchange Commission for selective disclosure of material information.  read more

Brooklyn Law School recently honored former Law School trustee and past National Grid Chairman Robert B. Catell by naming an Associate Deanship after him as a tribute to his remarkable life’s work and his contributions to the Law School.  read more

Mayor Michael Bloomberg addressed members of the class of 2010 at Brooklyn Law School’s 109th Commencement held on June 4 at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. Stuart Subotnick ’68, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Dean Joan G. Wexler presented the 463 members of the graduating class with their degrees and also conferred upon Mayor Bloomberg the Law School’s highest honor, an honorary doctor of laws degree.  read more

June 7, 2010 – Out of a total of nine law students statewide, three from Brooklyn Law School have been chosen to receive the prestigious Kenneth G. Standard Diversity Internship of the Corporate Counsel Section of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA). The program provides placements in corporate legal offices with compensation of $6,000 for each student.  read more

Himan Brown, the classic radio drama creator and producer, died on Friday, June 4, in Manhattan at the age of 99. His work spanned the 20th century and included the immensely popular serials: “The Adventures of the Thin Man”; “Dick Tracy”; and the “CBS Radio Mystery Theater.”  read more

On June 3, Professor David Reiss was featured on Bloomberg TV to discuss statements made in the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) hearings, which look to better understand the causes of the current economic crisis.  read more

Professor Cynthia Godsoe recently published an op-ed about family-focused legislation in New York State in the National Law Journal. The article discussed a newly passed amendment to the Family Court Act which would restore the rights of certain parents whose parental rights have been terminated, but who have been deemed “rehabilitated.”   read more

Scott Ruplinger ’10 recently celebrated a remarkable achievement: he raised enough money to finance the construction of a Kenyan school through his online fundraising project and brainchild, the Penny School Project.    read more

Sarah A. Westby ’11 has won the 2009-2010 University of Iowa School of Law Trandafir International Business Writing Competition with her article, “Associations to the Rescue: Reviving the Consumer Class Action in the United States and Italy.”   read more

An Ngoc Duong ’12 has been awarded the Hong Duc Clerkship by the Vietnamese American Bar Association of Washington (State) to work this summer at the Ho Chi Minh City office of Lovells LLP.   read more

“Cooperation’s Cost,” a paper written by Professor Miriam Baer, was competitively selected for presentation at Yale Law School as part of the Yale/Stanford Junior Faculty Forum in late June.   read more

Over the last decade, Downtown Brooklyn has taken on a well-publicized life as the place to be. Artisan gourmet shops, indie boutiques, and chef-driven restaurants have helped build this borough from its plucky days as the once-home to the Dodgers, to a thriving Mecca of bohemian chic.  read more

Professor Derek Bambauer was a featured contributor in the U.S. State Department’s series of “Who’s Right” debates, a forum for two experts to discuss a current hot topic of issue.  read more

The stock market dropped nearly a thousand points on May 6, bringing the worth of many stable companies down to pennies, only to rebound within the next hour. Although the strange event, whose cause remains unknown, is encouraging new rules for the market, investors who sold their temporarily depressed shares will likely keep those losses.  read more

AOL News pointed out the prevalence of Supreme Court Justices who hail from New York City. New Yorkers currently on the bench are Justices Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Sonia Sotomayor. President Obama’s nominee to replace Justice John Paul Stevens is Solicitor General Elena Kagan who grew up on the Upper West Side in Manhattan.   read more

The Daily Beast blog featured an editorial by Professor Gerald Shargel, who criticized various U.S. senators’ reactions to the handling of Faisal Shahzad’s arrest.  read more

Since graduating from Brooklyn Law School in 1969, Gerald Shargel has spent practically every day building a reputation as one of the country’s most dynamic, effective, and acclaimed defense attorneys.  read more

In an editorial for the Wall Street Journal, Professor Joel Gora, along with Floyd Abrams and Ira Glasser, explores the ACLU’s new stance on campaign finance restrictions.  read more

Dennis J. Block ’67 has been named Dealmaker of the Year by American Lawyer for the third time in his impressive career. Block, a senior partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and a household name in the world of mergers and acquisitions, offers his expertise as an Adjunct Professor at the Law School, where he teaches advanced corporate law and the Dennis J. Block Center for the Study of International Business Law bears his name in recognition of his distinguished work as an international business lawyer.  read more

On April 15, the Law School celebrated 75 years of the Brooklyn Law Review with a dinner held at the Forchelli Center at Feil Hall and a captivating speech by Jeffrey Toobin, senior legal analyst for CNN and staff writer at The New Yorker. Toobin was welcomed by nearly 200 Law Review alumni and current Law Review students from as far away as Miami and Montreal.  read more

Since Brooklyn Law School initiated the International Human Rights Fellowship three years ago, a select group of students who have demonstrated particular promise in their study of international and human rights law are honored each year as International Human Rights Fellows. The Fellows take their talent abroad for a summer spent solving real-world legal challenges in a variety of settings. In the past, Fellows have explored areas including free expression and speech, international criminal law, and legal issues of art theft and antiques.  read more

David A. Shapiro ’12 has won a trifecta of awards – three public service law fellowships – to fund his summer externship at the Juvenile Rights Practice of the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn. He received a Brooklyn Law Students for the Public Interest (BLSPI) Fellowship; an Equal Justice America Fellowship and a Bergstrom Child Welfare Law Summer Fellowship.  read more

At the Seventh Annual Brooklyn Law School Public Service Awards Ceremony on April 7, one hundred students in the Class of 2010 were honored for pro bono legal work in government and non-profit settings.   read more

In her column, “Securities Regulation,” Professor Roberta Karmel discusses the SEC’s new rules on short sales—a common subject of blame for the current financial crisis.  read more

On April 8, Professor David Reiss appeared on Bloomberg Television’s Investment Program “Taking Stock” to discuss the ever-growing need for rating agency regulation.   read more

The Brooklyn Law School Board of Trustees welcomed two outstanding recent graduates to the Board this winter. Kathleen M. Chastaine ’06, an associate in the Private Equity Group at Winston & Strawn LLP, and Scott B. Selinger ’06, an associate in the Acquisition and Leveraged Finance Group at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, were appointed in December 2009 for a two-year term.  read more

On the evening of March 17, over 175 students, alumni, family and friends of Brooklyn Law School gathered in the Forchelli Conference Center for the annual Endowed Scholars Celebration. The event is a special opportunity for those who have established scholarships to meet the students who have received them and share experiences.   read more

Brooklyn Law School’s Moot Court Team received a double honor last week when Rachel Green ‘10 and Adam Scheinman ’10 each took home the Honorable Mention for the Best Oral Advocate at the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot (“the Vis”), an international moot court competition held in Vienna, Austria.  read more

Marjorie Yang ’11 has won a New York State Bar Association Minority Fellowship in Environmental Law, which provides a $6,000 stipend for a summer internship with a government or public interest environmental organization in New York State. She will be working at the Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2, in various areas of environmental enforcement. Two prominent environmental law practitioners, Jeff Gracer and Yelann Momot, will serve as her mentors.  read more

Each spring, many student organizations plan and host annual alumni dinners to bring alumni back to campus and celebrate the work of their respective organizations. These events are all well attended and offer valuable networking opportunities for both students and graduates. The dinners also recognize graduating students’ service to the organization throughout their law school careers and distinguished alumni are honored for their contributions to different fields of law.  read more

In a recent article, the Wall Street Journal explored the potential for a conflict of interest when employees leave the Securities and Exchange Commission for the private sector. Several instances have recently come public in which former SEC employees turn to more profitable private companies and represent the very clients they had once investigated.  read more

Ted Janger, the David M. Barse Professor of Law, was elected on March 16, 2010 to The American Law Institute (ALI). The ALI is comprised of 4,200 lawyers, judges, and law professors of the highest qualifications who produce scholarly work to clarify, modernize and improve the law.  read more

Beijing, Bologna, Hamburg, and Colchester are already among the impressive international destinations BLS students can call home for a semester or summer. Now, two new programs, one at University College Cork (UCC) and one at Hong Kong University (HKU), offer an exciting chance for students to study abroad for a semester in additional renowned legal programs.  read more

The increased use of credit card transactions, online banking, and Internet commerce generates an enormous amount of sensitive data and raises questions about legal mechanisms to protect and secure this information.  read more

On March 11, at the Forchelli Conference Center at Feil Hall, three hundred impassioned students, alumni, professors, and friends of BLS gathered together for the 20^th Annual Brooklyn Law Students for the Public Interest (BLSPI) auction.  read more

In the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 8, incredible stories of the tragedy’s bravest heroes—donors, rescuers, doctors, and Samaritans—have flooded the media. But closer to home, just a few blocks from the Law School on Pierrepont Street, a solo practitioner with muscular dystrophy is fighting a battle for victims of the earthquake largely forgotten: those with disabilities.  read more

Brooklyn Law School graduates are consistently recruited by the top law firms in the nation. Of our graduating Class of 2009, over 20% were hired as first-year associates by the nation’s top law firms. However, a recent issue of the National Law Journal, and its website, which highlighted law schools with the highest percentage of graduates hired by NLJ top 250 firms, omitted Brooklyn Law School from its “Go-To-School” rankings.  read more

Matthew Handler ’10 has won first place in the 2009 Chief Justice John B. Doolin Writing Competition sponsored by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. His article, “Tribal Law and Disorder: A Look at the System of Broken Justice in Indian Country and the Steps Needed to Fix It,” was published in the Oklahoma Supreme Court Sovereignty Symposium Compendium (2009), and was recently republished in Brooklyn Law Review (2010).  read more

For New York Times reporter Nina Bernstein, it all began with an email from an immigration lawyer. He had heard from his client in detention that another detainee had fallen ill and been left to languish in his cell, screaming in pain, until it was too late. When Bernstein inquired into the anonymous man’s death, government officials told her that no record of his death existed. Undeterred, Bernstein continued to inquire into the man’s fate, her investigation eventually uncovering a systematic and sometimes fatal lack of medical services in immigrant detention, the fastest growing form of incarceration in this country.  read more

William F. Patry, Senior Copyright Counsel at Google, Inc. and one of the foremost copyright experts in the nation, spoke with students and faculty on March 4, 2010. He discussed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), fair use, digital licensing, and he also explored some of the pressing issues faced by new media companies. The discussion was co-sponsored by the Intellectual Property Law Association, The Dennis J. Block Center for the Study of International Business Law, and the Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy Clinic (BLIP).  read more

On February 18^th, a memorial service organized by Professors Ursula Bentele, Betsy Fajans, Mollie Falk, Linda Feldman, Elizabeth Schneider, Marilyn Walter, and Carrie Teitcher, was held to celebrate the life of Eve Cary, a beloved colleague, teacher, and friend who lost a brave battle with cancer this September.  read more

Brooklyn Law School is among the four best public service law schools in the nation, according to an article in the February 2010 issue of The National Jurist. Using data collected by The Equal Justice Works Guide to Law Schools, The National Jurist selected four schools for the “public service honor roll” – Brooklyn Law School, Boston University School of Law, Cornell Law School and the University of Maryland School of Law.  read more

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Dean Jerome Prince Memorial Evidence Competition this spring, the Law School was delighted to welcome Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. as one of the presiding judges for the final round held on April 10, 2010.  read more

Professor Anita Bernstein was featured as a guest blogger on the TortsProf Blog, which provides an ongoing conversation among torts professors from law schools around the country. In her post, Professor Bernstein discussed how instructors can include professional responsibility and legal ethics in torts courses without these issues monopolizing classroom time. Among other points, she suggests explaining contingent fees, conflicts of interest, solicitation, and witness coaching to students during lessons on relevant topics.  read more

In her column, "Securities Regulation," Professor Roberta Karmel opines about the SEC’s approach in addressing the aftermath of market deregulation.  read more

A paper written by Jason Jendrewski ’10 won first place in the Dr. Emanuel Stein Memorial Writing Competition of the New York State Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section. “The Wholesale Seizure of Major League Baseball’s Confidential Drug Testing Records and the Consequences for the War Against Substance Abuse in America’s Workplaces” will be published in the State Bar’s Labor and Employment Newsletter. Jendrewski also received an award of $3,000.  read more

The Oath, a documentary co-produced by professor Kaplan, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January where it took the prize for Best Cinematography in a documentary.  read more

Jacqueline Tate ’10 has won a writing award for her paper, “The House Always Wins: A Call to Reform Art Auction House Regulations,” in a competition sponsored by the New York State Bar Association’s Scholarship Committee of the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law (EASL) Section. The 2009 Phil Cowan Memorial/BMI Scholarship Competition award includes publication of the paper in the EASL Journal as well as a $2,500 scholarship.  read more

Professor Susan Herman headlined the 26th annual Jefferson B. Fordham debate at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law about the Patriot Act, which will be reexamined by Congress this year.   read more

On February 5, 2010, only a couple of weeks after the Supreme Court expanded a corporation’s First Amendment rights, sparking a public debate about corporate rights, Brooklyn Law School held the annual David G. Trager Public Policy Symposium, “Sharing the Blame: The Law and Morality of Punishing Collective Entities.” Co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Law, Language and Cognition and the Journal of Law and Policy, the symposium was organized by Brooklyn Law School Professors Michael T. Cahill and Miriam H. Baer.  read more

Professor Gerald Shargel posted an article "Stop Dithering, Holder" on the blog The Daily Beast, where he is a frequent contributor. In his editorial, he opines on the ongoing discussion of where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the terrorist allegedly behind the September 11 attacks, will be tried.  read more

The American Law Institute (ALI) announced recently that Brooklyn Law School professors Claire R. Kelly and Jason Mazzone have been elected as members. The ALI is a leading independent organization producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law. The Institute drafts, discusses, revises, and publishes Restatements of the Law, model statutes, and principles of law that are influential in the courts and legislatures, as well as in legal scholarship and education.  read more

Professor Adam Kolber was quoted in a New York Times editorial on the potential legal repercussions of a baby with more than two parents. Recent scientific breakthroughs have resulted in the birth of baby monkeys with one father and two mothers, in which defective DNA from one mother's egg is replaced with DNA from the second mother.  read more

The New York Times Opinion Section's Room for Debate, which maintains a running commentary on recent news, explored the political spending case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.  read more

On January 20, 2010, the Center and SUNY Downstate Medical Center sponsored a roundtable discussion at the Law School on Medical Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (MOLST).  read more

Professor Gerald Shargel was featured on the Wall Street Journal Law Blog for his article "Haiti's Lawless Streets" in the online magazine The Daily Beast. In the post, he illustrates Haiti's legal system and how it both affected and was affected by the earthquake that hit the country on January 12.  read more

Brooklyn Law School’s Moot Court teams started the 2009-2010 competition season strong, becoming Regional Champions at the ABA Labor & Employment Trial Advocacy Competition;  read more

Michael Pope ’10 has received an Equal Justice Works Fellowship to implement a project of his own design that will provide civil legal representation to New York’s indigent youth reentering society after a criminal or juvenile delinquency conviction.  read more

Analiese Wilcox ’10 has been accepted to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Honors Attorney Program, one of the federal government’s most prestigious and competitive honors programs. She is one of nine attorneys chosen from a group of about 2,700 applicants.   read more

Dean Joan G. Wexler announced that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be the speaker at Brooklyn Law School's 109th commencement on Friday, June 4, 2010. At the ceremony, at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, he will receive the Law School's honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.  read more

Professor Gerald Shargel was featured on USA Today’s Opinionline, which compiled statements from various experts on the attempted terrorist attack on a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day.  read more

Joshua Bauchner, class of 2001, was quoted in the New York Times about the demographic shift in Harlem that has happened over the past decade.  read more

Percy Sutton, the pioneering civil rights attorney, political leader and media icon, died on December 26, 2009 at the age of 89. A member of the Class of 1950, he was one of Brooklyn Law School’s most distinguished graduates and one of the nation’s most influential African-American leaders.  read more