Adjunct Professors Bring Straight-From-the-Field Experience to Our Spring Curriculum

The Law School welcomes a new group of adjunct professors with a diverse array of professional backgrounds who will teach classes this spring semester, including a Brooklyn Law School Class of 2011 alumnus.

It will be a welcome back to Brooklyn Law School for Adjunct Professor Paul Cossu ’11, who will teach the Art Law Seminar. Cossu is a partner at Pryor Cashman’s art law group, where he works on litigation and transactional matters for galleries, auction houses, museums, artists, advisors, collectors, and other members of the global arts community. He has lectured on art law at Christie’s Education in New York and is on the board of Printed Matter, a non-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination, understanding, and appreciation of artists’ books. In addition to earning a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School, he graduated with a B.A. from McGill University.

Read the bios below to learn more about the other adjunct professors joining us to teach courses this spring. (Note: We will share our clinical and experiential learning adjunct professors in a subsequent article.)

Adjunct Professor Precious Benally, who will be teaching Native American Law, is a citizen of the Diné Nation from Northern New Mexico. She has been a lecturer at Columbia Law School since September 2020. Through her own firm, P. Benally Consulting, Benally assists Tribal Nations in developing and enhancing their justice systems by helping to implement problem-solving court programs with an emphasis on trauma-informed practices, alternatives to incarceration, and drug treatment and rehabilitation. Her areas of interest include international indigenous law and policy, drug treatment, peacemaking and restorative justice practices, teleservices, and developing technology-based training and information-sharing platforms. She earned a J.D. from Columbia Law School, and a B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Adjunct Professor Louisa DeRose will join colleague Sarah B. Hechtman in teaching a Dispute Resolution in Family and Marital Law (simulation course). DeRose is a partner at Rower, focused on matrimonial and family law manners, with additional background in transactional real estate law. Prior to joining Rower, she practiced matrimonial law in a boutique Manhattan firm, was a member of her family’s Queens-based firm, DeRose & Surico, and worked as an assistant district attorney in Queens County. DeRose earned a J.D. from New York Law School and a B.A. from New York University.

Adjunct Professor Sarah B. Hechtman, who will lead a Dispute Resolution in Family and Marital Law (simulation course), is counsel at Rower and has been a matrimonial and family law attorney for more than 15 years. Hechtman is also an adjunct professor at Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, where she teaches psychology and law. She earned a J.D. from Columbia University, an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an A.B. from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges.

Adjunct Professor David Nachman, who will teach Opioids and the AG’s Office, was a George W. and Sadella D. Crawford Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School in the fall term. He is currently special counsel in the New York State Attorney General’s office where from 2011 to 2021 he served in a variety of enforcement and litigation roles including as an enforcement section chief in the charities bureau, senior enforcement counsel in the executive division, and more recently as counsel for opioids and impact litigation. He received a B.A. from Brandeis University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Adjunct Professor Naomi Sunshine, who will teach Employment Law, is a director of the Public Interest Law Center and Academic Careers Program at NYU School of Law, where she previously served as an acting assistant professor of lawyering. Prior to that, she practiced employment law for seven years at public interest law firms in New York and San Francisco. Her articles on labor & employment law have been published in the Lewis & Clark Law Review and N.Y.U. Review of Law & Social Change. Sunshine earned a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from NYU School of Law. 

Adjunct Professor Li Yu, who will teach Congressional Investigations, is a partner at DiCello Levitt’s New York office, with a focus on whistleblower and securities litigations, and an adjunct professor at Cardozo Law. In 2021 and 2022, Li worked as senior counsel to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations under Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) Prior to his work on Capitol Hill, Li served for over a decade as an assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, including four years as the senior counsel to the civil fraud units. He earned a J.D. from Columbia University Law School and a B.A. from Wesleyan University.