DEAR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS,
You may be familiar with Raymond Chandler’s classic noir
novel The Long Goodbye. If a book were ever to be written about
my return to Brooklyn Law School, in addition to being much
happier than Chandler's, it might be called The Long Hello.
After being named the new Joseph Crea Dean last December,
I officially took office on July 1. Since then, and especially
since our Convocation on August 19, it has been a whirlwind
of introductions, reconnections, and immersion in a new
academic year, interacting with new and returning faculty, our
Board of Trustees, alumni, students, and staff. These many and
varied gatherings have given me welcome occasion to share
my excitement about, and gratitude for, the opportunity I have
been given to work with so many talented and dedicated people
and to help shape the future of an institution I esteem and
cherish deeply.
That work to ensure the Law School’s ongoing excellence
is a shared effort. Brooklyn Law School’s future successes will
be rooted in the help of supporters and friends like you. Such
help can—and must—take several forms. There are at least four
kinds of contributions you can off er to support and strengthen
Brooklyn Law School:
- First, you can help each other by maintaining your personal and professional ties to classmates and fellow members of the Brooklyn Law community, building a wider yet more tight-knit network of alumni and friends whose mutual support enables mutual achievement.
- Second, you can help our students by serving as a mentor, offering informal advice, coming back to lecture in a class or at an event, or, best-case scenario, providing or pointing toward a job opportunity.
- Third, you can help the school by making a gift. Our ability to attract top students, provide them with a top-notch education, and launch them into thriving careers depends on the generosity of donors who were themselves given opportunities by their Brooklyn Law School education and are now in a position to help the next generation flourish and to help the school maintain and enhance its reputation and quality.
- Last but certainly not least, you can help me—and our faculty, administration, and Board of Trustees, who collectively govern the school—by getting in touch to share your thoughts about the Law School, inform us about your career experiences, and provide your insights about trends in the law and legal practice that can guide our decisions about where to take the school in the future.
As my own long hello continues, I hope I have the chance
to say hello in person to as many of you as possible in the days
ahead, and to exchange thoughts and ideas about how to
preserve and build on everything we treasure about Brooklyn
Law School.
Michael T. Cahill
President, Joseph Crea Dean, and Professor of Law