PROFESSOR CYNTHIA
GODSOE, a career-long
advocate for the rights of
children and families, was
granted tenure last spring.
Godsoe teaches courses
on family law, criminal law,
children and the law, and
professional responsibility,
as well as a seminar on sex
crimes. The media, including the New York Times and Time
Magazine, have frequently consulted Godsoe on juvenile
justice and family law issues.
“I feel incredibly fortunate,” said Godsoe. “Teaching at
Brooklyn Law School is the best job in the world. The students
are amazingly energetic and thoughtful, my colleagues are
generous and interesting, and Brooklyn is the best place in the
world to live and work. Interacting with students—and seeing
them develop into such leaders in their field—is so rewarding.”
Her scholarship centers on the regulation of intimate
behavior and gender roles through family and criminal law,
encompassing topics such as the path to marriage equality,
the designation of victims and offenders in intimate
violence, and the criminalization of non-conforming girls.
Her recent work has appeared in the Yale Law Journal
Forum, Tulane Law Review, and California Law Review
Circuit, among others.
Before joining the Brooklyn Law School faculty in 2007,
Godsoe represented children and youth in impact litigation
and individual cases in juvenile justice, education, and child
protection matters as an attorney at the Legal Aid Society’s
Juvenile Rights Division and Advocates for Children.
Following law school, she clerked in the U.S. District Court
for the Eastern District of New York for Judge Edward
Korman ’67 and was a Skadden Public Interest Fellow. She
was chair of the Juvenile Justice Committee of the New York
City Bar from 2008 to 2011 and continues to participate in
pro bono work on a variety of issues for low-income and
marginalized children and families.
In spring 2020, Godsoe will publish an article on the
downside of criminal responses to sexual harms in a
symposium issue of the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law.