Seven Alumni Awarded the Pitler Criminal Justice Fellowship for 2018

Seven graduates of the Law School working in the criminal justice field have been named recipients of the Robert M. Pitler Post-Graduate Criminal Justice Fellowship for 2018. The fellowship is awarded to graduates who have worked five or more years in public sector criminal law practice. Recipients are required to commit to remain working in public service for at least two additional years.

The fellowship is named for the late Professor Robert Pitler ’66, a longtime member of the faculty who died in 2015. He started the fellowship fund more than 20 years ago, and today the program supports as many as eight to 10 fellows each year. Proceeds of the Prof. Robert M. Pitler Annual Program on Criminal Law, Procedure, Evidence & Ethics fund the fellowships.

“Brooklyn Law School has a longstanding tradition of sending students to work in prosecutor and defender offices,” said Stacy Caplow, Associate Dean of Professional Legal Education, who administers the program. “Many of our graduates spend their careers working in the public sector, earning public sector salaries, while often rising to positions of great responsibility and authority. Professor Pitler deeply respected this kind of dedication and wanted to reduce their debt burden. The Law School is committed to honoring his memory and his commitment to public service.”

This year’s recipients are Casey Conzatti ’13, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office; Amanda Fix ’13, Queens County District Attorney’s Office; Laura A. Higgins ’12, United States Attorney’s Office; Linda Hristova ’09, Kings County District Attorney’s Office; Alissa Deanna Rodriguez ’09, the City of New York Department of Investigation; Marianne Stracquadanio ’13, Bronx County District Attorney’s Office; and Jennvine Wong ’11, Legal Aid Society.

“I’m so grateful to Brooklyn Law School for the opportunities I’ve had to learn from great legal minds such as Justice Barry Kamins of New York City Criminal Court,” said Higgins, who was previously an Assistant District Attorney for New York County. “I’m five years into my career now, and this fellowship is proof positive that the Law School is serious about wanting to help alumni, especially those in the public sector. I don’t know many law schools that connect with their alumni in this way this far into their careers. Brooklyn Law School is really unique that way.”