Seven New Faculty Members Join Brooklyn Law School

Seven new full-time faculty members joined Brooklyn Law School on July 1, further strengthening a faculty that already is highly regarded for its scholarly and teaching excellence.

“I am thrilled to welcome our new full-time faculty members to the Brooklyn Law School community,” said Dean Michael Cahill. “This is an exceptional group of scholars and teachers who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Law School. It is a pleasure and an honor that I will have a front-row seat to witness the many contributions they will make to advance legal scholarship and legal education.”

Professor Catherine Kim joins the faculty from UNC School of Law, where she was the George R. Ward Distinguished Term Professor. An authority on the role of courts and agencies as engines for social justice reform, particularly as it relates to immigrants and communities of color, Kim also has served as a visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School. She will teach Immigration Law, Administrative Law, Anti-Discrimination Law, and Civil Procedure.

Her scholarship has been recognized with the Eric K. Yamamoto Emerging Scholar Award and the James H. Chadbourn Award for Excellence in Scholarship from UNC School of Law. Kim was previously a Staff Attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and clerked for Hon. Carlos F. Lucero, 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“I am honored to join this exceptional community of faculty, staff, and students,” said Kim. “I look forward to exchanging ideas with colleagues and working with students to make our legal system fairer for underrepresented communities.”

Professor James Macleod, whose scholarship explores doctrines, procedures, and theories that depend on claims about the ordinary understanding of concepts like causation and intent, as well as related claims about moral and linguistic intuitions, joins the Law School from Columbia Law School, where he served as Associate in Law. He will teach Torts and Evidence.

Macleod’s research leverages new empirical data, employing methodologies associated with the rapidly growing field of Experimental Jurisprudence. Macleod previously was an associate at Gibson Dunn and Williams & Connolly, and a judicial clerk for Hon. Raymond J. Lohier, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“I've already been enjoying many stimulating conversations with my new colleagues,” said Macleod. “The faculty has been incredibly thoughtful and welcoming, whether chatting about ongoing research projects, planning conferences, or discussing the best way to teach various tort doctrines. I also can't wait to get to know the incoming students this fall and introduce them to the fun and intriguing area of tort law.”

The Law School’s Disability and Civil Rights Clinic welcomed Professor Prianka Nair as the new Director and Professor Sarah Lorr as Deputy Director. Both bring substantial backgrounds in public interest law and litigation to their new roles in this pioneering clinic.

“We welcome our two newest clinicians, under whose stewardship the clinic will expand enrollment and the types of matters handled, carrying out the vision of our donor, the Taft Foundation,” said Professor Stacy Caplow, Associate Dean of Experiential Education.

As a public interest attorney at Disability Rights New York, Nair conducted abuse and neglect investigations, focusing on access to services in correctional facilities across New York State. She has litigated cases and led policy changes to achieve equal rights for persons with disabilities. Lorr was a Supervising Attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services Family Defense Practice, representing parents at risk of losing their children to foster care as well as parents in a wide range of family law matters.

The Law School also announced the appointment of three new full-time legal writing faculty: Professors Aysha Ames, Catharine DuBois, and Cecilia Silver. They join the nationally ranked program that will play a pivotal role in the new curriculum, taking effect with the fall 2019 incoming class, that places increased emphasis on legal research and writing.

“We are proud of the forward-thinking changes happening in our legal writing program, including bringing together a team of excellent teachers with diverse legal backgrounds and teaching experiences, and adding credits to the 1L curriculum,” said Professor Heidi K. Brown, Director of the Legal Writing Program. “Our legal writing faculty have been working hard all summer to craft a robust new curriculum that digs deeper into legal research instruction and analysis of statutory frameworks and introduces our students to a wider range of legal documents that are critical to both transactional and litigation practice.”

Ames was previously an attorney with the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights where she worked to ensure equal access to education and to resolve complaints of discrimination. She also maintains a yoga law practice where she advises and counsels yoga studios and instructors on employment, business liability, tax, and intellectual property matters. She previously taught Appellate Advocacy at Rutgers School of Law.

DuBois has been teaching legal analysis and communication to both law students and practicing attorneys for more than a decade. She was a visitor with New York Law School’s Legal Practice team, taught legal writing at the Maurer School of Law, and taught Law and Public Policy at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Silver was a Senior Lecturer at University of Pennsylvania School of Law, where she helped revamp the first-year Legal Practice Skills course, taught Civil Pretrial Litigation, and pioneered the role of Writing Specialist. While a Senior Counsel in the New York City Law Department’s Special Federal Litigation Division, she served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Lawyering Skills and Legal Writing at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.