New Faculty Members Bring Fresh Expertise to Our Community

The expertise of five new faculty members joining Brooklyn Law School—from the right to privacy to racial equality to international investment—encompasses some of the most pressing legal issues of today. 

The Law School extends a warm welcome to these new professors, whose talent as teachers and scholars will enhance the student experience and further enrich a highly esteemed intellectual community. The new professors, who officially join the faculty on July 1, include the following: 

Amy Gajda, a journalist turned lawyer and internationally recognized privacy and media law scholar, is the incoming Jeffrey D. Forchelli Professor of Law. Previously, Gajda was Class of 1937 Professor of Law at Tulane University School of Law, where she was the recipient of both the Felix Frankfurter Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Tulane President's Award for Excellence in Teaching. Much of her scholarship explores the tensions between social regulation of access to information and First Amendment values, particularly the shifting boundaries of press freedoms and rising public anxieties about the erosion of privacy. Gajda’s publications include her latest book, Seek and Hide: The Tangled History of the Right to Privacy (2022), and scholarly articles in journals that include, among others, the American Historical Review, California Law Review, and Washington Law Review. She is also the author of the leading casebooks Media Law (Foundation Press) and Law and Higher Education (Carolina Academic Press). Gajda currently serves as an adviser on the American Law Institute’s new Restatement on Defamation and Privacy. Gajda joins the school along with her husband, the newly appointed President and Joseph Crea Dean David Meyer. Read Professor Gajda’s full biography here.

Aissatou Barry, an attorney with deep experience in civil rights, housing, and immigration law, joins the faculty as Assistant Professor. Barry’s career has been dedicated to advocating on behalf of traditionally marginalized communities through social justice initiatives, most recently as a housing attorney representing tenants at the Bronx Neighborhood Office of the Legal Aid Society. She was recognized for her work in immigration law and chosen as one of the Top 25 Pro Bono Advocates of 2015 by Legal Services of New York. She has served as an adjunct professor at the CUNY School of Law and co-facilitated a Housing Clinic externship at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Barry is also a grammar instructor for high school freshman, an advocate for youth-centered activism, and a volunteer leader with New York Cares. Read Professor Barry’s full biography here.

Elizabeth Chen has joined the permanent faculty as an Assistant Professor after serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Legal Writing during the 2022-2023 academic year. She will be teaching Gateway to Lawyering I and II. Chen’s research is focused on anti-discrimination law, reproductive justice, and relationships and the law. She comes to Brooklyn Law after serving as Acting Assistant Professor of Lawyering at NYU School of Law. Previously, she was a litigator at the nonprofit A Better Balance on behalf of caregivers and pregnant workers and at Wigdor, a plaintiff-side employment-law firm, on behalf of civil rights plaintiffs. Her legal career began as an If/When/How Reproductive Justice Fellow at the Center for American Progress and as a law clerk for the Hon. William Joseph Haynes of the United States District Court of the Middle District of Tennessee. Read Professor Chen’s full bio.

Yuvraj Joshi, a respected scholar in the areas of constitutional and comparative law, racial equality law, gender and sexuality law, and human rights, joins the faculty as Assistant Professor of Law. Previously on the faculty at the University of British Columbia Allard School of Law, Joshi has written articles that have been published in numerous scholarly journals, such as the Columbia Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, and California Law Review. His career encompasses extensive work in human rights research and advocacy, including for Human Rights Watch and Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund. He is also a faculty affiliate at the UCLA Promise Institute for Human Rights and a research scholar at the UC Berkeley Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law. Read Professor Joshi’s full biography here.

Stratos Pahis, an expert in international economic law, joins the Law School as Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Dennis J. Block Center on International Business Law. Previously, he was a member of the Wake Forest University School of Law faculty. Pahis’ current research combines law and economics to explore the relationship between international investment law, climate change, and national security. His scholarship has been widely published in the American Journal of International Law, the Journal of International Economic Law, the World Trade Review, and the Yale Journal of International Law, among other scholarly journals. He was the recipient of the 2022 Francis Deák Prize, awarded by the American Journal of International Law, for his research on international investment law and sovereign debt. Read Professor Pahis’ full biography here.

Naveen Thomas, whose expertise encompasses business law and innovative experiential education, is joining the faculty as Assistant Professor of Law. Thomas’ scholarship has a two-fold path: He illuminates and develops innovations in corporate governance and social enterprise, and is also focused on identifying and bridging gaps between theory and practice in contract design. His research has been published in journals such as the Harvard Business Law Review and the Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law. Previously, he was on the faculty of the law schools of the University of Chicago and New York University, where he directed transactional clinics and designed new simulation courses in contract drafting and negotiation. As founder of the New York law firm Thomas Law, he has represented nonprofit organizations, social enterprises, impact investors, startup companies, and small businesses across a broad range of legal matters. Read Professor Thomas’ full biography here.