Legal Scholar Alice Ristroph Appointed Les Fagen Professor at Investiture

Professor and legal scholar Alice Ristroph was officially named Brooklyn Law School’s inaugural Les Fagen Professor at an investiture ceremony which drew a celebratory crowd of family members, friends, faculty, and alumni to the Law School’s Subotnick Center Tuesday night. 

The endowed professorship was established through a major gift from Les Fagen, a longtime member of the Law School’s adjunct faculty and a veteran trial lawyer who was inspired by the school’s distinctive mission of educational access for students of all backgrounds. He also wanted to honor his father, Herman Fagen ’42, who benefited from that mission.  

Board of Trustees Chair Frank Aquila ’83, who welcomed guests to the school, presented Ristroph with a commemorative plaque and formalized her new title by appointing her as the inaugural Les Fagen Professor of Law on behalf of the Board of Trustees and Brooklyn Law School. The professorship, Aquila noted, goes beyond recognizing Ristroph's history of excellence as a scholar and a teacher.  

“It really is a testimony of the faith that the institution has for what Alice is going to do in the future,” Aquila said. “We believe that you will do so much more in the course of your academic and legal career."  

Aquila also thanked Fagen for the major gift and for his 20-plus years of teaching at the school, amid a “long and extraordinarily successful career at Paul Weiss, where, among other things, he was the chair of the litigation department.” Noting that Fagen is not an alumnus, but rather a graduate of Yale College and Columbia Law School, Aquila acknowledged that he might seem an unlikely benefactor for the Law School. Yet it is Brooklyn Law School that “changed the trajectory for his family,” as it has for so many alumni and their families, he said.  

Dean David D. Meyer also expressed gratitude for the gift, which he said honors not only the Law School’s longstanding and proud commitment to making legal education accessible to all, but also the excellence of its faculty.  

“I am enormously grateful that Les shares this understanding of the central importance of   faculty excellence to legal education, and that he has chosen to advance that vision by endowing the Les Fagen professorship,” Meyer said. “Faculty chairs honor ambition and exceptional achievement by our faculty and help us to recruit and to retain the very best teacher-scholars in the always hyper-competitive environment of higher education.” 

The endowment will allow the school to support the contributions of high-performing faculty in perpetuity, he said.  

Noting that the Law School’s faculty recently ranked 29th nationally for Scholarly Impact, Meyer added that "Alice Ristroph exemplifies that excellence through her work as a pathbreaking scholar of constitutional and criminal law and a gifted teacher and mentor to our students.” 

In his remarks, Fagen explained his strong connection with and affinity for Brooklyn Law School.    

“I've been an adjunct professor here for a long time,” Fagen said. “I have gotten to know the remarkable history of this institution, which is 123 years old and has produced thousands of thousands of lawyers, who have made an important contribution to the law and the practice of law. The alumni list is extraordinary, senators and judges, a list too long to name everyone, but that includes a New York City mayor [David Dinkins ’56]; politicians like Leonard Garment ’49, who advised two American presidents; war heroes like [David] Mickey Marcus ’28 who parachuted into France on D-Day and then, on behalf of the U.S., organized the Nuremberg trials; and successful businessmen like Larry Silverstein ’55, who has rebuilt the World Trade Center.”  

Fagen added that the ranks of alumni are so diverse that the list included, "even musician Paul Simon of Simon & Garfunkel, who left this school after one semester,” eliciting laughter from the audience.  

He also spoke emotionally of the alumni most dear to him: his father, Herman Fagen ‘42, who he described as a “child of the Great Depression.” Herman Fagen worked during the day in a series of tough jobs, including as a truck driver and an ironworker, and attended Brooklyn Law School at night.  

“He was very proud of graduating from this Law School, and he shared so many memorable stories. He wore his Brooklyn Law School ring until the very end,” Fagen said. After reflecting on the word “alma mater,” he learned that its Latin meaning referred not to colleges or law schools but pertained instead to something bountiful or nourishing.  

“Well, from my experience here and for Dad’s, surely I've received bountiful and nourishing things,” Fagen said. “So really, I think this school is my alma mater and always will be.” 

The formal ceremony wrapped up with remarks from Ristroph, who thanked members of the audience, including her family, for their support, and Fagen, whom she worked with 20 years ago, when she was a litigation associate at Paul Weiss.  

She noted that her criminal law scholarship, which is focused on the topic of violence, does not make for the easiest subject to discuss at a celebratory and joyful event, such as an investiture.  

“As a preliminary point, I think that my scholarship, even writing about violence, is actually motivated by hope, a hope that if we as scholars figure out better what we are actually doing and we gain a better understanding of our own practices, we may collectively put ourselves in a position to improve them or escape them and achieve a future that is better than our present,” Ristroph said. “I do think much scholarship is motivated by a hope.” 

Looking forward, Ristroph intends to place her focus on constitutional law, which she also teaches. Her forthcoming scholarship will be an examination of violence and First Amendment doctrine.  In the meantime, she is still very much enjoying being part of the faculty at Brooklyn Law School, Ristroph said.  

“When I joined this faculty just over seven years ago, I knew right away that I had made the right decision, because I found myself grinning like a fool every time I passed through the courtyard and approached the front doors, “ Ristroph said. “And seven years later, I still smile at my good fortune." 

Watch the video of the event here.

Photos from the event here.