A Masterful Mentor

The parents of Michael Simmons ’20, inset left, chose to honor his memory by creating a new professorship named for his mentor, Professor Michael Gerber.

Parents of Michael Simmons ’20 Salute Professor and Mentor Michael Gerber With New Professorship

When Kathleen and Bradley Hoffman, parents of the late Michael Simmons ’20, decided to honor their son’s memory in perpetuity with a major gift to his treasured alma mater, they recalled his many positive stories about Brooklyn Law School and one name stood out: Professor Michael Gerber.

Not only did the professor ignite their son’s unanticipated interest in bankruptcy law, but he also helped encourage and guide the bright young man through law school and into the legal profession, doing so with the signature mix of warmth and wisdom that has made Professor Gerber a much-loved standout among generations of students and alumni. Seeded with a generous $775,000 gift, the endowed professorship is named the Michael Simmons and Michael Gerber Professorship in honor of their special relationship.

“Michael constantly mentioned Professor Gerber in a very affectionate and almost awestruck way, and he didn’t talk about many people that way, so we knew it was a big deal,” Kathleen Hoffman said. “Professor Gerber gave Michael direction on where to seek judicial externships, urged him to apply to serve as a Barry L. Zaretsky Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Fellow, which he did successfully, and helped him select courses. I really cherished the mentorship and input he provided Michael, and we just felt passionate about giving back to the BLS community.”

“So, we asked ourselves what would Michael want now that he is not here? And this is what came to mind immediately,” she added.

Bradley Hoffman said that after meeting with Professor Gerber, he and Kathy realized that his caring personality and his generosity of time and attention most definitely touched many lives. “You can see who he is as a person. This professorship recognizes and honors Professor Gerber’s impact not only on our son, but on countless other students,” he said.

A Brooklyn Law School Tradition of Mentorship

“We are so grateful and deeply touched by Kathy and Brad’s decision to honor their son’s memory by endowing this new professorship and by ensuring that it would support faculty mentorship of students,” said David D. Meyer, President and Joseph Crea Dean. “From our first conversations, they saw the vital role that faculty play in the lives of students and how central that is to the culture and identity of Brooklyn Law School.”

Professor Gerber also noted the Brooklyn Law School tradition of mentoring students.

“Michael was incredibly talented and had great potential, along with the leavening grace of a delightful personality,” Professor Gerber said. “Serving as a mentor to Michael was a privilege that I shared with my colleagues, and I’m honored to share this chair with him.”

The new Michael Simmons and Michael Gerber Professorship will be uniquely designed to foster faculty support for students. Distinctively, the professorship will be awarded chiefly to recognize faculty who go above and beyond in helping students and will provide the faculty member with funds to undertake creative initiatives to support students’ professional and personal development. The professorship is unique in that it will be awarded to faculty on a rotating basis for two-year terms, ensuring that a number of Brooklyn Law School faculty will be recognized for their efforts to support students.

Once the professorship was established, Professor Gerber was selected to serve as the inaugural Michael Simmons and Michael Gerber Professor of Law. He will be formally installed at an Investiture ceremony to celebrate the Hoffmans’ gift on Monday, Nov. 18, at 5 p.m.

“There is no law professor in the country who does more than Professor Michael Gerber to invest personally in the success of his students,” Dean Meyer said. “It’s fitting that the teacher who inspired this professorship should be the first to hold it.”

Honoring a Beloved Friend and Colleague

After graduation, Michael Simmons served as a judicial clerk in the chambers of Bankruptcy Judge Louis Scarcella in the Eastern District of New York. Although the court was operating remotely, making personal connections more difficult, Michael became a cherished member of the chambers team, and the Hoffmans still hear from the judge and others he worked with at the court. Michael had only recently begun his second clerkship, with District of Delaware Bankruptcy Judge Karen B. Owens, when he died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism on Nov. 7, 2021. Michael was only 26 years old and had intended to practice bankruptcy law in his beloved New York City following the clerkship. He had passed the New York Bar Exam and was in the process of getting references in so could be officially inducted to the Bar when he passed away.

Michael graduated from Suffield Academy in 2013 and earned a B.A. in comparative literature with a minor in philosophy from New York University in 2017.

“He was an avid reader, a good negotiator with incredible recollection and retention skills,” Bradley Hoffman said. “He would read something and never forget it…His discipline and ambition really carried the day. He wanted to be the best in everything he did, and if you looked at his scholastic performance and beyond, he was.”

An enthusiastic guitar player, he enjoyed the arts and fell in love with literature as an undergraduate, which prompted him to shift gears from plans to become a doctor, to law, a field which his parents always thought suited him. Although Michael was accepted by many schools, he chose Brooklyn Law School in what his parents believe was a positive turn of fate. Had he chosen a different law school, they say, he would have missed out on an environment he adored and his connection with Professor Gerber.

His decision to focus on bankruptcy law came as a surprise to some of Michael’s friends and family, but now, in retrospect, it seems less so.

An active and much-loved member of his graduating class, Michael served as an editor of the Brooklyn Law Review and was named a Barry L. Zaretsky Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Fellow. He thrived in his Bankruptcy Court clerkships and the new challenges that he faced daily.

“He loved to challenge his mind constantly and loved the chess pieces of bankruptcy law and figuring out a resolution,” Kathleen Hoffman said. “He wasn’t complacent, and Michael Gerber was a direct influence on that. (Our) Michael originally went in thinking that he wanted a career in entertainment law, corporate law, and then the more time he spent with Professor Gerber, the more he realized that bankruptcy law was a great fit for his skill set and his passions.”

The Hoffmans did not get a chance to meet Professor Gerber in person until recently because Michael graduated in May 2020, at the outbreak of COVID, and the ceremony was held virtually. They did meet the professor when they visited Dean Meyer to discuss making a gift to the Law School and realized, with amusement, that their Michael’s affinity for dirty martinis was something that both Michaels shared. “Before that, we had never understood it,” Kathleen Hoffman said.

Michael’s friends knew him as a brilliant student with many diverse interests.

Mitchell Bower ’20, now a staff attorney at Sheppard Mullin in New York, said he first met Michael at Convocation and after that they were placed in the same section and became fast friends. At Michael’s suggestion, they helped launch a study group that lasted for two years. Oftentimes, Michael was leading up the discussions.

"He was one of the most brilliant people I got to meet in law school,” Bower said. “He had just a natural understanding of subjects that went over my head when I read them on my own, or during lectures. Mike was able to just turn around and explain things that were complex in ways that even the professor sometimes couldn't. It was crazy to have someone who is a peer be able to do that.”

In addition to being smart, he was quite sociable. Bower recalls Michael being the ringleader of weekend gatherings among their friends, as well as getting together on his own with Michael for drinks at The Brazen Head or to play guitar. Michael liked artists such as John Mayer and was also a huge fan of the Grateful Dead.

Michael Blackmon ’21, an associate in the bankruptcy practice at Kramer Levin in New York, bonded with Michael, who was a year ahead of him, over a shared interest in bankruptcy law and, on a personal level, wristwatches. (When they met at a Brooklyn Business Law Association alumni dinner, Michael Blackmon was wearing an Omega Seamaster made famous by the James Bond franchise, while Michael Simmons wore an A. Lange & Söhne—enough to set off a brisk conversation among watch lovers.)

“In law school there are some people who stand out for having unique personalities, and he fell into that group,” Blackmon said. The two clerked for the same judge, and both planned to go into Big Law.

While Michael Simmons had many interests beyond practicing law, his intelligence and innate curiosity helped explain his interest in bankruptcy law. “He liked the energy and fast pace of it. It can be very calm and then very chaotic,” Blackmon said.

Since he was a year ahead, Michael became a mentor, assisting Blackmon and other students with their coursework by sharing class outlines and bar exam prep study materials. “The bar exam is such a lonely experience, and he checked in on me before the exam and afterward, when I was afraid that I had failed miserably, and he gave me good counsel on what to do if that happened,” Blackmon recalled. “He was a very nurturing person.”