Welcome Back: Alumni Share Real-World Experiences at Business Boot Camp
Each year at Brooklyn Law School’s annual Business Boot Camp, students who take the four-day intensive course also have the invaluable opportunity to meet with and hear from alumni in the field who participate in panel discussions, Q&As, breakout sessions and, on the final evening, a networking reception.
The 13th Annual Business Boot Camp continued that tradition of bringing our community together, and the Law School enthusiastically welcomed back alumni, ranging from recent graduates to those who earned their J.D.s decades ago, to share their expertise.
Among the alumni participants was Jennifer Horowitz ’96, who is chair of the corporate transactions department at Cole Schotz. When Horowitz was a Brooklyn Law School student, there was no Business Boot Camp, but one of the most valuable classes she took was the Corporate and Securities class. Today, she notes that in addition to the Business Boot Camp, the Law School offers even more valuable classes for those interested in business, such as the Transactional Skills for Startups class taught by Adjunct Professor Mitchell Littman ’83, a founding partner at Littman Krooks who co-taught the equity financing module at the Business Boot Camp and joined the “Buying & Selling Businesses” panel.
Horowitz tries to participate in the Business Boot Camp each year and considers it an “extraordinary opportunity for students, whether or not they are interested in corporate work.” This year, she joined other alumni on a panel discussion on “Practical Day-to-Day Legal Advice.”
“I always enjoy being back at BLS, and seeing the faculty, alumni and students,” Horowitz said. “In my session, students gained an understanding of what it is like to be a corporate transactional attorney. They also received guidance on managing the recruiting process, and the early stage of their careers. Since the Business Boot Camp took place, several students have contacted me, and I have held Teams calls to attempt to assist them. One is being interviewed by my firm next week.”
Joining Horowitz on the same panel was Kenny S. Terrero ’14, a partner at Sidley Austin. As a student, hearing from alumni was an invaluable experience that helped direct his career.
“I really want BLS students to see corporate partners and get a chance to ask questions and learn from people like me,” Terrero said. “When I was a student, alumni who were associates at big firms came back to the school and talked about their experiences and this changed my career trajectory. I want to pay that forward.”
Another panelist was Asim Grabowski-Shaikh ’02, a partner at BakerHostetler, whose practice consists primarily of securities offerings and securities law compliance, M&A, and corporate governance. He has been a participant in the Business Boot Camp over the past decade and is grateful to be invited each year by Professor Michael Gerber, the Michael Simmons and Michael Gerber Professor of Law.
“I find that the panel discussions do an amazing job of highlighting the myriads of practical and legal considerations that inform a practicing lawyer’s daily interaction with clients and issues,” Grabowski-Shaikh said. “I enjoy learning from other panelists—and I’ve incorporated some pointers into my own practice. I hope students benefit from the honest and practical real-world guidance we provide. I also hope that students will take comfort in being reminded that there are a number of different ways to help a client achieve its goals—and our job is to problem solve and help them figure out what solution fits best given their circumstances, which is also what makes what we do fun!”
Several alumni who returned for the Business Boot Camp benefited from attending the class themselves as students.
One was David Sur ’18, an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, who said he has always wanted to give back to the Law School and its students and felt that participating in the Business Boot Camp was one way to do so. “I wanted to let the current students know that the concerns that they may have during Law School are natural and that all alums have endured something similar,” Sur said. “I also wanted to let them know that there is no right way to go about securing a job and that everyone’s timing and paths will be different.”
When he participated in Business Boot Camp as a student, “getting to hear different stories of different journeys and being able to meet various alumni and current professionals” allowed him to understand the lessons that he now shares with students.
Another veteran-turned-alumni-guest at the Business Boot Camp was Isaro Carter ’19, founder of The Carter Firm, who moderated the panel titled “Advising New Ventures.”
“I wanted students to have the same experience at Boot Camp that I did, because it’s important to be aware that there are things outside of the law that are impacting businesses and the decisions of key stakeholders,” Carter said. “It’s important to understand what those things look like and what best practices are so that in that first job out of law school, young attorneys can set themselves apart from their peers and make a positive impression on their employers.”
She took the Business Boot Camp in the winter before she graduated from Brooklyn Law and highly recommends it to students. “It prepared me to ask sharper questions and consider the broader context of the legal principles at play in the matters I later worked on,” Carter said.
Students who participated in this year’s Business Boot Camp were pleased that they did so. Jonathan Lent ’26, who took Corporations in the fall semester, said “It was fascinating to gain a deeper understanding of how corporations operate, structure deals, and finance their businesses. Since I lack a financial background, learning the terminology commonly used in finance was especially helpful. Additionally, the slide deck provided by Deloitte is very useful, and I will definitely print out a lot of the material they provided to keep it handy when I enter into practice.”
Lent said the Q&A between President and Joseph Crea Dean David D. Meyer and Sanford G. Hausner ’85 was a memorable session.
“He started at a large firm in Manhattan and volunteered to go to Poland to do some work there for what was initially supposed to be just a few weeks,” Lent recounted. “However, he ended up staying overseas for nearly a decade, built an emerging markets practice, and became one of the few lawyers specializing in that field at the time.”
After practicing law, Hausner became an entrepreneur, something he had always been passionate about, and that, too, stood out for Lent.
“His story highlights the significant value a legal education can offer and emphasizes the importance of carving out a niche for yourself,” Lent said. “Professor Gerber often speaks about serendipity, and Sandy's journey is a perfect example of that. As I begin my practice, I intend to keep an open mind to opportunities, just like Sandy, and continually look for areas of law where I can carve out a niche for myself.”
Another highlight was the breakout sessions at which one student in the room asked alumni about how to address mistakes made in the workplace. “Almost every lawyer in the room shared a time when they made a mistake, what it felt like, and how they resolved it,” Lent said. “That conversation showed e that even attorneys at the top of their field sometimes make mistakes, which eased some of the pressure I place on myself because now I know how to handle it if I am ever in that position.”
Another student in the Business Boot Camp was Nicholas Chronis ’26, who appreciated the lessons and the opportunity to meet so many accomplished alumni as he contemplates where his legal career might take him.
“Business Bootcamp was a nice primer on the business world,” Chronis said. “I will start pursuing my MBA next semester, so this was a nice taste of what it will be like.”
This semester, he is working at the Nassau County Attorney's Office, which is essentially an in-house role, as Nassau County is incorporated. “Having a basic understanding of business concepts, especially in the application of different deals and legal concepts that the county deals with is useful,” Chronis said. “Additionally, in my own personal business journey, I see myself using some concepts from the Business Boot Camp myself. I know of certain opportunities on the horizon that will be easier to navigate because of the iintensive course.
His attitude of keeping his mind open meshes well with Grabowski-Shaikh's advice for students. “Even if you have your heart set on practicing a specific type of law, keep an open mind, be flexible and follow the path that interests you and is intellectually stimulating. You might just be surprised,” he said.