Top row, from left: Joseph Kammerman '16, Madison Wiles-Haffner '17, Charles Manfredi '17, Liliya Perelman '16, Vino Jayaraman '16. Botton row, from left: Sarah Griggs '17, Jonah Brill '17.
February 10, 2016 - The Cardozo School of Law team of Jonah Brill '17, Sarah Griggs '17, Joseph Kammerman '16, Vino Jayaraman '16, Charles Manfredi '17, Liliya Perelman '16, and Madison Wiles-Haffner '17 won first place at the 2016 Tulane Mardi Gras Sports Law Competition in February 2016. This is the third year in a row that a Cardozo Law team won the Mardi Gras Invitational.
Twenty-five teams participated in the competition, which dealt with the problem of (a) the constitutional issue of whether the right to wear one's hair length at whatever length he or she chooses in public school interscholastic sports is protected by the Fourteenth Amendment; and (b) the tort issue of whether the limited-duty Baseball Rule should apply to stadium owners.
Winners of the past two years have been Vino Jayaraman '16 and Joseph Kammerman '16 (2015), and Justin Reiter '15 and Shanitra Waymire '15 (2014).
"It's a great thing for Cardozo and, especially, for our Moot Court program," said the team's head coach Vino Jayaraman '16. "A lot of hard work (and great fortune) goes into winning a single competition, never mind three in a row, so while we are generally confident going into any competition, there is still a sense of shock and disbelief each time a judge announces Cardozo as Champion. More than how wonderfully the oralists performed this year, and how well our oralists have performed in the past, it's a true testament to how dedicated the members of the Moot Court Honor Society are, as a whole. Something about the way we assemble and operate our teams clearly works. Each competition is truly a collective team effort, so it is extremely rewarding to see the hard work put in by our oralists, opposing brief writers, and coaches be recognized with such an honor."
The FAME Center for Fashion, Arts, Media & Entertainment Law Presents: The FAME 2016 Lecture
THE INTERSECTION OF LUXURY & LAW AT CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW
A Conversation with John D. Idol, CEO of Michael Kors, and Lee S. Sporn, General Counsel of Michael Kors
February 17, 2016 –- New York, NY -- Nearly 200 lawyers and law students gathered last night at Cardozo School of Law to hear a lecture by John D. Idol, CEO of Michael Kors Holdings Limited, and Lee S. Sporn, Michael Kors' Senior Vice President - Business Affairs and General Counsel. The lecture marks the start of the law school’s 2016 Fashion & Law Event Series, hosted by the Center for Fashion, Arts, Media & Entertainment Law (FAME Center) at Cardozo Law. The events are a continuation of ongoing talks and conferences about the intersection of business and law in the creative industries of fashion, arts, media and entertainment.
The relationship between a chief executive officer and the general counsel of any company is necessarily complex. The CEO’s mission to innovate, drive business, and expand into new products and territories is tempered by constantly evolving legal rights and obligations. That mission is particularly challenging for a business that is both public and global in nature.
During last night’s discussions, Idol asserted that a good general counsel must operate as a business partner, not just a person who knows the law. Both Idol and Sporn discussed the importance of creating a tone from the top focused on compliance, and that processes are in place to ensure that compliance issues are fully considered before any business action is taken.
When asked by Leslie Fagan, Senior Partner at Paul Weiss and the evening’s moderator, to describe how the general counsel functions as guardian of the company, Sporn stressed the importance of being fully integrated into the business to support its goals while ensuring compliance and minimizing potential liability.
Having worked together for over 25 years, these two executives brought a singular perspective to the challenges confronted in fully integrating the legal function into an entrepreneurial, driven business environment.
While discussing Sporn, Idol said, “one of Lee's great strengths is to sit down with the other party and use his wisdom and balance to get results.” Sporn said that, apart from brand enforcement, he considers litigation to be a terrible method of dispute resolution, stating: "if litigation occurs it means someone is being irrational." He said that focusing on face-to-face negotiations and an abundance of patience will eventually lead to a better resolution than what would result from litigation.
“The FAME Center is the place for lawyers to understand the creative industries and how to get ahead in a world where decisions related to brand and intellectual property are made in real-time with enormous consequences to the bottom line,” said Barbara Kolsun, co-director of The FAME Center at Cardozo Law. “It’s an incredible value for our students and lawyers in the field to get an inside look at one of the leading fashion companies in the world.”
The FAME Center at Cardozo School of Law, through its unique access to companies and professionals throughout the Fashion, Arts, Media and Entertainment industries, provides unprecedented training and development opportunities relating to the representation of businesses driven by the creative process.
The FAME Center offers rigorous academic coursework, as well as externships, clinics and symposia featuring industry leaders and practitioners, focused on the practical realities of counseling clients, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. The program is designed to teach students to confront business challenges which are evolving faster than ever in the era of social media. Through a collaboration among Cardozo’s faculty, industry leaders and other institutions focused on the creative arts and entertainment businesses, the FAME Center provides unique insights into the intersection of law and business in the fashion, performing and visual arts, entertainment, sports, industrial design, media, and film industries. Leading fashion industry attorneys with decades of experience, Barbara Kolsun and Lee Sporn co-direct the FAME Center, which has been shaped by a dynamic advisory board of industry leaders.
For information contact:
John DeNatale Assistant Dean of Communications 212.790.0237 DeNatale@yu.edu
Students and faculty who participated in the 2016 ITRANS program.
Experiential learning is a core part of Cardozo Law’s curriculum. The Intensive Transactional Lawyering Program (ITRANS), an innovative program that takes place over January break, is a 10-day practical course, which teaches necessary skills for transactional work. The course simulates a real-life negotiation, and students learn and apply the skills of drafting, client consultation, matter management and negotiation.
The course environment is intimate and taught by Val Myteberi, assistant dean for Graduate and International Programs, Vickie Kobak, adjunct professor and Jillian Gautier, program director of the Heyman Center on Corporate Governance at Cardozo, who are passionate about the material and the students. It incorporates interesting exercises, active participation and discussions between the faculty and students.
The course focused on the negotiation of a Stock Purchase Agreement. Students were put into teams of two who represented either the buyer or the seller. Each team negotiated all aspects relating to the Agreement. In preparation for final negotiations, they participated in client meetings, drafted agreement provisions, prepared markups, engaged in negotiation strategy sessions and had mock pre-negotiations. Throughout the preparation stages, the clients, who are respected lawyers in transactional practice, advised students on all relevant issues and developments pertaining to the deal. Students were encouraged to ask questions and obtain clarifications of their client’s objectives. Final negotiations were observed and critiqued by experienced lawyers in various transactional fields of law.
In addition to in-class teaching and negotiation sessions, students were exposed to various guest speakers, listed below, who spoke to them on various topics relating to transactions practice, and gave valuable advice on choosing the right path in law.
Ruben Kraiem, Partner – Covington & Burling LLP “Transactional Practice in the 21st Century: International Perspectives”
Eric Victorson, Associate – White & Case LLP “Becoming a Transactional Lawyer: A View from the Trenches”
Eric Cohen, Sr. Vice President, Secretary & General Counsel, Terex Corporation “It’s Business: Being an Effective Transactional Lawyer”
Cass Matthews, Senior Legal Counsel – Google “Perspectives on Transactions in Tech”
The Cardozo Journal for Conflict Resolution’s 2015 International Advocate for Peace Award Goes to Folk Legends Peter, Paul, and Mary
February 24, 2016 - It’s a rare day that law students, alumni, administration, faculty, and practitioners raise their voices in a packed Moot Court room to sing together: “music speaks louder than words” and “light one light”. Indeed, this was an unusual evening: the presentation of the 2015 International Advocate for Peace Award by the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution to the legendary folk group Peter, Paul, and (posthumously) Mary.
In opening remarks, Dean Melanie Leslie noted that "people think of lawyers as combatants and litigators as seen on television and in film, but the truth is a great deal of legal work is about negotiation and mediation and bringing parties together." Dean Leslie praised the work of Cardozo's Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution for its pioneering leadership in the dispute resolution field.
Professor Lela Love, the director of the Kukin Program and Cardozo's Mediation Clinic, stated that it was fitting to give the Peace Award to such magicians of creating a positive vibe and movers towards attitudes of reconciliation and human connection-- Peter, Paul, and Mary. Love introduced the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution’s editor-in-chief Lara Traum, praising Traum for her energetic and gifted leadership.
Before leading the initially reticent audience in song, Peter Yarrow accepted the award from Traum, with Noel Paul Stookey accepting by video from his home in Ojai, Calif. The folk trio’s selection departed from the journal’s peace award tradition in two ways: the award was made to a group, rather than an individual, and to musicians, rather than politicians or statesmen. Previous award winners have included, for examples, the late Richard Holbrooke, who helped broker the historic peace accord in Bosnia, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, Senator George Mitchell and filmmaker Abigail Disney.
Traum, who had met Yarrow at a conference on family mediation that he keynoted, explained the groundbreaking choice this way: “I had worked in the music industry and devoted a number of years to musical activism prior to law school, so it seemed natural to me that musicians should be recognized for their tireless commitment to social change, peace advocacy, and the unification of humanity. Peter, Paul, and Mary, together, embodied everything that the Award stands for, in their tireless devotion to making a mission of their craft during periods of strife in the United States and abroad.”
Peter, Paul, and Mary began their decades of activism in 1963 with the civil rights movement, when they led the massive march on Washington in song. They were vocal in their opposition to the Vietnam War. In the early 1980s, they traveled to El Salvador to protest U.S. involvement in the civil war there. They protested apartheid in South Africa. And over the years they “stayed the course,” Yarrow said. “I’m honored to accept this award for two reasons: first, it reinforces to a very important group of people – future lawyers – the idea that this kind of work is meaningful. Further, it is proof that the value system that was embraced in ‘the movement’ is still active, isn’t naïve, isn’t yesterday. It’s every bit today.”
Brett Dovman '16, Melissa Trenk '17 and Daniel Resnick '17 won the Southeastern Regional Transactional LawMeets competition on February 26.
Congratulations to Cardozo’s Transactional LawMeets team for winning the Southeastern Regional Transactional LawMeets competition on February 26, 2016! The Cardozo team included students Brett Dovman '16, Melissa Trenk '17 and Daniel Resnick '17, with help from fellow student Danielle Siegel '17 and coach Jillian Gautier, Program Director of the Samuel & Ronnie Heyman Center on Corporate Governance and Adjunct Professor of Law.
LawMeets is a national competition giving students the opportunity to participate in a mock M&A transaction. The program was created to give law students interested in transactional practice exposure to the ins and outs of corporate transactions and a way to learn the skills involved in a transactional deal, similar to a “moot court” experience for students interested in litigation. This year, 84 teams participated in seven regional competitions, with 12 teams participating in the Southeastern Regional competition. The finalists, including the Cardozo team, will be competing in the National LawMeets competition held at the offices of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York City on April 1, 2016.
RETHINKING ANTIQUITIES: COLLECTING IN THE AGE OF ISIS March 1, 2016
Lawyers and law students gathered at Cardozo School of Law to discuss current issues in antiquities law and the looting and trafficking of antiquities. The conference was hosted by the law school’s center for Fashion, Arts, Media and Entertainment law, or FAME Center. The event was one in a series of ongoing talks and conferences about the intersection of business and law in the creative industries of fashion, arts, media and entertainment. A panel of antiquities experts addressed concerns about the extent of looted objects entering the market from the Near East, the international response, and the status of current laws and policies.
Adjunct Professor Barbara Kolsun, a co-director of the FAME Center, welcomed the audience and introduced Samantha Anderson ’16, who organized the event along with Professor Jeanne Schroeder. Anderson, the managing and business editor of the Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law, pointed out that reports of widespread looting and trafficking of antiquities from Iraq and Syria by ISIS have reached fever pitch, raising questions about the state of the relevant laws.
Panelists included Randall Hixenbaugh, owner of Hixenbaugh Ancient Art, New York-based antiquities dealer, and member of the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art; James McAndrew, forensic specialist, Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt LLP, and former head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, International Art and Antiquity Theft Investigations Program; William Pearlstein of Pearlstein & McCullough LLP, a New York-based art law firm and author of "White Paper: A Proposal to Reform U.S. Law and Policy Relating to the International Exchange of Cultural Property"; and Gary Vikan, former director of The Walters Art Museum; Clinton appointee to the President's Cultural Property Advisory Committee; and former Senior Associate for Byzantine Art, Dumbarton Oaks.
Moderator Judith Dobrzynski, a veteran arts journalist, started the discussion by observing that since ISIS’s rise, antiquity collecting has become deplored as a source of funding for the extremist group. Press reports put trafficking of looted antiquities at $6 billion dollars.
The panelists unanimously debunked these reports. McAndrew labeled the $6 billion figure “absurd,” a result of “paranoia” that simply served to “inflame” any rational discussion. He pointed out that any increase in imports of art objects over the past five years should not be equated to an increase in looted antiquities.
Hixenbaugh also proclaimed himself “astounded by the media’s outlandish claims.” The antiquities trade is one of the most heavily regulated, he stated, never topping more than $200 million annually. Furthermore, in Syria, at least, “all the goodies are out already,” legitimately reposing in museums in Damascus and the West. “There is no market now in the West,” he asserted.
The requirement to document legitimate ownership for objects dating back to at least 1970 has led to a deep mistrust of objects lacking such provenance. With exaggerated press reports of looted antiquities entering the market, “These days most museums don’t want Near Eastern objects, even with provenance,” Hixenbaugh said. “It’s bad press for them.”
Vikan stressed transparency in handling objects that lack provenance. Under revised guidelines by the Association of Art Museum Directors, museums are permitted to accept items without documentation, acting as so-called safe havens, but the acquisition must be published, the items must be exhibited on the Internet, and contact made with the country of origin. The accepting institution must also agree that potential claims for the item’s return can be made at any time.
Pearlstein described the tension among cultural nationalists, cultural internationalists, archaeologists, and private owners as a question of context. The U.S. has inconsistent policies regarding “unprovenanced” objects, with court decisions often at cross purposes with legislation. “The principles of comity ought to inform U.S. courts’ decisions on whether to enforce foreign laws,” he argued. The FAME Center, through a collaboration among Cardozo’s faculty, industry leaders, and other institutions focused on the creative arts and entertainment businesses, provides unique insights into the intersection of law and business in the fashion, performing, and visual arts, entertainment, sports, industrial design, media, and film industries.
Why Antonin Scalia Became So Prominent—And Why His Influence Will Not Last
He was celebrated because he used his position as a Supreme Court justice to mobilize conservatives—but his views were antithetical to what is most enduring about American legal and political aspirations.
Immediately following his death, Justice Antonin Scalia was widely praised, mainly but not exclusively by far-right political conservatives, as one of the most influential jurists of his generation, if not in America history. Indeed, the adulation was so frothy one might have concluded that Scalia was already enshrined in the pantheon of great American jurists along with Chief Justice John Marshall, Justice Louis Brandeis, and Circuit Court Judge Learned Hand, to name but a few.
It is true that over the three decades Scalia was on the Supreme Court, he made distinctive contributions to a vigorous debate over the meaning of the Constitution and how a judge should divine that meaning. He also played a central role in fueling deliberations over how to interpret statutes. But as strong a voice as he was in those debates, Scalia was not always the most consistent or persuasive one. Thus, the fact that he became an important figure not just in the minds of judges, lawyers and inside-the-beltway commentators but individuals of many different stripes around the country must mean that something much more potent than his participation in these debates contributed to his enormous public standing.
Justice Scalia had power, and for three decades he utilized that power to promote a radically conservative agenda. On so many of the highly controversial issues the Court has decided in recent decades, the nine justices split 5 to 4, making Scalia essential to a conservative majority.
He was also a distinguished writer—and he wrote not just for the bench or the bar, but for the broader public. Accordingly, many of his opinions bristle with words and phrases likely inserted to appeal to far-right fellow travelers.
Justice Scalia refused to have his voice muffled by the Supreme Court’s protective walls. He broke through the stifling gates of judicial convention to become a prominent public figure with a national following. Indeed, Scalia became a firebrand celebrity who delighted in preaching his radically conservative values and who could be counted on to increase attendance at politically conservative retreats and conferences such as the Federalist Society.
Scalia became prominent and celebrated precisely because he used his position as a justice on the Court to mobilize conservatives, to rally those sympathetic to his cause, and to point them toward the radical change he favored. And he succeeded. He became a hero to the nation’s radical-right political establishment.
But will Scalia’s influence last? That is highly unlikely. History will eclipse him, and for many reasons.
Justice Scalia’s substantive views were antithetical to what is most fundamental, important, and enduring about American legal and political aspirations. He was horrified—indeed outraged—by the Court’s ruling that a woman has a constitutional right to an abortion. In a case that arose a few years after he joined the court, and in which Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote a concurring opinion supportive of a woman’s right to abortion, Scalia stated that he did not think O’Connor’s opinion could “be taken seriously” and dismissed it as “irrational.”
Years later when the Court invalidated by a vote of 6 to 3 a Texas criminal statute banning same-sex sodomy on the ground that it violated a constitutional right to liberty, Justice Scalia’s bitter, backward-looking views were on full view when he wrote: “Many Americans do not want persons who openly engage in homosexual conduct as partners in their business, as scoutmasters for their children, as teachers in their children’s schools, or as boarders in their home. They view this as protecting themselves and their families from a lifestyle that they believe to be immoral and destructive.”
What Scalia wrote was surely correct—many are deeply prejudiced against gays and lesbians. But his statements were legally irrelevant. Just as the demands of the Constitution did not permit the prejudice of whites to deny African Americans their rights, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution protects homosexuals from condemning critics. Scalia’s suggestion that legal rights should be denied because some Americans oppose their implementation is ridiculous. And he surely knew that. But in a few words, Scalia simultaneously ridiculed his judicial colleagues before a segment of the American public, fanned the flames of bigotry, and legitimized discrimination.
Justice Scalia’s interpretation of the Constitution left women out in the cold. Or, to put the matter more precisely, he believed that although women have been victims of horrific discrimination, they are not entitled to any special protection under the Fourteenth Amendment because, when that amendment was adopted, the people thought women were second-class citizens. Thus, from Scalia’s perspective, the 19th-century Supreme Court decisions construing the Fourteenth Amendment to permit states to bar a woman from voting or becoming a lawyer were correct at the time and remained correct in 2016.
In a throwback to the pre–New Deal, discredited era of laissez-faire, Scalia was a staunch defender of big business. Thus, at the federal level, he was one of five justices who voted to invalidate congressional regulation of campaign spending by not-for-profit corporations and to deny Congress the power to pass the Affordable Care Act under the commerce clause. And at the state level, for example, he was one of five votes in support of invalidating a California statute aimed at protecting consumers from mandatory arbitration clauses in the name of a 1925 congressional statute.
Justice Scalia’s crucial support of private enterprise was not lost on American businesses. In fact, within two weeks of his death, Dow Chemical settled a $1.06 billion jury verdict for $835 million because, as the company stated, of the “increased likelihood for unfavorable outcomes for business involved in class action suits.”
Scalia will go down in history as someone who undermined the legitimacy of his own court by writing opinions that demeaned and denigrated his colleagues. For example, in his opinion criticizing the majority’s ruling in the 2003 same-sex sex case, he charged that the majority opinion was “the product of a Court, which is the product of a law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct.”
But even that attack on his colleagues’ integrity was not enough for Scalia. Repeating a refrain that has echoed across the history of African Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, and Jews in America, he insisted “that I have nothing against homosexuals, or any other group, promoting their agenda through normal democratic means.” No, Scalia insisted, he was not a bigot; rather he, in contrast to his colleagues, believed in democracy. Therefore, gays and lesbians, along with others who may be a political minority, must win their rights in the state legislatures. For them, the Constitution is neither sword nor shield, and if they cannot persuade the politically powerful to change the law of a given state, their choice is clear: Stay where you are and live as a second-class citizen, or move to another state. From Scalia’s perspective, any Supreme Court justice who disagreed was undemocratic, and any ruling that was contrary to his view was not based on the Constitution.
CARDOZO JOURNAL OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION PRESENTS INTERNATIONAL ADVOCATE FOR PEACE AWARD TO PETER, PAUL AND MARY
February 5, 2016 -- NEW YORK, NY – The Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution (CJCR) proudly announces that it will honor Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers (posthumously) of Peter, Paul and Mary as the recipients of the 2015 International Advocate for Peace (IAP) award. A ceremony and reception in Peter, Paul and Mary’s honor will be held at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law on Monday, February 22, 2016 at 7 p.m. Peter Yarrow will accept the award on behalf of the trio.
In selecting Peter, Paul and Mary for the 2015 IAP award, CJCR recognizes the folk-singing trio’s contributions and continued efforts to unify society through song and music. Peter, Paul and Mary’s music resonates with history – a history that they not only helped write, but that has changed and inspired millions to maintain the principles of peace and tolerance in the face of war and great adversity.
“Peter, Paul and Mary have used the power of music to inspire generations of peacemakers to make the world a better place,” said Lara Traum, Editor-in-Chief of the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution. “For over half a century, their music has been a social, political, and cultural force that advances the cause of justice.”
With their commitment to civil rights advocacy and peace, the trio helped shape history. In 1963, the trio stood before the Lincoln Memorial and performed “If I Had a Hammer” and “Blowin’ in the Wind” at the March on Washington, best remembered for the “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. After the death of Travers in 2009, Yarrow and Stookey continued to perform.
About the International Advocate for Peace Award
The International Advocate for Peace Award is given annually by the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution to individuals and groups who have made significant contributions to peace through their efforts in dispute resolution. Past recipients of the award include: Richard C. Holbrooke, President Bill Clinton, Senator George Mitchell and Seeds of Peace, Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, Eve Ensler, Betty Kaari Murungi, Ambassador Dennis Ross, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Amira Dotan, Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat, Abigail Disney, John Marks, President Jimmy Carter, and the Honorable Daniel Weinstein (Ret.).
The Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution (CJCR) is one of the country’s preeminent legal journals of arbitration, negotiation, mediation, settlement, and restorative justice. CJCR is one of the most heavily-cited legal publications in the broad field of “Civil Litigation and Dispute Resolution,” ranked as seventh internationally in 2014. CJCR is affiliated with Cardozo Law’s Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution, ranked the sixth best alternative dispute resolution in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
For information contact:
John DeNatale Assistant Dean of Communications 212.790.0237 DeNatale@yu.edu
March 17, 2016 - Dean Melanie Leslie has announced the new Center for Real Estate Law & Policy at Cardozo School of Law. The center will house various curricular and experiential learning opportunities focusing on real estate law.
“The Center for Real Estate Law & Policy will help bridge the gap between classroom and practice, and will work to prepare graduates to tackle the full range of legal and business issues that confront New York’s vibrant real estate industry,” said Professor Stewart Sterk, director of the center.
The program includes:
Courses such as Real Estate Transactions, Land Use Regulation, Environmental Law, New York Residential Landlord-Tenant Law, Taxation of Real Estate Transactions, Bankruptcy, Alternative Business Entities and Real Estate Contract Drafting
A real estate externship program
Nationally recognized faculty composed of prominent scholars and highly successful practitioners
The Stephen B. Siegel Program in Real Estate Law, which supports curriculum, publications and academic research.
The New York Real Estate Law Reporter, a monthly survey of the most important real estate cases decided in New York. It provides concise summaries of court decisions alongside analysis written by students as well as articles by leading practitioners and scholars on topics of current importance to real estate lawyers
The Real Estate Advisory Board, providing access to some of the city’s top industry leaders
Professor Stewart Sterk, the center's director, is a respected scholar in property, trusts and estates, copyright, and the conflict of laws. He has coauthored casebooks on Trusts and Estates and on Land Use, and he edits the New York Real Estate Law Reporter. He was named the tenth most-cited property scholar in the nation in December 2015. Professor Sterk has been awarded "Best Professor" or "Best First Year Professor" at Cardozo Law 11 times.
The center's kickoff event, "The Art of a Successful Deal: Both Sides Must Win!" will take place on April 14, 2016, featuring panelists from RXR Realty and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. More information on the event can be found here.
March 18, 2016 China Daily - When considering international expansion, a company should take moves to protect its brand, name and trade secrets before embarking overseas, according to participants in a seminar at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York.
Helen Su of Alston & Bird LLP told the audience Wednesday night to consider the case of basketball icon Michael Jordan when weighing the importance of intellectual property (IP) protection.
When athletic apparel company Nike Inc expanded the Air Jordan brand to China in the 1990s, it registered only the English version of the famous name belonging to the ex-NBA star.
Later, a family-owned shoe company in China registered "Qiaodan," the Chinese transliteration of Jordan. Since then, Qiaodan Sports has registered dozens of other trademarks that seem related to Michael Jordan, including its own silhouette logo.
Cardozo School of Law Ranked as "Go-To Law School"
March 7, 2016 - The National Law Journal has ranked Cardozo School of Law as one of the top U.S. law schools supplying associates to the nation's largest law firms. The rankings list the top 50 law schools by percentage of 2015 juris doctors who took associate jobs at the largest 100 firms.
In addition, Cardozo Law was ranked among the schools that saw the most alumni promoted to partner in 2015.
March 23, 2016 - The National Jurist has ranked Cardozo School of Law/Yeshiva University as the 24th best school for practical training in the nation. The magazine took into account Cardozo's percentage of students in clinics, externships and simulation courses, inter-school competitions, as well as other practical training opportunities. The annual rankings honor schools that go above and beyond in preparing law students for the real world.
Cardozo School of Law Announces the Opening of a New Residence Hall in Fall 2016
Rendering of shared kitchen
Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, will open a newly renovated residence hall for its students in August 2016, replacing the current residence the Alabama. The new residence hall occupies a seven-story building at 148 Lexington Avenue, on Lexington Avenue and 29th Street in Manhattan. Students can apply for furnished studio units with individual bathrooms and shared kitchens or two- and three-bedroom units equipped with kitchens and bathrooms. The building will offer:
24-hour security
Wi-Fi
smart TV in every bedroom
laundry room
exercise room
large common-area lounge on the ground floor
top-floor solarium study room
large rooftop patio with views of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings
The building is located in the Rose Hill residential neighborhood of Manhattan, just to the north of the Flatiron District and Gramercy Park, in an area known for its restaurants, cafés, bars and vibrant nightlife.
Ground floor common area
Nearby Madison Square Park is one of the city's most popular outdoor spots, known for people-watching, large art installations, the original Shake Shack, historic architecture and the world's largest Italian marketplace, Eataly. The new residence hall is adjacent to Silicon Alley, home to hundreds of high-tech companies focused on new media, telecommunications, software development, biotechnology and financial technology.
The residence hall, nicknamed "the Benjamin," is a ten-minute commute via subway to the law school's main building on Fifth Avenue. The 28th Street/Lexington Avenue station is one block from the new residence, where students can take the train two stops downtown to Union Square, the historic and vibrant park just a few blocks from Cardozo's Fifth Avenue building. Students may also take the 20-minute walk to Cardozo down Lexington Avenue and through the Gramercy Park and Irving Place neighborhoods--two of the most sought-after residential areas in Manhattan--or through Madison Square Park and down Fifth Avenue. Those who ride bicycles can make the trip to class in minutes; Citi Bike rental stations are located just outside the residence hall and around the corner from the law school building.
Rooftop patio
"The Benjamin" will be ready for occupancy in August 2016, in time for the law school's fall-entering class. As in the past, priority for campus housing will go to incoming students. Instructions for how to apply for Fall 2016 housing will be made available by April 22, 2016.
The Cardozo community is excited about expanding into the neighborhoods north of Union Square and is currently exploring several options for apartments in the area, which will expand the law school's footprint and pave the way for future growth.
Architectural drawings of the renovated studios and suites will be provided in coming weeks.
Nearby Apartment Building Will Provide Additional Housing
Rendering of three-bedroom apartment
In addition to preparing "the Benjamin," the law school is in negotiation for a newly renovated apartment building just one block away. The building on East 28th Street will feature three-bedroom apartments with kitchens, balconies in some rooms and a roof deck with panoramic views of Manhattan. The law school expects to make these apartments available in the fall semester as well.
The Public Service Stipend raises money for students so that they can pursue otherwise uncompensated internships in the public sector. It is supported in part by the Annual Public Service Auction. In this video, some of the recipients of the stipend talk about their experiences.
I RECENTLY received a phone call from Alabama. It was Samey Honaryar, an Afghan who had worked as an interpreter with the United States military and had fled Taliban persecution hoping to find asylum here. Samey is not accused of committing any crime. Yet for nearly a year, he’s been locked up in Etowah County Detention Center, among the worst and most remote of immigration detention centers, with little access to lawyers or medical attention.
“I cannot take it anymore,” said Samey, who was planning a hunger strike. “I served this country. I risked my life for this country, and this is how I’m repaid.”
I have reported from Afghanistan frequently since 2001, and I know that interpreters are an essential conduit into a culture easily misread by foreigners. Nearly every translator I’ve worked with has saved my life. But once they choose to work for the military, their job becomes a political act, making them marked men and women for the Taliban.
At a time when Europeans and Canadians are sheltering over a million asylum seekers, many from conflicts created by United States policies, Samey’s treatment demands attention. Documents and witnesses show that Samey risked his life for American soldiers. But he has been cast into immigration purgatory nonetheless, his troubles caused by a toxic mix of bureaucracy, fear, prejudice and, most poignantly, his naïve faith in American honor.
We know our asylum policy is broken. In 2014, more than 108,000 asylum applications were filed. It is not an exaggeration to say that many of these cases are life or death, yet they are handled by only 254 immigration judges, who are also juggling hundreds of thousands of non-asylum cases. Samey’s case is simultaneously unique and painfully common. Yet there is a remedy.
Samey, 35, worked for the American military in Kabul from 2009 to 2012. At one point, thieves stole his car and left a note telling him to stop working with “infidels.” He gave that note to the military and the C.I.A. Days later, he was run off the road. Supervisors told him to vary his route.
Then, on his way home in 2012, gunmen smashed his car window, beat him with a rifle and tried to abduct him. A crowd gathered and the gunmen fled. Samey survived but still bears a scar on his face from the assault. Shortly after, he applied for a special immigrant visa for interpreters. His request was denied.
Afraid for his life, Samey tried finding work in India, and eventually boarded a cargo ship bound for Mexico. There, he found shelter through a Mexican he had met in Kabul. After a short stay, he took a small boat across the Rio Grande. When he encountered American border guards, he asked for asylum.
On initial review, the Department of Homeland Security found his fear of persecution to be credible. Armed with evidence of his service to the military, Taliban threats and his injuries, Samey assumed that the judge, Robert Powell, would grant him asylum. So he represented himself in court.
This was his first mistake.
Mike Williams, a retired lieutenant colonel who was one of Samey’s supervisors in Afghanistan, was grocery shopping in Wegmans when he got a call from the judge. Swearing an oath with his right hand, holding baby food in his left, he vouched for Samey’s character and performance. He told the judge that Samey’s life was in danger and that he would take responsibility for him. Samey’s aunt, an American citizen who manages a fried chicken business in New York, did the same.
“I thought it would be a fairly open-and-shut case,” Mr. Williams said. But when he heard the government’s lawyer on the phone shouting “objection” and “leading” the witness, he began to worry. “Samey didn’t know what he was doing.”
The judge ordered Samey’s deportation. Flabbergasted, Samey told his aunt he would rather die in Afghanistan than rot in jail awaiting appeal. His aunt begged him not to return home and hired a lawyer to appeal. Samey was shipped to a detention center in Alabama.
Court documents suggest Samey was right to be stunned by Judge Powell’s findings. “Common sense,” the judge wrote in his decision, suggested that real Taliban “would have assassinated him on the spot or taken him by force.” He also mused that the threatening note could have been left by car thieves.
An immigration lawyer I consulted who represents detainees at Etowah called the judge’s assertions about the Taliban “rank speculation” and said she was dumbfounded that he rejected the note Samey gave to the C.I.A.
“Nobody has evidence that good for asylum,” she said. “Under this judge’s standard no one with these types of cases could prove the nexus requirement of asylum.”
But the most extraordinary passage of Judge Powell’s decision is his rejection of Samey’s claim of persecution:
“Respondent must show that the Government was, or is, unable to control the Taliban. Although the Taliban is conducting a tenacious insurgency and terrorist campaign, country reports show that Afghan security forces are effective in controlling the Taliban in many parts of Afghanistan.”
The year 2015 was one of the bloodiest years in Afghanistan since 2001. As of today, the Taliban have infiltrated many provinces, including the capital. The Afghan Army is taking so many casualties that it can no longer recruit enough replacement troops. The government has all but ceded sections of the country to the insurgents.
Perhaps Judge Powell was doing his best under impossible conditions. Experts have urged the government to hire more judges and staff. The president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, Judge Dana Leigh Marks, said that judges are overwhelmed by the volume of cases. It’s as if death penalty cases are being handled in traffic court.
“How do you keep your heart open and remain compassionate?” she said. “I have over 3,000 pending cases. Federal District Court judges have 440, and two to three full-time lawyers. If we are lucky we have half a judicial law clerk.”
The day after Samey went on hunger strike, I emailed the Board of Immigration Appeals asking why his case had not been decided after eight months. The following day, the board announced that it would send his case back to Texas for a retrial. Would that have happened without a letter from a journalist? And what does it say about the system if a case as strong as Samey’s fails?
For one thing, it says that the system is stacked against the asylum seeker. The immigration judge works for the Department of Justice, and the government’s attorney works for the Department of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, the asylum seeker generally has no right to a public defender. Legal representation is crucial: One study found that mothers with children without a lawyer were granted asylum 2 percent of the time while those with a lawyer won 32 percent of the time.
In New York City, an immigration public defender system developed in conjunction with Cardozo Law School and funded by the New York City Council attempts to address this problem by providing legal assistance to detainees through the Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services and the Legal Aid Society. Immigrant Justice Corps, a nonprofit legal aid group, is sending fellows to Texas to assist asylum seekers.
Today, Samey is back in detention in Port Isabel, Tex., awaiting retrial and unable to afford a lawyer. International law holds that asylum seekers should be detained only in unusual circumstances. Yet our detention centers are filling up with people like Samey.
“People say to me: ‘I came to your door. I did what I was supposed to do. And you put me in prison. I thought the United States was a human-rights country. You are not,’ ” said Grace Meng, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.
If the United States believes in the principles of asylum, we need to give traumatized people — particularly those persecuted for protecting Americans — a chance to be heard with an expert on their side.
The Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic was praised for its work helping establish the nation's first public defender system for immigrants facing deportation.
In this Times' Op-Ed story a former translator for the U.S. Army in Iraq faces deportation despite years of risking his life for the U.S.
Brett Dovman '16, Melissa Trenk '17 and Daniel Resnick '17 won the Southeastern Regional Transactional LawMeets competition on February 26.
Congratulations to Cardozo’s Transactional LawMeets team for winning the Southeastern Regional Transactional LawMeets competition on February 26, 2016! The Cardozo team included students Brett Dovman '16, Melissa Trenk '17 and Daniel Resnick '17, with help from fellow student Danielle Siegel '17 and coach Jillian Gautier, Program Director of the Samuel & Ronnie Heyman Center on Corporate Governance and Adjunct Professor of Law.
LawMeets is a national competition giving students the opportunity to participate in a mock M&A transaction. The program was created to give law students interested in transactional practice exposure to the ins and outs of corporate transactions and a way to learn the skills involved in a transactional deal, similar to a “moot court” experience for students interested in litigation. This year, 84 teams participated in seven regional competitions, with 12 teams participating in the Southeastern Regional competition. The finalists, including the Cardozo team, will be competing in the National LawMeets competition held at the offices of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York City on April 1, 2016.
Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution Students Honor Benjamin Ferencz,
Ferencz is the last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials
April 15, 2016
He brought Nazi war criminals to trial, negotiated reparations for concentration camp victims, and went on to be one of the founders of the International Criminal Court. On April 11, 2016, Cardozo students awarding the International Advocate for Peace Award had the privilege of hearing Benjamin Ferencz describe his work in detail, including a story of bailing out of a burning airplane over war torn Berlin while on a flight to the Nuremberg Nazi war trials.
Leaders from the nationally recognized Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution honored Ferencz for his humanitarian work, which includes his days in Germany and his recent critiques of American war policies. Dean Melanie Leslie thanked Ferencz for his contributions to the Cardozo community in the area of human rights over many years.
"As a man who helped give the world the very concept of crimes against humanity, the human rights community owes much to Ben Ferencz,” said Dean Leslie at the ceremony. "Today, I want to also acknowledge that Cardozo Law and Yeshiva University owe much to Ferencz for his consistent support of the law school’s human rights programs."
As a lead prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials, Ferencz brought to justice leaders of Nazi Germany who planned, carried out, and participated in the Holocaust. Following Nuremberg, he continued in Germany and then in the United States to fight for and set up reparations programs. His book Less than Slaves describes his tireless efforts to secure compensation for the forced labor of concentration camp inmates. As one of the founding architects of the International Criminal Court, he helped create the machinery to hold governments accountable for war crimes, and as a champion of peace, Ferencz made the end of war his life’s work.
Ferencz saw the devastation of World War II up close as a soldier in the U.S. Army. Near the end of the war, he was assigned to a team tasked with setting up a war crimes branch and collecting evidence. As part of that work, he went to Nazi concentration camps as they were being liberated. The Nuremberg Trials gave legitimacy to the concept that the world could prosecute those in governments who had committed atrocities against their own citizens, and citizens from other countries.
Speaking to students, Ferencz talked in depth about his experience at 27 years old of being on the team that uncovered the existence of Nazi Einsatzgruppen, execution squads who went ahead of German military advances and murdered every Jew they could find. As chief prosecutor at the Einsatzgruppen trial, Ferencz detailed how these groups killed one million people. The 22 Nazi leaders he proved responsible were all convicted; 14 of them received death sentences.
Lara Traum, the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal, presented the award saying, "Mr. Ferencz, your energy, your vision, and your humility inspire us as students to pursue non-violent conflict resolution at any cost. You bore witness to some of the world’s greatest atrocities, and yet, you responded with reason and intellect and fairness – and a strong belief in procedural justice. You remind us that, in resolving conflicts throughout the course of our own professional pursuits, we should preserve the humanity of a process that holds us together, and not be discouraged by the inhumanity that tries to tear us apart."
His connection to Cardozo is a personal one forged through his special relationship with one of the school’s founding faculty members, Telford Taylor, who was the lead prosecutor in the Nuremberg Trials and a towering figure on the international stage. These trials and the work of Taylor and Ferencz would focus the world’s attention on the perpetrators of war atrocities and create a new methodology for seeking international justice. In so doing, Taylor and Ferencz altered history and their work brought to the international conscience the very concept of ‘crimes against humanity.’"
April 18, 2016 - Students and faculty joined Linda Hirshman, author of the best-selling book Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World, for a fun and informative coversation about these two monumental justices. Ms. Hirshman was joined by Professors Kate Shaw and Julie Suk. The talk, which was followed by a book signing, was presented by the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy at Cardozo School of Law.
From Harper Collins
Sisters In Law discusses the intertwined lives of Justices O'Connor and Ginsburg, the first and second women to serve on the Supreme Court. The relationship between these two women - Republican and Democrat, Christian and Jew, western rancher's daughter and Brooklyn girl - transcends party, religion, region, and culture. Strengthened by each other's presence, these groundbreaking judges have transformed the Constitution and America itself, making it a more equal place for all women. Sisters in Law combines legal detail with warm personal anecdotes that bring these very different women into focus as never before. Meticulously researched and compellingly told, it is an authoritative account of our changing law and culture, and a moving story of a remarkable friendship.
A retired labor lawyer and professor, Linda Hirshman is the author of Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World; Hard Bargains: The Politics of Sex; and A Woman's Guide to Law School. She received her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and taught Philosophy and Women's Studies at Brandeis University, specializing in the study of social movements. In recent years, she has appeared on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, various NPR shows, and the Cobert Report. She also has written for such publications as the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Ms., Glamour, Slate, the Daily Beast, and Salon.com.
Cardozo School of Law is ranked the number 8 most diverse law school in the country in the spring edition of preLaw Magazine. The article ranks law schools by the country's diversity, looking at how well the school's student body represents the gender, race and ethnicity of the United States as a whole. The rankings look at how well student bodies represent the target population of applicants seeking admission, and use statistics from the ABA and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Dean Leslie Announces Michelle Greenberg-Kobrin as Director of the Indie Film Clinic
May 4, 2016, New York, NY— Dean Melanie Leslie has announced that Michelle Greenberg-Kobrin will become the Director of the Indie Film Clinic and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law. Ms. Greenberg-Kobrin has served as the Dean of Students at Columbia Law School since 2005, where she also taught courses in deals, negotiation and leadership. Prior to her years at Columbia Law School, Ms. Greenberg-Kobrin worked as an associate at the New York office of Arnold & Porter, where her practice focused on international corporate and securities matters, mergers and acquisitions, sovereign debt issuances and financial institutions. Ms. Greenberg-Kobrin will also serve as Senior Fellow and Director of the Leadership Program at the Heyman Center for Corporate Governance.
“Michelle’s outstanding combination of experience as both a legal educator and a top-level transactional attorney at a leading firm make her perfectly suited to train our students to represent clients in creative fields,” said Dean Leslie. “Cardozo’s FAME Center for fashion, arts, media and entertainment law is designed to produce lawyers who can be leaders in these industries, and the Indie Film Clinic is an integral part of that program.”
The Indie Film Clinic was established in 2011 to provide free legal services to filmmakers in New York City. To date Cardozo students in the clinic have represented over 90 independent, documentary and student films, many of which have gone on to appear in leading U.S. and international film festivals including Cannes, Sundance, South X Southwest, the Tribeca Film Festival, the Los Angeles Film Festival, Hot Docs, and DOC NYC. The clinic is part of Cardozo’s Intellectual Property and Information Law Program, one of the highest ranked I.P. programs in the country.
Michelle Greenberg-Kobrin received her JD from Columbia School of Law in 1999. In her role as Dean of Students at Columbia Law School she oversaw the Office of Student Affairs, which is responsible for student life and events, academic counseling, judicial clerkships and outreach, diversity and inclusion programming, peer and faculty mentoring, leadership development, and student journals and organizations among other responsibilities. While at Columbia Ms. Greenberg-Kobrin developed and co-taught Leadership for Lawyers, an innovative course which uses case studies and live client work in the non-profit, corporate and governmental sectors to train students to become wise counselors. She taught the skills-based Deals Workshop, which introduced students to a wide variety of deal-making techniques. In addition, she taught Negotiations, a simulation course introducing students to the theory and practice of negotiation and dispute resolution.
Prior to working at Columbia Law School, Ms. Greenberg-Kobrin was an associate at the New York office of Arnold & Porter LLP, where her practice included representing private and public companies in the technology, biotechnology and manufacturing areas in securities offerings, corporate matters and merger and acquisitions, representing sovereign entities, financial institutions and private equity funds as well as functioning as outside counsel for companies and not-for-profit organizations.
Cardozo’s Indie Film Clinic is part of a robust offering of clinics and experiential learning opportunities at the law school. Indie Film Clinic students represent independent, documentary and student filmmakers, particularly those from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. They provide clients with the legal assistance necessary for commercial and artistic success, including the drafting and negotiation of entity formation documents; talent, crew and producer agreements; depiction releases; music, film clip, and artwork licenses; legal opinion letters on fair use; and First Amendment issues.
For more information contact: John DeNatale Assistant Dean of Communications Denatale@yu.edu.
