Top Schools for Taxation, preLaw 49 (Fall 2016):

There has never been a more exciting time to be a tax lawyer.

That's straight from the mouth of Paul Caron, professor of law at Pepperdine University School of Law and the publisher of TaxProf Blog.

Employment prospects are currently and will likely remain high, compared to other areas of law, making the specialty a fairly safe one to enter. Tax law is not subject to booms and busts like real estate, said Caron.

"There are always tax needs, and tax professionals need to meet those needs," Caron said. "It's never really a booming practice, but the upside is, it's never really a down practice area."

One hundred and nine schools offer either concentrations or certificates in taxation, but just two schools earned A grades [90% or higher] from Pre Law magazine for the breadth of their curricular offerings [30% for a concentration, 24% for a clinic, 12% for a center, 12% for an externship, 9% for a journal, 8% for a student group and 5% for a certificate]:  Loyola Law School, Los Angeles and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. ... Nine schools earned A- [75%-89%], and eight more earned B+.

Students at the top schools for tax law have numerous opportunities for experiential learning and extracurricular activities. Many offer clinics that allow students to work with real clients, many of whom may be low-income and have limited options to deal with their personal tax issues. 

Top Schools for Business and Corporate Law

Cardozo Law received an A grade for its business and corporate law program. 

preLaw Magazine Fall 2016 - More schools offer concentrations in business and corporate law than any other specialty.

And for good reason.

In its program overview, The University of Mississippi School of Law says, "In an increasingly competitive marketplace, the concentration provides an edge for students who have demonstrated their commitment to and interest in business law."

Students interested in specializing in business, corporate and banking law have many choices: 156 schools offer certificates or concentrations in these areas, and 67 scored a B+ or higher for the breadth of their curricular offerings. 

Read more in preLaw magazine. 

Plans Underway for Newly Renovated Alabama Residence 

Greenwich Village, NYC— Cardozo is happy to report that plans for the NEW Alabama are moving along rapidly. In the coming weeks we expect the new owner to offer all Cardozo students priority access to apply for renovated studios and one, two and three bedroom suites, which will be available in fall 2017.

Over the next few weeks, these architectural renderings will be followed with a link to the application website. 

Stay tuned for more in the weeks ahead.

The new Center for Rights and Justice provides a unifying entity for the legacy of outstanding public service programs at Cardozo Law. It is highlighted in the new edition of Cardozo Life. Check it out!

Cardozo's new Center for Real Estate Law and Policy offers curricula in Real Estate Transactions, Land Use Regulation, Environmental Law, New York Residential Landlord-Tenant Law and more. Read about it in the new edition of Cardozo Life!

In this issue of Cardozo Life, we showcase the school's new Center for Rights and Justice and Center for Real Estate Law and Policy, read an excerpt from Professor David Rudenstine's new book "The Age of Deference," and look at Cardozo's expanding international footprint.

Student Housing Options

December 9, 2016 - Cardozo Law has been working to expand student housing options. This fall, one-, two- and three-bedroom units at The Benjamin on East 29th Street will be available with priority to newly-entering 1Ls. In addition, apartments in the newly-renovated Alabama on West 11th Street will be available in the fall. The Alabama was sold by the university earlier this year and the new owners will offer priority access to all Cardozo students at market rates. You can obtain more information about apartments on The Alabama’s website.

Four Ways Cities and States Can Become Sanctuaries Now

From providing legal representation to investing in education, localities can help shield immigrants from Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.

By Daniel Altschuler and Peter L. Markowitz

December 4, 2016 - The Nation - Donald Trump’s election signals the beginning of a potentially terrifying new era for immigrants across this country. The case for sanctuary is straightforward. When immigrants see local police as the gateway to immigration detention and deportation, they stop cooperating as witnesses and victims of crimes, and that makes everyone less safe. Progressives must respond by drawing a bright line between local, state and federal government, and pro-immigrant leaders must advance a positive vision of tolerance, welcoming, and equal opportunities for all.

Read more from Professor Markowitz in The Nation

Check out the social media feeds for Cardozo's Intellectual Property & Information Law Program, which includes a brand new Facebook page, for the latest updates in the intellectual property world! 

 Facebook: www.facebook.com/CardozoIPIL

 Twitter: www.twitter.com/CardozoIPIL

Immigration Justice Clinic Students To Work With Asylum-Seeking Women And Children

December 20, 2016 - Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic received a $9,000 donation from Kathryn Greenberg that will allow a group of students to work with asylum-seeking women and children who are being held in a family detention center in Dilley, Texas. The trip, which would be done in coordination with a pro bono legal services organization near the detention center, would last one week. The donation covers the entire cost of the trip for the eight-person group. 

“It is wonderful that our students will be able to bring their passion and legal skills to advocate for these families who have fled extreme violence and, without the assistance of counsel, will almost certainly be forced to return to face the same danger,” said Professor Lindsay Nash. 

The majority of these asylum-seeking families are from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Virtually all of them are detained because they are in summary removal proceedings in which they must pass a cursory screening to determine if they have a “credible fear of persecution,” which is a prerequisite for them to even get an asylum hearing in immigration court. Students will be involved in a range of representation work, including helping to prepare mothers and children for credible fear interviews, representing them before the IJ in connection with the credible fear process and in seeking release, and other types of advocacy for the detained mothers and children.

“We applaud Kathryn Greenberg for recognizing that, during this time of uncertainty and fear, our students can help change the lives of some of the most vulnerable among us,” said Professor Nash.

Additional donations are welcomed. If you would like to contribute to this important project, please contact Lindsay Nash, Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor, at 212.790.0433 or lindsay.nash@yu.edu.

Many professionals will tell you that studying theory doesn’t compare to doing something for real. That sort of experiential teaching is central to one of Cardozo’s most innovative programs: ITAP, the Intensive Trial Advocacy Program. 

ITAP, which runs from January 3 through January 15, teaches students to litigate, requiring them to step out from behind their text books to practice techniques of their trade in front of experts in the field. The hours are long, the work load intense, and the pace unforgiving. There’s a reason it’s called the Intensive Trial Advocacy Program. But in the end, students emerge from what is often described as a legal boot camp with practical experience that, according to many students, provides a level of training, and an advantage, that other graduates won’t have in their first jobs. 

As one former Cardozo graduate put it after completing ITAP, “This is the first time students get to be lawyers. Don’t underestimate how amazing that can be.”

Over the course of the two-week program, ITAP participants learn the fundamentals of litigation from experienced lawyers and judges. They focus on core skills—such as identifying good and bad facts, submitting items into evidence, delivering opening arguments—that provide a foundation upon which to build a successful career. The program culminates with students putting their training to the test before a judge and jury in a mock trial.

The Intensive Trial Advocacy Program was started 33 years ago by a group of Cardozo Law professors that included noted defense lawyer and founder of Innocence Project Barry Scheck. Since then, the program has expanded and evolved to include a mix of civil and criminal case studies, a negotiating session, and brainstorming sessions.

Today, more than 200 lawyers and judges from all over the country are active in Cardozo’s ITAP program, making it one of the most robust programs in trial practice anywhere. This year, 90 will come to Cardozo to teach the course. They critique the students during class sessions, and also provide one-on-one feedback while reviewing video tapes of their performances. 

Students have described the first day of ITAP as nerve wracking, but they soon find themselves immersed in the work, striving to take advantage of what many consider a unique opportunity to learn directly from the pros. That’s ITAP’s goal—learning through doing, and then taking those skills when entering a career.

December 20, 2016 The New York Times - Professor Peter L. Markowitz joined a group of more than 100 advocacy organizations in writing a memo to President Obama asking that he pardon green card holders with minor criminal records before he leaves office. 

The group argues that President Obama could reframe his legacy on immigration after earning the nickname "deporter in chief" for expelling more people than any other president in history. 

“President Obama has repeatedly promised throughout his presidency to do everything in his legal power to make our immigration system more humane,” said Peter L. Markowitz to The New York Times. He added that the immigrants who would benefit from the pardon were those whom President-elect Donald J. Trump “has been crystal clear he will be targeting on Day 1.”

Read more at The New York Times. 

Clive Davis, the legendary music executive and producer who shaped the careers of stars from Janis Joplin to Whitney Houston, provided Cardozo students and others with a detailed account of how his legal training, business acumen and ear for music brought him to the pinnacle of the music industry. On Thursday night, Jan. 19 he discussed his journey through— and to the top of—the music industry, in an interview with Cardozo alumna Julie Swidler ’82, in front of a capacity crowd in the Jacob Burns Moot Courtroom.

Since graduating from Cardozo in 1982 Julie Swidler has crafted an incredible career of her own in the music industry, rising to become the executive vice president for business affairs and general counsel for SONY Music Entertainment. She has had a long professional relationship with Davis and she has been listed on Billboard’s Top 100 and Top 40 lists of Women Executives in Music since 2011.

“Creative industries need creative lawyers,” said Cardozo’s Dean Melanie Leslie, in her introductory remarks. “There’s no better way for our students to understand that connection than from Clive Davis— a legend in the music industry. This kind of link is so important for our students and it is the reason we created the FAME Center for fashion, arts, media and entertainment law. We have a top-rated intellectual property program.”

Billboard Magazine recently listed Cardozo in their top ten law schools for lawyers in the music industry.

Swidler asked Davis, a Harvard Law School graduate who began his career as a lawyer and is currently Chief Creative Officer at SONY, how he got started at Columbia Records. Davis had been working at a private law firm. A former colleague offered him a position at Columbia and Davis became the company’s general counsel in 1960, after working there only six months. Davis continued at Columbia Records and said he “immersed himself into the business of music.” He was about to turn down an offer to serve as the president of the company’s musical instruments division, which would require Davis to move to the West Coast, when a fellow colleague took the position instead, and Davis fortuitously ended up staying in New York as the president of Columbia Records. He said he was out of place at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967-no other music company presidents were there-but due to the last minute visit to California, Davis said, “my life changed with those unexpected influences. I knew I was in the midst of a musical revolution.”

Shortly after the festival, Davis bought Janis Joplin’s contract and her first album sold 5 million copies. Columbia, which had previously avoided rock music, expanded its portfolio through Davis’ rock artist discoveries.

Davis is responsible for helping propel the careers of multitudes of artists including Whitney Houston, Alicia Keyes, Santana, Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow, Melissa Manchester, Aerosmith, and Aretha Franklin, among others. His “natural gift of ears” took him down a path working directly with artists, expanding more R&B and urban music. But at the height of his success at Columbia, he found himself forced out of the company in the early 1970s after an employee’s fraudulent billing scheme put Davis at the forefront of scrutiny. Swidler asked him how he handled this experience to which he responded, “You’ve got to be resilient.”

Resilient he was, taking his exit and leading himself to a new venture as the founder of Arista Records. Davis’ journey towards exposing more pop singers and matching up singers who didn’t write for themselves with songwriters, proved incredibly successful for Arista and led to the signing of such artists as Dionne Warwick and in 1983, Whitney Houston, who went on to unprecedented success as a pop singer.

Davis’ reunion with Carlos Santana in 1999 led to what Davis called “the proudest” album he ever worked on, Santana’s Supernatural, which won eight Grammy awards, a tremendous comeback for Santana who originally signed with Davis 30 years earlier. Davis himself was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

Swidler’s final question of the night focused on Davis’ family, jokingly asking him how his four children all ended up as lawyers. Two of his children are Cardozo alumni. The discipline of being a lawyer, Davis said “is a great background. The legal training that I got put me in very good stead.”

Cardozo School of Law Professor Myriam Gilles Named Paul R. Verkuil Research Chair

The vice dean and faculty member assumed the chair on January 1.

Vice Dean Myriam Gilles

January 25, 2017 – Cardozo School of Law/Yeshiva University is pleased to announce that Professor Myriam Gilles has been appointed the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law. Professor Gilles has been a member of the Cardozo faculty for many years and became Cardozo’s vice dean last year. The Verkuil Chair is named after Cardozo’s eminent fourth dean, Paul R. Verkuil.
  
“Myriam is a first-rate legal scholar and beloved teacher,” said Dean Melanie Leslie. “Her scholarship has had a tremendous impact, and her dedication to her students has greatly enhanced the entire Cardozo community.”

Professor Gilles is a well-respected scholar whose work on the deleterious effects of mandatory arbitration on the rights of consumers and employees has influenced policymakers and jurists. She also writes on issues relating to complex litigation, mass torts, consumer class action litigation and procedural due process. Her scholarship has appeared in top law reviews, including the University of Chicago, Columbia, Michigan, Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania. In 2015, Professor Gilles testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the Arbitration Fairness Act, and she has lectured and appeared on dozens of panels before judges, legislators and policymakers.   

Professor Gilles has been a member of the Cardozo faculty since 1999, teaching Torts and Elements of Law, as well as Civil Procedure, Aggregate Litigation and Products Liability Law. 

A graduate of Harvard University, Professor Gilles received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1996. She was a visiting professor at the University of Virginia Law School in 2004 and a fellow in the Program of Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University in 2005. In 2016, she became the vice dean.

Paul R. Verkuil is a prominent attorney and expert in administrative law who was Cardozo Law’s fourth dean from 1997 to 2001. In 2009, Verkuil was nominated by President Barack Obama to be head of the Administrative Conference of the United States. The Verkuil Chair was funded by a generous grant from Honorary Cardozo Board of Overseers members Thomas H. Lee and Ann G. Tenenbaum.

January 24, 2017 - It was a discussion for our time—two journalists and a top media lawyer—discussing their fears and hopes for freedom of the press during one of the most tumultuous government transitions in modern history. The trio, interviewed by Raquel Wildes, a first-year student in the LLM program, delved into the role of the media, the fragmentation of audiences by social media and the public appetite for truth in a time of “alternative facts.”

The panel, titled The Constitutional Role of the Press in a Post-Twitter World, drew a large group of students and faculty to the Jacob Burns Moot Courtroom Mon., Jan. 23 to see David McGraw, general counsel for The New York Times; Andie Tucher, Columbia Journalism School professor and director of its Ph.D. program; and David Uberti, Columbia Journalism Review staff writer and Delacorte fellow.

All three panelists agreed: in the age of President Trump, the media and the administration have a more combative relationship than ever before. Tucher said the 2016 election cycle resulted in a “categorical smearing of the whole industry” and created a sense that journalistic content no longer matters because “journalists are evil.” The war between Trump and the media renewed its bitter rivalry this past weekend with Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s controversial press conference, which ignited a firestorm over what Senior Adviser Kellyanne Conway called “alternative facts.”

The Trump administration has attacked the media, claiming they are projecting false news in an effort to damage Trump’s name. The media is more and more in the business of asserting that administration officials aren’t being truthful. Tucher pointed out that historically, “it’s the nature of the journalist’s job to upset people. That’s why press is protected in the Constitution.”

Upsetting people is one thing, but basing reports on people who are lying is another. Access-driven journalism, McGraw pointed out, is dominant in Washington and that needs to be reconsidered if the journalists become mouthpieces for misinformation. Access has the power to drive media coverage. McGraw asked the audience, “if you have someone who lies outright, should a network invite them on the air?”

Social media, the moderator pointed out, comes with its own legal issues, and the question arises of how to reach the audience that prefers fake news. Uberti said instead, he’d like to see the press setting what he called “our news agenda, instead of just reacting to Trump’s latest outrageous statement.” Because of social media and its pitfalls, Tucher told the audience, the press doesn’t have the same credibility it once did.

All three panelists agreed the press is at a critical time in its existence in the U.S. The economic model is so important, Uberti said, with Tucher agreeing “that we have to pay for news that we consume. It can’t be done otherwise.”

Freedom of the press, the panel stressed, is an American value, not a liberal value.

When asked what future lawyers can read to educate themselves on their roles, the panelists’ answers included great investigative journalism of the past, as well as the books Devil in the Grove, focusing on Thurgood Marshall’s role in the civil rights battle, and Why Americans Hate the Media and Why It Matters.

The uncertain future of the Trump administration has many Americans wondering just what to expect over the next four years. Chris Hayes, journalist, commentator and host of the MSNBC show All In With Chris Hayes, spoke with Cardozo professor Kate Shaw, co-director of the school’s Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy, Tues., Jan. 24, about the new president’s agenda, rhetoric, unconventional style and the public concern.

The interview was part of Cardozo’s Public Law Week seminar offerings. Shaw, who is married to Hayes, is no stranger to Washington, having worked in the White House counsel’s office during the Obama administration, and having served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

Hayes said the Trump administration is surrounded by an “unprecedented level of uncertainty; a 21^st century version of Andrew Jackson’s presidency.”

Reinstalling the Global Gag Rule, Hayes said, which Trump did on his first day in office via executive order, was fairly predictable. Had Rubio or Cruz been the president-elect, the same thing would have happened.

“Rich people will surely get a tax cut going forward and poor people will have less access to healthcare,” he said.

But the uncertainties that lie ahead are what he fears more. Hayes said given Trump’s unpredictability even thermonuclear war isn’t out of the question.

Hayes is skeptical, he told Shaw and the audience, about the rest of the administration and White House officials maintaining a level of honesty with the public. “You come to form knowledge through trust,” he told the audience. Hayes himself came of age during the Iraq war in the 1990s and said he can never again accept intelligence information without skepticism.

The staffers’ recent gaslighting behavior is stirring up fear in the public, Hayes surmised, and pushing the liberal resistance to be as strong as it is. During the campaign, Hayes said, he almost expected Kellyanne Conway to “sit in front of a camera and declare that Donald J. Trump will be the first woman president of the United States.”

Hayes urged students to mobilize and take on the challenges of organizing efforts to speak up.

Congressional leadership thus far has not helped instill trust, Hayes added, trying to push through Cabinet nominee hearings before OCE reviews and background checks are completed.

Polarization and partisanship in Washington cause big problems as well, Hayes said, and high polarization ultimately leads to low party control, which is what he feels led to Trump’s ascent.

Cardozo School of Law Clinic Secure Release of Five Detained In Immigration Ban

Zabihollah Zarepisheh released to his family with the aid of faculty and students from Cardozo after being detained for over 30 hours.

January 30, 2017– New York, NY– This weekend, Cardozo School of Law professors and students in the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic won the release of six of the immigrants who had been detained and faced deportation at JFK International Airport following President Trump’s executive order banning immigration from certain Muslim-majority countries. The order, issued late in the day on Friday, caused unprecedented upheaval as protesters began assembling at the country’s airports. Professor Peter Markowitz mobilized the team of students and teaching staff of the Cardozo clinic in the hours immediately after the ban was announced and began working to represent those who were being stopped as they tried to enter the country.

“Cardozo Law is committed to the rule of law and the vigilant defense of the Constitution. We are incredibly proud of Professor Markowitz and the students who used their legal training to ensure due process of law for all people and to defend those in desperate need of representation,” said Cardozo Dean Melanie Leslie. “Our faculty and students responded with dedication, compassion and professionalism, and I could not be more proud of the leadership they exhibited.”

Cardozo students worked feverishly in teams to assist those who had been cleared to enter the country but were then turned away. The students and faculty from the clinic played key roles in gathering the facts of the individual cases, drafting petitions and winning the release of the five clients. Their work was also critical in alerting U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly to the urgency of the issue and prompting her to issue a nationwide injunction in a Brooklyn court late Saturday night. In one case, the Cardozo legal team won the release of a Syrian woman as she sat on an outbound flight preparing for takeoff. The Trump administration’s sudden immigration ban, followed the next day by Judge Donnelly’s stay, is now at the center of a constitutional battle. Cardozo students were on the frontline, representing individuals whose futures hung in the balance.

Staff On These Cases Includes:

Attorneys:
Peter Markowitz (Professor of Law and Director, Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic)
Luis Mancheno (Clinical Teaching Fellow)
Jacqueline Pearce (Clinical Teaching Fellow)
Lindsay Nash (Associate Clinical Professor of Law)
Elise Bernlohr '16

Students:
Eric Pilch
Steven Ashur
Alexandra Lewyckyj

About Cardozo School of Law

Cardozo School of Law offers 15 clinics, including the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic and the Civil Rights Clinic. Since its inception six years ago, the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic has made national headlines for its advocacy work in immigration reform. The clinic responds to the vital need today for quality legal representation for indigent immigrants facing deportation, while also providing students with invaluable hands-on lawyering experience.

Founded in 1976 by Yeshiva University, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law has a national reputation for a top-caliber faculty and an innovative academic program that includes a wide range of exciting and practical opportunities. The school's faculty members are known for being widely published legal scholars, as well as for being actively engaged in the pursuit of social justice.

For more information contact:

John DeNatale
Assistant Dean of Communications
Denatale@yu.edu
212.790.0237

Julie Schneyer
Communications Associate
Julie.schneyer@yu.edu
212.790.0318

January 22, 2017 - The Cardozo Women’s Law Initiative coordinated a bus to transport 54 Cardozo students, alumni, faculty, family and friends to the Women’s March on Washington. Students, who were able to attend free of charge thanks to generous donations by Cardozo faculty and staff, took this photo prior to their participation in the historic event.