Congratulations to the new editorial boards of all of Cardozo Law's journals and Moot Court Honor Society! See below for the new mastheads. 

Cardozo Law Review

Moot Court Honor Society

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

Cardozo Journal of Law and Gender

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

Two hundred lawyers and judges work with students in Cardozo's two-week top trial course, ITAP.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW ANNOUNCES HON. DENNY CHIN, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT, AS 2015 COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER

May 11, 2015 – New York, NY –  Dean Matthew Diller has announced that Hon. Denny Chin, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, will address Cardozo School of Law graduates at the 2015 commencement ceremony on Thursday, June 4, 2015 at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center.

Judge Chin was sworn in as United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit in 2010. Prior to joining the Court of Appeals, he served as a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York from 1994 to 2010.

Judge Chin has presided over many high profile cases, including cases involving Megan's Law, the Million Youth March, Al Franken's use of the phrase “Fair and Balanced” in the title of a book, the Naked Cowboy, the Google Books Project, and the United Nations Oil for Food Program. He also presided over the trial of an Afghan warlord charged with conspiring to import heroin and the guilty plea and sentencing of financier Bernard L. Madoff.

“Denny Chin is the model of a great judge and we are very pleased that he has agreed to address the Cardozo class of 2015,” said Dean Matthew Diller. “His career is one of service and inspiration, and his personal story is a moving embodiment of the American dream.“

Judge Chin graduated from Princeton University magna cum laude in 1975 and received his law degree from Fordham Law School in 1978. After clerking for the Honorable Henry F. Werker, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, he was associated with the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell from 1980 to 1982. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1982 until 1986, when he and two of his colleagues from the U.S. Attorney's Office started a law firm, Campbell, Patrick & Chin. In 1990, he joined Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, P.C., where he specialized in labor and employment law.

Judge Chin was born in Hong Kong and came to the United States with his family when he was 2 years old.

For more information:

John DeNatale

Assistant Dean of Communications

212.790.0237

DeNatale@yu.edu

Program Providing Legal Help to Immigrants Will Expand Beyond New York City

By LIZ ROBBINS

May 13, 2015 The New York Times - New York City’s melting pot has been boiling over in the larger metropolitan area.

Long Island, the lower Hudson Valley and northern New Jersey, home to thousands of recently arrived unaccompanied minors and older immigrants, have nearly as many people eligible for legal services as does the city. But outside the city, there has been a shortage of lawyers to serve those potential clients.

Enter the second class of the Immigrant Justice Corps, an ambitious, still-developing fellowship program begun in New York City last year by Robert A. Katzmann, the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Starting this fall, the Justice Corps will place 11 recent law school graduates and two college graduates out of 35 new fellows in surrounding counties.

And so, administrative relief is on its way to the sixth-floor offices of the American Friends Service Committee in Newark. Relief is also coming to the second-floor hallway of the Newburgh Armory, where crowds have gathered daily over the last year outside the offices of Catholic Charities.

And relief may be coming for cities in other areas.

“We created this model with the idea that what we’re testing here in the city is going to be a blueprint for the rest of the country,” said Rachel B. Tiven, the executive director of the Immigrant Justice Corps. “If it works here, we don’t want to keep it to ourselves.”

Read more in The New York Times. 

The New York Bar Foundation has announced that Marie Elizabeth Villefranche '16 is the recipient of their Trusts and Estates Law Fellowship. Through the fellowship, Villefranche will gain experience in the chambers of Judge Robert J. Gigante, Richmond County Surrogate's Court for summer 2015. 

The selective New York Bar Foundation fellowship and scholarship programs offer law students valuable experience assisting attorneys in different aspects of the legal profession. 

Congratulations to Marie Elizabeth!

Cardozo Law is a vibrant community with deep connections to New York City. In this video. We offer a premier legal education with a committment to real-world experience.

To visit the school, contact the admissions department at 212.790.0274, or email the department at lawinfo@yu.edu.

CARDOZO LAW NAMES MELANIE LESLIE NEW DEAN
First Woman Dean of Cardozo Law, First Cardozo Graduate Appointed
 

May 14, 2015 – New York, NY – President Richard M. Joel has announced the appointment of Melanie Leslie as dean of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law effective July 1. She will be the seventh dean of the law school, the first woman and the first Cardozo graduate to serve in the position.

Leslie is currently the vice dean and professor of law at Cardozo, where she has been teaching since 1995. As vice dean, she oversaw the introduction of new professional concentrations to the curriculum, worked closely with Dean Matthew Diller to expand Cardozo’s renowned intellectual property program to include initiatives on technology and data law, and managed the launch of the Fashion, Arts, Media, & Entertainment Law Center (FAME) this spring.

“When Cardozo Law was created, its unique mission was to enhance the legal world and beyond by producing leaders who embrace and perpetuate timeless values,” said President Joel. “In appointing Dean Leslie from among its graduates, we have exceeded our highest ambitions.”

Leslie is a leading scholar in trusts and estates law, and is an expert in fiduciary duties in the trust, and corporate and nonprofit governance. As a professor of law, she teaches Property, Trusts and Estates, Charity Governance, and Evidence. She is the coauthor of a leading casebook, Estates and Trusts, Cases and Materials, as well as Concepts and Insights: Trusts and Estates. A prolific scholar, Leslie has had articles published in the NYU Law Review, Boston College Law Review, Florida Law Review, William & Mary Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, and the Indiana Law Journal. She is widely respected for her excellent teaching skills and engagement with the student body, and has been presented the “Best First-Year Professor” award by three Cardozo classes.

“There is an unmistakable energy at Cardozo and I look forward to advancing the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of this remarkable law school,” said Leslie. “It is an honor to lead Cardozo’s world-class faculty and vibrant community of students and alumni, and to serve the institution that has given me so much.”

Leslie has been a visiting associate professor of law at New York University School of Law and a visiting professor of law at Columbia Law School. She is a member of the NY State Bar and NYC Bar Joint Committee on the Uniform Trust Code, a Legal Fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel (ACTEC), and she is on the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Nonprofits and Philanthropy.

Before joining the Cardozo faculty, she clerked for New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Gary S. Stein. She was a summer associate at both Debevoise & Plimpton and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton before she joined the firm of McCarter & English as an associate in the commercial litigation department.

Leslie earned her B.A. from the University of Oregon with honors, and a J.D. from Cardozo magna cum laude in 1991, where she was executive editor of the Cardozo Law Review. She has been actively engaged with alumni, the Cardozo Board of Overseers, and the leadership of Yeshiva University.

Leslie will succeed Matthew Diller, who is stepping down after serving as Cardozo’s dean for six years. Cardozo Board of Overseers Chair David Samson ’93, president of the Miami Marlins and member of the search committee, remarked, “Dean Diller’s tenure has been both distinguished and distinctive. Melanie Leslie is an exceptional choice to build on Cardozo’s outstanding programming and traditions.”

Yeshiva University Provost Selma Botman chaired the rigorous nationwide search for the new dean. “The committee was truly impressed with the candidates and the high level of interest from across the country,” said Botman. “At the end of the day, however, there was overwhelming faculty support for Dean Leslie, which was also shared by students who provided input to the committee.”

The search committee included former Cardozo dean Professor David Rudenstine; David Samson; Andrew Lauer, Vice President for Legal Affairs, Secretary and General Counsel of Yeshiva University; Cardozo Board of Overseers member Zahava Straus ’80; Cardozo faculty members Michelle Adams, Richard Bierschbach, Leslie Salzman, and Stewart Sterk; Dean of Admissions David Martinidez; Dean of Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business Moses L. Pava; and Chair of the Executive Committee of the Cardozo Alumni Association Alissa Makower ’92, vice president and senior counsel at CBS Corporation.

For more information contact:

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

Jacqueline Reeves
Director, Media Relations and Communications
212.790.0837
Reeves@yu.edu

 

Michael Graae

The independent documentary film "Gored" tells the story of Antonio Barrera, reputedly the bullfighter who's been gored more often than anyone in the sport's history. The movie includes archival footage of Barrera getting the sharp end of ill-tempered bulls, but for Diana Yu and Jonathan Yellin, one of the best parts comes during the credits, when their names scroll up the screen.

Their inclusion in the credits was director Ido Mizrahy's way of thanking the students from Yeshiva University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law for the countless hours they devoted to legal matters for his film though the law school's Indie Film Clinic.

"It was very cool," Yu said after attending the "Gored" premiere during the Tribeca Film Festival with Yellin in April; they hadn't been forewarned about the credit. "It felt great to get that kind of ­recognition for things you do in a law school clinic."

Yu beat the odds simply by enrolling in the clinic — director David Morrison typically receives more than 60 applications for eight slots each semester. Students flock to the clinic because it blends transactional and intellectual property law gives them the chance to work with creative types in the entertainment industry.

The clinic provides pro bono legal counsel to independent filmmakers in New York who lack deep financial resources and to documentarians focused on social justice. It is the only law school clinic in the country focused exclusively on aiding filmmakers, Morrison said.

Students form production companies, write contracts, draft legal opinion letters and more under the supervision of Morrison and adjunct professor Thomas Crowell. Yu and Yellin spent much of their time on "Gored" analyzing licensed and unlicensed footage used in the film, and drafting a fair-use opinion letter to help Barrera secure errors-and-omissions insurance. "I basically have the entire film memorized," Yu said.

They reviewed agreements with many of the individuals who helped make the film, to ensure they can't bring copyright claims. "It's really interesting to see how many people you have to have agreements with and how much protection you need in case people come around and try to sue the production company," Yellin said. "We want the film to be ­protected because we want it to be ­successful."

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Anja Marquardt credits the clinic in allowing her first feature, "She's Lost Con­trol," to follow her artistic vision. The well-reviewed 2014 film depicts the emotion­al breakdown of a graduate student who works as a sexual surrogate — a story that required nudity from her cast. The students helped negotiate nudity riders required by the Screen Actors Guild, among other legal matters.

"Without the clinic, I might have had to work with actors who are not SAG," Marquardt said. "Negotiating the nudity riders with actors and their management teams would have been very difficult. I don't know how I would have done it without the clinic."

 

 

http://www.nationallawjournal.com/law-school-news/id=1202726624049/Students

At the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law's 2015 commencement ceremony, Judge Denny Chin, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, urged students to go forward and prosper, to not forget about those who came before and helped them, those who need their help now, and those who will need their help in the future.

Judge Chin was the keynote speaker for the ceremony on June 4, 2015 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, in which 365 graduates received their J.D. degree and 50 received their LL.M. degree.
In his speech, Judge Chin told students to "be a good person, and you'll be a better lawyer for it." He spoke of his inspiring story - his parents came to America from China and were naturalized when he was a child. Judge Chin was the first Asian American appointed as an appellate judge.

Student speaker Casandra Tolentino told her fellow graduates that "we have to remember to act and think justly."
Professor Alexander Reinert was awarded "best first-year professor" and and Vice Dean and Professor Richard Bierschbach was awarded "best professor."

Congratulations class of 2015!

View and download photos from Cardozo Law's 2015 commencement ceremony.

Congratulations to Kayla M. Robinson, the recipient of the 2015 Louis D. Brandeis Award for the highest GPA, and the members of the class of 2015 Order of the Coif.

Louis D. Brandeis Award for Highest GPA

Kayla M. Robinson

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Yeshiva University

Class of 2015

Members of The Order of the Coif

Kirk T. Berger
Steven C. Berlowitz
Jessica L. Bondy
David C. Casagrande
Matthew F. Chakmakian
Judith S. Cohen
Deborah J. Frisch
Rebecca A. Goldstein
Brittany J. Harrison
Christopher T. Ilardi
Meir S. Kalish
Micah T. Kantrowitz
Samuel T. Kilb
Sarah A. Kinne
Aviva Shari Kravitz
Frank Lamicella
Rita M. Lenane
Emily T. Lurie
Rebecca D. Maller
Ashley M. Mas
Kristen G. Niven
Justin T. Padway
Jonathan Raz
Hannah E. Robbins
Kayla M. Robinson
Yehuda M. Rubel
Brett H. Ruber
Rachelle L. Rubin
Cameron J. Schur
Jennifer Danielle Schwartz
Shaina L. Schwartz
Alexander J. Selarnick
Max Jacob Vogel
Jonathan Wilcon
Gregory Wong
Cindy E. Zuniga

Cardozo alum Danny Sternberg '15 talks about working with the Civil Rights Clinic.

Cardozo Law alum Kori M. Clanton '15 talks about working in the school's Mediation Clinic.

Cardozo Law alum Pablo Madriz '15 talks about his work with the Bronx Defenders field clinic.

Cardozo Law alum Deborah Frisch '15 discusses her work with the Alexander Fellows clinic.

For 30 years, Cardozo Law and the Kukin Center for Conflict Resolution have been leaders in Mediation. 

"Intellectual property law is the biggest industry in New York City," says Cardozo Law's Jeanne L. Schroeder. "We are using our world-class intellectual property program to introduce FAME: Fashion, Arts, Media, and Entertainment law."

New York City, October 28th 2015: Waleed Diab, Cardozo class of 2004, now Senior Counsel for Music across Google products and services including YouTube and Google Play, spoke at the Dean's Speaker Series to 75 Cardozo students recently. Diab, a board member of the FAME Center for fashion, arts, music and entertainment law at Cardozo Law, discussed his career which also included six years at Viacom, Inc. in the Business and Legal Affairs Department, where he worked up from a junior position to become Senior Counsel for Music Strategy and Relations at MTV Networks. 

"You always have to be asking yourself, how do I stand out and make myself an asset to this company," Diab said. He encouraged students to network carefully and continuously, saying, "fortuitous job opportunities are sitting all around you. You just have to look for them."

Students had the opportunity for an extended Q & A in which the discussion ranged from evaluating the balance between a job at a law firm and a job in an industry you are passionate about, to Diab's day-to-day work at Google, which includes negotiating, drafting and advising on all of Google's complex music licensing partnerships. Diab stressed that having a law degree opens doors in all kinds of industries, and he emphasized that throughout his career he worked to pick up knowledge and learn skills that he could take with him to his next position.

Diab was introduced by Dean Melanie Leslie, and has been working closely with Professors Barbara Kolsun and Lee Sporn on the development of Cardozo's FAME Center.

"The FAME Center trains students to become business lawyers for companies driven by creatives. Our graduates begin their careers with a deep understanding of deal-making, intellectual property law, licensing, real estate law and employment law," said Dean Leslie. "Waleed is a Cardozo sucess story, and we are so fortunate to have him on our FAME board."

Cardozo Law's LLM program has students from more than 25 different countries. It provides the freedom to design your own schedule, and offers specializations in Intellectual Property, Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Comparative Legal Thinking. The General Studies LLM allows students to focus on ADR; Corporate, Comercial, and Securities Law; IP Law; and International and Comparative Law. For more information, visit cardozo.yu.edu.

Criticism and Litigation Over Renewal
Clause in Rent-Freeze Program for Older New Yorkers
By MIREYA NAVARRO
NOV. 10, 2015

The New York Times- As New York City officials encourage older tenants to take advantage of an underused program that freezes their rents, they have also been cutting off participants who fail to renew on time, advocates say.

The Rent Freeze Program allows tenants 62 and older to lock their rent at the current rate if they live in a rent-regulated apartment, have an annual income of no more than $50,000 and pay more than a third of their household income in rent. The program, which gives landlords property tax abatements and costs the city $139 million a year, is intended to protect older New Yorkers from escalating rents and help them remain in their homes.

But participants must renew every two years, according to state law. Organizations and lawyers that serve the elderly said many people missed the deadlines because of memory loss, illness and other conditions associated with aging.

“Renewal of anything is a problem,” said Bobbie Sackman, director of public policy for LiveOn NY, which represents more than 100 groups serving older New Yorkers. “This is true for all benefits. They don’t realize what they’re getting in the mail.”

A lawsuit filed this year in United States District Court on behalf of eight plaintiffs who faced termination from the program seeks to allow participants with disabilities as defined by the Americans With Disabilities Act to renew at the same rent levels even if they miss the deadline.

The suit claims that many participants are cut off when they miss renewal deadlines beyond the six-month grace period and are asked to file a new application. But when they rejoin the program, the lawsuit said, their rents are frozen at the rate the apartment goes for at that time, which is often hundreds of dollars more and unaffordable for the tenants.

Typically, the tenants do not realize they have been dropped from the program until many months later, when a landlord takes them to Housing Court for nonpayment of rent and seeks an eviction, the plaintiff’s lawyers said.

Officials with the city’s Finance Department, which administers the program, said they had listened to the concerns and had started to revise their rules. This year, the officials said, the department extended renewal deadlines if the tenant has been hospitalized, has been a victim of a natural catastrophe, has been declared incompetent or had a guardian appointed, or has been formally given a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or dementia.

After advocates complained that the bar was still too high for what constitutes “good cause” because not everyone incapable of meeting deadlines is hospitalized or has the required mental conditions, for example, officials said they had started to waive renewal deadlines for participants who claim a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

They said they were using a broad interpretation of disability, relying on both the federal act and the city’s Human Rights Law. And in August they added a coordinator to help applicants and participants resolve issues.

“We understand this is a vulnerable population, and we want people to get help when they need it,” Samara Karasyk, an assistant commissioner with the Finance Department, said.

But lawyers suing the city expressed skepticism about the revisions, noting that they know of participants who were denied appeals of their termination just last week. They said the city did not appear to be applying a consistent policy and had yet to communicate the changes to participants who were cut off, including the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The bumps in the rent-freeze program come while city officials are also trying to encourage more people to join. The shortage of affordable housing is a priority for Mayor Bill de Blasio, and older residents present a particular challenge because of their growing numbers and fixed incomes.

The rent freeze is regarded as a vital tool to keep tenants from being priced out of their homes. Officials with the Finance Department said as many as 121,000 households might qualify for the program. City figures, however, show that only 52,171 are enrolled.

The vast majority of participants meet renewal deadlines, city officials said, and only about 700, or 3.5 percent of participants, have been cut off this year for not renewing. But the outcome for those dropped can be devastating, advocates said.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include a 74-year-old woman with dementia; an 80-year-old man with Parkinson’s disease and memory loss; and a married couple — he is 82 and blind; she is 89 and has Alzheimer’s.

The couple, Ramon and Natalia Peralta, who live in Brooklyn, had been able to renew their rent freeze since 2007 with the help of a niece, the lawsuit said. But after the niece moved away, they failed to keep track of the program’s requirements, and the city stopped the benefit in 2013. After they were told to reapply, the suit said, their rent jumped this year to more than $1,000 a month, from $807 a month. The new rent is more than 80 percent of their monthly income.

“They’re all eligible,” said Leslie Salzman, a clinical professor at the Cardozo School of Law. The school’s Bet Tzedek Legal Services Clinic is suing the city along with JASA Legal Services for the Elderly in Queens and Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation Legal Services.

Officials with the Finance Department said they intended to reinstate participants at the lower rents, if their incomes still qualified them for the benefit.

Similar issues bedevil a rent-freeze program for tenants with disabilities 18 and older, said the lawyers suing the city, who are also litigating on their behalf. But that program is much smaller, serving 9,148 participants, city figures showed.

Read more about the Bet Tzedek Clinic

Suleman Malik '16 (pictured in the video in the red tie and suit) discussed, as part of an on-air panel of Muslim Americans, politics, religion, civil rights, and his perspective in light of Donald Trump's comments and the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. The story aired on CBS This Morning, CBS News and Face the Nation. 

December 18, 2015 CBS News - After Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, the topic has been widely debated on and off the campaign trail. Republican strategist and CBS News contributor Frank Luntz held a focus group of Muslim Americans at CBS News' Studio 57 to get their perspectives on the political rhetoric and their faith.

View the video on CBS News.