Thomas Moore ’72 will serve as the graduation speaker at Fordham Law School’s 108th diploma ceremony, and he and his wife, Judith Livingston, will receive honorary Doctor of Laws degrees. The ceremony will be held on Monday, May 18, at the Beacon Theatre.
A senior partner at Kramer, Dillof, Livingston & Moore, Thomas Moore has won 90 jury trials with verdicts in excess of $1 million, and has negotiated settlements up to $1 billion for his clients. Judith Livingston has won 31 trials with jury verdicts in excess of $1 million and has negotiated hundreds of settlements that have resulted in payments of almost a half-billion dollars. In 2014, they received Fordham University’s Founder’s Award, which “recognizes individuals whose personal and professional lives reflect the highest aspirations of the University’s defining traditions, as an institution dedicated to wisdom and learning in the service of others.”
Also during the ceremony, recipients of the Teacher of the Year, Adjunct Teacher of the Year, and the Eugene J. Keefe Award will receive their awards.
Fordham Law Professor Benjamin Zipursky has been selected as the Teacher of the Year. Professor Zipursky holds the James H. Quinn ’49 Chair in Legal Ethics at Fordham Law. He joined Fordham Law in 1995 and teaches Torts, Jurisprudence, Professional Responsibility, Defamation and Privacy, Products Liability, and Legal Process. In 1998, Professor Zipursky coined the term “civil recourse theory” for an overarching theory of tort law. His command of tort and products liability law has earned him appearances on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, BBC World, and in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, and other prominent media.
Jerry Goldfeder has been selected as the Adjunct Teacher of the Year. Goldfeder is Special Counsel at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP and teaches Election Law at Fordham. A nationally acclaimed election and campaign finance lawyer with thirty-five years of trial and appellate experience, Professor Goldfeder has represented elected officials, candidates for public office, unions, partnerships, and corporations. He is the author of the treatise Goldfeder’s Modern Election Law, now in its third edition. Professor Goldfeder has been named a “New York Influencer” by Campaigns & Elections and was selected by the New York Observer as one of the most politically powerful people in New York City.
Casey McGowan, class of 2015, has been named the recipient of the Eugene J. Keefe Award, presented to the person who has made the most important contribution to the Fordham Law community. McGowan served as Managing Editor for the Fordham Moot Court Board and as an Associate Editor for the Fordham Law Review. Her superior writing skills earned her the Fordham Legal Writing Award. She also served as a Legal Writing Teaching Assistant. McGowan participated in many extracurricular activities; she was Vice President of the Irish Law Student Association and President of Habitat for Humanity.
Additionally, Susan Santangelo will receive the Dean’s Medal of Recognition. She joined the staff of Fordham Law in 1960 and began her career as a clerical worker in the Registrar’s Office when the Law School was located downtown at 302 Broadway. In 1982, she became Administrative Assistant to the School’s first Associate Dean, Joseph Crowley. Since that time she has worked for every Associate Dean. In 2007, she was appointed Director of Faculty Administration. At Fordham University’s 2012 convocation, she received the Sursum Corda, a special award for outstanding contributions to the University.
