October 9, 2023 Dear Fordham Law Community, We have all watched Hamas’ attack on Israel and the violence that has followed with horror and anguish. The photos and videos in the media of mass killings, kidnapped women and children, distraught grieving family members, and widespread destruction in Israel and Gaza are difficult to bear. As I write, literally millions of people are huddled in bomb shelters struggling to survive. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is complex and long standing, but attacks on civilians are abhorrent and unjustifiable. They not only exact an incalculable human toll, they also deepen…
Author: bwieboldt
On September 24, 2021 Fordham Law School will launch its inaugural Leadership Academy for Women in Law: RISE—Resilient, Inspired, Strategic, Empowered. Program speakers are drawn from women lawyers in leadership positions throughout the profession, as well as male allies. The program will be offered via Zoom for one-hour sessions each Friday morning from September 24 through November 19, from 8:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. (presentations), followed by optional breakout sessions from 9:15 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. where participants can share reflections and experiences amongst themselves. The Leadership Academy for Women in Law: RISE—Resilient, Inspired, Strategic, Empowered, is part of Fordham…
Tim Rooney, from the USPTO, recently visited with Ron Lazebnik, supervising attorney of the IPIL clinic and spoke with clinic students about relevant topics such as various job opportunities for lawyers at the USPTO and the importance of taking advantage of experiential opportunites at the law school — such as the clinic. He also enlightened students as to the importance of pro bono work in patents and trademarks and discussed various ethical issues the Office of Enrollment and Discpline reviews at the USPTO. Students raised questions about practicing before the USPTO, which were promptly answered.
Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Court met with Norris Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus John D. Feerick ’61, and Professor John Rogan and students in the Democracy and Constitution Clinic. He offered his insights on legislative reform and the judiciary. The clinic conducts research to develop reforms to strengthen the nation’s institutions and its democracy.
“Most of the people who come seeking help from the Civil Legal Advice and Resource Offices (CLARO) are low and moderate-income New Yorkers working more than one job, whose wages just haven’t been able to keep up with the cost of living,’ explains Dora Galactos, adjunct professor of law and executive director of the Feerick Center. Since the mid 2000’s, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers have been sued in collection cases, with filings peaking in 2008, when more than 300,000 debt collection cases were brought in NYC’s civil court alone. Now the numbers are on the rise again. Stagnating…
A taxpayer received a Notice of Deficiency for approximately $300,000 and contacted the Fordham Tax Clinic, directed by Professor Elizabeth Maresca, for assistance. She came to the U.S. from the Caribbean and had limited English proficiency. She focused her life on caring for her two children, one of whom had a severe disability and subsequently passed away. The client had limited her work to babysitting and housekeeping to maintain a flexible schedule to care for her disabled daughter. The IRS claimed the taxpayer did not report $1,000.000 of income. This money stemmed from her spouse’s business. He had bad credit…
Students in the Criminal Defense Clinic (CDC), supervised by Professor Martha Rayner and Kaela Economos, the Clinic’s Social Worker, travelled to the correctional facility in Otisville, NY to attend a day-long Parole Summit. The extraordinary thing about this conference is that it was sponsored and planned by the Lifers and Long-Termers Organization — incarcerated persons at this facility. According to Rob Wasserstein and Bernie Olshansky, two of the students, it was both an intellectual and emotional experience. When they first arrived, the students sat in the gym in small groups with the incarcerated men and women and talked with them…
IPIL Clinic alumni reminisced about how much they enjoyed working with their clients and how it was one of their favorite parts of law school. IPIL clinic alumni are, from left to right: Chawick Boswell ’16, Prof. Ron Lazebnik, Mazwell Friedman ’17, Nora Choueiri ’14, and Erica Palaia ’14. The Clinic, directed by Ron Lazebnik, was originally started up and funded by a grant from Pamela Samuelson and Robert Glushko, who have funded similar clinics across the country. The Dean gave a brief history of the Clinic and remarked that without the help of Joel Reidenberg and Fordham Adjunct Professor Tom Halket, this clinic could not have happened.…
Students in Fordham’s Entrepreneurial Law Clinic (ELC), directed by Professor Bernice Grant, conducted their second pop-up small business legal clinic at Community Capital New York. Collaborating with Will Malpica ’00 and two of his colleagues in Martin LLP’s business and corporate group, students provided valuable legal services to nine underserved small business owners, in English as well as Spanish.
Professor Nestor Davidson was quoted in an article in The City regarding downtown tenants’ attempts to recoup what they say are years of rent overcharges. The class-action lawsuit seeks the return of back rent and new rent-stabilized leases for residents, even as one landlord is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take the owners’ side in the fight. The suit marks the latest in a string of legal actions taken by Financial District tenants following a June ruling by the state’s top court that found owners of buildings benefiting from a downtown-only tax break known as 421-g must give rent-stabilized leases to their…