With the Trump presidency, the United States of America faces a truly unprecedented situation—largely due to the ways in which the current president tests the limits of our democracy’s founding document. Trump’s fraught relationship with the Constitution was the topic for a lecture and discussion at Fordham Law School on February 14, featuring Corey Brettschneider, visiting professor at Fordham Law, and Zephyr Teachout, associate professor at Fordham Law. The event, titled “Trump v. The Constitution,” took place in front of a packed McNally Amphitheatre. Brettschneider, who is also a professor of political science and public policy at Brown University, began…
Author: NATE SVOGUN
Fordham Law 1L student Mohamed Sidibay was interviewed by Forbes about his life as a Revolutionary United Front child soldier and what inspired him to become a lawyer. What was your life like before the RUF attacked your village? MOHAMED SIDIBAY: Our small village — that was my world. Everyone was always happy. People weren’t rich but at the same time, people were content. I had a sister and brother who were much older. All I did was play. I loved to run. Because running was fun. Either I was smart talking someone and they chased me, or I decided…
Howard Erichson was quoted in a Law.com article about Logitech Inc.’s class action lawsuit. A federal appeals court has ordered Judge William Alsup to explain why he refused to allow lawyers to engage in settlements talks in a class action against Logitech Inc. … Alsup, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, known for his unique standing orders, has long had a requirement that lawyers get class actions certified prior to settlement discussions. In a Jan. 18 order in the Logitech case, he acknowledged that this could be the first time someone had challenged that standing…
Professor John D. Feerick ’61 was quoted in a Business Insider article about the 25th Amendment. John D. Feerick, former dean of Fordham Law School, is one of the chief architects of the 25th Amendment who shepherded it through Congress in the early 1960s. He told Business Insider in March 2017 that the senators who signed the provision into law specified that declaring the president unfit must rely on “reliable facts regarding the president’s physical or mental faculties,” not personal prejudice. “If you read the debates, it’s also clear that policy and political differences are not included, unpopularity is not…
Adjunct Professor Jerry H. Goldfeder co-authored an op-ed in New York Law Journal regarding election law reform in New York. Albany is being applauded for enacting several popular pro-voter reforms, including taking the first step in amending the state constitution to allow voters to register and vote on Election Day without a waiting period, and permitting New Yorkers to vote by mail without restrictions or conditions. These changes require passage by two successive legislatures and a voter referendum. If all goes according to plan, then by 2022 New Yorkers will enjoy convenient voting procedures that many voters across the country…
Adjunct Professor George H. Friedman wrote a blog post about how the leadership of different presidents has influenced arbitration over the years. There’s a wonderful book, The Presidents Club, covering the unique and sometimes surprising relationships among the fraternity (sorry, Carly and Hillary, no sorority yet) of current and former presidents. For example, who knew that Bill Clinton and the Bushes are very close, with “W” often referring to Bill as his “brother of another mother”? Or that Richard Nixon sought advice from Herbert Hoover over whether to contest his razor-thin loss to JFK in 1960? Or that Jimmy Carter…
Alumnus Mark Goldstein ’10, counsel at Reed Smith LLP, wrote an op-ed in The American Lawyer about how to address and overcome mental health issues and the stigma surrounding them. It was Oct. 16, 2017. A Monday. My wife’s 32nd birthday. A day after the Jets blew a 14-point lead to the Patriots. It was also what I thought would be the last time I would ever walk through the halls of Reed Smith, the law firm at which I had spent the past four-plus years. Roughly six weeks earlier, I had been diagnosed with severe depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)…
Susan Scafidi, director of the Fashion Law Institute, was mentioned in a TransLegal article about the Master of Laws in fashion at Fordham Law School. With fashion being a $400 billion industry with same business structures and legal issues as other creative sectors, it was only a matter of time when aspiring LLM students will start taking interest in fashion-related intellectual property, finance, and similar areas of law. But it wasn’t until Susan Scafidi launched the world’s first Fashion Law Institute almost a decade ago that these students had a chance of honing their legal skills in the context of…
Bruce Green was quoted in a Bloomberg article about acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker’s role in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation. The House Judiciary Committee voted to authorize a subpoena of Attorney General Matt Whitaker if he refuses to discuss his conversations with President Donald Trump and his oversight of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation in testimony before the committee on Friday. … Whitaker, however, would risk provoking a confrontation with House Democrats that could result in him being held in contempt of Congress. … “Executive privilege is not an absolute privilege,” said Bruce Green, a former federal…
Alumna Elisa D’Amico ’06 received the Florida Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Award for her outstanding pro bono work to combat cyber harassment and revenge porn. Elisa D’Amico, Fordham Law School, K&L Gates, Miami. The Bar calls D’Amico “a pro bono superhero in the fight against cyber harassment and revenge porn.” The litigation partner at K&L Gates co-founded the Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project, which fights for revenge porn victims around the world, including getting photos and videos intended to be private out of cyberspace. D’Amico received the Bar’s Young Lawyers Division Pro Bono Service Award in 2016. Read full…