The Fordham Urban Law Journal will kick off this year’s spring symposium season by bringing attention to admission practices found in urban public schools across the country. The symposium will be held in a hybrid format from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 11. Critics in local communities, the courts, and media have raised challenges over the racial composition of student populations at public K-12 schools that admit students solely on the basis of an academic examination. In New York City, Black and Latino students, who constitute 67 percent of the overall public school population, made up only…
Author: Erin DeGregorio
Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of The New York Times Magazine’s “1619 Project,” a collection of articles that examines the legacies and consequences of slavery in America, graced the stage at Fordham Law School to speak with more than 500 members from the Fordham community in a hybrid event held in-person and broadcast online. The event provided a platform for Hannah-Jones to discuss not only The New York Times Magazine collection, but also her recent book—The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story—which was based on the original collection and has been a New York Times bestseller. Given the impact of the project,…
Fordham Law School’s third annual spring orientation expanded this year into a two-day format, taking place on Jan. 18 and 19 for day division students. The theme for this year’s orientation was “Starting the second semester strong: Strengthening the individual, strengthening the community.” For the third year, the program focused on diversity and inclusion, while also adding sessions devoted to other aspects of professional identity development. Evening division students attended DEI programs on Jan. 18 and 19 and professionalism programming specifically tailored to their unique needs, concerns, and considerations on Jan. 24. “We focused on ways in which students can…
After learning he would receive the New York Bar Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Dean Emeritus and Norris Professor of Law John D. Feerick ’61 admitted to being overcome by emotion. “It humbled me to be chosen by the Foundation, a premier part of the legal profession’s mission and commitment to access to justice in New York, and to have my name placed on the list of previous recipients,” he said. “Seeing the names of prior recipients and thinking of other lawyers with whom I had served in the work of the Bar over the past 60 years brought tears to…
The Fordham Law community mourns the passing of Professor Emeritus Donald Sharpe, a member of the faculty for nearly 50 years who not only shaped the Law School’s tax law curriculum, but worked diligently to make legal education more affordable from his start on the faculty in 1972 until his retirement from teaching in 2017. In the late 1980s, Sharpe led the effort to create Fordham Law’s first student loan forgiveness program, which has helped hundreds of graduates entering the public sector of the law. He was also named the chair of the student financial aid committee in 1988 by…
This February, Fordham Law School will celebrate Black History Month through both virtual and in-person events. In recent years, we have honored the lives and work of alumni such as Reginald Brewster ’50, Eunice Carter ’32, and the Honorable Lawrence W. Pierce ’51 and celebrated the achievements made by our faculty, students, and alumni. Black History Month this year will kick off with the first-ever Eunice Carter Lecture featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones on Tuesday, Feb. 1. The month’s programming will conclude with the Black History Trailblazers event, hosted by Fordham’s Black Law Students Association (BLSA) on Monday, Feb.…
The Fordham Law community mourns the passing of Gavin White ’01, former president of the Miami chapter of the Fordham Law Alumni Association (FLAA). White died on January 24 from an aggressive form of cancer at the age of 46. He is survived by his two children, Abigail (10) and Bowie (2); his mother, Mary Frances White; sister, Kyra-Siobhan Combe; brother, Brandon White; as well as seven nieces and nephews. Gavin was predeceased by his father, Allan White, who passed away in 2007. “Gavin was truly one of a kind—he was filled with energy and ideas, warm and caring, and…
A Message from Dean Matthew Diller January 14, 2022 Dear Fordham Law Students, It seems fitting that our spring semester begins after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day—the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service that intends to empower individuals, strengthen communities, bridge barriers, and create solutions to social problems. Father McShane’s eloquent note about Dr. Martin Luther King’s work and the pervasive injustice related to issues of race in our country makes a clear case for empathy and for finding our humanity. One way to do that is by committing to actions that will help—in some way—to…
A Message from Dean Matthew Diller January 9, 2022 Dear Fordham Law Community, I wanted to note the passing of two greats in the legal academy with deep ties to our Law School—Lani Guinier and Lloyd Weinreb, both of whom held the Bacon-Kilkenny Distinguished Visiting Chair at Fordham and both of whom formed deep friendships on our faculty and were important mentors to many of us. Professor Guinier held the Bacon-Kilkenny Chair in 2014. She was a ground breaking scholar on many levels. Her work was branded in the mainstream media as extreme in the 1990s, yet today is widely…
High-profile ransomware attacks affecting government agencies and major organizations have significantly increased in their number, scalability, and severity, ranging from simple phishing scams to digital extortion. Recent cybersecurity incidents that made headlines in the last year include SolarWinds, Colonial Pipeline, and meat processor JBS USA Holdings. As a means to discuss the everchanging cyber threat landscape, a group of Fordham Law alumni and fellow practitioners delved into the latest cybersecurity issues, new government enforcement activity against cyber crime, and best practices on how private companies can avoid hacks. The event—virtually hosted by Fordham Law’s IP and Information Law Affinity Group…