During this year’s diploma ceremony, members of the Class of 2023 as well as faculty members and administrators were presented with awards in recognition of their outstanding achievements and contributions to the Law School. Select Awards for Faculty and Administrators THE DEAN’S MEDAL OF RECOGNITION Helen Hadjiyannakis Bender, Associate Professor of Law Dean’s Medal of Recognition 2023 | Prof. Helen Hadjiyannakis Bender from Fordham Law School on Vimeo. This award, the highest honor the Dean can confer, is presented to a person selected by the Dean who has shown outstanding commitment to the ideals of the Law School through their…
Author: Sejla Rizvic
This year’s Fordham Law Review Symposium was particularly special, in part because it celebrated the legacy of the Hon. Robert A. Katzmann, former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Judge Katzmann, a longtime friend of Fordham Law School who passed away in 2021, took an outsized role in reforming immigrant representation in New York. The symposium examined the impact of one of his many successful initiatives, the influential Katzmann Immigration Study Group, which marks its 15th anniversary this year. Among other achievements, Judge Katzmann and the study group developed the idea that would become…
Alejandro Mayorkas, seventh secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, engaged in a compelling keynote conversation about the most significant immigration questions of the day. The keynote conversation was a part of the Fordham Law Review’s spring symposium on March 9, which focused on the impact of the Study Group on Immigrant Representation, which was initiated by the late Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Two years since his appointment, Mayorkas emphasized the DHS’s successes, despite strong headwinds. “When we stepped in, hundreds and hundreds of families had been separated, and…
Fordham Law student Ben Lew ’23 has been selected as the winner of this year’s Robert T. Matsui Annual Writing Competition. Held by the Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund, the competition seeks to encourage legal scholarship on issues of importance to the Asian American community. This is the second year in a row that a Fordham Law student has won the top prize. Lew’s award-winning paper examines the 1955 case Naim v. Naim, which dealt with the issue of interracial marriage. Han Say Naim, a Chinese immigrant, and his wife, Ruby, a white woman, had been married in…
The Fordham Urban Law Journal celebrated its 50th anniversary by bringing together speakers from both the criminal defense and prosecution side for a discussion about the future of criminal prosecution. The event was co-sponsored by the Stein Center for Law and Ethics, and the Center on Race, Law and Justice. “Issues of criminal justice are at the forefront of so much of the public discourse,” said Dean Matthew Diller. “On one side, there are calls for limitations on the power of the prosecutor’s office, police departments, mass incarceration, and complaints about overcriminalization. At the same time, there are calls for…
This year’s Fordham Law Women Symposium featured a special final panel: a conversation between the original founders of Fordham Law Women and the Black Law Students Association and the student groups’ current leadership. Both groups are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, and the panel focused on the progress made since their founding and the work still left to do to bring equity to the legal profession. The March 7 panel included alumnae Olivia Valentine ’74, the founder of BLSA, and Betty Santangelo ’74, the founder of Fordham Law Women. Valentine now works as a mediator and arbitrator, and previously…
Five Fordham Law students—Justin Chaljub ’25, Raissa Ebeh ’25, Hira Mustafa ’25, Maya Rodgers ’25, and Cristian Vega ’25— were selected as fellowship recipients for the 2023 New York City Bar Association Diversity Fellowship Program. The fellowship provides first-year law students from underrepresented populations within the legal profession the chance to spend a summer in one of New York’s leading law firms and corporate law departments. “I am absolutely thrilled that all five of the Fordham Law School student finalists who moved to the last round in a very rigorous process were selected for this prestigious fellowship,” said Bryna Beckler-Knoll,…
Prominent senior executives from across Morgan Stanley’s legal and compliance division came to Fordham Law for a panel event on January 30 to speak about the professional and personal qualities essential to thriving in a leadership role. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Joseph Landau introduced the event and thanked the panelists—all Fordham alumni—for participating. “We’re extremely proud of the Morgan Stanley/Fordham relationship, which is very strong and truly special—with hundreds of alums working at Morgan Stanley, from both the Gabelli School of Business and, of course, the Law School.” Landau continued, “We are very grateful to have all of you…
Tom Rukaj ’23 and Lauren Hutwelker ’23 brought home Fordham Law’s third consecutive regional championship win at the oldest and most elite trial competition in the country, the Texas Young Lawyers Association National Trial Competition, held in early February. Adding to this history-making win, Tom Rukaj ’23 became the first Fordham Law student to win the TYLA Regional Championship twice. Fordham Law’s second competing team, Sofia La Bella ’23 and Zachary Marshall-Carter ’23, also made it to the semi-finals of the regional competition. The team was led by coaches Jeff Briem ’05 and Adam Shlahet ’02, as well as Professor…
Harold Hongju Koh, the Bacon-Kilkenny Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Fordham Law School who argued on behalf of Ukraine at the International Court of Justice in 2022, discussed the legal dimensions of the Ukraine-Russia conflict at an event on January 26, nearly a year after the start of Russia’s invasion. Koh is a former legal adviser for the U.S. Department of State, working in various governmental positions under four US presidents. He has taught at Yale Law School since 1985, including in his current position as Sterling Professor of International Law, and previously served as dean, and has received many human…