Students from Cardozo Law's Immigration Justice Clinic get real world, hands on experience. The students, and professor Lindsay Nash, recently worked with refugees in a U.S. immigration detention center in Dilley, TX.

Congratulations to Geoffrey R. Andreu, the recipient of the 2017 Louis D. Brandeis Award for the highest GPA, and the members of the class of 2017 Order of the Coif.

Louis D. Brandeis Award for Highest GPA

Geoffrey R. Andreu

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Yeshiva University
Class of 2017 
Members of The Order of the Coif

Cardozo Law’s Class of 2020 arrived en masse for the first day of orientation, which kicked off with a welcome breakfast and words of encouragement from Dean Melanie Leslie and Dean of Admissions David Martinidez.

“As of this moment you are Cardozo law students,” said Dean Martinidez. “And you are members of the legal profession.”

Martinidez spoke to the group and recounted their statistics, diversity and accomplishments presented on their applications: the class draws from 31 states and the District of Columbia and 20 countries around the globe. 30 members of the class already have at least one graduate degree and many have worked in the professional world. Many worked as paralegals; one was a policy analyst for the Southern Poverty Law Center; one was an immigration advocate for the Bronx Defenders; one was a criminal defense investigator and one was a court appointed special advocate for welfare cases. Several were interns at places like The Innocence Project, the U.N. Office of Legal Affairs and District Attorney offices in every borough of New York City. Several were finance and business analysts for companies such as Deloitte, Citigroup and Bank of America. One was a Peace Corps volunteer and one a Fulbright scholar.

Dean Leslie welcomed the group and said “you are going to leave here ready to make a difference in the world. You will help people. You will learn to analyze,” she said, “and how to understand both sides of any issue.” She emphasized three key points that students should remember and keep in mind during their law school journey and during moments of anxiety or difficulty: commitment, respect and ethics.

“Don’t work hard to impress your parents,” Dean Leslie said. “Work hard because you deserve the opportunity to succeed.”

Jonathan Lenzner ’04 and a member of Cardozo’s Board of Overseers, was the keynote speaker during the orientation luncheon. Lenzner is CEO of Investigative Group International and an attorney with The Lenzner Firm in Washington, D.C.

He told the group, “you are entering the noblest of professions.” He urged the students to make the most out of their law school opportunities, to “stretch beyond their comfort zone.”

Anna Goldstein, from California, said “I’m excited and nervous, but everyone’s been so helpful. It’s such a welcoming environment.” Emmanuel, a member of the class of 2020 who was born in Ghana and raised in the Bronx, said he was “happy to be at Cardozo because it’s going to be a nurturing environment. I’m looking forward to finding my passion and drive, to be the lawyer that I want to be in the future.”

Zachary Silver, from New York City, commented that the orientation day “is surreal. I haven’t been in a classroom in five years. But the data law program is why I’m here.” Silver worked in the tech industry for the past few years and became interested in the connections between technology and law.

Cardozo’s Criminal Appeals Clinic won a new trial for a client who was serving a 7 ½ year sentence for possession of a weapon he used to defend himself. The appeal in the case of People v. Luis Bonilla was briefed and argued by Patricia Zapata ‘17 and supervised by Clinic Director Stanley Neustadter. 

The client had been approached by a group, one of whom pointed a pistol at him. The client snatched the pistol, and walked away. A few minutes later, the group pursued and menaced him, and he used the gun to shoot and kill one of them. He was charged with homicide. The jury acquitted him on the basis of self-defense, but convicted him of weapons possession. The conviction was reversed by the Appellate Division because the trial judge refused to instruct the jury to acquit if it found that the client’s possession of the weapon was “temporary” and “innocent.”

September 20, 2017 - As law schools across the nation continue to manage rapid change, Dean Melanie Leslie and 11 other law school deans, with the help of their students, came together to highlight how the next generation of lawyers will make a difference in their communities and in the profession.

Maricela Gonzalez '18 represented Cardozo and was asked to answer a simple question: “Why Law?” Her answer, as well as others, serves as an important reminder for practicing attorneys, current law students, and those considering law school about the value of a law degree.

Participating schools included: Albany Law School, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, UCLA School of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law, University of Georgia School of Law, Suffolk University Law School, University of Maine School of Law, USC Gould School of Law, The University of Tulsa College of Law, University of Toledo College of Law, Wake Forest University School of Law and West Virginia University College of Law.

Cardozo’s Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution sent a team to the Carey Center/FINRA Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon and won first place at the competition, which took place at St. John’s University in Queens during the weekend of October 13.

Professor David Weisenfeld and 3L students Michael DiTrapani, Natalie Freeman, David Cherman and Josh Saccurato all served as coaches for the team, and the students who competed were 2L students Nicholas Anselmi, Derrick Ng and Alexander Sable.

Leo Bronshteyn, Angela Li and Camilla Lopez, all 2L students, were part of the team that prepped for the event, but were waitlisted and unable to compete.

18 teams competed in total, including competitors from Illinois, Florida, Mississippi, and Texas.

Professor Weisenfeld called the competition “a grueling event. Most ADR competitions involve one of negotiation, mediation or arbitration, with the competitors having to deal with multiple fact patterns. In this event, there is one fact pattern from which the students first negotiate, then mediate, then arbitrate. That requires an extraordinary amount of preparation and flexibility. In each round, one of the students plays the client while the other two are counsel."

Cardozo Law student and prominent political organizer Keegan Stephan '19 on his realization that "it's the lawyers doing the most critical work" in social justice movements.

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Samantha E. Smith '18

October 26, 2017 - At a preliminary injunction on October 11 and 12, Cardozo School of Law student Samantha E. Smith '18 of the Bet Tzedek Civil Litigation Clinic represented a proposed class of New York State Medicaid beneficiaries who need speech-generating devices from Medicaid to enable them to communicate.

The clinic requested a preliminary injunction directing the state to provide a speech-generating device to a young girl with cerebral palsy who cannot speak. The preliminary injunction hearing was held in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Smith had the opportunity to prepare for and individually conduct the direct examination of the plaintiff's expert witness, present critical video evidence, and participate in oral arguments.

For more background information on this case, view this October 2016 Law360 article. 

Photo Credit: Casey Dorobek
From left to right: Nathaniel Levy, Haroon Mian, Jordan Coyne, Aashini Shrivastav, Nicolette Vasile, Norma Esquivel and Tom Laverty

Top Honors at Price Media Law Competition and NYU Immigration Law Competition

February 5, 2018 - Cardozo students took home two big victories on Superbowl weekend in moot court competitions at Cardozo, focused on media and freedom of expression, and at NYU, focused on immigration.

The Monroe Price Media Law Competition, named after former Cardozo Dean Monroe Price, is an annual international competition with multiple rounds, one of which is held at Cardozo. The Cardozo team won the Americas Round at the law school on Feb. 2 and 4, placing first out of 10 teams from the U.S., Canada, South America and the Caribbean. The Cardozo team will go on to compete in the final round of the competition in Oxford, England in April, with five of the finalist teams.

The Price competition explores a problem tied to technology, social media and freedom of expression. This year’s question involved a fictional country whose leader was attacked on social media with false photographs that forced her resignation. The issue concerned to what extent both the technology provider and original poster could be held accountable. The 10 teams each argued both sides of the case before distinguished faculty who served as judges and rated each team on the strength of the case they presented.

The four Cardozo team members are 2L students: Jordan Coyne and Haroon Mian, who competed in the semifinals, and Aashini Shrivastav and Nathaniel Levy, who competed in the finals. Nathaniel Levy won best oralist.

Nicolette Vasile, a 3L student, was the head coach for team, assisted by Tom Laverty and Norma Esquivel, also 3L students.

Cardozo placed first at the NYU Immigration Law Competition, beating Georgetown in the final. This is the second year in a row Cardozo won the NYU competition. The competition, which began in 2006, focuses on cutting-edge issues in the field of immigration law and is judged by panels of distinguished NYU alumni and legal practitioners from throughout New York. The final round is judged by federal appellate and district court judges.

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The two oralists in the NYU competition were 3Ls Avery Nickerson and Patrick Hill. They were assisted by 2L Natalia Mata, team coach and opposition brief writer.

Image: Avery Nickerson (left), Patrick Hill (center), and Natalia Mata (right). 

February 16, 2018 - Cardozo hosted the New York Regional Competition (the regional round of The National Trial competition) February 9-11, with the law school’s Benedict Morelli trial team front and center. The National Trial Competition is the largest mock trial competition in the country, attracting teams from more than 140 law schools and over 1,000 law students each year. Cardozo was proud to host the regional round with two teams of students from the Morelli Trial Team participating in arguments on a civil wrongful death case.

Cardozo students Reginald Greene, Robert Glenn and Casey Duncan were on one team; Michael Ricottone, Sareny Rodriguez and Samuel Rose on the other.

The Morelli Trial team was established in 2016 through a $1 million gift from Arlene and Benedict Morelli, the former president of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association and founding partner of the firm bearing his name. In addition to supporting the trial team, the gift from the Morellis provides scholarships for students and established the Learning from the Masters Lecture Series, for which New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recently came to Cardozo.

The students prepared a full trial, including opening and closing statements and cross examinations. Neither team advanced this year but both performed admirably. The competition coordinator is Cardozo alumna Amy Montoya ’96, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan. She praised the teams and the efforts of Cardozo students who helped with the hosting activities. “Cardozo students really came through for us as witnesses, with very little time to prep, as well as many alumni serving as judges and evaluators. We also had alumnae Nicole Blumberg and Amy Cassidy put in a lot of work as the trial team coaches,” said Montoya. Montoya coordinated the competition for the second time in recent years and helps plan Cardozo’s Learning from the Masters series.

The National Trial Competition was established in 1975 to encourage and strengthen students' advocacy skills through quality competition and valuable interaction with members of the bench and bar. The program is co-sponsored by the American College of Trial Lawyers and is designed to expose law students to the nature of trial practice and to serve as a supplement to their education.

There were 19 teams competing from throughout New York State, as far away as Buffalo and Syracuse. 

February 22, 2018 - Congratulations to Stephanie Alvarez-Jones '18, who has been selected by The National Jurist as a law student of the year. The publication honors 20 law students across the nation who "contributed the most to their law schools and communities in the past year."

Alvarez-Jones was recognized for her dedication to ensuring access to justice for low-income communities - including volunteering with the Courtroom Advocates Project, interning at the ACLU Immigrant's Rights Project and Sanctuary for Families, and working for two years in the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic. 

Currently, Stephanie is playing a lead role in helping a man who served 30 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit vacate the deportation order that he received as a result of an invalid conviction. She has represented a mentally incompetent, deaf, non-verbal man who was unable to advocate for himself in an immigration proceeding; helped prepare a comprehensive submission on behalf of an asylum-seeker facing immediate deportation; and litigated a Freedom of Information Act suit against the federal government. 

In addition to her normal clinic work, Alvarez-Jones made two week-long trips to rural Texas to represent asylum-seeking mothers and children who were detained and facing deportation. Working 12-hour days, she used her fluency in Spanish and legal skills to represent mothers and children in credible fear interviews and in proceedings before an immigration judge. 

She plays an important role in the broader law school community - she is on the executive board of Cardozo’s Women's Law Initiative, served on the Dean’s Council on Diversity and Inclusion, helps spearhead work in the Public Service Scholars Program and is a submissions editor and elections chair for the Cardozo Law Review. 

Alvarez-Jones will be clerking for the Chief Judge of the New Jersey Supreme Court following graduation. 

Read full article in The National Jurist. 

March 2, 2018 - Cardozo’s students continue to impress and last weekend, the Heyman Center’s team won Best Draft at the Ninth Annual Regional Transactional LawMeet competition, held at Widener University Commonwealth Law School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Twelve schools competed in the regional round including Northwestern and Georgetown.

The Cardozo team is made up of Heyman Scholars Noah Weingarten (3L), David Borsack (2L) and Arif Soto (LLM) and Professor Jillian Gautier, director of the Heyman Center and Adjunct Professor Law for ITRANS, served as their coach.

The teams in this year’s LawMeet were asked to draft and negotiate the acquisition agreement for a $2.25 billion transaction.

The case involves the acquisition of all the outstanding capital stock of Volt Process Design Company (Volt) by an affiliate of Beijing Global Investors Limited (BGI). Volt is a process control software company based in Philadelphia. It is controlled by its Founder, Dr. Ronald Richards, and his children. BGI is a Beijing-based private equity investment firm. While BGI invests primarily inside China, its newest fund is pursuing a strategy of investing in privately-held companies based in North America or Europe that can benefit from BGI’s network to expand their businesses in China.

“I am proud of this team not just for bringing home an award, but more importantly for all of their hard work over the last few months. Through this competition, the students learned important skills needed to practice as transactional attorneys, including drafting corporate deal documents, negotiating with opposing counsel, and communicating effectively with clients. It’s quite impressive to watch law students draft and speak intelligently about sophisticated deal terms and business concepts, which in real deals are often handled by senior attorneys,” said Professor Gautier. 

LawMeets was founded in 2010 by Drexel University law professor Karl Okamoto as a way to deliver practical skills exercises to law students interested in transactional law. He organized the first Transactional LawMeet, with 11 participating teams, in 2010.

Four Cardozo students have been selected for 2018 Immigrant Justice Corps fellowships, the country's first fellowship program wholly dedicated to meeting immigrants' needs for high-quality legal assistance. The program was conceived by Robert A. Katzmann, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and incubated by The Robin Hood Foundation in 2013.

Javeria Ahmed, Emily Echeverria, Lorena Espino-Piepp and Elizabeth Wu, all 3L students, were selected for the fellowships along with 21 students from law schools around the country. The fellows will serve for two years in and around New York City – including the lower Hudson Valley, upstate New York, Long Island, and northern New Jersey – as well as in New Haven, Connecticut, San Antonio, Texas, Miami, Florida and Baltimore, Maryland.

For more information on the fellowship program, visit Immigrant Justice Corps. 

Law students who attended the Public Meeting of the Investor Advisory Committee at the SEC

Cardozo Securities Arbitration Clinic students Armando Martinez '19, Cristiana Modesti '18 and Ishara Quick '19 attended the Public Meeting of the Investor Advisory Committee on March 8, 2018, at the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. At the meeting, the law school clinic's work and role in the realm of investor advocacy was discussed. 

The committee acknowledged the clinic's work and discussed providing SEC funding of law school clinics who represent small investors and do investor advocacy work. The students then met directly with three of the SEC Commissioners, with members of the Division of Enforcement, and with the Investor Advocate to discuss their work. The chairman of the SEC greeted the students that morning.

March 22, 2018 - Dean Melanie Leslie is proud to announce that Judge Patricia Millett of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will be the keynote speaker at the Cardozo School of Law 2018 commencement, which will be held Tuesday, May 29 at 4 p.m., at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall in New York City.

Judge Millett was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on December 10, 2013. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, summa cum laude, in 1985 and from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, in 1988.

After working in a private law firm (Miller & Chevalier) for two years, Judge Millett clerked for Judge Thomas Tang of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Following her clerkship, she worked for four years on the Appellate Staff of the Civil Division in the United States Department of Justice and for eleven years as an Assistant in the Office of the Solicitor General. In September 2007, she became a leading partner in the Supreme Court and appellate practices at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Judge Millett has argued 32 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. 

April 9, 2018 - Employers know the value of a Cardozo law degree. Cardozo graduates are at work and sought after in every sector of the legal industry; from the largest law firms and financial compliance offices, to in-house legal departments at major fashion houses, to district attorneys’ and defenders’ offices.

We are pleased to report that 80.14% of our 2017 graduates are in “gold-standard jobs” (full-time, long-term jobs that require bar passage), a 5.58 percentage point increase from the year before. Another 6.85% of graduates landed full-time jobs for which a J.D. is an advantage, bringing the total to 86.99%. These are the type of jobs most desired by recent law school graduates.

Last year, 74.56% of Cardozo’s 2016 graduates secured gold-standard jobs, placing Cardozo 36th in the nation according to the National Law Journal, and tied for third in New York City.

The chart below lists NYC law schools. It will be updated once new information is posted:

“Gold-Standard Jobs” 
Full-Time, Long-Term Jobs that Require Bar Passage and are not school funded

View/download 2017 report: Cardozo 2017 Employment Summary

Gow W. Mosby, Jr. ’18 has been selected as the 2018 recipient of the Mark Whitlock Scholarship.

The Whitlock Scholarship was established by the friends and family of Mark Whitlock '10, who passed away from brain cancer when he was a student at Cardozo. Mark’s family sought to celebrate his life and honor his spirit with this scholarship. It is designed to recognize an outstanding, third-year J.D. student who, through the force of individual effort, energy, spirit and initiative, contributes to and/or expands and strengthens student life and community at Cardozo.

Gow was born and raised in Bellport, New York. He attended the University at Albany where he majored in political science, with a minor in Africana studies. After graduating, Gow went on to work at the New York State Assembly in Albany and then a law firm in Manhattan.

Gow was also a Vice President for an international fraternal organization, where he traveled to and helped establish a chapter in Ghana, West Africa, and established a scholarship for minority seniors at Bellport High School in Brookhaven, New York.

Gow started at Cardozo in May 2015 and during his time at the law school he has been involved in a variety of organizations. He was active in the Student Bar Association as a Senator and the Vice President, participated in the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal as a Staff Editor and the current Editor in Chief, and is a member of the Academic Success Committee for the Dean's Council for Diversity & Inclusion. During Commencement on May 29, Cardozo’s faculty will present Gow with the Steven Eric Tanenbaum Leadership Award for his contributions to student life at Cardozo.

Post-Commencement, Gow will start working at the New York County (Manhattan) District Attorney's Office as an Assistant District Attorney. 

Professor Gabor Rona addresses the Guarani-Kaiowa leadership at a visit to Caarapo, Mato Grosso do Sul.

From May 16 to 24, 2018, Cardozo Law’s Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic accompanied Professor Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum and Visiting Professor Gabor Rona, Chair of the UN Working Group on Mercenaries, on an unofficial visit to Brazil. The visit’s purpose was to understand the human rights concerns related to operations of private militias, as well as private military and private security contractors. The team spoke with more than 100 civil society leaders—including human rights defenders, victims and survivors of human rights violations, indigenous community leaders, Afro-descendant community leaders, members of impoverished and excluded neighborhoods—and other concerned citizens from both urban and rural contexts in Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Dourados (MS), and Belém do Pará. From these discussions, the team has made observations for possible follow up and coordinated action of various UN human rights Special Procedure mandate holders.

The team was informed of numerous acts of violence committed by members of private militias and private security contractors in both rural and urban settings. Forced evictions/forced removals, intimidation and threats to human rights defenders, assassinations of community leaders, and mass killings are among the most common concerns about which individuals spoke. In both contexts, individuals cited control over territories and occupation or demarcation of lands as motives for violence. In rural settings, land conflicts stem mainly from increasing large-scale extractive industries and agribusiness interests; in the favelas, the turf wars result largely from fights to control illegal provisions of basic services to communities (that the state fails to provide) and/or to control the illegal drug trade and its routes. Victims of these land conflicts include indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, the poor, women and LGBT activists, human rights defenders, and men, women and children caught in the crossfire. 

The team's findings will be shared with UN human rights "special procedures" experts, including the UN Working Group on Mercenaries chaired by Rona, and civil society actors. The goal is to build a strategy for bringing international scrutiny about these issues to the attention of Brazilian authorities. A coordinated response and action would support a reduction of violence and promotion of human rights.

"The work we did in Brazil was a great opportunity for our terrific clinic students to get some first hand experience in human rights investigation and advocacy,” said Rona. "They're learning not just to make a point, but to make a difference." 

Congratulations to Yael Y. Mandel, the 2018 recepient of the Louis D. Brandeis Award for the highest GPA.

Congratulations to all the members of the class of 2018 who were elected to the Order of the Coif.

Louis D. Brandeis Award for Highest GPA

Yael Y. Mandel 

Members of The Order of the Coif

Stephanie Alvarez-Jones

Kimberly L. Barr

Emily C. Barry

Jillian R. Bauman

Brette C. Berman

Alexander J. Brennan

John A. Corrado

Alexander L. Del Priore

Joseph J. Erdos

Erica L. Franco

Molly G. Gallagher

Regina R. Gerhardt

Patrick J. Glackin

Jessica N. Goudreault

Aaron R. Haines

Dakota L. Kann

Jessica A. Landau

Yael Y. Mandel

Edward Matzner

Lekha S. Menon

Laila Metjahic

Jarred R. Muller

Avery Nickerson

Eric D. Pilch

Lyubov Shamailova

Casey E. Thomas

Ryan Thorne

Noah S. Weingarten

Catherine M. Weiss