CUNY Law Moot Court teams advanced in two competitions in March.

The CUNY Law Moot Court Team of Jessica Glynn (2L), Bobby Link (2L), and Robyn Enes (2L), pictured left to right, recently won the Best Brief Award in the 25th Annual Nassau Academy of Law Moot Court Competition. In the oral argument portion of the competition, after the preliminary rounds, the team advanced to the Quarter Finals against a team from Hofstra LawSchool.

The Nassau competition for regional schools was sponsored by the Nassau County Bar Association and was held on March 18-19, 2008 in Mineola, N.Y. The CUNY Moot Court Team of Keith Allen (2L), Ian Spiridigliozzi (3L) and Vernon Jeffrey (2L) (brief only) also represented the school well in the competition, and the team managers for the CUNY teams were Christina Michelson (3L) and Biana Savikin (3L).

In other recent CUNY Moot Court news: The CUNY Moot Court Team of Justin Davis (3L) and Nicole Lichtman (3L) advanced to the Octo-Finals in the Twentieth Annual Domenick L. Gabrielli National Family Law Moot Court Competition. The Family Law Competition featured schools from around the country and was held in Albany, N.Y. on March 6-9, 2008.

CUNY Moot Court Team Advances to Quarter-Finals

A team of three CUNY Moot Court students competed in the Third Annual Immigration Moot Court Competition and advanced to the quarter-finals of the competition. The competition featured law schools from around the country and was held at New York University School of Law on March 22-24. The team members (pictured left to right) were: Nathan Treadwell (2L), Alexa Woodward (2L), and Sally Curran (3L). The team manager was Moot Court member Ruth Cusick (3L).

The issues they argued included the issue of whether a motion to re-open the denial of an asylum claim satisfies due process requirements when the Board of Immigration Appeals took official notice of changed country conditions without giving the petitioner the chance to respond and the statutory interpretation issue of whether a voluntary departure period should be stayed to protect the petitioner's right to adjudication.

In the quarter-finals, the CUNY Team competed against a team from University of California-Davis School of Law, which went on to win the finals of the competition against the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law.

3L Christine Back Named 2008 EEOC Honors Program Attorney

Christine Back, Class of 2008, has been named the 2008 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Honors Program Attorney. The EEOC hires one or two honors program attorneys yearly in a national competition. Christine will commence her position in September 2008 at the New York Regional Counsel’s office litigating employment discrimination cases on behalf of the EEOC.

“I feel extremely fortunate and excited about the work ahead,” Christine said in an interview. “I'll be getting federal trial experience doing anti-discrimination litigation on issues that are compelling to me.”

She added, “I'm grateful for the opportunity to get started in this way, and with colleagues who I'm sure I'll be learning an invaluable amount from.”

Christine, who lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, was in Professor Rick Rossein’s Trial Advocacy seminar, where she learned trial practice and employment discrimination law. She was also a member of the Trial Competition Team that placed second out of 10 New York area law schools in the American Bar Association’s Section on Labor and Employment New York Region Trial Competition in November 2007.

Professor Rossein said that the EEOC position is a great honor for Christine and for the CUNY School of Law. He noted that Christine, formerly a public school teacher in Bushwick, Brooklyn and a freelance writer, will join CUNY alums Bob Rose, Senior Trial Attorney, and Monique Roberts, Trial Attorney in the New York District Office. Bob recently successful litigated a sexual harassment case in the U.S. District Court in Rochester, New York.

Christine said she intends to practice law in the area of civil rights and civil liberties, with a particular emphasis on using the law to shape social justice-centered policy. “Whatever specific practice I end up in, I'd like to use my skills toward furthering equal justice in creative, dynamic ways,” she said.

She also noted that one of the most valuable aspects of attending CUNY Law has been working closely with several professors. "I've benefited from their experience and insight into the public interest world and received generous support and advice,” Christine said. “I've also had the good fortune of meeting like-minded law students who have become friends over the past three years--people who are genuinely invested in the idea of serving the public good and who care about improving people's lives.”

CUNY Law Announces Summer Fellowship Awards

The Scholarship Committee announces the following recipients of the 2008 CUNY Summer Fellowship Awards. The Committee reviewed more than 100 applications this year. "The impressive level of commitment shown by the applicants to work in the public interest was inspiring and made our task of choosing the winners more difficult," the student scholarship committee said. "We regret that funds are not available to support all of the students who apply."

Award of Public Interest Law Association (PILA) fellowships will be announced at a later date.

Below is the list of Fellowship Awards:

Bruce Wright Fellowship: For legal work in the field of police brutality. One fellowship awarded for $3,000
Erin Tomlinson (1L)

Community Legal Resource Network (CLRN) Fellowship: For legal work in the community. One fellowship awarded for $3,000
Stella Lyubarsky (1L)

CUNY Public Interest Fellowship: For work in the field of public interest law. Six fellowships awarded, each for $3,000
1) Morgan Cashwell (2L)
2) Erik Nilsson (2L)
3) Robert Penn, Jr. (2L)
4) Tashia Rasul (2L)
5) Lee Stetson (2L)
6) Jenesha Tai (1L)

Frank Durkan Fellowship: For work dedicated to human rights. One fellowship awarded for $5,000
Alexa Woodward (2L)

Paul O'Dwyer Fellowship: For work dedicated to human rights. One fellowship awarded for $3,000
1) Bronyn Heubach (1L)

Paul O'Dwyer Fellowship: For work dedicated to children's rights. One fellowship awarded for $3,000
Jessica Sribnick (1L)

Honorable Bryanne Hamill Fellowship: For work dedicated to family law. One fellowship awarded for $3,000
Karin Alm (2L)

Jo-Anne Weissbart Summer Fellowship: For work on issues involving gender discrimination or barriers encountered by poor women throughout the world. One fellowship awarded for $4,000
Laura Matthews (1L)

Kyle D. Jewell Memorial Scholarship: For summer legal internship in the area of at-risk children. Each fellowship awards $5,000 for the summer work and the equivalent of the New York State resident tuition per semester for the following year.
1) Sarah Goldenthal (1L)
2) Anne Meredith (1L)

Student Scholarship Committee:
Susan Markus, Co-Chair
Frank Shih, Co-Chair
Sue Chang
Carol Kozo
Kim Lashley
Sam Sue
Kathy Williams

Immigration Clinic Students Featured in New York Law Journal

The work of Immigration and Refugee Rights 3L Clinic students Andrea Siebert Llera and Laura Perez in finding attorneys for detainees in the Long Island Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids was the featured back-page story in the New York Law Journal on Friday, Nov. 9. The piece, by Thomas Adcock, starts on the back page of the Journal and jumps inside. It includes photos of the students and Clinic directors Sameer Ashar and Alizabeth Newman. The students also have been contacted by The New York Times and Newsday about their work in tracking down lawyers for more than 15 detainees and in maintaining contact with detainees’ families. Those newspapers, in fact, have wanted to tap directly into the work of CUNY School of Law students. See a Web version of the New York Law Journal story.

3Ls Place Second in ABA Trial Advocacy Competition

The team of third-year CUNY Law students Christine Back, Andrew Barnes, Leila Nelson and Biana Savkin placed second in the ABA Section on Labor and Employment New York Regional Employment Trial Competition held at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York over the weekend of Nov. Nov. 17-18, 2007.

Ten teams from New York area law schools, including Hofstra and Rutgers universities, competed. The Brooklyn Law School team won the jury verdict in the finals in a 2-1 decision. U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck presided over the trial with three lawyer evaluators (the jury) and an additional commentator.

The students received comprehensive feedback on their performances.

“CUNY Law School’s student ‘lawyers’ were terrific over the two-day competition,” said Professor Merrick Rossein, in whose trial advocacy seminar the students participated last year.

Each pair of students conducted two trials over the weekend, with one team representing a plaintiff, and the other a defendant employer. The opening and closing statements, the motions in limine (motions to the judge in chambers before trial), the objections, and the direct and cross-examinations were executed with “amazing professionalism and skill,” Rossein said. “The students put in a tremendous amount of work over the last month and worked very collaboratively.”

The claim in the case was that an employer discriminated against a born-again Christian because of his religion. The employer said it fired the man because he harassed people of other religious faiths as well as a lesbian woman. In addition, the employer said that the man was insubordinate and violated work rules.

CUNY Law alums Jennifer Hope, Mohammad Faridi, and William Sanyer provided critical support and feedback to the students during their preparation for the event, Rossein said.

CUNY Law School teams have been finalists for each of the last two years. Last year, the team won the event. To become a finalist means that a team progresses through preliminary rounds to vie for first or second place.

The newly elected officers of Moot Court for 2007-2008 are:

• President, Andrew Barnes
• Vice President, Veda Collmer
• Secretary, Rosanna Roizin
• Treasurer, Leila Nelson
• Summer Competition Coordinator, Julie Milner

The New York City Law Review has announced the Editorial Board for the 2007-2008 academic year:

• Editor-in-Chief, Lisa Davis
• Managing Editor, Dejana Perrone
• Executive Articles Editors, Amanda Allen, Julia Busetti, Sean Malley & Courtney Schusheim
• Public Interest Practice Section Editors, Sandra Dos Santos & Ashley Grant
• Notes & Comments Editor, Shalini Deo
• Symposium Editor, Matt Monroe

Congratulations to all!