BY: Elise Hanks Billing | DATE: Sep 12, 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

communications@law.cuny.edu

347-510-4220

 

NEW YORK, NY – The City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law is excited to announce the return of the W. Haywood Burns Chair in Human & Civil Rights. The Law School is seeking nominations and applications for the distinguished visiting faculty position that uplifts the work of racial justice leaders who reflect the qualities and convictions of Haywood Burns: commitment to advancing civil rights and human rights — and dedication to the education of lawyers who will uphold and defend the rights of the most vulnerable in our society.

The Burns Chair, first established in 1996, has received generous support from the New York State legislature for 2022-23 and the CUNY School of Law Foundation. The Burns Chair has welcomed luminaries with groundbreaking contributions to civil and human rights, such as the late Hon. Nathaniel R. Jones and Justice Albie Sachs.

“When he served as CUNY Law’s dean, Haywood mentored and inspired a generation of students, many of whom were the first in their families and communities to attend college or earn a law degree. Today, they are leading efforts to advance justice at a time when CUNY Law graduates are needed more than ever. It is such an exciting and fitting tribute to celebrate Haywood’s legacy as we anticipate celebrating our 40th anniversary in 2023,” notes Dean Sudha Setty.

A singular opportunity for scholars, legal educators, litigators, and activists, the Burns Chair engages in the intellectual and social life of the Law School through public lectures, symposia, seminar classes, class visits, and social events. The Burns Chairholder will receive competitive remuneration, research and administrative support, assistance with travel and living expenses, and the unique opportunity to advance their work while engaging with CUNY Law’s dynamic network of social justice students, lawyers, activists, and scholars, locally and internationally. The Burns Chair will also support the professional development of CUNY Law students through meaningful engagement with classes, clinics, student groups, and the Burns Student Research Fellowship.

Established to celebrate the legacy of a trailblazing scholar, advocate, teacher, and founding force in CUNY Law’s history, the Burns Chair was founded when Haywood tragically lost his life in a car accident in 1996, while attending a conference on democracy in South Africa. As Dean of CUNY Law from 1987 to 1994, Haywood brought to fruition a new paradigm in legal education and helped to establish CUNY Law as a national leader in clinical legal education. Throughout his life, Haywood’s gifts of intellect and scholarship led him from Peekskill, NY, to Harvard College, to post-graduate work at Cambridge University, and, subsequently, to Yale Law School, where he earned his law degree. He moved quickly to the front lines of the great civil rights contests of the day. He became Assistant Counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and served as General Counsel to Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign. He successfully defended the racial justice scholar and activist Angela Davis against criminal charges, and he represented 62 incarcerated men facing charges related to the Attica Prison uprising. He believed that the law needed a public institution dedicated to recruiting and training lawyers committed to the representation of those who have been and continue to be underserved, or not served, by the legal profession. He championed community and diversity, ensuring that CUNY Law students remained intimately connected with the grassroots needs of racially and socioeconomically marginalized groups in New York City.

Nominations and applications for the Spring 2023 semester appointment will be open until October 7, 2022, though submissions will continue to be accepted on an ongoing basis. For further information, please contact Professor Nicole Smith Futrell at burnschair@law.cuny.edu.

 

CUNY School of Law is the nation’s No. 1 public interest law school; its dual mission to practice law in the service of human needs and transform the teaching, learning, and practice of law to include those it has excluded, marginalized, and oppressed make it a singular institution. As the only publicly funded law school in New York City, CUNY Law increases access to excellent legal training through this mission.

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