Shared below is some of the wide-ranging impact CUNY Law faculty are making across litigation, advocacy, scholarship, and public dialogue. From precedent-setting cases and international advocacy to new publications and thought leadership in the media, our community continues to shape the law in ways that advance justice. While not comprehensive, this collection highlights the breadth and depth of contributions driving change locally, nationally, and globally
Professor Nermeen Arastu and the Immigrant & Non-Citizen Rights Clinic, co-counsel with the ACLU of Virginia, the ACLU, and the Center for Constitutional Rights, secured a Fourth Circuit decision on behalf of Georgetown scholar Dr. Badar Khan Suri, rejecting the Trump administration’s bid to re-detain him and ensuring he remains free with his family while the First Amendment challenge to his retaliatory arrest and detention moves forward.
Professor Rebecca Bratspies, Director of the Center for Urban Environmental Reform, appeared on the Compassiviste Dialogues podcast to discuss environmental justice, government transparency, and using creative storytelling to engage the public.
Professor Natalie M. Chin, Director of the Disability Rights and Social Justice Clinic, published “Dismantling the Structural Desexualization of Disability” in the July ABA Human Rights Journal.
The CLEAR Clinic, alongside the ACLU, CCR, and co-counsel, won the release on bail of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, allowing him to return to New York to reunite with his wife and newborn while his First Amendment challenge to retaliatory detention proceeds.
Professor Ally Coll published “The Department of Government Efficiency’s Misguided Abandonment of Evidence” in The Regulatory Review, critiquing the Trump administration’s dismantling of evidence-based policymaking through DOGE’s sweeping cuts to federal programs.
Professor Lisa Davis, Senior Associate Dean of Clinical Programs and special advisor to the International Criminal Court on gender and discriminatory crimes, helped secure the ICC’s precedent-setting charges against senior Taliban leaders for persecuting LGBTQ people and published “The ICC’s Arrest Warrants Against Taliban Leaders Are Historic” in Foreign Policy, while also winning a federal court ruling blocking the Trump administration from penalizing them for ICC-related work.
The Defenders Clinic’s work and clients are featured in a New York Times Opinion video by filmmaker Matt Nadel, highlighting its long-standing practice of partnering with documentarians to create videos for clemency applications as part of its advocacy for New Yorkers serving extreme prison sentences. Greg Mingo, Senior Advisor to the Second Look Project and someone the Defenders Clinic supported in his clemency petition, is quoted in The New Yorker in an article detailing the work of the Bennington Prison Education Initiative, with which the clinic and SLP collaborate to advance clemency efforts for people serving life sentences a program the Clinic and SLP partner with to promote clemency for individuals serving life sentences.
Professor Chaumtoli Huq delivered the keynote address on gender and decolonization at McGill University’s 2025 SGI Transformative Business Law Summer Academy; spoke on the Coloniality of Private Law and Regulatory Governance panel at McGill’s inaugural CTN-SLB Conference: Critical Interventions in Law, Finance & Climate Change; published an opinion essay in City Limits titled “Opinion: Radical Municipalism Offers New York a Path Forward”, and participated in the Annual Meeting of Law School Diversity Professionals to advance equity and inclusion across legal education, organized by Maya Alperin, Assistant Director for Data and Analytics Admissions at CUNY Law.
Professor Jennifer Fernandez received the 2025 AASE Excellence Award for her national leadership in inclusive pedagogy and academic support. Her recent article in the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy calls on law schools to fulfill the promise of ABA Standard 303(c) through more inclusive, equity-driven 1L classrooms.
Professor Ramzi Kassem joined NY1’s podcast You Decide with Errol Louis to discuss Mahmoud Khalil’s legal case, its broader civil liberties implications, and the CLEAR Clinic.
Professor Kara Sheli Wallis ’15 will spend the Fall 2025 semester as a visiting scholar at Seattle University School of Law, where she will be conducting research on white supremacy and the erosion of procedural legitimacy.
Professor Steve Zeidman, Co-Director of the Defenders Clinic and Founding Director of the Second Look Project, published a New York Times guest essay, “Governors, Use Your Clemency Powers,” urging state leaders to more fully exercise clemency.