Brooklyn Law Notes| THE MAGAZINE OF BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL SPRING 2018 Big Deals Graduates at the forefront of the booming M&A business SUPPORT THE ANNUAL FUND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS HELP US • Strengthen scholarships and financial aid programs • Support student organizations • Expand our faculty and support their nationally recognized scholarship • Maintain our facilities • Plan for the future of the Law School Support the Annual Fund by making a gift TODAY Visit brooklaw.edu/give or call Kamille James at 718-780-7505 Dean’s Message Preparing the Next Generation of Lawyers ROSPECTIVE STUDENTS OFTEN ask about could potentially the best subject areas to focus on to prepare for qualify you for law school. My answer is that it matters less what several careers.” you study than how you study. To be successful, it Boyd is right. We is useful to study something that you love and dig made this modest Pdeep in a field that best fits your interests and talents. Abraham change in our own Lincoln, perhaps America’s most famous and respected lawyer, admissions process advised aspiring lawyers: “If you are resolutely determined to encourage to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done highly qualified students from diverse academic and work already…. Get the books, and read and study them till you backgrounds to apply and pursue a law degree. Our Law understand them in their principal features; and that is the School long has attracted students who come to us with deep main thing.” experience and study in myriad fields. Currently, more than Today, with so much information and knowledge available 60 percent of our applicants have one to five years of work in cyberspace, Lincoln’s advice is more relevant than ever. Like experience after college or graduate school, bringing a wealth most professions, law has been forever altered by advances of talent, skills, and maturity to their legal education. Law in technology and the global economy, factors that have schools also are finding that individuals who are studying significantly broadened the universe of skills and backgrounds or working in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, necessary for the legal services industry to be truly responsive and mathematics) fields perform at high levels in law school. Yet the traditional image of a law student is someone with a degree in the humanities “More than 60 percent of our applicants or social sciences. Although certainly these backgrounds always will be important, lawyers have one to five years of work experience after today must be fully equipped to deal successfully college or graduate school, bringing a wealth with the emerging legal issues raised by our new multidisciplinary, multinational, of talent, skills, and maturity to their multilingual reality. They also must be effective legal education.” communicators ready for a new world of law that will increasingly be shaped by a generation of digital natives. to society’s changing needs. Given this rapidly changing This month, at our 117th Commencement, we will send landscape for new lawyers, how exactly should prospective more than 360 of these lawyers newly minted into the world students prepare for law school? How should we evaluate their and to an astounding range of jobs—many in fields that did not qualifications for admission? How should we educate them exist when most of us graduated from law school, even five or for a rapidly changing profession? Law schools are examining 10 years ago. The class of 2018 will follow in the footsteps of those questions as they educate the next generation of lawyers. generations of our distinguished graduates who have used the With these questions in mind, a growing number of law power of their legal education to make a positive difference schools across the country—19 as of this writing, including in our city, our nation, and our world. As they receive their Brooklyn Law School—are now accepting Graduate Record diploma, they also will inherit this enduring Brooklyn Law Examination (GRE) scores. In our case, this will begin with School legacy and help lead the way into a better future. applications for fall 2018 admission. More law schools are sure to follow. Quoted in a recent story in the Economist, “Why Are Law Schools Accepting the GRE?” our Dean of Admissions Eulas Boyd explains: “It’s pretty shortsighted for us to say that you need to prove your fidelity to a legal career by taking the Nick Allard LSAT now and preparing for months, as opposed to a test that Joseph Crea Dean and President Brooklyn law notes | spring 2018 | Brooklaw.edu • 1 Contents Features The Real Deal Ready to Doing Well While Makers p. 15 Work p. 24 Doing Good p. 30 Meet graduates working at The Law School’s externship Professors Dana Brakman Reiser and the forefront of today’s booming program takes students beyond Steven Dean on how social enterprise M&A business the classroom law is bringing capital and social mission together Departments 3 News 46 Q&A with Robert Goldstein ’90 Professor Alex Stein named to Israeli Supreme Court, The CEO of Sonen Capital shares his insights on new members join the Board of Trustees, NYC first lady impact investing on campus, and more 48 Class Notes 10 Clinic Update LGBT Clinic achieves parental rights victory, Corporate and 51 Alumni Profiles Real Estate Clinic assists low-income co-ops, and more Colleen Piccone ’90, associate chief counsel for U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Ross Levi ’97, executive director of 12 Spotlight on Intellectual Life tourism at Empire State Development; Michael Kingfield ’06, The future of global economic integration, opportunities general counsel at Business Insider; Lystra Batchoo ’07, and hurdles in business trends, brain science and assistant general counsel at BuzzFeed; and Shujah the law, and more Awan ’08, associate general counsel at Biz2Credit 34 Faculty Highlights 60 Giving Professor Linda Feldman retires, faculty scholarship, Professor Bradley T. Borden discusses the new tax reform, 61 In Memoriam and more 64 Closing Arguments 42 Alumni Events Professor Heidi Gilchrist on the human right of higher education Editor-in-Chief Class Notes Contributing Photographers Contributors Brooklyn Law Notes Clorinda Valenti Editor Writer Robert Cadena Betty Chang Vol. 23, No. 1 Executive Director of Caitlin Monck ’02 Andrea Strong ’94 Carol Dronsfield Peggy Swisher Communications Director of Alumni Todd France Engagement and Design Director Will O’Hare Managing Editor Special Programs Roger J. Greiner Seth Olenick Printer Jen Swetzoff Dasha Tanner Allied Printing Tory Williams Connect with Us Contact U s tel: 718-780-7966 m ailing address Brooklyn Law Notes We welcome letters and e mail: communications@ Managing Editor is published comments about brooklaw.edu Brooklyn Law Notes semiannually by Brooklyn articles in Brooklyn Law Notes. Web: brooklaw.edu 250 Joralemon Street Law School for alumni, We will consider reprinting Brooklyn, NY 11201 students, faculty, and brief submissions in print friends. issues and on our website. COVER ILLUSTRATIONS BY BONNIE GAYLE MORRILL 2 • Brooklyn law notes | s pring 2018 | Brooklaw.edu NEWS Professor Alex Stein Appointed to Israeli Supreme Court IN FEBRUARY, PROFESSOR ALEX STEIN, a world-renowned expert where I quickly found a great home and intellectual powerhouse with on torts, medical malpractice, evidence, and general legal theory, prolific world-class faculty and highly motivated students—isn’t easy. was appointed to the Israeli Supreme Court by the country’s Judicial But I very much look forward to serving the people of Israel and its Appointments Committee. He will fill one of two positions that legal system.” were recently vacated by retiring justices; Israeli District Court Born and raised in the former Soviet Union, Stein immigrated Judge Ofer Grosskopf will fill the other position. Stein’s nomination with his parents to Israel, where he finished high school, served in was supported by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who chairs the the military, and studied law. After getting married, he moved to the committee, and he was voted in unanimously. There are 15 justices on United States, where he has taught law for the last 14 years, while the Israeli Supreme Court. continuing his involvement in the Israeli legal academy and practice. “Professor Stein is one of the world’s brilliant legal minds,” says He joined the Law School faculty in 2016. Dean Nick Allard. “In the short time that he has been with us, he Stein is one of the most highly cited scholars in the field of has made an enormous positive impact on the Brooklyn Law School evidence. His writings combine law with economic theories and community—as a teacher, a scholar, and a wonderfully energetic and philosophy. His books include Foundations of Evidence Law; Tort engaged colleague and friend.” Liability Under Uncertainty; An Analytical Approach to Evidence: “I am thrilled and humbled,” said Text, Problems, and Cases; and Evidence and Proof. He received Stein. “Leaving legal academia—and, his law degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his in particular, Brooklyn Law School, doctorate from the University of London. Supreme Court of Israel SUPREME COURT PHOTO BY UTILISATEUR: DJAMPA/WIKIPEDIA COMMONS brooklaw.edu | Spring 2018 | b rooklyn law noteS • 3 News | On Campus Dennis J. Block ’67 and Lawrence A. Sucharow ’75 Join Board of Trustees TWO HIGHLY RESPECTED attorneys and Associates Limited Partnership Litigation, which powerhouses in their respective fields were was the first securities action successfully tried recently named to the Brooklyn Law School to a jury verdict following the enactment of the Board of Trustees: Dennis J. Block ’67, senior Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. chair of Greenberg Traurig’s global mergers Labaton Sucharow LLP is one of the top and acquisitions practice, and Lawrence A.