Welcome to another edition of See infra, delivering a sampling of news from St. John's Law. 

At the end of August, with a suite of Orientation and Convocation events and their first classroom experience in Introduction to Law, 242 1L students officially joined the St. John’s Law community. They come with outstanding credentials, including a median LSAT of 164 and a median GPA of 3.8. Ranging in age from 18 to 46, hailing from 14 different home countries, and speaking 36 different languages, they also bring a diverse range of talents, interests, and experiences to their legal studies. Together, they will learn the law from our faculty of dedicated educators and influential scholars, benefit from our strong alumni network, and help us welcome our second century of excellence, prominence, and impact.

The Law School’s academic centers are thriving as they bring students and alumni together to explore timely topics. A few of our centers produce newsletters that recap their activities and initiatives. You can read the latest editions online:

Enjoy!

Dan Clivner ’88, managing partner of Sidley Austin’s Greater Los Angeles offices, took the baton as guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the iconic Hollywood Bowl. Let’s give a standing ovation for Dan, and for the diverse talents and passions that St. John’s Law alumni bring to so many arenas!

You’re invited to a wonderful evening of mixing, mingling, and reminiscing with your St. John’s Law classmates and Dean Jelani Jefferson Exum:

Thursday, October 9, 2025 | New York Athletic Club
40th Reunion: Class of 1985 
35th Reunion: Class of 1990
30th Reunion: Class of 1995
25th Reunion: Class of 2000
20th Reunion: Class of 2005
15th Reunion: Class of 2010
10th Reunion: Class of 2015
5th Reunion: Class of 2020

Please register to attend by Monday, October 6, 2025. If you're unable to attend, you can still take part in the celebration when you give to the St. John’s Law Fund.

On Tuesday, October 14, 2025, come spend a day on the green to support student scholarships at St. John's Law at our Fall Alumni Golf Outing. We’ll drive, pitch, and putt at the scenic Nassau Country Club and gather to honor Eric Belfi ’95, Chairman and Head of Executive Committee at Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP, and Katharine Suominen ’16, Partner, McDermott Will & Schulte. Please register to attend and sponsor the Golf Outing today!

Taking the mound at Citi Field, Dean Jelani Jefferson Exum threw the ceremonial first pitch that launched a year-long 100th Anniversary Celebration at St. John’s Law. We have an exciting lineup of events to mark the milestone. You can learn more about our 100th Anniversary events online.

Professor Ashley B. Armstrong was invited to contribute to The SAGE Encyclopedia of Refugee Studies, an important resource for understanding the historical, political, and cultural dimensions of displacement.

Professor Keith Sharfman published an article, “Third Party Litigation Funding is Procompetitive: An Antitrust Agenda to Ensure Litigant Access to Capital Markets,” in Concurrences Review, a leading international journal of antitrust law.

Professor Robin Boyle-Laisure takes the guest seat for a two-part episode of A Little Bit Culty, a podcast hosted by former NXIVM cult members Sarah Edmondson and Anthony "Nippy" Ames. Edmondson and Ames were featured in the HBO documentary series, The Vow. Part 1 and Part 2 of their conversation with Professor Boyle-Laisure are available online. 

In a Q&A story, Dean Jelani Jefferson Exum speaks with Professor Elaine Chiu about Professor Chiu’s work at the intersection of criminal law, cultural identity, and systemic reform—and the impact she makes in the classroom and as a mentor to St. John’s Law students and alumni.

University World News taps Professor Rosemary Salomone’s expert insights for this story about Morocco’s efforts to implement a sweeping higher education reform law designed to expand the use of Arabic as an academic language.

To mark the 80th anniversary of the Nuremberg trial, Professor John Q. Barrett delivered an online lecture through the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society titled Away Without Leave but Back in Washington, Briefly: Nazi Prosecutor Justice Robert H. Jackson on the Road to Nuremberg, September 1945.He also introduced Princeton University Professor Kim Lane Scheppele’s Robert H. Jackson Lecture on the Supreme Court at Chautauqua Institution.

Professor Noa Ben-Asher has been named a 2025 Dukeminier Award winner. Presented by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law and the student editors of its Dukeminier Awards Journal, the Awards recognize the best sexual orientation and gender identity legal scholarship published during the 2023-2024 academic year.

Professor Philip Lee has been selected to receive the Jay Newman Award for Academic Integrity from the Academic Freedom Committee of the University of Guelph Faculty Association in Ontario.

Sitting across from the Assistant District Attorney prosecuting the case against their client, St. John’s Law Defense and Advocacy Clinic students Nathalie E. Amazan ’26 and Cassie Khan ’26 opened their PowerPoint presentation. Slide after slide, they built a compelling defense. Convinced by their view of the evidence, the prosecutor dismissed the case in the interests of justice. Read the full story of Cassie’s and Nathalie’s life-changing advocacy.

Congratulations to Bella Garabedian ’26 on being named a 2025-2026 Goldie Scholar by the Goldie B. Wolfe Women Leaders in Real Estate Initiative. Founded by Goldie B. Wolfe Miller, a renowned commercial real estate broker and entrepreneur, the Goldie Initiative offers a prestigious leadership program designed to develop the next generation of women executives in the commercial real estate industry. 

Let’s also congratulate Heebah Khan ’27, whose case summary, “Functionalism in Bankruptcy Decisions,” appears in Business Law Today, a publication of the American Bar Association Business Law Section. Heebah wrote the piece this summer while interning for Hon. Elizabeth S. Strong in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Comments, Suggestions, or Content Ideas?
Please email Lori Herz, See infra's Managing Editor and Lead Writer, at herzl@stjohns.edu.

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