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

St. John’s Giving Day is April 30, 2026. For this special fundraiser, Dean Jelani Jefferson Exum is joining deans across the University for the Deans’ Cup Challenge and a chance to win an additional $25,000 to support our students.

Your gift—of any amount—directly invests in talented students who might not otherwise have the means to attend St. John’s Law. It helps ensure that the Law School continues to educate lawyers of excellence, prominence, and impact.

Make your gift today and help bring the Deans’ Cup home to St. John’s Law!

To designate your gift: select Make Your Gift Early, then Deans’ Giving Day Challenges, and then choose School of Law Campaign for the 100th Anniversary.

Thank you for your support!

For the last several years, with support from the DiMartino/Smith Public Interest Center and guided by Center Director Jeanne Ortiz-Ortiz, St. John’s Law students have spent their spring break building practical knowledge and skills while advocating for U.S. military veterans through The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program (TVC). It’s a singular hands-on learning experience gained through the Law School’s Spring Break Service Program. Read about the students’ work with TVC.

Our Intellectual Property Law Center (IPLC), led by longtime Co-Directors Jeremy Sheff and Professor Eva Subotnik, is expanding its programming. “We’re undertaking a new effort to connect with our successful alumni practicing in IP, technology, content industries, and cultural development, including through our website and social media presence,” Professor Sheff says. To support the expansion, he and Professor Subotnik relaunched the IPLC's Student Fellows Program, welcoming Frank Sayegh ’27 and Anna Westfall ’27 as the newest IPLC Fellows. Explore what’s new at the IPLC.

Earlier this month, Denise ‘90 and Michael ‘91 Mattone Center for Law and Religion Student Fellows Vincent D'Avanzo ’27, Anastasia Kaliabakos ’27, Isabel Lane ’27, and Kalina Mesrobian ’26 traveled to Rome to compete in the International Moot Court Competition in Law and Religion. This marked the first time St. John’s hosted the Competition, which drew teams from the U.S., Italy, Poland, and Ukraine. Center Director Mark Movsesian, Professor Robert Ruescher, and St. John's Law Alumni Association President Jim Herschlein ’85 guided the St. John’s students, while alumna Hon. Mary Kay Vyskocil ’83 served as a Competition judge. Read Professor Movsesian’s Competition recap.

A recent CBS News New York report highlights troubling allegations that a solar company targeted elderly Queens residents with misleading sales practices, leaving some facing significant financial harm. Through the Law School’s in-house Consumer Justice for the Elderly: Litigation Clinic, St. John’s Law students are representing homeowners affected by the alleged bait-and-switch scheme—working to hold bad actors accountable and protect the rights of vulnerable New Yorkers. Directed by Professors Ann Goldweber and Gina Calabrese, the Clinic offers students the opportunity to engage in meaningful, real-world advocacy while advancing access to justice for underserved individuals and communities. Read the news report.

On June 18, 2026, the Law School community will gather at Casa Cipriani in Lower Manhattan for The Centennial Gala, the culminating event of our year-long 100th Anniversary celebration. To purchase tickets and learn more about sponsorship opportunities, please visit the Gala website. If you have any questions, email us at stjohnslaw100@stjohns.edu.

Congratulations to Hon. Jil Mazer-Marino’90 on her appointment as Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York.

This month's Center for Bankruptcy Studies Bankruptcy Alumni Spotlight features Shara Cornell '11L, '12 LL.M., who works as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the U.S. Trustee. 

For the next installment of our Law Matters story series, Dean Jelani Jefferson Exum talks to Michael Perino, the Law School’s Dean George W. Matheson Professor of Law, about his innovative seminar, Legal Storytelling. “Human beings understand the world through stories, and that’s just as true in law as it is everywhere else,” Professor Perino shares in the Q&A. Read the full interview.

Professor Ashley B. Armstrong’s article, “The Stories We (Don’t) Teach,” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Legal Education, an Association of American Law Schools publication. The article advances scholarship on the contextual case method by proposing a three-part framework for interrogating judicial opinions as constructed narratives, supplementing them with contextual materials, and teaching cases to their end. Professor Armstrong presented the article at Albany Law School’s speaker series.

Professor John Q. Barrett, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson biographer, participated in an online National Constitution Center Town Hall focused on Justice Jackson. He spoke about being a Justice Jackson biographer at a CUNY Graduate Center conference on Writing Legal Lives: Biography, Memoir, and the Law. For Albany Law School’s 175th anniversary symposium, Professor Barrett presented the lecture Robert H. Jackson Went to Law School, Graduated from Law School, and Even Went to College.

Professor Robin Boyle-Laisure’s presentation at the Garden City Community Church Forum received news coverage in Garden City Living. The talk highlighted material from her book, Taken No More: Protect Your Children Against Traffickers and Cults (Bloomsbury). Professor Boyle-Laisure also discussed the book as a panelist at Adelphi University’s Writers & Readers Festival.

Professor Miriam A. Cherry’s latest article, “AI’s Hidden Workers,” has been accepted for publication in the William and Mary Law Review. In it, she examines AI washing, including the investment frauds and poor working conditions accompanying fake AI. 

Professor Elaine Chiu penned an opinion piece commemorating the 5th anniversary of the Atlanta spa shootings, framing them as a defining moment for the global movement to stop anti-Asian hate. Professor Chiu recently completed a Visiting Fellowship at the University of Sydney Law School related to her work on improving hate crime laws.

“The Right to Seek Joy,” Professor Tyler Rose Clemons’s latest article, appears in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. In it, she analyzes state laws restricting access to gender-affirming medical treatment under the Fourteenth Amendment and explores “what substantive due process jurisprudence might look like if we took seriously the Framers' conception of liberty as the pursuit of happiness.” 

Professor Kate Klonick’s paper, “Ban Cookie Banners: A Case Study in Tech Regulation,” appears in the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology. The paper was the focus of an episode of The Vergecast podcast. Professor Klonick was named a Senior Editor at Lawfare, where she is overseeing law, technology, and geopolitics coverage. She appears regularly on Lawfare‘s podcasts, Rational Security, Lawfare Live, and Scaling Laws. Her recent LawFare article, “The State Department’s X Directive and the End of Platform Independence,” addresses the diplomatic cable Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent to instruct U.S. embassies to use Elon Musk’s X in psychological propaganda campaigns.

Professor Philip Lee gave a keynote address on Asian Americans and the Law: Storytelling on the Margins at this year’s New Year & Lantern Festival Celebration hosted by the Queens Supreme Court.

In Chiles v. Salazar, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Colorado may not apply its ban on conversion therapy for minors to prohibit a licensed counselor's talk therapy. Professor Mark Movsesian analyzes the case for The Volokh Conspiracy and discusses it an episode of the Legal Spirits podcast he produces as Director of the Law School’s Mattone Center for Law and Religion.

In its article “Anche la Lingua è Uno Strumento di Potere” [Language Too Is An Instrument of Power] (PDF), the Italian magazine Start interviews Professor Rosemary Salomone about the intersection of law and politics in the spread of English as a global lingua franca. In the interview, Professor Salomone draws on insights from her latest book, The Rise of English: Global Politics and the Power of Language (Oxford University Press).

Sandi Abdelshehed '26 has been selected as a recipient of the Honorable Dorothy T. Eisenberg Women in the Law "Trailblazer" Award and Scholarship. Presented annually by the Turnaround Management Association’s Long Island Chapter, the award and scholarship recognize law students who exemplify the qualities that defined Judge Eisenberg’s remarkable career.

When the New York City Bar Association’s Entertainment Committee hosted its biennial Twelfth Night musical roast—Best in Class: Saint Gerard of Ridgewood, honoring Judge Gerard E. Lynch of the Second Circuit—Jack McAllister Stiglmeier ’26 took the stage as narrator for a production he scripted after months of hard work. Jack was tapped for these creative roles during his externship with U.S. Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron, who, learning that Jack was a “retired actor,” invited him to take on the project.

Congratulations to St. John's Law Moot Court Honor Society members Nadia Iqbal ’26 and Tae Young Lee ’27, who advanced to the semifinals of the Irving R. Kaufman Memorial Securities Law Moot Court Competition held at Fordham University School of Law. Coached by Kathryn Garland ’12 and Michael Streit ’26, the team delivered an outstanding performance. Nadia also earned Best Oralist honors.

Dyg Abang Ishak '26 and Nicholas Steinthal '27 earned the Best Brief award at the Cardozo FAME Center Intellectual Property Law Moot Court Competition. They were coached by Cory Morano Neunzig '18 and Chizahra Uzohue '26.

At the Nassau County Bar Association’s Hon. Elaine Jackson Stack Moot Court Competition, Best Brief honors went to Adie Herczl '27 and Chelsea Selman '26, who were coached by Brendan Bertoli '14 and Michael Galletti '26.

The Dispute Resolution Society team of Julia Berkowitz ‘27, Juliana Brivio ‘27, and Walter Lorenzo Szczech ‘27 took third place at the New York State Bar Association’s 2026 Dispute Resolution Section Annual Mediation Tournament. Helping them along the way were coaches Melanie Albicocco ‘26, Juliet Tomaro ‘26, and Sheryl Mintz Goski.

Congratulations, all!

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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