Dear Colleagues:
We at Fordham Law cherish the opportunity to practice our motto: In the Service of Others. This year, our clinical program, comprised of outstanding faculty and passionate students, accomplished this on a daily basis in a variety of ways—securing asylum, winning tax relief, advocating for changes to a law that disadvantages the poor, and holding entrepreneurial one-day clinics for our small business clinic clients. Of course, no clinical program exists in a vacuum. We owe the greater national clinical community a tremendous debt, for the incredible energy, ideas, and inspiration it never ceases to provide us.
Here are moments from our clinical year that will hopefully allow us to return some of that inspiration. Thank you for your tireless support in the work we do.
Have a lovely summer.
Leah Hill, Associate Dean for Experiential Education
Michael W. Martin, Director of Clinical Programs
Notes from the Field
Liz Cooper, Elizabeth Maresca, and their students coordinated a successful joint clinic effort by the Legislative & Policy (LPA) and Federal Tax clinics to change a New York State tax law that disadvantages the poor.
Fordham Law launched the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic this past academic year. Among the clinic’s projects were a one-day legal clinic for small business owners, a legal symposium for entrepreneurs, collaboration with the Fordham Gabelli School of Business, and representation of 11 clients throughout the year, including start-ups involving real estate, tourism, mental health, fitness, and cryptocurrency.
After years of research and preparation, Immigrant Rights Clinic students secured U.S. asylum for an African man who faced the threat of further sexual orientation-based persecution in his home country of Chad.
The Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic students partnered with Amnesty International Japan to present procedural reform recommendations to the Japanese Ministry of Justice on the treatment of death row prisoners.
Leah Hill and the Family Advocacy Clinic partnered with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine to aid children with developmental disabilities through a multidisciplinary approach of legal and developmental professionals.
The Consumer Litigation Clinic students teamed with other consumer advocates on an amicus curiae brief challenging systemic debt-collection practices that victimize low-income people.
The Federal Tax Clinic students won full tax relief for a woman in the grasp of the complex tentacles of spousal abuse, ranging from emotional control and manipulation to financial abuse, due to the gambling addiction of her husband.
Faculty in the Forefront
Ian Weinstein
Ian Weinstein received the Law School’s Teacher of the Year award at its diploma ceremony in May—the latest honor in his superlative 27-year clinical education career at Fordham.  
Prof. Beth Schwartz
Beth Schwartz led the initial participation and hosting of the ABA Law Student Division’s Client Counseling Competition. Also under Beth’s direction, the Externship Program introduced three focused externships for the fall 2018 semester.
Leah Hill
Leah Hill proposed an interdisciplinary approach to representing African-American boys with disabilities caught in the school-to-prison pipeline in the Fordham Urban Law Journal, while in the Fordham Law Review, she drew connections between the anti-miscegenation laws at issue in Loving v. Virginia and racial disproportionality in today’s child welfare system.
Paul Radvany
Paul Radvany emphasized the importance of the federal rules of evidence in arbitration in The Review of Litigation.
Bernice Grant highlighted the impact open-source legal resources have on entrepreneurs and the organizations that support them in the Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law.
Elizabeth Cooper proposes that appearance conformities of lawyers are challenges to self-identity in The Appearance of Professionalism, 70 Florida L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2019)
Cheryl Bader highlighted the NYPD’s need for comprehensive community policing after one of its officers shot a Brooklyn man with bipolar disorder.
Elizabeth Maresca explained why the new tax law’s effect on federal student loans would have a big impact on people she sees in her Tax Litigation Clinic.
Michael W. Martin and John Rogan celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement with an event featuring reflections and presentations on the accord that quelled decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. As Clinical Director, Mike Martin is constantly looking for ways to create new experiential opportunities in the Ireland Program, which he also directs. John Rogan, a former clinic student co-taught the Presidential Succession Clinic held this past year which addressed the question of who succeeds when a president is disabled.
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