—

All of 2011 Student Spotlight

2011 Home

Dean Richard Revesz reflected on the dramatic world events that occurred in recent years, including revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East, the tsunami and its aftereffects in Japan, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and global economic turmoil:

“You’re entering a world of upheaval, but you’re well equipped to handle those challenges.”

Class speaker Noam Biale ’11, a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar who worked for the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project in Jordan and for the Equal Justice and Capital Defender Clinic in New York and Alabama, spoke about the need to look at seemingly intractable problems in innovative ways:

“For those of us who came to law school hoping to shine a light on injustice, the world looks increasingly dark, so we will need bold new thinking…. Luckily, NYU has exposed us to people and ideas that continue to challenge the narrative despite the odds.”

Martin Lipton ’55, chair of New York University’s Board of Trustees and a founding partner of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, described the history of the Law School through the efforts of each of its deans:

“Go forth in the tradition that Arthur Vanderbilt described, combining the professional practice of law with public service.”

Francis Chukwu (LL.M. ’11), who graduated first in his class from the University of Nigeria Faculty of Law, recalled co-founding Afritude, a student discussion forum about history, news, and events shaping Africa:

“From the day we had our first session to the day we had our last, I never ceased to be amazed at the interest and empathy shown by participants, about 80 percent of whom were non- Africans, in the history, the cause of justice, human rights, development, democracy, and responsible governance in Africa. My faith that we could help nurture one another’s dreams to succeed has only waxed stronger. I believe that this strong sense of support and encouragement for one another will, in no small measure, define our success.”

Leonel Fernández, president of the Dominican Republic, who is known for his extensive reform efforts in his home country, cited the rapidly changing global landscape, encompassing the world economy, the environment, democratization, and the need to give emerging countries a more prominent place at the table:

“At this moment in history, mankind is at a crossroads. For the pessimists, we are approaching doomsday. For others like us, however,we have never doubted the creative capacity of the human race. This is an exhilarating and challenging period which must result in a new wave of prosperity, social justice, development, and transformation.”

Anthony Welters ’77, chairman of the Law School’s Board of Trustees, recounted the story of one of the Law School’s first African- American graduates, Charles Conley ’55, who played an integral role in the civil rights movement and was the first African-American judge elected in Alabama:

“You are living proof that America’s best days are ahead of it.”

—

All of 2011 Student Spotlight

2011 Home

The former president invoked a sweeping array of world issues, including global warming, the lack of opportunities for young people in poorer countries, and the ease with which not only violent actors but also disease and financial instability can cross national borders.

Clinton acknowledged that his own story of being raised by a hard-working, single mother to become the 42nd president of the United States is not only an American Dream but also possible only in wealthier countries. He expressed concern that future generations could potentially be shut out: “The problem with all countries that have great systems is they get long in the tooth. They become so successful that those who run them are more interested in holding on to their positions than advancing the purposes for which they were established, more interested in maintaining the gains of the present than achieving even greater ones for our children in the future.”

In the past 30 years, Clinton argued, the U.S. had been hurt by two ideas that benefited the most powerful in society: the notion that corporations should cater to their shareholders at the expense of other stakeholders and the assertion that the government ruins everything it touches. Mimicking those who espouse privatization, essentially declaring “there is no such thing as a good tax, no such thing as a bad tax cut, no such thing as a good regulation, no such thing as a bad deregulation,” Clinton countered that the idea “contradicts the evidence in the United States and every other country in the world. The only truly successful countries have both strong economies and effective governments and a public-private partnership to share the future.”

He left the graduates with advice that they look inward before setting their future goals: “The great challenge of your life will be how to live out your personal story, pursue your personal dreams, enjoy your personal compassions and compulsions and interests in a world that is getting better, not worse, where the forces of positive interdependence outweigh the negative ones.”

Also honored at commencement was Kenneth Feinberg ’70, who was awarded the Albert Gallatin Medal for outstanding contributions to society. Among many roles, Feinberg has served as special master to the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and is currently administrator of the BP disaster’s Gulf Coast Claims Facility.

—

All of 2011 Student Spotlight

2011 Home

The hallmark of Ted Kennedy’s 47-year Senate career was his inclusiveness and ability to reach across the aisle to find common ground. His niece Caroline painted a portrait of how his family and childhood influenced this characteristic. As the youngest of nine children, Kennedy knew what it was like to be crowded out. This sensitivity “helped him develop his special gifts of always looking out for others, of making people laugh, and bringing them together no matter how differently they saw the world,” she said. “He saw the law as an instrument of social change, not in the abstract but in its effect on the everyday lives of those who were left out or left behind and needed his help.”

The other speakers described his political acumen and boundless energy. Thomas Susman, who was assistant adviser to Kennedy and then general counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1968 to 1979, summed up the senator’s philosophy in reaching across the aisle: “Persuade, don’t trade. Don’t ask for personal favors. Get them there on the merits.” This strategy had its defensive advantages as well. If a senator would give him a vote that was not on the merits, there was a good chance that that senator would want one back, said Susman. Kennedy didn’t do that, he added—no small achievement given the more than 15,000 Senate votes Kennedy cast.

Breyer, who met with NYU Law students earlier in the day, recalled Kennedy’s vigor. Kennedy had appointed Breyer special counsel to the Judiciary Committee; later, Breyer became chief counsel. “We used to just wake up in the morning and try to get to work fast, because every minute, there was something going on,” the justice said. “Kennedy’s personality just gripped the whole thing.”

Recently, the current Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee asked Breyer to speak to its members. To Breyer’s surprise, Lamar Smith wanted to know how Kennedy had run the Senate Judiciary Committee. This request was a testament, Breyer said, to the efficacy of Kennedy’s bipartisanship.

Feinberg, administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, compensating those affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, worked for Kennedy from 1975 to 1980, eventually becoming his chief of staff and general counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Appearing by webcam because his flight was grounded, Feinberg characterized Kennedy as one of very few senators in modern times with “the political and institutional credibility to legislate” and achieve true partnership with members of the opposing party. The late senator worked tirelessly and went to great lengths to foster personal relationships with everyone in his orbit, Feinberg said. “He was constantly working from early in the morning till late at night, seven days a week, in order to achieve the endgame. He was driven by his name, by the history of his family, by the reputation he was determined to vindicate.”

One of Kennedy’s most lasting legacies, said Nick Littlefield, who worked as a staff director and chief counsel for Kennedy on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, would be universal health care, an issue on which Kennedy worked hard throughout his career.

Although the health-care bill did not pass until after Kennedy’s death, Littlefield asserted that the senator “had a key role through the moral force of his personality, through his strategic sense, through being there for key votes, through talking to Obama, through the letters he wrote to Obama, through the speeches he gave. In many ways, universal health care in America is the great Kennedy legacy.” That something as basic as health care was so important to Kennedy affirms what Caroline Kennedy said about him: “More than almost anyone else I’ve ever met, Teddy’s humanity is what made him such a legislative giant.”

—

All 2011 Features

All of 2011 Student Spotlight

2011 Home

In April, the Annual Survey of American Law held a ceremony to mark the dedication of its 68th volume to Sunstein. He joins earlier honorees such as NYU Law professors Arthur Miller (2010), Ronald Dworkin (2006), and NYU President John Sexton (2003), and Supreme Court justices Stephen Breyer (2007), Antonin Scalia (2005), and Thurgood Marshall (1983), for whom Sunstein clerked in 1979–80. Sunstein’s “contributions to the development and understanding of American law are second to none,” said Annual Survey Editor-in-Chief Darryl Stein ’11 at the ceremony. Indeed, when President Barack Obama tapped Sunstein to run OIRA, NYU Law Dean Richard Revesz and Michael Livermore ’06, executive director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU Law, co-wrote a Forbes.com commentary lauding the choice. OIRA, which reviews federal regulatory rules to decide whether the benefits are greater than the costs to implement them, “is a hugely significant office that many people in the country don’t know much about,” Revesz observed at the dedication. “I don’t think anyone has been as prepared for this job as Cass.”

The dedication ceremony featured tributes to Sunstein from people whose lives have intersected his in a variety of ways, including one of his former law professors and a former law student. Richard Stewart, University Professor and John Edward Sexton Professor of Law, who taught Sunstein at Harvard Law School, noted that Sunstein is not only “a prominent public intellectual who can do theory with the best of the theorists” but also someone who is “deeply serious about law and institutions…for their role in contributing to human flourishing.” And Lisa Heinzerling, who was a senior official at the Environmental Protection Agency before returning to teach at Georgetown University Law Center in January, took administrative law with Sunstein at the University of Chicago Law School. “He was my favorite teacher, not just in law school, but anywhere,” Heinzerling said. “He is the reason I do what I do.”

Others offering tributes included Sally Katzen, a visiting professor at NYU Law and OIRA administrator from 1993 to 1998; C. Boyden Gray, an adjunct professor and former White House counsel, who met Sunstein when he worked in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel; and Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law Richard Pildes, who co-authored an article with Sunstein about cost-benefit analysis and the regulatory state.

In his own remarks, Sunstein outlined some changes he has overseen at OIRA. Then he pulled back to address a broader theme: the value of work done by people who primarily study and advance ideas about the law versus that done by those who practice it. Both, of course, matter, he said, but as a deeply curious scholar addressing an audience of faculty and students, he wanted to emphasize the value of the former. “What you do…really matters,” Sunstein said. “People will pick it up, people will listen to it, and it will feed into a kind of river that is an intellectual tradition that matters and affects lives.”

—

All of 2011 Student Spotlight

2011 Home

Pants Velour performs in quintessential downtown clubs such as Arlene’s Grocery and Webster Hall. Onstage, Northrup is the hype man who accentuates the last words of the lead rapper’s lines and plays to the crowd to get them excited throughout the show. “I’m there to have a good time,” says Northrup.

Northrup, who once played piano and guitar, co-writes the band’s catchy songs. A video of his parody rap, “Charlie Sheen: Always Winning,” which lampooned the actor’s highly publicized antics after he was fired from his top-rated sitcom last winter, has been seen more than 355,000 times on YouTube and caught the attention of the national legal community. The blog Above the Law posted the video, while the Am Law Daily’s Careerist blog called it “fast and saucy—especially amazing coming from a serious law student.”

Within Law School circles, Hays Faculty Co-Director Sylvia Law ’68 counts herself a fan, having attended a gig, while Co-Director Helen Hershkoff donated a Pants Velour prize package to this year’s PILC auction. Northrup’s Criminal and Community Defense Clinic professor, Anthony Thompson, appreciates how music has enhanced Northrup’s legal skills. “Hip-hop has given Eli a unique perspective as a lawyer,” he says. “It gives him a broad knowledge of both creative and diverse communities.”

Northrup agrees wholeheartedly. “It’s easy to get into a routine where you just interact with other students and lose sight of what people are going through,” he says. “Not that musicians are the most down-toearth group, but a mix of the two worlds keeps me closer to reality.”

That reality is what set Northrup upon his legal career path. After graduating from Cornell, Northrup volunteered with the DREAM Project in the Dominican Republic, where he taught preschool, ran a library, and taught basketball and swimming. He also witnessed racial tension between Dominicans and their Haitian neighbors. “Haitian immigrants were essentially treated as undeserving of rights or protections,” Northrup says. “They had no voice, and that disturbed something in me.”

As a Hays Fellow working for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) this year, Northrup says he has also witnessed similar underrepresentation in the criminal justice system, as he had already seen while working in public defender offices. The LDF’s client is a 25-year-old Mississippi man who, at 16, drove two older teens to a store where the pair robbed and killed the owner. The client, who had remained in the car, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Northrup’s ease in chatting about music and basketball helped him find common ground with the client. “I can see how much of an uphill battle it is for anyone accused of a crime,” Northrup says. “It’s that sense of frustration and helplessness that I want to work toward alleviating as a lawyer.” In May, after researching similar cases involving juveniles convicted of homicide, Northrup helped draft a brief filed in Mississippi State Court arguing that the client’s sentence was disproportionate and thereby violates the Eighth Amendment. If relief isn’t granted, a federal habeas petition will be filed in federal district court.

This fall, Northrup is clerking for U.S. District Judge Robert Patterson of the Southern District of New York, and he will somehow still find time to perform and write music with Pants Velour. Hershkoff, for one, expects no less: “One of the things that distinguishes Hays Fellows is their ability to combine a passion for something outside the law, like artistic expression, with their practice of law,” says Hershkoff. “Eli is a renaissance person.”

—

All of 2011 Student Spotlight

2011 Home

In Commonwealth of Virginia v. Sebelius, now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the state is suing the U.S. secretary of health and human services, alleging that the health-care law’s mandate that everyone have insurance coverage is unconstitutional under the interstate commerce clause.

After learning that no amicus brief dealt squarely with the relevant history of the commerce clause, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law Barry Friedman reached out to students in late January for research assistance. With less than three weeks before the filing deadline, the 2Ls divided the work by era: Graham Lake ’12 and Colin Roth ’12 researched the years of the country’s founding, while Lynn Eisenberg ’12 covered the Gilded Age. Ian Herbert ’12 focused on the necessary and proper clause. Two Yale law students also contributed to the work. Friedman worked with appellate attorneys including Jeffrey Lamken, the counsel of record, to produce a brief based on the research. The appellate team plans to file the brief in every upcoming healthcare-reform case.

“This is what people come to law school to do, to be involved in the hot-button issues of the day and to have a chance to work on something that affects so many people,” says Roth. For Eisenberg, who worked on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign before coming to NYU Law, the research was an opportunity to contribute to an issue she had supported on the campaign trail.

Also this year, as part of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Campaign Finance Reform project, students in the Brennan Center Public Policy Advocacy Clinic assisted on a high-profile Supreme Court case. Last March the Brennan Center defended Mc- Comish v. Bennett, a case challenging one provision of Arizona’s public financing system—trigger matching funds. The Brennan Center and its pro bono partner Munger, Tolles & Olson represented the respondent, the Clean Elections Institute. “The Arizona Clean Elections system, in effect for over a decade, helped move the state beyond egregious corruption and recurrent scandal,” says Brennan Center Executive Director Michael Waldman ’87. “This law has boosted speech while combating corruption.” Despite the Brennan Center’s efforts, however, the Court threw out the provision.

In addition to providing research and editing for the case, Laura Moy ’11 and Marcus Williams ’12 drafted a report on the impact, efficacy, and benefits of public financing. Noting that the 2010 election cycle was the most expensive in history, Moy adds, “A lot of people don’t realize that, as consumers, we are paying for a lot of it. We pay companies for their goods and services, and they turn around and spend money on political goals that we may or may not agree with.”

—

All of 2011 Student Spotlight

2011 Home

A few years later, while he was on a Fulbright grant, Gupta and some fellow Fulbright scholars founded Opening Possibilities Asia (OPA), a nonprofit that creates educational opportunities in Myanmar. Partially funded by a Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Program grant, OPA has improved the lives of 7,000 students at Phaung Daw Oo, a Mandalay charitable school run by Buddhist monks.

The changes are astonishingly simple. OPA put garbage bins, for instance, in all 200 classrooms so students no longer had to step over refuse on the floor. And it furnished the library with Burmese-language books where previously only English volumes filled the shelves. Gupta also organized teacher training workshops to foster peer support, introduce creative techniques for teaching and motivating students, and tackle common classroom issues.

Eager to advance his nonprofit management acumen, Gupta earned a master’s in development studies at Cambridge. He then became a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar at NYU Law, where he honed essential entrepreneurial and development skills.

Fellow RTK Scholar Keren Raz ’10 recalls telling Gupta, then a 1L, about NYU’s Reynolds Foundation Program in Social Entrepreneurship, which seemed tailor-made to his interest in addressing huge societal issues outside the limitations of a traditional nonprofit structure. Although it was the day before the application deadline, Gupta pulled an all-nighter and became one of eight fellows accepted out of 1,000-plus applicants. The two-year, University-wide program provides up to $25,000 annually, along with cross-disciplinary skills training. “The Reynolds Program has been transformative in helping me really appreciate what a law degree is,” says Gupta. “It’s changed my way of looking at the world.”

Adjunct Professor Jill Manny, who taught Gupta in her Law of Nonprofit Organizations class, attributes his success to intense focus. Manny, executive director of the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law, also encouraged him to apply for the highly competitive Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowship in Nonprofit Law, which he won over “an enormous crop of incredible candidates,” she says. For the yearlong fellowship, Gupta will work for the Vera Institute of Justice’s general counsel on issues related to immigration, youth justice, racial justice, and prosecution reform.

Still maintaining a focus on Myanmar, Gupta recently completed a business plan for a social enterprise that would help Burmese expatriates worldwide learn to start businesses. As Gupta sees it, a thriving diaspora eventually will improve the conditions of those still living there.

Professor Helen Scott, co-director of the Mitchell Jacobson Leadership Program in Law and Business, helped supervise Gupta’s business plan draft. Like many others, she sees great promise in Gupta: “There are a lot of students here who want to change the world. And there are some who will. But he’s one of the ones I would put money on, that he will, in fact, change the world for the better.”

—

All of 2011 Student Spotlight

2011 Home