Page 12 - NYLS Magazine • 2015 • Vol. 34, No. 1

The Center
for New York
City Law
Celebrates
20 Years
By Ariel Dvorkin
10 NEw York Law ScHooL maGazINE • 2015 • VOL. 34, NO. 1
20
YEARS
The Speaker of the New York State Assembly, Sheldon Silver, ascended to the podium to speak about his plans for the upcoming legislative session. It marked yet another high- profile public official outlining his policy thoughts at a CityLaw Breakfast presented by the Center for New York City Law, a semi- regular event where policy movers and shakers come to make news at New York Law School to an audience of government officials, lobbyists, advocates, and civically minded members of the general public. The date of the event: November 22, 2005. Fast-forward nearly ten years to January 23, 2015, when another powerful official has come to speak to an overflowing room of over 300 attendees. This time, it’s Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, one day removed from his office’s arrest of Speaker Sheldon Silver. These two men, and the shared experience of speaking at the same forum nearly ten years apart, in the halls of New York Law School, put on vivid display the impact and preeminence of the Center for New York City Law.
For 20 years, the Center has brought together the most powerful and influential policymakers in New York City and State. This includes agency heads who oversee policies affecting everything from public health, transportation, and housing, to taxes, education, and policing. And it includes elected officials from every branch of the city and state government, and other powerful officials, such as federal prosecutors and judicial heavyweights. They have all come through the halls of New York Law School. They have come at
the invitation of Professor Ross Sandler to speak at a forum they know will draw a wide-ranging audience and receive widespread attention. Speaking at a CityLaw Breakfast has become a measure of credibility, a rite of passage for elected and appointed officials in new positions to establish their policy bona fides.
Professor Sandler is the creator, driving force, and soul of the Center. A former Assistant U.S. Attorney, Special Advisor to
Mayor Ed Koch, and Commissioner of the City’s Department of Transportation, he was in private practice when he started discussing
CENTER FOR NEW YORK CITY LAW