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the idea of creating the Center with NYLS Professor David Schoenbrod. Sandler approached then-Dean Harry Wellington, who blessed the program, and Sandler
joined the law faculty. The Center received remarkable funding support at its outset, which was critical to the Center’s ability to be impactful out of the gate. The Center would have never happened if Sandler had not agreed to Dean Wellington’s requirement that its operation be self-funded. The funding supported costs associated with events, publications, and, eventually, the electronic systems developed by the Center to host decisions rendered by City government agencies.
From the beginning, the Center for New York City Law occupied a unique space in the City, offering a neutral forum where substantive discussions with city policymakers could
be held, “an institution within a law school that didn’t have a policy agenda, other than transparency and information,” as Professor Sandler described it. This gap, and this need, was staring Professor Sandler and New York Law School in the face. Despite the enormous role local government in New York City played in every part of a New Yorker’s life, he found it surprising that area law schools did not provide the curriculum, nor the academic space, that matched government’s central role in the City.
Professor Sandler recounted how “law schools generally had moved away from
a concern about local government,...that
the importance of the federal government, and international business had driven law schools to be focused on federal law and international law, with the result that there were very few law schools that had any kind of interest in local government law. And so I thought that would present an opportunity to New York Law School. Both because of its location, and because it was willing to
be interested in local government, [NYLS] presented a unique opportunity to provide a real service to the civic community and legal world. And that was the fundamental idea that was attractive to foundations and City officials. From the very beginning, there was enormous support.”
The Center was ahead of its time with regard to whom it selected to speak at its events. Rather than going for the high-profile elected officials who grab most of the public’s attention, CityLaw Breakfasts were largely devoted to the agency heads, advisors, and yes, even nongovernmental officials, who had incredible, yet underappreciated, influence over City policy. The four breakfasts
the Center presented in its first year of operation featured Paul Tagliabue, then the Commissioner of the National Football League, followed by a private attorney, Edward N. Costikyan, Chair of the Mayor’s Commission on School Safety; Edith Spivack, one of the first women to serve in the City’s Law Department; and finally the Commissioner of the City’s Department of
Housing Preservation and Development, Lilliam Barrios-Paoli. Yes, it might seem
odd that the NFL Commissioner was the inaugural speaker, but Professor Sandler put it best: “The NFL and its stadium business couldn’t be more local. What he had to do as Commissioner was very much involved with state and local government.”
In the second year, other nongovernmental speakers were featured, including the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. They spoke about the complex process for presenting
a large-scale public art project that in fact wasn’t realized until ten years later, when The Gates famously appeared for two weeks in Central Park in New York City. The format has always allowed for unfiltered audience questions, and many times has resulted in illuminating answers that otherwise would not have been voiced in public.
The Center’s publications, CityLaw and CityLand, are a core feature of the Center, and are what make the Center stand head and shoulders above other academic centers and organizations that examine City policy issues. They are read widely by influential lawyers and policymakers, and seen on the desks of many throughout City Hall, the Office of the Corporation Counsel, the Department of City Planning, and dozens of other agencies and lobbying firms. From the beginning, the Center charged for its publications. Professor Sandler reasoned that “the fact that people are willing to pay for a publication is a validation
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