Page 15 - NYLS Magazine • 2015 • Vol. 34, No. 1

Brian Kaszuba ’04; Lillian Valle-Santiago, Marketing, Subscriptions, Events, and Website Coordinator; and Jesse Denno, Staff Writer and Publication Production Assistant. Kaszuba previously served as Deputy General Counsel to the New York City Public Advocate. Also of invaluable service has been Professor Sandler’s wife, Alice Sandler. From the beginning, she has helped organize the CityLaw Breakfasts, making sure that they run smoothly.
The Center has had 36 students who became Fellows of the Center for one year after their graduation. The Fellows have been invaluable to making the Center run. Not only do they help with the events; they are responsible for a great deal of the Center’s written output. They write many of the articles in CityLaw and CityLand. The impact that the Fellows have on the Center is matched by the Center’s impact on them. They are able to vastly strengthen their writing skills, and do it by writing about relevant and topical legal and policy issues actively being discussed in the halls of government. They are exposed to the diversity of government agencies and the roles attorneys have within them. They see how influential and how central government agencies can be, and they learn about the complex and exciting policy and law issues that agencies deal with. This year’s CityLaw fellow is Michael Twomey ’14.
Professor Sandler believes that the Center’s work will remain timely and influential, but also thinks it’s time to expand the focus to include more State legal and policy issues. State government has an outsized impact
on City affairs, and what happens in Albany affects many priorities in City government. With these goals in mind, and with the robust activity it has been engaged in up until now, the Center for New York City Law enters its 20th year in a strong and healthy place, and also with a renewed sense of mission. In a City and State that are in constant transformation, with powerful government agencies, and new laws and policies being consistently generated, we can be confident that the work of the Center will continue to hold an important place in New York Law School and the City’s policymaking community. •
20th Anniversary Celebration and Civic Fame Awards
On May 1, the Center for New York City Law celebrated its 20th anniversary with a CityLaw Breakfast featuring current Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter and three of his predecessors: Michael Cardozo, Paul Crotty and Frederick A.O. Schwarz, the latter serving as moderator. They discussed critical decisions that they each had faced and also addressed current policy issues.
Professor Ross Sandler, the Center’s Director, noted that the Law School is celebrating its 125th anniversary and that it happened to be the 125th CityLaw Breakfast. Dean Anthony W. Crowell praised Professor Sandler as “the beating heart, the creator, and the driving force behind everything the Center’s done,” adding, “he has made the Center for New York City Law one of the most visible Centers of any of the law schools in the New York City area, and we’re incredibly proud of it.” Dean Crowell observed, “I don’t think I would be standing here as Dean without Ross. Ross brought me to the Law School in 2003 to teach a seminar on City law.” Dean Crowell also recognized Professor Sandler’s wife, Alice Sandler, for her work on the CityLaw Breakfasts since their inception: “We have to give enormous credit to Alice Sandler. I call her a dedicated co-anchor of this series.”
The panelists discussed important issues they dealt with as corporation counsel that are no longer issues. Judge Crotty mentioned overseeing the merger of the housing authority and transit authority police into the NYPD, which eliminated “an awful lot of redundancies,...even four bagpipe bands.” There was general agreement that even when issues are resolved, underlying policy questions persist, such as: What is the role of corporation counsel? Who is the client? The panelists also discussed the differences between public and private practice. Mr. Carter opined that in public practice, doing justice and ensuring a fair process must be litigation goals, as opposed to private practice, where litigation seeks to gain an advantage. Finally, they discussed the delicate issue of seeking to improve relations between the police and the black community.
After the panel discussion, Dean Crowell and Professor Sandler presented the inaugural Civic Fame Awards to Mary McCormick, President of the Fund for the City of New York; Stanley S. Shuman, of Allen & Co., LLC, and chair of the Center’s Advisory Council; and Jeffrey Friedlander, First Assistant Corporation Counsel. Not present to receive her award was Sheila Aresty ’94 of the Steven and Sheila Aresty Foundation. Dean Crowell then presented Professor Sandler with an inscribed Tiffany glass apple paperweight as a token of appreciation from the Law School. Following the awards, the participants and attendees celebrated with cake and champagne.
After 20 years, it’s clear that the Center for New York City Law is just warming up. The Center will only gain in prominence and influence in the coming years, as it presents the next 125 CityLaw Breakfasts.
Left to right: Professor Ross Sandler, Alice Sandler,
and Dean Anthony W. Crowell Professor Sandler and Dean Crowell
Mary McCormick Jeffrey Friedlander Stanley S. Shuman
fEATURES 13