November 2008

Dear Friends,

Each year as I sit down to write my Annual Dean’s Report, some Touro event or success or student encounter inspires and forms my message. This year in the midst of preparing for the Jewish High Holy Days, while keeping an eye on the ever-changing financial picture, I received a letter from a disgruntled and angry graduate. He didn’t really know much about the law school we have become; about the pride Dean Glickstein and I both have in our alumni, our students, our faculty and our accomplishments. Instead he focused on the past and what he perceived as our failures with no idea of our current successes or realities. I felt sorry for him because he does not have the opportunity to hear how leaders in the community, the bar, the bench, corporate Long Island, the foundation world and the public sector have come to respect and admire his law school and its many significant accomplishments since he graduated in the mid-eighties. So, in the spirit of education, renewal and redemption; and with an eye toward today’s economic realities, I thought that I would take this opportunity to write about this past year’s accomplishments, as well as take a look at the challenges we may face ahead.

As I hope you know by now, Touro is the first law school in the United States to be part of a campus with a federal courthouse and a state courthouse. When we moved here a year and a half ago we received an enthusiastic welcome from the bar and the bench. But it is the unique opportunity we have in Central Islip to create new practice-oriented programs and curricular innovations that excites us and others. In fact, Touro’s visionary approach to legal education teaches today’s students the skills employers seek and the profession demands. A major objective of the new curriculum has been to facilitate advanced experiential learning by exposing students to a range of skills through practice-oriented courses and supervised placement in the public and private sectors. At the same time, the school’s highly credentialed faculty ensures ample coverage of doctrinal law. Touro Law students learn to think critically about the lawyering process from the start of their education – and each year they learn progressively more sophisticated practice skills.

In our innovative Court Observation Program, first-year students visit state court in their first semester, observing Family Court, Criminal Court or Supreme Court proceedings. Students observe arraignment and visit the prisoner holding area. In their second semester, students observe oral argument on motions, jury selections and trials in the federal court. Chronicle of Higher Education published an article describing Touro’s Court Observation Program in their January 11, 2008 edition.

We have settled into our new building. Students no longer have to scramble for a space to park or study. The entire building is wireless. Classrooms have “smart podiums” with computer command consoles that activate a wide range of audio-visual devices. Visiting law firms find professional offices in which to conduct student interviews. We have a full-service bookstore which sells everything from textbooks to bestsellers and a wide range of Touro Law apparel. Classrooms are configured to encourage lively legal debate. There are rooms of all sizes for student and public events. The centerpiece is the 500-seat Auditorium with walls adorned with stunning Marc Chagall inspired tapestries.

Equally exciting is the fact that members of the bench and bar are frequent visitors, participating in conversations with students and faculty as they meet in the cafeteria or a seminar or the hallway. We have been host to numerous local and regional conferences often attracting hundreds of participants. We recently hosted The Keys for the Homeless Conference and Judge Leon Lazer’s Annual Supreme Court Symposium both featuring fabulous speakers with more than 300 participants each. We have become a true center for law, social activism and learning for Long Island.


Students and alumni have asked me recently about the new ad campaign we have started, with print ads in many local and national magazines and newspapers, as well as an ad campaign on radio (WCBS 880 AM). Thus far, we have had very positive feedback from the ads. So perhaps you are wondering why we have taken this step.

I am so proud of all the things we have done in the past few years, with our new building, the work with the two courthouses, our new William Randolph Hearst Public Advocacy Center (PAC), the expanded scholarship of our faculty, and of course the outstanding achievements of our student body and our alumni. I wish everyone knew what I know about Touro Law Center, but the truth is the New York metropolitan area is a very big place, and sometimes the good news just doesn’t travel far enough.

You might have noticed our new “tag line” in the advertisements: “All lawyers are educated. Our lawyers are prepared.” The ad agency we hired came up with this simple, yet eloquent, line to tell “our story” – that we are doing some great things here with Court Observation, the clinics, the externships, the PAC opportunities, and on and on, to make sure our students are really prepared to practice law when they graduate.

And we continue to get some nice press, too, for things we are doing. For instance, the New York Law Journal  ran a full-page article and photo about the William Randolph Hearst Public Advocacy Center. It was a very positive article, and many lawyers and judges will read it and come away with a positive view of that activity. And Newsday ran a wonderful video on their web site about the Touro Law students who went to New Orleans over break to work with the Student Hurricane Network. It’s on our web page, in case you have not seen the clip, and I am so very proud of those students.


The Vice Dean position has always been a job that rotates every few years. At Touro Law Professor Hal Abramson held the position from 1987- 1996. He was followed by Professor Eileen Kaufman, who served from 1996 to 2000. Dean Emeritus Howard Glickstein appointed Professor Gary Shaw to the position in 2000. After eight years of selfless and dedicated service, Gary returned to the faculty this past summer to resume full-time teaching and scholarship. Gary has done a marvelous job in so many areas, but I especially appreciate the incredible work he did on three critical issues: facilitating a smooth transition from Howard Glickstein to a new dean; leading the development of our academic assistance and bar preparation programs, with terrific results; and serving as one of the key administrators responsible for the design, construction and move to the new building. I am confident I speak for the Touro community when I say how much we are in his debt for a tough job well done.

Last February we held a faculty retreat, and since then I have been thinking a great deal about faculty scholarship, which we identified as one of our highest priorities. In the past few years we have brought in new faculty and worked hard to develop curricular innovations. Now that we are securely established in the new building we must give renewed emphasis to faculty research, scholarship and development. The more I thought about the future of our school, the more I became convinced that the next major step for us to take is to establish a full-time position dedicated to faculty development and scholarship. Thus, it seemed critical to me to change our administrative structure to give greater weight and visibility to these matters.

I decided that it was time to change the title of “Vice Dean” and instead use a new title of “Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Faculty Development” to more accurately reflect a job that deals with the issues we see as vital in the coming years. I am pleased to announce that Professor Louise Harmon agreed to accept this new responsibility. In her new capacity, Louise works closely with each faculty member to assist him or her as they continue to develop as multi-dimensional classroom teachers. At the same time she is assisting the faculty in research and in the publication of the resulting scholarship. I am confident Louise will add her own unique contributions to the strong foundation created by her predecessors, and in her new role she will have the ability to showcase Touro Law Center by promoting and supporting our community of scholars.

I am thrilled to inform you that the distinguished human rights scholar Professor Harry Reicher has agreed to serve during the 2008-09 academic year as a Scholar-in-Residence and Adjunct Professor of Law in our Institute for Holocaust Law and International Human Rights. Professor Reicher is perhaps the pre-eminent authority in the United States on the legal issues of the Holocaust. He is a much-in-demand speaker, who since 1995 has taught at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Born in Prague and raised in Australia, Harry Reicher earned graduate law degrees from the University of Melbourne and Harvard Law School. From 1995-2004, he was Director of International Affairs and Representative to the United Nations of the Agudath Israel World Organization, in which capacity he practiced international law and diplomacy in the field of human rights, with particular emphasis on freedom of religion. He has also been involved in Holocaust-era restitution, reparations and compensation litigation. In 2004, President Bush appointed him to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

In August, Ann Nowak was named as the Director of the Writing Resources Center. As you know, this has been a long search for us to fill the large shoes left by the death of our beloved friend and colleague Deborah Hecht. This past spring Ann decided to close her 19-year law practice and join the Touro Law family full time. She graduated from Barnard College with a degree in English and Writing and earned a M.A. in Creative Writing at Boston University. She has worked for Moneysworth Magazine, Southampton Press and Newsday, where she served for seven years as a business reporter. During that period she also attended CUNY Law School. Following graduation she served on CUNY’s faculty as an Adjunct Professor of Legal Writing, and then left to open up a law practice in Water Mill. She is a member of the Southampton Town Board of Zoning Appeals, a member of the Board of Directors and an instructor at the Jacobson Center for the Performing Arts in East Hampton and has taught online writing courses for the University of Phoenix.

Professor Tracy McGaugh, in addition to being an outstanding speaker and legal writing expert, has also become one of the foremost authorities in American legal education on the so-called “Millennials,” the generation of students born after 1982 who now comprise a significant proportion of our student body. This summer, she received one of our research grants to “examine the characteristics of Millennials that have resulted in the dilemma of high incidence of cheating and high reports of cheating combined with the inability to remedy either situation.” Tracy has agreed to become our Assistant Dean for Academic Advisement, so that she could study the Millennials in their natural habitat. I think that adding another person to our Student Services staff will certainly help our students.


• Last March the William Randolph Hearst Public Advocacy Center - the first Center in the nation for non-profit legal advocacy agencies – received the Award of Distinction for Public Service from the National Association for Law Placement (NALP). The Center has also won community service awards from the Long Island Health and Welfare Council and the Suffolk Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

• We are incredibly proud of Touro’s team of students who placed second in the world in the prestigious 15th Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna, Austria. This competition is known around the globe as the “Olympics of International Trade Law.” And only three U.S. schools including Touro have been on the final stage in the past eight years.

• In March the Law Center celebrated the dedication of our Gould Law Library and presented the Bruce K. Gould Book Award to Senator Christopher J. Dodd for his book, Letters from Nuremberg: My Father’s Narrative of a Quest for Justice. The Gould Book Award has become known as one of the most prestigious awards of its kind, and has been presented to many notable recipients, including Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

• In addition to our long-running and successful Summer School Programs in Germany, Russia, China, and India, this past summer we added our fifth program. We became the first American summer school program in Jerusalem, Israel in cooperation with the Hebrew University Faculty of Law. We are pleased to have been able to partner with Hebrew University – it is a giant feather in our international cap.

• Due to the record-breaking success of our Goods & Services Auction and the Susan M. Dietrich Clyne’88 Memorial Golf Outing; the generosity of the David Berg Foundation; and the expansion of the Federal Work-Study Program, nearly 120 Touro students had prestigious summer placements this year.

• Eleven David Berg Public Interest Fellows, participating in a newly-created Fellowship Program in public interest law, will benefit from a year-long, specialized enrichment component designed to add value to their education.

• In September, we held the 26th Annual Bainbridge Moot Court Competition. The finals bench was United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge George C. Pratt (retired); United States District Court, Eastern District of Jew York Judge Joseph Bianco; and Nebraska State Supreme Court Justice John M. Gerrard. Second-year day student Jacquelyn O’Neil prevailed in a close decision over fellow second-year full-time student Robin Daleo before an audience of faculty, students, families and friends in the auditorium.

• On the same day as the Bainbridge finals, Dr. Danilo Turk, President of the Republic of Slovenia, delivered an address marking the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights. Dr. Turk was elected in June 2007, and is a professor of international law and Vice Dean at the faculty of law in Ljubljana University. He was previously Slovenia’s ambassador to the UN and Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs. As far as I know, while we have had many distinguished guests at the Law Center, Dr. Turk was the first President of a Country to visit our school, and it was an electrifying day.

• In September we continued our Family Day tradition – and again invited Alumni to come back and visit. The event was a great success with pony rides, apple picking, and face painting for the children, and an introduction to the Law Center for the families of our students with simulated classes, tours and a barbecue.

• In October we named the Atrium for Judge Leon D. Lazer – in recognition of his distinguished career as lawyer, trial judge, appellate judge and Touro law professor. The day truly reflected Touro in its best light.


Our terrific team of career service professionals, under the leadership of Assistant Dean Brett Gilbert has expanded our “On-Campus Interview Program” to include more than 30 law firms, legal departments and government agencies. The success of that program in large measure also goes to the many members of the Law Center’s Board of Governors who have brought in their firms and companies, and we remain grateful to them for recognizing the importance of this program for our students. I am also pleased to report that Margarett Williams ’05, our Director of Employee Relations, has done an outstanding job of reaching out to law firms, both regionally and nationally to tell them about our new building and our new curriculum, but mostly to tell them about the high quality of our Touro students and the first-class education they are receiving at this law school.


Touro is a diverse community and a place of opportunity for today’s law student. In August we welcomed a well-motivated group of 271 students with outstanding credentials. We received 2,057 applications. Students come to us from 12 states and 116 colleges and universities; 48.7% are women and 22.1% are students of color. The average age is 25. Our students in the LL.M. Degree Program for Foreign Lawyers come to us from around the globe, and their presence enriches the law school community in many ways.


• On-campus alumni presence has increased dramatically with the creation of the Alumni Council. Kristin Matthews, Director of Development, has recruited more than 150 graduates who return to campus to help in the admissions and career service areas and serve as mentors for current students. The successful “Boardroom Speaker Series” – student/alumni luncheon and dinner discussions - has brought in Touro alum who serve as corporate in-house counsel partners of large, medium and small law firms, judges and government officials.

• A few words about our password-protected online alumni directory – please use it! We hope that it will be a resource for our alumni, whether they are looking for a colleague for a referral, to network, for job prospects, or just social interaction. You can search the data base by name, geographical area, class year or area of practice. You can update your information online or post a class note that allows you to discuss your latest success – partnership or case victory. The information gathered from our alumni survey and online directory has proven helpful in developing joint programs between our Development and Career Services Offices. Programs like a lecture series in the Alumni Boardroom, mentor programs and internships help students with career choices and jobs.

• I continue to be grateful that so many of our alumni are active supporters of the school. They help to make our school stronger. There are more than 100 alumni donors in our “Take a Seat” Campaign – where alumni and others donate $1,000 for a seat plate on the back of an auditorium chair, and our percentage of overall alumni giving is high – a fact that portents well for the future.

• In July we held our Sixth Annual Susan Dietrich Clyne ’88 Memorial Golf Tournament. The successful event, held at the Hamlet Country Club, honored John O’Connor of Newmark, Knight and raised more than $60,000 to benefit the Susan M. Dietrich Clyne Scholarship Fund.

• This month Touro graduate and Board of Governors member Thomas Rosicki ’97, founding principal of Rosicki, Rosicki & Associates P.C., will be honored with the Paul S. Miller “With Liberty and Justice For All” Award And our good friend and Board member Alan Fuchsberg, managing partner of the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Firm, will be honored with our “Friend of Justice Award” at our Annual Dinner. In addition, The Honorable Leonard D. Wexler, United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York and The Honorable H. Patrick Leis III, District Administrative Judge, Suffolk County, will receive special recognition for their work with Touro’s Court Observation Program.

• Also this month we will hold Reunion 2008 for the classes of 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998 and 2003. It will be the first time that we hold a 25th Reunion and everyone seems to be looking forward to renewing friendships, sharing stories and networking with their professors and former classmates.

• Our fundraising remained strong through the summer. Aside from a record-breaking Goods & Services Auction last spring, that raised more than $60,000 for Public Interest Law Fellowships, we received a $100,000 grant from the David Berg Foundation to create the David Berg Public Interest Fellowship Program, and a $50,000 grant from the CAMBR Foundation for Jewish-related programming. We will soon be purchasing a new “Touro Van” for transportation to and from the Central Islip LIRR station, the courts and the dorms – thanks to a $50,000 grant from the New York State Senate. I am grateful to all of our donors - Board members, friends and alumni, foundation, corporate and government support, as well as the many individual donors. The next time you are in our building take a moment to look at the Donor Wall. It shows the commitment of so many good people. Despite the economy we will continue to set the bar high for our fund raising, because we believe that what we are trying to accomplish at this law school is worth the effort, and we know that so many of you agree.


We are so appreciative of the gifts we have received this past year; however the Development Office is cautious about the coming year because the credit crisis and the meltdown in the banking and real estate sectors has played havoc with many of our graduates, especially in the New York metropolitan area. Law firms have less work for partners and associates, and everything costs more from groceries to health care. Recently we experienced a 10% drop in revenue for this year’s fund raising dinner; particularly from the corporations and law firms who have so strongly supported the event in the past. On the positive side, during our recent phon-a-thon – directed to prior donors giving annual fund gifts of $250 or less - we did well. But, like our fellow law schools throughout the country, we are worried that the issues facing the nation will have an impact on our ability to raise money this coming year.

A few suggestions for folks trying to make a charitable donation and deal with economic realities at the same time:

• Planned Gifts, either through life insurance, annuities, or a variety of trust vehicles can have a major impact on an institution, and help the donor as well.

• Consider the gift of stock or other appreciated assets.

• Take advantage of a recent change to the U.S. Pension Protection Act of 2006 which allows people 70.5 years and older to donate up to $100,000 to a charitable institution tax free, from their IRAs through 2009.

It will be a major challenge for our Career Services Office to maintain the momentum of increased employment opportunities for our students that we have achieved in the past few years in the face of a difficult economy. Our hope is for our alumni to get more involved in hiring students as interns and associations. Please think about that, and if you have questions I ask that you contact me or Margarett Williams in the Career Services Office.


Touro Law Center is a special place with hands-on, innovative programming, busy clinics, visits from the outside legal community and so many other positive accomplishments. I'm convinced that we are on the right track. I am so proud to be in my fifth year as your Dean. This coming year my calendar is full of visits to our alumni in far-flung places including Toronto, California and Florida. Next spring we hope to be able to host a reception at the New Jersey State Bar Meeting, and I look forward to seeing you at the Annual Alumni Winter Reception at the New York State Bar Association Meeting on January 29 at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan.

I feel blessed to be able to work with the entire Touro community in order to continue our growth in stature and recognition. I hope you too will spread the word about Touro Law Center and all of the wonderful things happening here. My best wishes for health, peace and success in the coming year.

Sincerely,

Lawrence Raful

Dean and Professor of Law