Contact: Darren
Johnson, Director of Communications
(631) 421-2244, ext. 383,
djohnson@tourolaw.edu
PHOTOS FROM
THE EVENT | DEAN
RAFUL'S SPEECH
September 13, 2004
Touro Law Center to Hold Rare Academic Convocation
Ceremony at U.S. Court Includes Legal ‘Who’s Who’;
Installs 1st New Dean in Decades
Central Islip, NY
– Touro Law Center will hold its first Academic Convocation in
nearly 20 years, installing new Dean Lawrence Raful in an
elegant ceremony at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, September 21, in the
Alfonse M. D’Amato United States Courthouse in Central Islip.
The event will include a keynote address by U.S. District Court
Judge Arthur Spatt and attendance by several the area’s top
judges, attorneys and academic leaders. Mr. Raful is the
only law school dean in Suffolk County, and his position is a
very important one in New York Metropolitan Region legal
circles. He replaces Dean Howard Glickstein, who served in the
position for 19 years.
Dean Raful comes to Touro from Creighton University School of
Law in Omaha, where he served as Dean from 1988 to 1999. There,
he helped develop a new curriculum while building a new library
and increasing faculty and student scholarship, diversity, and
participation in local, national and international activities.
He also teaches Legal Ethics, his study and vocation inspired by
being the child of a Holocaust survivor. He chaired the Nebraska
State Bar Committee, writing a new set of legal ethics rules for
Nebraska lawyers. Dean Raful received his B.A. degree from the
University of California at San Diego and his J.D. degree from
the University of Denver College of Law. He has served as the
Director of the Paralegal Program and Assistant Director of the
Continuing Legal Education Program at Denver and Associate Dean
and adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Southern
California Law Center in Los Angeles. In 1999, his sense of
ethics and humanitarianism won him the St. Ignatius Award, one
of Creighton University’s highest honors. He is married with
three daughters.
Touro Law Center welcomed a record-setting entering class this
year. Selectivity and test scores for the 24-year-old Huntington
institution are at all-time high. Add to that an enrollment
boom, also including an increase in minority enrollment, and
positive momentum is being built as Touro embraces a physical
and academic renaissance.
Touro is currently undertaking a bold, multi-million-dollar
strategic plan that includes a cutting-edge new curriculum and a
move to a new home in Central Islip by fall 2006, adjacent to
and working with the state and federal courts, including the
D’Amato Courthouse. This modern “law campus” will be the first
of its kind anywhere and a national model.
The 2004-2005 entering class is one of the best ever, with more
than 275 new students joining the campus, increasing total
enrollment to the largest number in years: 808, up from 706 in
the spring. LSAT scores are above the national average, 12
percent better than last year's scores, and selectivity is also
the best ever, with only 29 percent of this year's applicants
accepted. Touro has also maintained its commitment to diversity,
with 25 percent of students from minority groups, much higher
than the national average.
Touro Law Center, known for its expert faculty and innovative
programs, was established in 1980 as part of Touro College,
which has campuses in New York, California, Nevada, Germany,
Israel and Russia. The Law Center is fully accredited by the
American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of
American Law Schools. Touro Law Center, with a student body of
more than 800, offers the degrees of Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master
of Laws (LL.M.) and Master of Laws (LL.M.) in U.S. Legal Studies
for Foreign Law Graduates. Also, students may combine the J.D.
degree with a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), a
Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) in Health Care, and a
Master of Social Work (M.S.W.).
For more information about Touro Law Center’s full- and
part-time academic programs, call (631) 421-2244.
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