Contact: Darren Johnson, (631) 761-7062

January 22, 2007

Pictured along the ribbon (l-r): Touro alumnus Bruce Gould, Touro College President Dr. Bernard Lander, Touro Law Center Dean Emeritus Howard Glickstein, Touro staff member Greg Smith, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy and Professor Barbara Swartz.

Touro’s New Law Campus Hosts Official Ribbon Cutting

Central Islip, N.Y. – Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center held a Ribbon Cutting for its brand-new, state-of-the-art law campus today, Monday, January 22.

Speakers included Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, US District Court Judge Leonard Wexler, State Supreme Court Judge H. Patrick Leis III, Touro College President Bernard Lander and Touro Law Center Dean Lawrence Raful. Scores of alumni, students, faculty and staff also attended.

What makes the new Touro Law Center a big story?

New Location
Now neighbors, Touro Law Center, the Alfonse M. D'Amato U.S. Courthouse and the John P. Cohalan, Jr. Courthouse in Central Islip form a triangle of three important and complementary legal institutions that make the region one of the country’s most interesting for jurisprudence.

New Building
Completely wireless and interactive, the law campus merges the teaching of law with its practice. The campus has: two trial classrooms, a moot courtroom/auditorium that seats 500, expanded study space, a library that’s four-stories high and 40,000 square feet, elegant offices for visiting law firms to conduct student interviews, and a new Public Advocacy wing that provides facilities for 14 not-for-profit advocacy groups, giving them access to Touro’s law students, who in turn receive hands-on training. None of the other 180 law schools in the country has such an advocacy program.

New Curriculum
While Touro is already well-known for its accessible and accomplished faculty, the design of the new building allows for even more student-teacher camaraderie. Touro’s new approach also involves more than reading the law. Students live it. First-year students get a unique behind-the-scenes look at real cases in the federal and state courts right next door. The judges and lawyers from the cases talk with the students after, giving them invaluable perspective.  Some third-year students take finals in the Cohalan Courthouse – but these finals don’t just involve pen and paper. Students, playing the role of trial attorneys, try mock cases in real courtrooms before real judges. If they want to make the grade as a student, they have to make the grade as a lawyer. Touro’s Court Observation Program is also a first for any law school.

Touro is a law school on the rise with new energy, a cutting-edge academic plan and, with the move, a setting that offers students a competitive advantage and an unparalleled law school experience. Touro’s $35M new campus will provide a learning experience like no other for students, and the new setting will serve as an integral part of the New York legal community. Touro Law Center, with a student body of over 750, has welcomed larger entering classes over the past three years. Selectivity and test scores for the 26-year-old institution have significantly improved, surpassing national and regional trends for law schools.

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