Newsletter - December 2025
Academics
A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
This fall has been a season of impressive momentum for the Touro Law Clinical Program. Our students are securing life-altering results for our clients.
The successes are tangible. Our Bankruptcy and Mortgage Foreclosure Clinic filed 24 bankruptcy discharge petitions. The Education Justice Clinic secured over $650,000 in services and compensation for low-income families. Our Veterans' and Servicemembers' Rights Clinic achieved a rare discharge upgrade for a Marine Corps veteran, a feat with a historically low 5% grant rate. Meanwhile, our Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic secured a green card for a wrongfully incarcerated client whose case has been covered by national media—a victory that enabled her to receive a life-saving kidney transplant.
But our impact extends beyond individual cases. We are innovating legal education itself. Touro has become the first clinical program in the country to implement a universal student and course assessment system, a model now adopted by several other law schools. Simultaneously, through a new Faculty Innovation Grant, we are integrating generative AI into our curriculum, teaching students to critically evaluate AI tools while maintaining ethical rigor.
From protecting senior homeowners in our Senior Citizens Law Program to preserving equity for families facing foreclosure, our faculty and students are defining what it means to be a "Champion of Civil Justice." I am proud to share their stories with you.
Melina Healey
Associate Clinical Professor & Director of Clinical Programs
Clinical Program Updates
Veterans' and Servicemembers' Rights Clinic: Restoring Honor, Securing Futures
A Rare Discharge Upgrade: In a remarkable accomplishment, the clinic successfully petitioned for a discharge upgrade for a Marine Corps veteran. Given the Marine Corps' historically low grant rate of 5%, this victory is rare. It formally restores the client's honor and unlocks access to VA healthcare, disability compensation, and educational benefits.
Securing Maximum Benefits: Students have been relentless in fighting for veterans with service-connected disabilities. Their efforts resulted in four separate veterans receiving a 100% disability rating from the VA. This rating ensures maximum monthly compensation and cost-free healthcare, offering crucial financial stability for these veterans and their families. Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic Paves Way to Citizenship and Fosters Growth in Law Student Engagement
Green Card Victory After Wrongful Conviction Overturned: The clinic achieved an important victory for longtime client Rosa Jimenez, securing her green card after she spent 18 years wrongfully imprisoned for a crime that never occurred. Following Rosa's exoneration in 2023 by the Innocence Project, the clinic successfully removed the deportation order based on the overturned conviction and ultimately obtained permanent lawful status.
Naturalization Victory: A recent graduate successfully represented an elderly client with cancer experiencing cognitive decline who had twice been denied a waiver of English and civics examination requirements by USCIS—denials unsupported by the medical evidence of the client's cognitive impairment. Following the student's appeal challenging the improper denials, the client was re-interviewed and has now completed his oath ceremony and is officially a U.S. citizen.
Featured in Bloomberg Law: Bloomberg Law published a piece on the growing demand for immigration law in New York law schools featuring Touro and quoting recent graduate Josh Stickell '25, who shared that Touro students have broadly been deeply invested in assisting immigrants and seeking "opportunities to engage in pro bono work, aiming to mitigate initial panic and assist those in greatest need, even if they couldn't join the clinic." Education Justice Clinic Collaborates with Health Sciences School and Prevails for Children with Disabilities
Since summer 2025, the clinic has provided significant advocacy for local school-aged students with disabilities in school discipline matters and special education litigation. During this period, the clinic has obtained over $650,000 in services and monetary compensation for clients. All of the money and services went directly to the clinic's low-income clients.
The clinic represented clients in three successful state complaints and four due process complaints, provided training to dozens of students from our school of health sciences, presented to diverse legal and health sciences students and professionals at a recent event with Touro's Disabled Allied Law Students Association. Students wrote several motions and memoranda of law, represented clients in prehearing conferences and negotiations, hearings, and oral arguments.
Notable Victories:
- Recent graduates won a state complaint in favor of a student with disabilities, obtaining many hours of compensatory services, accommodations, and evaluations.
- Three students secured 115 compensatory education hours, private school placement, a neuropsychological evaluation, and obtained a total value of over $200,000 in a settlement for a student who had missed several months of school due to an unfair disciplinary removal.
- Another clinic student achieved a favorable outcome in defending a student accused of possessing a weapon at school. This student also achieved over $300,000 total through out-of-district placements and curb-to-curb transportation for two additional clients.
- Two clinic students filed an urgent and comprehensive 18-page memorandum of law and emergency request for relief over Labor Day weekend. The clinic won preliminary relief, and the students have represented the client at resolution conferences, negotiations, and prehearing conferences.
School of Health Sciences Consultation
On October 20, November 3, and November 10, 2025, Professor Healey taught a series of joint classes with clinic students and Touro's Graduate School of Health Sciences Applied Behavior Analysis students, continuing the successful medical-legal partnership detailed in her most recent publication. Education Justice Clinic students presented two special education disability cases to expert witnesses from the graduate school of health sciences applied behavior analysis program, with the cases subsequently yielding several thousand dollars in benefits for the clients.
Bankruptcy and Mortgage Foreclosure Clinic Moves Beyond Discharge to Preserve Client Equity
Managing a robust docket of approximately 70 active clients, the clinic has secured 25 bankruptcy discharges since 2024. Crucially, the clinic is now prioritizing asset preservation strategies, helping homeowners navigate strategic sales prior to auction to protect their accumulated equity rather than losing it in a foreclosure sale.
15 Years of Senior Citizens Impact: Protecting Suffolk's Vulnerable Homeowners
From Amityville to Montauk, the program handles a diverse landscape of elder law including advance directives, consumer fraud, and estate matters. However, a disturbing trend has recently emerged in the clinic's housing docket: the exploitation of the infirm senior homeowner.
While housing clinics often focus on tenant defense, SCLP is managing a surge of complex holdover cases where elderly homeowners are held hostage in their own homes by abusive occupants. These cases often involve seniors with debilitating illnesses who lack the physical or financial means to remove dangerous individuals.
Innovation in Legal Education
National Profile for Universal Assessment System
Touro Law was the first clinical program in the country to systematically implement universal student assessments, course evaluations, and client surveys at the program level.
National Adoption: Touro Law now has comprehensive analysis of 4 years of universal clinic student assessments and clinic course evaluations with which we are able to identify key programmatic improvements. Over the past few months, following publication of Professor Melina Healey's article in the Clinical Law Review, more than 10 schools have adopted our model.
AALS Feature: Juan Colberg-Garcia, Kathy Gill, Melina Healey, and Denise Marzano-Doty presented on the program’s universal client surveys at the 2025 AALS Clinical Conference. The presentation was featured by AALS in this video. AI Grant Project for Clinic
Professor Melina Healey was awarded a 2025 Touro University Faculty Innovation Grant for her project, "Teaching Critical Evaluation of Generative AI in Legal Practice." This grant, designed to support the integration of artificial intelligence in teaching, will fund new curriculum in the Education Justice Clinic for the Fall 2025 semester.
Professor Healey's project used the legal AI tool Lexis+ Protege to teach students how to critically assess AI-generated legal documents. Students in the clinic use the AI to generate a first draft of a due process complaint, a key document in their special education advocacy. Through a guided workshop and their own research, students identify the AI's limitations, particularly its failure to incorporate crucial administrative case law. This process teaches them to correct and enhance the AI-generated text, developing their ability to use AI ethically and effectively.
The project's goal is to move students beyond basic AI literacy and instill the sophisticated judgment required for legal practice.
Touro's Senior Citizens Law Program Continues Program for Undergraduate Students
The Senior Citizens Law Program welcomed undergraduate Siena University students Thomas Sherwin and Erika McCarty for the Summer 2025 term. Thomas and Erika gained direct exposure to elder law advocacy under the supervision of the program's Senior Staff Attorney and Adjunct Professor AveMaria Thompson and Staff Attorney Paul Senzer.
Thomas and Erika managed client intakes for wills and advanced directives, observed federal civil rights trials, and developed community education materials on financial fraud. As Thomas noted, the fellowship offered essential "connections" and a realistic look at client work, while Erika described the experience as life-changing, solidifying her decision to pursue a legal career.
Honors and Awards
Touro Law Faculty Honored at Champion of Civil Justice Reception
Touro Law faculty and staff were honored at the October 6 Champion of Civil Justice Reception sponsored by the Suffolk County Bar Association. Congratulations to our honorees:
• AveMaria Thompson & Paul Senzer (Senior Citizens Law Program)
• Leif Rubinstein (Bankruptcy and Mortgage Foreclosure Clinic)
• Denise Marzano-Doty (Small Business Legal Assistance Clinic)
Professor Mauricio Noroña Celebrated for Hispanic Heritage Month
On October 16, Professor Mauricio Noroña, Director of the Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, received the Educator Award from NY State Senator Monica R. Martinez. Sen. Martinez recognized him for "mentoring the next generation of public interest lawyers."