04 T H E TO U R O L AW Y E R  | S P R I N G 20 17 We all knew when we chose Patty Salkin as dean that we had made an excellent choice but we truly had no clue that we had landed a superstar. In Patty’s four years as Dean of Touro Law Center, she has proved herself to be an extraordinary leader, revered by students and faculty alike. Her achievements are legion. First, Patty was an enthusiastic supporter of Touro Law’s commitment to producing practice-ready lawyers and demonstrated that support by doubling the number of clinics, procuring new funding for clinics, and requiring all students to take at least one clinic prior to graduation. In her first semester as dean, she responded to the humanitarian crisis created by Hurricane Sandy by establishing a Disaster Relief Clinic. Patty swung into action as soon as the storm abated. When she learned that the law school building was untouched and had power, she rallied the Touro Law School community and invited national, state and local bar and community leaders to join the effort. In a meeting held just three days after the storm, it was agreed that we would immediately begin collecting necessities to help those with urgent needs and we would organize and coordinate with local legal services providers to establish a pro bono legal services effort. The Touro Law Center Hurricane Emergency Assistance and Relief Team (TLC HEART), which became the go-to support network for all of Long Island, was launched the following day and what developed has become the most comprehensive disaster law program of its kind in the country. While barely settled into her new home, Patty was at the school during the worst of the crisis, working side by side with student volunteers, collecting and distributing clothing and supplies to victims of the Hurricane. Over the course of her tenure as dean, Patty helped the law school secure more than $1 million in funding to keep the Disaster Relief Clinic operational. This clinic has helped and continues to help countless members of the community, while providing meaningful educational experiences for our students. Touro Law’s disaster relief work is nationally known as the model for providing disaster relief to a traumatized community. In addition to expanding and supporting the clinics, Patty showed an unwavering commitment to experiential learning, believing that students learn best by doing as opposed to learning by rote memorization. As always, she walked the walk, joining the network of schools participating in Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers and initiating the first experiential learning on-line journal. Touro Law was also one of the first schools to appoint a dean of experiential learning. All of these activities have secured Touro Law’s reputation as a national leader in experiential learning. Patty’s devotion to skills training did not end when students graduated. Rather, she championed our incubator – the Community Justice Center of Long Island - which provides space and services for up to twelve law school graduates and assists them in launching solo practices. The incubator helps recent graduates develop their professional skills through mentoring and onsite training while also counseling them about the logistics of developing and managing a practice. Patty was responsible for creating a number of institutes, including the Aging and Longevity Institute and the Institute for Land Use and Sustainable Development Law. She focused on these two subjects because they address pressing social issues here in Long Island and because both represent growing areas of the law. She also pressed for the development of EXTRAORDINARY LEADER, SCHOLAR AND ROLE MODEL Reflections on Patricia Salkin’s Tenure as Dean By Professor Eileen Kaufman