New York Law School Welcomes New Faculty Members, Announces Promotions

New York, NY— This fall, New York Law School welcomes two new full-time faculty members—an expert in financial law and an expert in corporate law—to its renowned faculty of approximately 80 full-time professors. The Law School also celebrates the promotions of three faculty members: a 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning author appointed to a named professorship, a real estate law expert promoted to full professor, and a newly-appointed dean who will guide students in the development of their professional portfolios.

“We’re delighted to welcome our new faculty members to New York Law School,” Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Collaborative Learning, Stephen J. Ellmann says. “This is a great time for the Law School. We’re welcoming our new faculty and students to our brand-new, state-of-the-art academic building. We’re celebrating the successes of our existing faculty members. And we’re offering new programs, including advanced degree programs and innovative courses for the J.D., that raise the Law School’s profile for the best of reasons—because we’re providing a more valuable education for our students.”

Promotions

Andrew Berman, Professor of Law
Andrew R. Berman, Director of the Law School’s Center for Real Estate Studies (CRES), has been promoted to full professor. He is an expert on various aspects of real estate law, including real estate finance, sales and purchase contracts, real estate development, and commercial leasing. He teaches Property, Real Estate Transactions and Finance, and Sustainable Real Estate Development. In 2007, Professor Berman founded CRES, one of the nation’s leading academic research centers devoted to the study of both the private practice of real estate law and the public regulation of real estate. As Director, he has successfully expanded the School’s real estate law curriculum, created more opportunities for students interested in pursuing careers in real estate law, and developed a series of breakfast forums that bring leading practitioners in the field to the Law School. He has also partnered with the Dubai Real Estate Institute to develop executive education courses and graduate law programs, and explore collaborative research initiatives. Prior to joining the Law School in 2002, Professor Berman spent nearly 15 years in private practice. He was a partner at Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP in the New York Real Estate Group, where he represented clients in all aspects of commercial real estate finance, including complex financing transactions such as mezzanine loans, preferred equity, and financings intended for securitization markets.

Annette Gordon-Reed, Wallace Stevens Professor of Law
Annette Gordon-Reed has been appointed the Wallace Stevens Professor of Law. The professorship honors the memory of a great American artist and 1903 New York Law School graduate, and acknowledges the arts and humanities as a force in the lives of so many New York Law School lawyers and the greater New York legal community. Professor Gordon-Reed is recognized as one of the nation’s most distinguished presidential scholars. She recently won several prestigious awards for her latest book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton, 2008), which chronicles the multigenerational history of a slave family owned by Thomas Jefferson. She received the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in history, making her the first African American to win the prize in the history category, and the 2008 National Book Award in nonfiction. She also received the 2009 George Washington Book Prize, awarded annually to the “most important new book about America’s founding era”; the 2009 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award from the Cleveland Foundation, which recognizes books that address issues of race and culture; and a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship for continued study in U.S. history from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Professor Gordon-Reed is also the author of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (University Press of Virginia, 1997), co-author of Vernon Can Read!: A Memoir (with Vernon E. Jordan Jr.) (Public Affairs, 2001), and editor of Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History (Oxford University Press, 2002). Professor Gordon-Reed has taught at the Law School since 1992. She also teaches at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, where she was recently appointed Rutgers Board of Governors Professor of History.

Mariana Hogan, Associate Dean for Professional Development
Mariana Hogan has been named Associate Dean for Professional Development. In this role, she will oversee the Offices of Career Services, Public Interest and Community Service, and Student Life—with the mission of helping students develop professional portfolios that link their passions and interests to the job market. Professor Hogan will continue her 15-year tenure as Director of the Externship Program, which provides approximately 30 percent of second- and third-year law students with opportunities to intern with judges or lawyers in government, public interest organizations, corporations, and law firms. Professor Hogan joined the Law School in 1992 after a successful career in criminal law. She worked as a staff attorney in the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Division in the South Bronx and as a federal public defender in the Eastern District of New York. Professor Hogan continues her passion for criminal justice and trial advocacy at the Law School, where she helped develop the Criminal Law Clinic, and teaches Trial Advocacy and Advocacy of Criminal Cases. Professor Hogan is an active member of the legal community, serving in a number of roles, including as a board member of the New York County Lawyers’ Association and a faculty member for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.

New Full-Time Faculty Appointments

Tamara C. Belinfanti, Associate Professor of Law
Tamara C. Belinfanti joins the Law School in the fall 2009 semester and will teach Contracts, Corporations, and a transactional skills course entitled “Closing the Deal.” Her teaching and scholarly interests are primarily in the fields of corporate law and law and culture. Previously, Professor Belinfanti was a corporate attorney at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. While at the law firm, she counseled domestic and international clients on U.S. securities and general corporate law matters; was co-editor of a securities law treatise, U.S. Regulation of the International Securities and Derivatives Market (Aspen, 2003); and participated in a law teaching pilot program in New York City public high schools. Professor Belinfanti’s recent article on the proxy advisory industry is forthcoming in the Stanford Journal of Law, Business & Finance. She is a legal aid volunteer and a member of the New York bar.

Houman B. Shadab, Associate Professor of Law
Houman B. Shadab is a recognized expert in financial law and regulation. He joins the faculty in the fall 2009 semester and will teach Contracts, Corporations, and a seminar on the financial crisis and regulatory policy. Professor Shadab has written articles published or forthcoming in journals such as the Berkeley Business Law Journal, the New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, and the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law, and he authored a chapter on credit derivatives to be published in Lessons from the Financial Crisis: Insights and Analysis from Today’s Leading Minds by John Wiley & Sons in 2010. His research has been cited by the Delaware Court of Chancery and in a study on hedge funds commissioned by the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Professor Shadab recently testified before Congress on executive compensation and on the role of hedge funds in the financial crisis, and he has been quoted by or appeared on media outlets such as The New York Times, NBC Nightly News, and Bloomberg Television. Prior to joining New York Law School, Professor Shadab was a commercial and securities litigation attorney with Latham & Watkins LLP in Los Angeles and Ropes & Gray LLP in New York City and a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center.

About New York Law School
Founded in 1891, New York Law School is an independent law school located in lower Manhattan near the city’s centers of law, government, and finance. New York Law School’s renowned faculty of prolific scholars has built the School’s strength in such areas as constitutional law, civil and human rights, labor and employment law, media and information law, urban legal studies, international and comparative law, and a number of interdisciplinary fields. The School is noted for its eight academic centers: Center on Business Law & Policy, Center on Financial Services Law, Center for International Law, Center for New York City Law, Center for Professional Values and Practice, Center for Real Estate Studies, Institute for Information Law & Policy, and Justice Action Center. New York Law School has more than 13,000 graduates and enrolls some 1,500 students in its full- and part-time J.D. program and its four advanced degree programs in financial services law, real estate, tax, and mental disability law studies. www.nyls.edu

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