Joel Klein, New York City Schools Chancellor, Will Deliver New York Law School’s Commencement Address on May 22

Six Graduates to Receive Law School’s New Certificate of Mastery in Law Practice Technology

Contact: Edith Sachs, Office of Public Affairs, 212.431.2187, esachs@nyls.edu

Notes:

Photos of Commencement Speaker Available Immediately Upon Request
Commencement Photos Will Be Available Immediately After Ceremony Upon Request
Graduating Student and Certificate Recipient Chun Li Available for Interview Upon Request

NEW YORK, May 10, 2006 – New York Law School’s 114^th Commencement will take place on May 22, 2006, at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall at 5 p.m. The school will graduate 455 students: 443 candidates for the Juris Doctor (J.D.) and 12 candidates for the Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation. New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein will deliver the commencement address and receive the honorary Doctor of Laws degree. The President’s Medal of Honor will be awarded posthumously to the late renowned attorney and longtime trustee Philip M. Damashek. The school’s Institute for Information Law and Policy will award its new Certificate of Mastery in Law Practice Technology for the first time to six graduates of the J.D. program.

About the Commencement Speaker
Joel I. Klein was appointed as the first Chancellor of the newly reorganized Department of Education in July 2002 by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. As Chancellor, he oversees more than 1400 schools with over 1.1 million students, 135,000 employees, and a $14 billion budget. Before accepting the appointment, Klein was chairman and chief executive officer of Bertelsmann, Inc., and chief U.S. liaison officer to Bertelsmann AG, one of the world’s largest media companies. Prior to that, Klein was assistant attorney general in charge of the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division, where he led landmark cases against Microsoft, WorldCom/Sprint, Visa/Mastercard, and General Electric, prevailing in a large majority of cases.

About the President’s Medal Recipient
The President’s Medal of Honor, given to New York Law School’s most outstanding and accomplished alumni and most generous benefactors, will be awarded posthumously to Philip M. Damashek to honor his many and significant contributions to the school. Damashek was a longtime member of New York Law School’s Board of Trustees and managing partner of Schneider, Kleinick, Weitz, Damashek & Shoot (The Cochran Firm), at one time the largest personal injury law firm in Manhattan. An extraordinary lawyer, he served on the governing boards of several bar associations and was a former president of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, which bestowed on him its premier Lifetime Achievement Award. Damashek also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from New York Law School in 2000. He attended New York Law School for one year and went on to complete his legal education by clerking for a practicing attorney.

Six Graduates to Receive Certificate of Mastery in Law Practice Technology
The Certificate recognizes students who have demonstrated exceptional understanding, use, and/or design of technologies that will change law practice and legal institutions. Students receiving the Certificate—introduced in the fall 2005 semester by the school’s Institute for Information Law and Policy—have mastered particular technology skills, such as electronic litigation, online transactions, and courtroom technology, that are increasingly sought after in the legal profession. Six graduating students completed the Certificate program this academic year.

One of these students, Chun Li, is described as “the epitome of the new technologically enhanced lawyer” by Professor David Johnson, who supervises the Certificate program. Li, a former program manager for the Institute for Information Law and Policy, implemented and supervised the integration of weblogs into a variety of Institute courses and oversaw the Institute’s groundbreaking eRulemaking project, which explored ways to facilitate citizen participation in governmental rulemaking processes. He also helped launch the State of Play, the Institute’s annual conference on law and virtual worlds. His technological skills and his innovative work with the Institute attracted the attention of the New York Stock Exchange, where he began working full time in the fall of 2005 while continuing his legal studies part time. His new job gave him the opportunity to study a full spectrum of systems involved in the litigation process, such as eDiscovery systems, and design new tools for securities law enforcement investigations. “Chun has inspired many students to stretch themselves to understand how technology can change legal practice,” said Professor Johnson.

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 six academic centers: Justice Action Center, Center for New York City Law, Center for Professional Values and Practice, Center on Business Law & Policy, Institute for Information Law and Policy, and the Center for International Law. New York Law School has more than 13,000 graduates and enrolls some 1500 students in its full- and part-time J.D. program and its Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation program.