Benjamin Ferencz speaking to Cardozo Law students

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW RECEIVES $1 MILLION FOR THE HUMAN RIGHTS AND ATROCITY PREVENTION CLINIC FROM BENJAMIN B. FERENCZ, LEGENDARY NAZI WAR CRIMES PROSECUTOR

October 13, 2016– New York, NY – Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University is proud to announce a $1 million gift from Benjamin B. Ferencz, the legendary Nazi war crimes prosecutor and a leader in establishing an international criminal court. Now in his 97th year, Ferencz is a World War II veteran and was one of the earliest war crimes investigators.

The donation will go toward Cardozo’s Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic, which will be renamed the Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic. The clinic is part of the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights (CLIHHR). Ferencz’s gift will aid in the school’s work as a leading global center for the study and promotion of human rights and atrocity prevention. The gift coincides with the 70th anniversary of the end of the first trial of Nazi war criminals, which occurred in October 1946.

“We are deeply grateful to Ben Ferencz for his gift, and for his recognition of the work done by Cardozo to educate the next generation of human rights lawyers,” said Dean Melanie Leslie. “Ben’s lifetime commitment to using the law to advance human rights is an inspiration to all lawyers everywhere, and will continue to be used to inspire generations of Cardozo law students.”

Ferencz seeks to inspire law students to use their years in law school to advance international peace and human rights efforts.

“It takes courage not to be discouraged,” said Ferencz. “You cannot kill an ideology with a gun. You must learn tolerance, compassion and compromise. Law, not war, is my slogan and ‘never give up’ is my mandate.”

A Life Dedicated to Fighting Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity:

Ferencz committed his life to ending war and the atrocities he witnessed firsthand.

“I had peered into hell,” he said in describing his role gathering evidence of the Nazi horrors as the concentration camps were liberated. Ferencz, who was born in Transylvania and came to America as a child, went on to graduate from Harvard Law School and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943. He saw combat from the beaches of France on D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge, and near the end of the war he was transferred to the headquarters of General Patton’s Third Army. He was the first man assigned to a small team tasked to investigate war crimes. General Telford Taylor, the Chief Nuremberg Prosecutor, recruited him for 12 war crime trials against Nazi leaders. Ferencz uncovered the existence of the Nazi Einsatzgruppen, execution squads responsible for the mass murder of Jews ahead of German military advances. As chief prosecutor at the Einsatzgruppen trial, Ferencz detailed how these groups killed one million people. The 22 Nazi leaders he proved responsible were all convicted: 14 of them received death sentences.

Ferencz’s association with the Nuremeberg Chief Prosecutor Telford Taylor led to a lifelong friendship. Taylor went on to become a founding faculty member of Cardozo School of Law, and he and Ferencz became law partners in New York City.

Following Nuremberg, Ferencz stayed in Germany to help establish the reparations programs, which provided restitution and compensation for all victims of Nazi persecution. His book Less than Slaves details his tireless efforts to secure compensation for the forced labor of concentration camp inmates. Ferencz was one of the founding architects of the International Criminal Court, which sought to hold perpetrators accountable for war crimes. Ferencz became a champion of peace as his life’s work.

Hear Ferencz discuss his experiences in Nuremberg on NPR's Morning Edition

History of Cardozo’s Human Rights Initiatives:

The program that became the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights was established by Professor Richard Weisberg, whose groundbreaking work on Holocaust litigation contributed to a historic financial settlement, a small portion of which supported the founding of the program. Under the dynamic leadership of the late Professor Sheri Rosenberg, a leading activist in protecting civilian populations, the program expanded to include the Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic, which is being renamed in honor of Ferencz. 

Professor Sheri Rosenberg passed away in 2015 and long-time human rights clinical professor Carolyn Patty Blum took over leadership of the program as interim director of CLIHHR. Blum is well known for her work in cases concerning accountability for crimes committed under Chilean and Salvadoran military regimes in the 1980s.

“We were so devastated when we lost Sheri, and we are very fortunate that Patty was able to step in to guide the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights and the clinic,” said Dean Leslie. “I thank her for her leadership, and with Ben Ferencz’s generous gift we have secured this unique and vitally important clinic for generations to come.”

This fall, Dean Leslie expanded human rights programs at Cardozo, hiring Edwin Rekosh, a highly respected human rights lawyer and teacher to became the director of human rights initiatives at the law school. In September he launched a new program that expands on the work of the law school called Human Rights Forward. It will spearhead civil society solutions, citizen and business community engagement and new approaches to protecting and expanding human rights globally.

Ferencz came to Cardozo this spring when students from the CardozoJournal of Conflict Resolution awarded him the 2016 International Advocate for Peace Award for his lifetime achievements advancing world peace as a prosecutor, an advocate and a leader in the effort to create the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

A Personal Connection to Cardozo:

Ferencz’s connection to Cardozo is a deeply personal one forged through his special relationship with Telford Taylor, who was a towering figure in the halls of Cardozo and on the international stage. The work of Taylor and Ferencz at Nuremburg focused the world’s attention on the perpetrators of war atrocities and created a new methodology for seeking international justice. Ferencz’s gift enables students in the Ferencz clinic to carry on this work in new and innovative ways that respond to both historic atrocity crimes and to the scourge of contemporary armed conflict.

For more information contact:

John DeNatale
Assistant Dean of Communications
212.790.0237
DeNatale@yu.edu

Jacqueline Reeves
Director, Media Relations and Communications
212.790.0837
Reeves@yu.edu

Hon. Tanya R. Kennedy (fifth from left) at the swearing-in ceremony for the National Association of Women Judges

Hon. Tanya R. Kennedy '92, Supreme Court Justice and former Supervising Judge of Civil Court, New York County, was sworn-in as President-Elect of the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) on October 8, 2016 at the association's annual conference in Seattle. Justice Joan Dempsey Klein, an NAWJ co-founder, administered the oath.  Justice Kennedy will automatically assume the presidency next October at the association's Atlanta conference.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW RECEIVES $1 MILLION GIFT FROM ARLENE AND BENEDICT MORELLI FOR SCHOLARSHIP AND TRIAL TEAM PROGRAMS

October 21, 2016 – New York, NY – Cardozo School of Law will receive a $1 million gift from Arlene and Benedict Morelli to establish a student scholarship program and to support the expansion of its renowned trial team program. 

Benedict Morelli is the founder and partner of Morelli Law Firm and former president of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. A highly regarded trial lawyer, Morelli has a long history of successful representation spanning over 35 years, which includes winning multi-million dollar verdicts for many of his clients. The New York Trial Lawyers Association has selected him as one of New York’s “superstars,” and he has been listed in Best Lawyers in America continuously from 1997 through the present.

The Morellis’ gift designates $750,000 for the Arlene and Benedict Morelli Family Scholarship Fund, which will provide financial support for deserving students for years to come. The gift also provides $200,000 to establish the Benedict Morelli Trial Team, which will expand Cardozo’s presence in national and international trial competitions and increase the number of students who can compete. $50,000 will be used to establish the Morelli Master Lecture Series, which will bring top trial lawyers to Cardozo to lecture, coach and mentor students. 

“Cardozo is well known for our Intensive Trial Advocacy Program, which was the first of its kind in the country, and for our excellent trial team,” said Dean Melanie Leslie. “We are deeply grateful to the Morellis for their partnership in strengthening our powerhouse teams and cementing Cardozo’s reputation as a top school for trial advocacy.”

In May, Benedict Morelli was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree from Yeshiva University at the Cardozo Law commencement at Lincoln Center. Yeshiva President Richard Joel conferred the degree in recognition of “a lifetime commitment to the cause of justice, and for the inspiration and dedication you bring to the service of your clients and the education of future lawyers.” The ceremony was capped with great joy for the family when the Morellis’ son Alexander received his J.D. degree and was hooded by his father as a member of the Cardozo class of 2016.

About Cardozo School of Law

Cardozo School of Law provides a world-class legal education that encourages and supports creative thinking and effective action in all fields of law. Cardozo is dedicated to educating lawyers who develop a deep understanding of legal theory as well as the professional skills and ethical values to be practice-ready. The school’s robust intellectual atmosphere supports new ideas and innovation and encourages a vibrant community of scholarship and activism.

The Cardozo community is open and personal, fostering animated debate in the classroom and throughout the school. The administration and faculty seek to create a welcoming environment that is respectful of diverse perspectives and people of all backgrounds. The law school emphasizes the critical role attorneys play in protecting the rights of people in the United States and around the world.

For more information contact:

John DeNatale

Assistant Dean of Communications

212.790.0237

DeNatale@yu.edu

Royalties, Rap And Race: The Top 10 Law Schools That Teach Real-Life Music Issues

October 24, 2016 Billboard Magazine - Behind the success of every hitmaker are the lawyers, fielding the deliberations, deals and disputes that are a constant part of today's music business.

While attorneys have always been important to artists and music ­companies, new business models, from brand licensing to streaming, have only increased the need for legal expertise. The scope of that expertise is also wider than ever, moving beyond issues of contract law to questions of intellectual property in the digital age.

At which law schools do the top music lawyers gain that expertise? These 10 stand out as the alma maters of the majority of the music ­industry's most accomplished attorneys.

BENJAMIN N. CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW
New York

FAME is the acronym for Cardozo's Fashion, Arts, Media and Entertainment Law Center, one of two programs targeting future music business lawyers, at the school's ­campus near Manhattan's Union Square. The second is the Intellectual Property and Information Law Program, under director Christopher Buccafusco. "Cardozo offers an incredibly deep range of ­opportunities for students interested in music law," says Buccafusco, "including ­internships, student groups, speaker series and practical-skills training."

Alumna: Julie Swidler, executive vp business affairs/general counsel, Sony Music Entertainment

Read more in Billboard Magazine. 

Stephanie Cuba '99

On December 10, 2016, Congress approved legislation that will make it easier to reclaim art confiscated during World War II. According to The New York Times, "the measure will loosen, and standardize across the country, the statute of limitations on claims for the return of looted art."

In 1999, Stephanie Cuba '99 wrote a note in the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal titled "Stop The Clock: The Case to Suspend the Statute of Limitations on Claims for Nazi-Looted Art," which made the case for such reform. The piece won the prize for best note that year. 

Featured Alumni: John LaBarre '05, Head of Google's Patent Transactions Team

John LaBarre '05

John LaBarre ’05 was recently promoted to the head of Google’s patent transactions team. As a leading provider of various technologies relating to search, artificial intelligence, networking, and computing, Google maintains a large, diverse patent portfolio overseen by Google's patent group. The patent transactions teams is involved with nearly all inbound, outbound, and cross-licensing deals for Google as well as divestitures and strategic acquisitions.

“I specifically attended Cardozo knowing I wanted to go into IP and the law school’s reputation in that area was key to my enthusiasm in attending,” said LaBarre. “And — understatement alert — Cardozo absolutely lived up to its considerable reputation as having great instructors and programs focused around IP.”

LaBarre says that he appreciated many of the practical IP courses he was exposed to as a second and third year student. “Most memorable for me was Professor Wolf’s class on patent litigation,” he said. “I honestly believe that this class better prepared me for my early career in litigation than probably any other experience.”

Prior to joining Google's transactions team in November 2014, John was a member of Google's patent litigation team for five-and-a-half years where he helped defend the company from a large number of patent cases including various matters that went to trial. Before joining Google in 2009, John worked as a patent litigator in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

Clive Davis, the legendary music executive and producer who shaped the careers of stars from Janis Joplin to Whitney Houston, provided Cardozo students and others with a detailed account of how his legal training, business acumen and ear for music brought him to the pinnacle of the music industry. On Thursday night, Jan. 19 he discussed his journey through— and to the top of—the music industry, in an interview with Cardozo alumna Julie Swidler ’82, in front of a capacity crowd in the Jacob Burns Moot Courtroom.

Since graduating from Cardozo in 1982 Julie Swidler has crafted an incredible career of her own in the music industry, rising to become the executive vice president for business affairs and general counsel for SONY Music Entertainment. She has had a long professional relationship with Davis and she has been listed on Billboard’s Top 100 and Top 40 lists of Women Executives in Music since 2011.

“Creative industries need creative lawyers,” said Cardozo’s Dean Melanie Leslie, in her introductory remarks. “There’s no better way for our students to understand that connection than from Clive Davis— a legend in the music industry. This kind of link is so important for our students and it is the reason we created the FAME Center for fashion, arts, media and entertainment law. We have a top-rated intellectual property program.”

Billboard Magazine recently listed Cardozo in their top ten law schools for lawyers in the music industry.

Swidler asked Davis, a Harvard Law School graduate who began his career as a lawyer and is currently Chief Creative Officer at SONY, how he got started at Columbia Records. Davis had been working at a private law firm. A former colleague offered him a position at Columbia and Davis became the company’s general counsel in 1960, after working there only six months. Davis continued at Columbia Records and said he “immersed himself into the business of music.” He was about to turn down an offer to serve as the president of the company’s musical instruments division, which would require Davis to move to the West Coast, when a fellow colleague took the position instead, and Davis fortuitously ended up staying in New York as the president of Columbia Records. He said he was out of place at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967-no other music company presidents were there-but due to the last minute visit to California, Davis said, “my life changed with those unexpected influences. I knew I was in the midst of a musical revolution.”

Shortly after the festival, Davis bought Janis Joplin’s contract and her first album sold 5 million copies. Columbia, which had previously avoided rock music, expanded its portfolio through Davis’ rock artist discoveries.

Davis is responsible for helping propel the careers of multitudes of artists including Whitney Houston, Alicia Keyes, Santana, Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow, Melissa Manchester, Aerosmith, and Aretha Franklin, among others. His “natural gift of ears” took him down a path working directly with artists, expanding more R&B and urban music. But at the height of his success at Columbia, he found himself forced out of the company in the early 1970s after an employee’s fraudulent billing scheme put Davis at the forefront of scrutiny. Swidler asked him how he handled this experience to which he responded, “You’ve got to be resilient.”

Resilient he was, taking his exit and leading himself to a new venture as the founder of Arista Records. Davis’ journey towards exposing more pop singers and matching up singers who didn’t write for themselves with songwriters, proved incredibly successful for Arista and led to the signing of such artists as Dionne Warwick and in 1983, Whitney Houston, who went on to unprecedented success as a pop singer.

Davis’ reunion with Carlos Santana in 1999 led to what Davis called “the proudest” album he ever worked on, Santana’s Supernatural, which won eight Grammy awards, a tremendous comeback for Santana who originally signed with Davis 30 years earlier. Davis himself was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

Swidler’s final question of the night focused on Davis’ family, jokingly asking him how his four children all ended up as lawyers. Two of his children are Cardozo alumni. The discipline of being a lawyer, Davis said “is a great background. The legal training that I got put me in very good stead.”

_SEG3170.JPG

Alumni honorees Ira Dizengoff '92, Stephen Breitstone '82, Emily Tisch Sussman '08, and Mark Yagerman '79 pose with Dean Melanie Leslie at the Tenth Annual Alumni Association Gala.

Cardozo Law's Tenth Annual Alumni Association Gala on February 15, 2017 was a huge success, exceeding its goal of raising $400,000 for the scholarship fund. More importantly, it brought together Cardozo community members to celebrate the school's 40th anniversary. Thank you to all who attended, and to our alumni honorees, Mark Yagerman '79, Stephen Breitstone '82, Ira Dizengoff '92 and Emily Tisch Sussman '08. 

According to The National Law Journal’s top 50 law school rankings released March 6, 7.72% of Cardozo’s 2016 graduates went on to work at top law firms. Cardozo Law is number 46 on the list, which is based on the percentage of each school's 2016 graduates who took associate jobs at the largest 100 firms.

To read more, visit The National Law Journal.

NAWJ Seattle Conference.jpeg

Hon. Tanya R. Kennedy (fifth from left) at the swearing-in ceremony for the National Association of Women Judges

Hon. Tanya R. Kennedy '92, Supreme Court Justice and former Supervising Judge of Civil Court, New York County, was sworn-in as President-Elect of the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) on October 8, 2016 at the association's annual conference in Seattle. Justice Joan Dempsey Klein, an NAWJ co-founder, administered the oath.  Justice Kennedy will automatically assume the presidency next October at the association's Atlanta conference.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW RECEIVES $1 MILLION GIFT FROM ARLENE AND BENEDICT MORELLI FOR SCHOLARSHIP AND TRIAL TEAM PROGRAMS

October 21, 2016 – New York, NY – Cardozo School of Law will receive a $1 million gift from Arlene and Benedict Morelli to establish a student scholarship program and to support the expansion of its renowned trial team program. 

Benedict Morelli is the founder and partner of Morelli Law Firm and former president of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. A highly regarded trial lawyer, Morelli has a long history of successful representation spanning over 35 years, which includes winning multi-million dollar verdicts for many of his clients. The New York Trial Lawyers Association has selected him as one of New York’s “superstars,” and he has been listed in Best Lawyers in America continuously from 1997 through the present.

The Morellis’ gift designates $750,000 for the Arlene and Benedict Morelli Family Scholarship Fund, which will provide financial support for deserving students for years to come. The gift also provides $200,000 to establish the Benedict Morelli Trial Team, which will expand Cardozo’s presence in national and international trial competitions and increase the number of students who can compete. $50,000 will be used to establish the Morelli Master Lecture Series, which will bring top trial lawyers to Cardozo to lecture, coach and mentor students. 

“Cardozo is well known for our Intensive Trial Advocacy Program, which was the first of its kind in the country, and for our excellent trial team,” said Dean Melanie Leslie. “We are deeply grateful to the Morellis for their partnership in strengthening our powerhouse teams and cementing Cardozo’s reputation as a top school for trial advocacy.”

In May, Benedict Morelli was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree from Yeshiva University at the Cardozo Law commencement at Lincoln Center. Yeshiva President Richard Joel conferred the degree in recognition of “a lifetime commitment to the cause of justice, and for the inspiration and dedication you bring to the service of your clients and the education of future lawyers.” The ceremony was capped with great joy for the family when the Morellis’ son Alexander received his J.D. degree and was hooded by his father as a member of the Cardozo class of 2016.

About Cardozo School of Law

Cardozo School of Law provides a world-class legal education that encourages and supports creative thinking and effective action in all fields of law. Cardozo is dedicated to educating lawyers who develop a deep understanding of legal theory as well as the professional skills and ethical values to be practice-ready. The school’s robust intellectual atmosphere supports new ideas and innovation and encourages a vibrant community of scholarship and activism.

The Cardozo community is open and personal, fostering animated debate in the classroom and throughout the school. The administration and faculty seek to create a welcoming environment that is respectful of diverse perspectives and people of all backgrounds. The law school emphasizes the critical role attorneys play in protecting the rights of people in the United States and around the world.

For more information contact:

John DeNatale

Assistant Dean of Communications

212.790.0237

DeNatale@yu.edu

Royalties, Rap And Race: The Top 10 Law Schools That Teach Real-Life Music Issues

October 24, 2016 Billboard Magazine - Behind the success of every hitmaker are the lawyers, fielding the deliberations, deals and disputes that are a constant part of today's music business.

While attorneys have always been important to artists and music ­companies, new business models, from brand licensing to streaming, have only increased the need for legal expertise. The scope of that expertise is also wider than ever, moving beyond issues of contract law to questions of intellectual property in the digital age.

At which law schools do the top music lawyers gain that expertise? These 10 stand out as the alma maters of the majority of the music ­industry's most accomplished attorneys.

BENJAMIN N. CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW
New York

FAME is the acronym for Cardozo's Fashion, Arts, Media and Entertainment Law Center, one of two programs targeting future music business lawyers, at the school's ­campus near Manhattan's Union Square. The second is the Intellectual Property and Information Law Program, under director Christopher Buccafusco. "Cardozo offers an incredibly deep range of ­opportunities for students interested in music law," says Buccafusco, "including ­internships, student groups, speaker series and practical-skills training."

Alumna: Julie Swidler, executive vp business affairs/general counsel, Sony Music Entertainment

Read more in Billboard Magazine. 

Stephanie Cuba Headshot.jpeg

Stephanie Cuba '99

On December 10, 2016, Congress approved legislation that will make it easier to reclaim art confiscated during World War II. According to The New York Times, "the measure will loosen, and standardize across the country, the statute of limitations on claims for the return of looted art."

In 1999, Stephanie Cuba '99 wrote a note in the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal titled "Stop The Clock: The Case to Suspend the Statute of Limitations on Claims for Nazi-Looted Art," which made the case for such reform. The piece won the prize for best note that year. 

Featured Alumni: John LaBarre '05, Head of Google's Patent Transactions Team

JohnLaBarre+Headshot+(2).jpg

John LaBarre '05

John LaBarre ’05 was recently promoted to the head of Google’s patent transactions team. As a leading provider of various technologies relating to search, artificial intelligence, networking, and computing, Google maintains a large, diverse patent portfolio overseen by Google's patent group. The patent transactions teams is involved with nearly all inbound, outbound, and cross-licensing deals for Google as well as divestitures and strategic acquisitions.

“I specifically attended Cardozo knowing I wanted to go into IP and the law school’s reputation in that area was key to my enthusiasm in attending,” said LaBarre. “And — understatement alert — Cardozo absolutely lived up to its considerable reputation as having great instructors and programs focused around IP.”

LaBarre says that he appreciated many of the practical IP courses he was exposed to as a second and third year student. “Most memorable for me was Professor Wolf’s class on patent litigation,” he said. “I honestly believe that this class better prepared me for my early career in litigation than probably any other experience.”

Prior to joining Google's transactions team in November 2014, John was a member of Google's patent litigation team for five-and-a-half years where he helped defend the company from a large number of patent cases including various matters that went to trial. Before joining Google in 2009, John worked as a patent litigator in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

Clive Davis, the legendary music executive and producer who shaped the careers of stars from Janis Joplin to Whitney Houston, provided Cardozo students and others with a detailed account of how his legal training, business acumen and ear for music brought him to the pinnacle of the music industry. On Thursday night, Jan. 19 he discussed his journey through— and to the top of—the music industry, in an interview with Cardozo alumna Julie Swidler ’82, in front of a capacity crowd in the Jacob Burns Moot Courtroom.

Since graduating from Cardozo in 1982 Julie Swidler has crafted an incredible career of her own in the music industry, rising to become the executive vice president for business affairs and general counsel for SONY Music Entertainment. She has had a long professional relationship with Davis and she has been listed on Billboard’s Top 100 and Top 40 lists of Women Executives in Music since 2011.

“Creative industries need creative lawyers,” said Cardozo’s Dean Melanie Leslie, in her introductory remarks. “There’s no better way for our students to understand that connection than from Clive Davis— a legend in the music industry. This kind of link is so important for our students and it is the reason we created the FAME Center for fashion, arts, media and entertainment law. We have a top-rated intellectual property program.”

Billboard Magazine recently listed Cardozo in their top ten law schools for lawyers in the music industry.

Swidler asked Davis, a Harvard Law School graduate who began his career as a lawyer and is currently Chief Creative Officer at SONY, how he got started at Columbia Records. Davis had been working at a private law firm. A former colleague offered him a position at Columbia and Davis became the company’s general counsel in 1960, after working there only six months. Davis continued at Columbia Records and said he “immersed himself into the business of music.” He was about to turn down an offer to serve as the president of the company’s musical instruments division, which would require Davis to move to the West Coast, when a fellow colleague took the position instead, and Davis fortuitously ended up staying in New York as the president of Columbia Records. He said he was out of place at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967-no other music company presidents were there-but due to the last minute visit to California, Davis said, “my life changed with those unexpected influences. I knew I was in the midst of a musical revolution.”

Shortly after the festival, Davis bought Janis Joplin’s contract and her first album sold 5 million copies. Columbia, which had previously avoided rock music, expanded its portfolio through Davis’ rock artist discoveries.

Davis is responsible for helping propel the careers of multitudes of artists including Whitney Houston, Alicia Keyes, Santana, Rod Stewart, Barry Manilow, Melissa Manchester, Aerosmith, and Aretha Franklin, among others. His “natural gift of ears” took him down a path working directly with artists, expanding more R&B and urban music. But at the height of his success at Columbia, he found himself forced out of the company in the early 1970s after an employee’s fraudulent billing scheme put Davis at the forefront of scrutiny. Swidler asked him how he handled this experience to which he responded, “You’ve got to be resilient.”

Resilient he was, taking his exit and leading himself to a new venture as the founder of Arista Records. Davis’ journey towards exposing more pop singers and matching up singers who didn’t write for themselves with songwriters, proved incredibly successful for Arista and led to the signing of such artists as Dionne Warwick and in 1983, Whitney Houston, who went on to unprecedented success as a pop singer.

Davis’ reunion with Carlos Santana in 1999 led to what Davis called “the proudest” album he ever worked on, Santana’s Supernatural, which won eight Grammy awards, a tremendous comeback for Santana who originally signed with Davis 30 years earlier. Davis himself was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

Swidler’s final question of the night focused on Davis’ family, jokingly asking him how his four children all ended up as lawyers. Two of his children are Cardozo alumni. The discipline of being a lawyer, Davis said “is a great background. The legal training that I got put me in very good stead.”

_SEG3170.JPG

Alumni honorees Ira Dizengoff '92, Stephen Breitstone '82, Emily Tisch Sussman '08, and Mark Yagerman '79 pose with Dean Melanie Leslie at the Tenth Annual Alumni Association Gala.

Cardozo Law's Tenth Annual Alumni Association Gala on February 15, 2017 was a huge success, exceeding its goal of raising $400,000 for the scholarship fund. More importantly, it brought together Cardozo community members to celebrate the school's 40th anniversary. Thank you to all who attended, and to our alumni honorees, Mark Yagerman '79, Stephen Breitstone '82, Ira Dizengoff '92 and Emily Tisch Sussman '08. 

According to The National Law Journal’s top 50 law school rankings released March 6, 7.72% of Cardozo’s 2016 graduates went on to work at top law firms. Cardozo Law is number 46 on the list, which is based on the percentage of each school's 2016 graduates who took associate jobs at the largest 100 firms.

To read more, visit The National Law Journal.

Cardozo Law Named 14th Best School for Practical Training in Nation, 1st in New York

The National Jurist Spring 2017 Edition - Cardozo School of Law was named the 14th best law school for practical training in the nation, receiving an "A" grade in the spring 2017 edition of The National Jurist. The magazine obtained its data from the ABA, and based their rankings on the number of clinical positions filed compared to the number of students enrolled in the school. Externships, simulations, and interschool competitions were also taken into consideration. 

Read the article in The National Jurist.