Touro Law Center

Touro Law Center,^[1] also known as the Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center,^[2] is a law school in Central Islip, New York.

History[edit | edit source]

The Touro Law Center was established in 1980 as part of Touro College, a private, coeducational institution based in New York City. Founded under Jewish auspices by Dr. Bernard Lander, the College was chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York in 1970.

In April 1986, it was officially named the Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, in honor of Judge Fuchsberg, who served as an associate justice of the New York State Court of Appeals from 1975 to 1983.

Touro Law Center had been housed in a former public school in Huntington, New York on Long Island, until December 2006. In January 2007, the law center opened a brand new & state of the art building in Central Islip. The school is adjacent to the Alfonse M. D'Amato United States Courthouse, John P. Cohalan, Jr. Courthouse and the neighboring Citibank Park, which were built on the Template:Convert grounds of the Central Islip Psychiatric Center which closed in 1996. The school's proximity to a state and federal courthouse allows the school to offer a number of programs and opportunities for students to receive real world practical experience, making it unique among law schools.

In February 2008, a proposed purchase of the school by SUNY Stony Brook fell through.^[3][4]

Other programs[edit | edit source]

Touro hosts a number of specialized institutes and international law programs. Touro's 2005 conference at the site of the Nuremberg Trials has led to a new film, "Hitler’s Courts: The Betrayal of the Rule of Law in Nazi Germany," which premiered in the fall of 2006. Touro also hosts the Institute of Jewish Law, the Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, and the Institute for Business, Law and Technology, each of which offers courses for students and programs for attorneys and others.

Touro offers a host of clinic opportunities which give students a chance to represent actual clients with real legal problems. Under the close supervision of faculty, clinic students are able to advise clients and appear on their behalf in court or at administrative hearings. Currently, 7 clinics are offered: Civil Rights Litigation Clinic, Elder Law Clinic, Family Law Clinic, Not-for-Profit Corporation Law Clinic, Veterans’ and Service Members’ Rights Clinic, Mortgage Foreclosure and Bankruptcy Clinic and the Advanced Bankruptcy Clinic.

Touro has a mandatory TA program that all first-year law students must attend. It is a study group model that many law schools throughout the country are implementing. The programs goal is to help 1Ls learn how to apply more learning theories throughout the law school environment. Small groups of students (between 9 and 12) are assigned an upperclassman who has had to go through an application and interview process. Each week, the TA’s (as they are known) go through different subjects with the students and help them understand how to attack hypotheticals and provide guidance for the students’ first year in law school. The Program is run by Professors Suzanne Darrow Kleinhaus and Nancy Chanin.

Prominent faculty[edit | edit source]

• Sol Wachtler - Former Chief Judge of New York Court of Appeals. Judge Wachtler is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Touro.
• Arlene Rosario Lindsay - United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York. Professor Lindsay teaches Pre-Trial Litigation & Trial Practice.
• Joseph Frank Bianco - Appointed by President George w. Bush as a United States District Judge in the Eastern District of New York. Judge Bianco Teaches National Security and the Law.
• Rodger Citron - Associate Professor of Law. Professor Citron teaches Civil Dispute Resolution & Procedures, Administrative Law, Complex Litigation, Jurisprudence, and Law & Literature. Professor Citron's law review articles have been published in the New York Law School Law Review, the Michigan State Law Review, the Administrative Law Review, and the Review of Litigation, and his student note in the Yale Law Journal has been cited by three courts and in more than 30 law review articles.
• Suzanne Darrow Kleinhaus - Professor Darrow Kleinhaus is the Director of Academic Development and also teaches Contracts II & an Applied Legal Studies Practicum. She is the author of "Acing Contracts" and "Mastering the Law School Exam". Both texts are often recommended for 1Ls at law schools throughout the nation.
• Michael Lewyn- Associate Professor of Law. Professor Lewyn leads the school's Institute on Land Use and Sustainable Development. He teaches Property, Land Use, Environmental Law, and Trusts and Estates. His scholarship focused on issues related to land use and urban development; his articles have been cited in over 300 treatises and law review articles.
• Hon. Jerald S. Carter - Acting Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Nassau County. Judge Carter teaches Pre-Trial Litigation, Professional Responsibility, and Trail Practice.

Notable alumni[edit | edit source]

• Hon. Anthony S. Beltrami - Judge, Court of Common Pleas of Northampton County, Pennsylvania^[5]
• Matthew W. Daus - former Commissioner/Chair of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission^[6]
• Hon. Rhonda Erin Fischer - Nassau County District Court Judge
• Lindsay Henry - Babylon Town Councilman
• Daniel Panico - Brookhaven Town Councilman
• John Andrew Kay - District Court Judge
• Mark Bonilla - Hempstead Town Clerk
• John Jay LaValle - former Brookhaven Town Supervisor and current Chair of the Suffolk County Republican Party
• Marc Alessi (2003) - former New York State Assemblyman
• John J. Flanagan (1990) - New York State Senator, 2nd Senate District
• Kenneth LaValle (1987) - New York State Senator, 1st Senate District
• Christine Malafi - County Attorney, Suffolk County, New York^[7]
• Kathleen M. Rice (1991) - U.S. Representative, 4th District, New York.
• Bikram Singh - housing attorney, said to be the most famous Bhangra fusion star in North America according to the New York Times^[8]
• Capt. James Văn Thạch - first Vietnamese American military adviser to the Iraqi Army; only U.S. servicemember to be awarded the rank of Honorary Brigadier General in the Iraqi Army^[9][10]
• Seymour Liebman- Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer of Canon U.S.A., Inc.
• Honorable Merik Aaron- Nassau County Family Court Judge/Acting Supreme Court Justice New York State Unified Court System
• Indira Edwards- Director, General Counsel at Capital One Bank
• Tom Rosicki- Retired FBI Agent, former Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission in 1989, former Vice President Director of Security for Macy’s East, former Chairman of the Nassau County Parole Board where he served for three years,former Chairman of the Society of Former FBI Agents, New York Chapter, and currently serves on the board as President of the Association for the Help of Retarded Children (AHRC), and on the business advisory council of The Rehabilitation Institute.
• Hon. Lynn Kotler- Manhattan Criminal Court. Former Manhattan Civil Court Judge.
• Adam Bialow- Vice President (Business and Legal Affairs) for Shine International. Former Executive Vice President of International Business and Legal Affairs for Lionsgate.
• Richard Weber- Deputy Chief, Investigation Division; Chief, Major Economic Crimes Bureau New York County District Attorney’s Office. Former U.S. Attorney.
• Hon. Margaret Chan- Civil Court Judge, King's County. (Brooklyn)
• Hon. Jeffrey Arlen Spinner- Judge, County Court of Suffolk; Acting Judge, Family Court of Suffolk; Acting Justice Supreme Court
• Bradley Blakeman-Advisor to George W. Bush and Foxnews Contributor.
• Joseph Addabbo,Jr.- New York State Senator, 15th Senate District

References[edit | edit source]