Featured Alumni

When Emily Loeb ’09 was a new lawyer in the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), she received advice from a mentor that has shaped her career, she says: Evaluate potential career moves not as steps to a goal, but based on the…

Derwyn Bunton ’98 was working as a juvenile public defender in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. The chaos that followed, he says, revealed to the nation how broken Louisiana’s criminal justice system was. “With so many eyes on…

After decades as a hedge fund portfolio manager for Elliott Management, Jay Newman LLM ’81, knew he had a book in him.
Jay Newman LLM ’81
Newman’s debut novel, Undermoney, was published by Scribner last year. A political thriller packed…

As an undergraduate at Harvard University, Jennifer Wu ’04 volunteered at a rape crisis center, helping counsel women on their trauma and their rights after an assault. Now a sought-after patent litigator who co-founded a new intellectual property…

When Seth Zachary LLM ’80 joined the New York office of Los Angeles-based Paul Hastings as partner in 1987, he was one of just two tax lawyers in the office—and shortly after he joined, the other tax attorney left for a government position. Zachary…

Marissa Alter-Nelson ’07 came to NYU Law to be a human rights lawyer, but discovered a passion for litigation while working as part of a trial team in the Federal Defender Clinic during her 3L year. Working as a litigation associate at Sidley Austin…

Michael Fitzpatrick MS CRS ’19 spent nearly a decade working on counterterrorism and privacy matters as an embedded attorney in the New York City Police Department (NYPD)’s Intelligence Bureau. As security threats online multiplied, Fitzpatrick felt…

In 2019, Cindy Chang ’02, then a Los Angeles Times staff writer covering the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), noticed that the LAPD—unlike similar metropolitan police departments—didn’t report demographic analysis on the drivers who were pulled…

Twenty-seven years as a tax attorney at Debevoise & Plimpton, says Peter Furci ’95, LLM ’99, have honed his inherent love for problem-solving. An expert in private equity and M&A as well as co-chair of the firm’s global tax department, Furci…

For Adrienne Austin ’05, combatting racist systems has been a common thread throughout a varied career. After NYU Law, she worked as a trial attorney at the Bronx Defenders, then spent two years at the Vera Institute of Justice, a research and…

From international human rights to voting rights to prison reform, and from policy work to litigation and then back to policy, the career of Naila Awan LLM ’12 has taken many turns, but collaboration and dedication to human rights have been constant…

Some nights (pre-pandemic), after playing a set with her rock band, New Day Dawn, Dawn Botti ’94 would be approached by a member of the audience. Often the person was a fan, but many times it was a fellow musician, asking her to look over a touring…

NYU Law Women presented Bridget McCormack ’91, Chief Justice at the Michigan Supreme Court, with the group’s 2022 Alumna of the Year award at a virtual event on February 10. A student organization whose mission is to help women succeed in law and to…

When Peter Van Valkenburgh ’14 moved to New York City after high school to try his hand at an acting career, he taught himself web design to help pay the bills. “Getting into the web design world got me really into the internet, and ultimately into…

Keker, Van Nest & Peters name partner Elliot Peters ’85 frequently works on high-stakes litigation matters, representing clients such as cyclist Lance Armstrong, the Major League Baseball Association, and financier Frank Quattrone. He has been…

On June 21, in his concurring opinion in the 9-0 decision National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston, US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh cited an amicus brief co-written by Patrick A. Bradford ’89 and other Black antitrust lawyers. The…

As an assistant professor of arts management at the State University of New York’s Purchase College, Laura Ricciardi ’08 researches the legal issues surrounding contested public monuments. Along with her teaching and research, Ricciardi is also a…

In 2014, as co-founder of a legal technology startup, PacerPro, Anna McGrane ’10 wanted to better understand the new company’s intended market, large law firms. She found an important resource in the NYU Law Jacobson Leadership Program in Law and…

Tanya Coke ’94, now director of the Ford Foundation’s gender, racial, and ethnic justice team, recalls that when she grew up as a Jamaican immigrant just outside Columbus, Ohio, she was one of only a few Black students in her school. “I felt the…

In 2015, Gelvina Rodriguez Stevenson ’99 helped launch a health and life sciences section within the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA). As she drafted the proposal, she thought back on her involvement with NYU Law’s Law Alumni of Color…