The Goldstock-Jacobs faculty seminar is an invitation-only forum that welcomes criminal justice leaders from non-profits, government, academia and the private sector. The seminar is attended by criminal justice professionals, primarily faculty from NYU (from law and other disciplines), but also distinguished attorneys, policymakers, researchers, alumni, and visitors from around the world.
The seminar is generously supported by Ronald Goldstock, formerly the New York State Commissioner of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor and director of the New York Organized Crime Task Force, and a leading national authority on organized crime. The seminar is also named in memory of James B. Jacobs, former Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Professor of Constitutional Law and the Courts, who established the Center for Research in Crime and Justice at NYU Law in 1983 as well as the seminar and the Fortunoff (later Hoffinger) Colloquium lecture series.
The Goldstock-Jacobs Faculty Seminar is held Thursdays 1:10–2:25 p.m. during the academic semester. If you have any questions or would like more information about the seminar, please contact program assistant Jenna Kass.
Spring 2025 Speakers
February 6: Ruth O'Sullivan (PDF: 10 KB) on The Evolution of Brooklyn Mental Health Court
February 13: Chad Topaz on Data, Justice, and Accountability
February 20: Susie Bannon and Margaret Morton on Imagining Freedom
February 27: NYPD Deputy Commissioner Michael Gerber on Public Safety through Just, Impartial, and Modern Policing
March 6: Fran Hoffinger on Changes in the Matrimonial Laws Involving Domestic Violence: The Pros and Cons of Monetizing Criminal Charges
March 13: Marie Mark on New York City as a Sanctuary: History, Reality on the Ground and Current Threats
March 20: not meeting
March 27: not meeting
April 3: Max Markham on Reimagining Public Safety: The Proliferation of Non-Police Alternative Response Programs Around the Country
April 10: Josh Bowers on Moral and Instrumental Institutional Pride in the Age of Abolition and Trump
April 17: Former US Deputy AG Lisa Monaco on Reflections on Leadership of the Department of Justice
April 24: Avani Mehta Sood on Grudging Acquittals and Biased Lenity: Empirical Investigations of the Legal and Psychological Effects of Verdict Format in Criminal Cases
Previous Speakers
Fall 2024
Vanita Gupta, Inside Justice: USDOJ's Role in the Administration of Criminal Justice
Brenden Beck, Do Austerity Cuts Spare Police Budgets? Welfare-to-carceral Realignment During Fiscal Crises
Elizabeth Daniel Vasquez (PDF: 13 KB) and Emily Prokesch (PDF: 128 KB), A View From the Ground: Reflections on the Intersection of Forensics and the Criminal Legal System in the Time of AI
Leigh Bishop (PDF 37 KB), Complexities of Baby and Toddler Death Investigations
Josephine Hahn, Misdemeanor Enforcement: Diminished Caseloads and Persistent Racial Disparities
E. Danya Perry, Political Persecution in the Trump Era – Past and Future? The Inside Story of the Government’s Unconstitutional Attack on Michael Cohen
Sarah Seo, After Policing the Open Road: How a Historian Became a Lawyer
Rachana Pathak (PDF: 331 KB), Wage Theft: The Case for Criminal Prosecution
Jon Monsalve, Reentry Housing
Spring 2024
Adam Kolber, Punishment for the Greater Good: A Limited Defense of Consequentialist Punishment
Bridget Brennan, Why Are Fentanyl Dealers Killing Their Customers?
Kyung-Ji Kate Rhee, From Criminal Justice to Human Justice
Aaron Chalfin, Investments in Policing and Public Safety: A Review of the Evidence
Michael Jacobson, ISLG: Criminal Justice Investment Initiative and the Reducing Revocations Project
David Patton, Sayfullo Saipov and the Federal Death Penalty
Jocelyn Simonson, Radical Acts of Justice: How Ordinary People are Dismantling Mass Incarceration
Becca Goldstein, Legal Financial Obligations, Recidivism, and Legal Legitimacy: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial
Scott Hechinger, Building Legal Change: Moving Advocacy Outside of Court
Erin Murphy, The Criminal Legal System and the Executive Branch
US Attorney Breon Peace, Emerging Threats to National Security and Elections Through Foreign Influence and Technology
Westchester DA Mimi Rocah, Implementing Change as a District Attorney—Successes and Challenges
Fall 2023
Peter Martin | Tom Dybdahl | Jonathan McLean | Justine Olderman | Terri Rosenblatt (PDF: 45 KB) | Alex Piquero (PDF: 43 KB) | Judge John Gleeson | Lynn Paltrow | Oded Oren | Darren Breeden
Spring 2023
Bennett Capers | Sheldon Evans | US Attorney Damian Williams | Zach Intrater | Ben Polk | Nedim Hogic | Joanna Schwartz | Emerson Sykes | Anna Harvey | Chris Alexander | Avani Mehta Sood | Ronnate Asirwatham
Fall 2022
John Braithwaite | Valena Beety | Andrew Weissman | Ryan Goodman | Chesa Boudin | Erika Sasson | Katharine Huffman | Dr. Rachael Bedard | Joanna Weiss | Len Kamdang | Ames Grawert