In Memoriam

Thomas M. Britt III JD/MBA ’85 passed away on November 9, 2017, at age 57. Britt began his legal career at Sullivan & Cromwell before moving to Rogers & Wells, where he became a partner. During the time he spent at Rogers & Wells, Britt specialized in cross-border finance. He initially focused particularly on Latin America, where he created legal structures to provide emerging-market companies access to US and European capital markets. Britt then moved to Asia, establishing Rogers & Wells’s Hong Kong office in 1995 before joining Debevoise & Plimpton as a partner in the firm’s Hong Kong office. In the two decades that he practiced in Hong Kong, Britt served as a mentor to an entire generation of lawyers interested in international finance law. Recently, Britt had returned to Latin America, focusing on private equity work.

Roger J. Goebel ’60, LLM ’61, Root-Tilden Scholar, professor emeritus at Fordham Law School, and founder of the Fordham Center on European Union Law, passed away on April 20, 2018, at age 82. Goebel published extensively on international legal matters and helped introduce the annual EU law issue of the Fordham International Law Journal, “which is still eagerly awaited each year by lawyers and academics around the world,” said Gráinne de Búrca, Florence Ellinwood Allen Professor of Law at NYU School of Law.

Rhona Landau ’81, associate general counsel at Citigroup, passed away on October 13, 2017, at age 62. Prior to joining Citigroup in 1985, Landau worked as an associate at the law firm Kaye Scholer (now Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer). Landau was an active NYU School of Law alumna, and she served as a member of her Law School class reunion committee. As a committee member, Landau took pride in organizing events that brought her Law School classmates together. She was the wife of Steven Weissman LLM ’82 and the mother of Sarah Weissman ’15.

Richard Merz ’72 (1948–2017)

Richard Merz ’72 passed away on September 7, 2017, at age 69. During his time at NYU Law, Merz was a Root-Tilden Scholar. A native of New York, Merz spent the majority of his career specializing in real estate investment and management. Throughout his life, Merz worked at a range of New York law firms, including Proskauer Rose and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Most recently, he worked at Goldberg Weprin Finkel Goldstein. In addition to his work in real estate, Merz also did public service law: During the AIDS crisis, Merz worked pro bono to assist individuals with HIV/ AIDS diagnoses who faced housing eviction.

Calisha Myers ’15 passed away on September 11, 2017, at age 32. Myers was born in Washington, DC, and attended the University of Virginia as an undergraduate before going to NYU Law. An AnBryce Scholar, Myers chaired the Women of Color Collective, was a student advocate in the Legal Aid Prisoners’ Rights Clinic, and served on the Senior Board for the Law Review. After graduation, Myers became a Federal Communications Commission attorney in the Policy Division of the Media Bureau. In her honor, the Law Alumni of Color Association has created the Calisha Myers Memorial Convocation Award.

John Zampino LLM ’74 passed away on March 4, 2018, at age 73. Zampino spent his career in private practice, specializing in international tax and general cor- porate law, while also performing pro bono work throughout his life. Zampino was born in Bronx, New York, in 1944, and he attended Fordham Prep School and earned his BA and JD at Fordham University before completing an LLM at NYU Law in 1974. He was recently inducted into the Fordham Prep Football Hall of Fame. During his years on the team, he was a two-time recipient of the Lou Gehrig Award, awarded for sportsmanship, courage, and “gentlemanly conduct on and off the gridiron,” according to the Journal News. He was the father of Ana Zampino O’Neill ’07, LLM ’10.