Margaret Lemos '01 joins Duke Law faculty

Margaret LemosMargaret Lemos ’01, a former Furman Academic Fellow and Furman Program coordinator at the NYU School of Law, became a professor at Duke University School of Law this summer. She was previously an associate professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

A constitutional law scholar, Lemos writes in her scholarship about federalism, administrative law, statutory interpretation, and civil procedure. Before teaching at Cardozo, where students voted her best first-year teacher two years in a row, she clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Kermit V. Lipez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. She also worked as a Bristow Fellow in the Department of Justice’s Office of the Solicitor General.

Lemos is among more than a dozen NYU Law alumni entering new faculty positions in the past year. Another example is Alina Das '05, now an assistant professor of clinical law at the Law School, who co-teaches the Immigrant Rights Clinic with Nancy Morawetz '81. For those NYU Law students and alumni who want to pursue a teaching career, the Law School has several programs that address directly the specific needs of future law professors.

The Furman Academic Scholars Program gives J.D. students an early start on a career path in legal teaching. Furman Academic Scholars, who receive full tuition and summer research funding, create individualized programs of study tailored to their intellectual interests. Faculty mentors provide guidance, and a host of lunches and seminars on legal scholarship and teaching help Furman Academic Scholars learn more about their future profession. After earning a J.D., NYU Law graduates can apply to the Furman Academic Fellowship Program, as Lemos did. The program provides fellows with a stipend, other material support, and time to produce a work of serious scholarship.

Open to all NYU Law students and alumni, the Academic Careers Program offers individual counseling, support, information, and special programming to those interested in teaching law. Among other opportunities, the program offers a scholarship clinic for members of the Law School community pursuing scholarship and publication, and a job camp allowing potential professors to present their work and practice interviewing.

In a more specialized vein, the Samuel I. Golieb Fellowship Program is the oldest legal history program of its kind. Future legal historians receive both research support and a forum—the Legal History Colloquium—to develop their scholarship before going on to become leaders in their field.

Posted on September 22, 2011