In Memoriam: Beatrice Silverstein Frank, 1928-2016

Beatrice Silverstein Frank, former clinical associate professor of law, passed away on April 21, 2016, at the age of 87. Frank joined NYU Law's clinical faculty in 1974, only a few years after the Law School began offering clinical courses. For many years, she taught the Consumer Law Clinic. Frank also worked closely with University Professor Emeritus Anthony Amsterdam in the 1980s and ’90s, and helped design and teach in the Lawyering Program that had just launched. Frank retired from the Law School in 2000 as a beloved teacher and colleague whose tireless commitment to experiential learning played a significant role in helping NYU Law build the program it has today.

Frank, a 1950 graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, went on to receive a degree in 1953 from Cornell Law School, where she was one of two women in her graduating class. Before joining the NYU Law faculty, she practiced law in New York City and edited law books. Frank served as vice president of the New York City Bar Association and chaired a number of its committees and task forces. She was also a member of the Departmental Disciplinary Committee of the First Judicial Department of the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division; the Mayor's Committee on the Judiciary under Mayor Ed Koch '48; the boards of directors of the Children's Law Center, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), and Washington Square Legal Services; and the Executive Committee of Mount Sinai School of Medicine's Institutional Review Board. Frank considered a particular accomplishment to be a 1991 report on the decline of the rule of law in Singapore and Malaysia that she co-authored with former NYU Law dean Robert McKay.

Posted May 16, 2016