Senior Writer
Tell us the story of how you came to work at NYU Law? Were you always in your current position?
When I first moved to New York, I worked for one of the Big Five book publishers. As a writer, I went into that job with the incredibly common misconception that an editorial role in book publishing is creative. In fact, it’s enabling other people to be creative, which can be its own reward but left me feeling like I wasn’t using my most valuable skill set.
After departing that role, I sought a career transition. Eventually, I applied for the editorial assistant position in the Law School’s Office of Communications. My job search had been frustratingly protracted, to the point where I was starting to apply for jobs in other cities. Then NYU Law offered me an interview, which was scheduled for December 20, 2005.
As it happened, a transit strike began that morning, halting public transportation citywide—the first such strike in New York City since 1980 and only the third ever. My interview was rescheduled for the following month, after the holidays, and I contemplated whether this was just a glaring neon sign that I should relocate.
But I went ahead with the interview and was offered the editorial assistant job the next day. After some thought, I accepted it. I’m still in the Office of Communications 18 years later, in the role of senior writer.
What’s a typical day for you like?
It’s become a cliché to say there’s no typical day in one’s job. I think there definitely is with mine, although there’s also enough variety to keep it interesting. At any given time, I’m working on at least one story for the website. Some stories are about Law School events; others are about a faculty member’s recent scholarship, the latest work coming out of a center or institute, a significant achievement by one of our alumni, or a new student initiative.
During the spring and summer, my colleagues and I are particularly focused on producing NYU Law’s annual magazine, which has a circulation of roughly 60,000 (so we definitely spell-check). I write a feature article every year along with shorter pieces, and I edit certain sections of the magazine.
From summer until the end of the year, I’m also overseeing our entire suite of admissions materials for prospective and admitted students. There are five different brochures, many with overlapping production schedules.
Finally, I created the NYU Law Branding Guide, which comprises a Design Projects Guide and an Editorial Style Guide that apply to all published NYU Law materials online and in print. Serial commas? You can blame/thank me for those.
What’s the most challenging thing about what you do? And what’s the most rewarding?
I see my job as translating into digestible, condensed form a sprawling array of complex ideas and innovations that come from across the brilliant NYU Law community. At the heart of every dense judicial opinion or weighty academic paper is a human story, and my goal is to convey that clearly to our audience. Perhaps my greatest challenge is that I don’t have formal legal training, but that also allows me an outsider’s perspective. It’s a viewpoint that makes it easier for me to explain things in lay terms.
The most rewarding thing about my job is that I get to tell stories for a living. Unlike a typical journalist moving from venue to venue for every article, I’ve been able to develop a deep institutional knowledge while reporting on the same community for all these years, even as that community evolves over time. Speaking of community, I should underscore how much I enjoy working with my talented colleagues in the Office of Communications. That's one of the main reasons why I've been here so long.
Of the hundreds of stories I’ve written, two stand out. For the 2017 magazine, I wrote a profile of Norman Dorsen, who had just passed away after teaching at NYU Law for 56 years. His lengthy career, focused on civil liberties, made an immense impact on countless people, and it was a daunting responsibility to write what likely will be among the definitive memorial pieces about a remarkable person.
In 2019, in observation of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, I wrote a feature about the Law School’s LGBTQ history. For several logical reasons, that history had not been formally or well recorded. I spent weeks in the basement of Bobst Library, combing through microfilm reels of NYU Law’s old student newspaper to find historical traces. I was able to pinpoint exactly when the LGBTQ student group, now known as OUTLaw, was founded, and who its founders were. All of this knowledge had been lost. I have vivid memories of interviewing alumni who shed tears as they recounted their experiences during the early HIV/AIDS pandemic. My task was to encapsulate a half century of LGBTQ history involving students, alumni, and faculty in five magazine pages—easy! There were many trade-offs, but I’m rather proud of the end product, which embodies the idea that the law really can change people’s lives.
Honorable mention goes to a piece I wrote on Amy Adler and Jeanne Fromer’s article about the law of memes, which served as an opportunity to put a photo of a chonky cat on the NYU Law homepage.
What do you wish you’d known about the Law School on your first day of working here?
I wish I’d known how long I’d end up being here, so that I wouldn’t have used up all my best jokes in my first week.
What is your favorite spot on campus, and why?
The Lester Pollack Colloquium Room in Furman Hall has great views of the city and great symposia—not necessarily in that order.
Posted March 22, 2024