Featured Alumni
In 1997, Estonian-born Airi Hammalov LLM ’01 visited New York for the very first time. It was love at first sight. Three years later, when she earned a Fulbright scholarship to study law, she saw her best chance to return to the city. “They offered…
In a decades-long career as a corporate-securities lawyer, Jonathan Baum ’78 has handled mergers and acquisitions, public and private offerings, securities litigation, and complex business transactions at law firms, investment banks, and asset…
During his remarkable career, Alfred Engelberg ’65 has been a chemical engineer, a trial attorney at the US Department of Justice, a patent lawyer, a philanthropist—and an author. In his new book, Breaking the Medicine Monopolies: Reflections of a…
From his days at New York City Hall to his studies at NYU Law to his work with nonprofit organizations countering gun violence and police misconduct, Max Markham has long been drawn to public policy advocacy and addressing societal wrongs. This past…
When President Biden nominated Jessica Rosenworcel ’97 to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 2021, she was the first woman confirmed by the US Senate to serve as a permanent chair of the agency. Previously, she had served as…
From 2008 to 2010, David Tracey ’13 worked as a community organizer for Community Pride, an offshoot of Harlem Children’s Zone, working with tenants to improve housing conditions, advocating for gun reform, and campaigning for greater resources in…
Elliot Kaye ’04 has had a varied and illustrious career: former chair of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), senior vice president of policy at food relief nonprofit World Central Kitchen (WCK), and now partner at Cooley LLP. But after…
Patrick Dykstra ’05 swims with whales. But before that, he went to NYU Law.
Patrick Dykstra ’05
An award-winning videographer, wildlife chronicler, and television presenter, Dykstra has traveled to Norway, Sri Lanka, Yemen, and the…
During the 2016 US presidential election, Rachel Goodman ’10 says, she was troubled by online disinformation campaigns aimed at preventing or discouraging some Americans—often people of color—from voting. Goodman, who was then a staff attorney for…
In 2023, the global market for mergers and acquisitions was at its lowest volume in more than decade, according to Dealogic. But no one seems to have told Laura Turano ’11, LLM ’12. In the past 18 months, she has helped secure a succession of major…
In February, the Family Justice Law Center, founded and directed by David Shalleck-Klein ’16, filed a class action lawsuit against the City of New York, alleging that the city’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) uses coercive and…
Ren Ito LLM ’04 expected to practice law after completing his LLM, but other opportunities kept getting in the way. First, it was the chance to work in the political office of the Japanese Embassy in Washington, DC. Then it was the opportunity to…
You might say that Sean Burton ’97 has an interest in getting things off the ground, whether they’re companies, real estate development projects, or airplanes. He’s a cofounder and the CEO of Cityview, a Los Angeles-based real estate and investment…
Plaintiff-side employment lawyer Emily Stephens Naphtal ’15 has two plants in her office: a peace lily and a money tree. She says they’re helpful reminders of what she hopes to win for her clients.
Emily Naphtal
“My clients come to me at…
This past summer, as part of a team of trial attorneys in the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s Civil Rights Division, Nonny Onyekweli ’16 helped secure a major victory for children with disabilities and their families. In July, the US District Court…
Growing up, Li Nowlin-Sohl ’11 (she/her) says, she thought of lawyers as “just angry people banging tables on TV.” But in 2006, while working on the first congressional campaign for now-Senator Peter Welch from Vermont, Nowlin-Sohl says, she began…
Right before her 1L year, Kate Sinding Daly ’97 spent a few months living in Los Angeles. Watching pollution fog the city during the day convinced Sinding Daly that she wanted to work in the environmental sector. “I began to see and really think…
When Zelma Acosta-Rubio MCJ ’89 was a young law student in her native Venezuela, she took a vacation to New York City. A friend had asked her to bring back a brochure about NYU Law’s Master of Comparative Jurisprudence (MCJ) degree. When she stopped…
When Helena Heath ’87 was in second grade, she recalls, a classmate was wrongly scolded for talking while the teacher’s back was turned. Heath spoke out in support of the other student. The teacher asked Heath to stay after class—and snapped that if…
Annie Vodhanel Preis ’13 first began thinking about pursuing a legal degree while she was working with non-government organizations in Indonesia during a post-college fellowship. She wanted to study law so she could help more people but was unsure…