Furman Academic Program

Current Furman Scholars

Third-Year Students 

Bower 2023

Pieter Brower '24

Pieter is interested in exploring the intersection of law and democracy, with a focus on constitutional and administrative law. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors from Brown University in 2018, where he studied Spanish and Public Policy and wrote a thesis on the representation of Spanish nationalism in film. Before coming to NYU, Pieter spent several years working in Democratic party politics, primarily in state legislative races across the country. At NYU, he is President of the NYU Law Democrats, a member of the OUTLaw board, and a staff editor on the Annual Survey of American Law. He has also worked as a research assistant for Professors Barry Friedman, Richard Pildes, and Noah Rosenblum, for the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice, and at WilmerHale.
 

Colin Heath Website Photo

Colin Heath '24

Colin studies tax law and policy and is interested in the role that market valuations play in the federal income tax. Originally from Aurora, Ohio, he received his B.S. in Applied and Computational Mathematics from the University of Southern California in 2021. At NYU, Colin is the Senior Online Editor of the NYU Law Review, and has worked as a Teaching Assistant for Professors Daniel Hemel and Richard Brooks and a Research Assistant for Professor Helen Hershkoff. After graduating, he will clerk for Judge Emin Toro of the U.S. Tax Court.

Maya K Pic

Maya Konstantino '24

Maya Konstantino is interested in the intersection of public health law, intellectual property and tort law. She has a Bachelor of Science in Biomolecular Science, English Literature and Entrepreneurship from the University of Michigan, where she was in the LSA Honors Program. Prior to law school, Maya co-founded a pharmaceutical start-up and worked as an analyst for a biotech incubator. During her 1L summer she worked at Synchron – a brain computer interface company – where she researched data privacy laws as they relate to brain data. She spent her 2L summer at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. At NYU, Maya is a Jacobson Leadership Program scholar, an executive editor on the Journal of Legislation & Public Policy,  an RA for Kenji Yoshino and Barry Friedman and a teaching assistant for Torts and Criminal Law.
 

Eva Quinones

Eva Quinones '24

Eva is focused on election law and disenfranchisement, voting behavior, and comparative rule of law, as it pertains to democratic erosion and the ways in which right-wing populists undermine institutions. She holds a M.A. (2019) and M.Phil (2021) in Political Science from Yale University, where she is also a Ph.D. candidate, and a B.A. in Economics and Global and International Studies from Bard College (2017). In addition to her academic interests, Eva-Marie is a strong proponent of civic engagement, and has previously co-directed a nonpartisan student voting initiative affiliated with the Andrew Goodman Foundation and held a fellowship with the Foundation, served as Head of National Youth Engagement for the Unity March for Puerto Rico, trained high school and college students in competitive debate, and worked with several political campaigns.

 

Hannah Walser

Hannah Walser '24

Hannah’s research interests include constitutional law, with a particular focus on the First Amendment; criminal law; methods of constitutional and statutory interpretation; and the intersection of law and the philosophy of mind. Works in progress include a student note, “True Threats as Promises”; a philosophy article, “Social Cognition and Deliberative Freedom”; and “Vagueness, Double Consciousness, and the Criminal Law,” which will be published in a special issue of Critical Analysis of Law. At NYU Law, Hannah has worked as a research assistant for Professors Emma Kaufman and Melissa Murray; she spent her 2L summer at Everytown Law. Hannah holds a PhD in English from Stanford University. Before coming to NYU, she taught students ranging from middle schoolers to undergraduates and spent three years at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Her book, Writing the Mind: Social Cognition in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction, is available from Stanford University Press.

 

Yidi Wu

Yidi Wu '24

Yidi is interested in administrative law and financial regulations. At NYU, Yidi serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the NYU Law Review and has worked as a TA for Ryan Bubb and Richard Brooks, and an RA for Helen Hershkoff, Adam Cox, and Barry Friedman. Prior to law school, she worked in Capital One's Strategy Group, as a Regional Organizing Director on the Elizabeth Warren for President campaign, and at the Health and Human Services as a Special Assistant for the Office of Community Services. Yidi graduated from Brown University with a BA in Philosophy and Economics.

 

Second-Year Students

Keton Kakkar

Keton Kakkar '25

Keton is interested in how changes in technology alter the background presumptions of substantive and procedural law. He works on the legal applications and regulations of artificial intelligence, particularly concerning tort, property, and copyright. He holds a B.A. in Computer Science and English Literature, with Honors, from Swarthmore College, where he ran the student newspaper and conducted research on machine learning. After college, he worked at a real estate boutique, guiding clients through property transactions. At the law school, he is a Pomeroy Scholar, a Robert A. Katzmann Fellow, and a Cybersecurity Scholar. He has worked as an RA for Professor Catherine Sharkey and Professor Samuel Estreicher and will serve as a TA for Professor Barry Adler’s Contracts course in Fall 2023. He is an editor on the Journal of Law and Liberty. Keton spent his 1L summer at the US Attorney’s office in Brooklyn. He will split his 2L summer between Susman Godfrey and Gibson Dunn. In the 2026–27 term, Keton will clerk for the Honorable Richard J. Sullivan of the Second Circuit.

 

Samuel Orloff

Samuel Orloff '25

Sam is interested in the intersection of U.S. foreign policy, national security law, and procedure. This semester, Sam is serving as a TA for Professor Emma Kaufman’s LRS course, a research assistant for Professor Barry Friedman, and a Staff Editor at the NYU Law Review. This past summer, Sam was a judicial intern in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York and worked as a research assistant for Professor Helen Hershkoff. Prior to law school, Sam was a James C. Gaither Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021 with a BA in History and Political Science.

 

Nina Russell

Nina Sankey Russell '25

Nina's research focuses on empirical analysis of the modern U.S. corporation. Motivated by an interest in the economic and national security implications of U.S. corporate law, Nina is also pursuing a Ph.D. in Jurisprudence & Social Policy at UC Berkeley and has served as a staff member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Originally from Charlottesville, Virginia, Nina holds degrees from Yale University (B.A., Ethics, Politics, and Economics) and Tsinghua University (Masters, Global Affairs, Schwarzman Scholar). At NYU Law, Nina has worked as a research assistant for Professor Richard Brooks and Professor Robert Jackson, and will be a teaching assistant for Professor Brooks' Corporations course in Fall 2023.

 

Jordan Waller

Jordan Waller '25

Jordan is interested in the intersection of constitutional law, administrative law, and the construction of national identity in the United States and internationally. At NYU, she is a Staff Editor for the Journal of International Law and Politics and will be a teaching assistant for Professor Barry Adler’s first year Torts class. Prior to law school, Jordan served as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, worked as a podcast producer for Crooked Media, and got her MA in Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European studies from The Harriman Institute at Columbia University. At Columbia, her work was supported by a PepsiCo Fellowship. She received her BA from Brown University in 2018 where she studied Political Science and History.

 

First-Year Students

Sturkey 2023

Brianna Sturkey '26

Brianna graduated cum laude from Barnard College in 2020 with a dual degree in sociology and human rights. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a litigation paralegal at the New York Civil Liberties Union. There, she provided support to the legal director and senior staff attorneys for a wide-ranging docket of civil rights cases. Brianna’s research interests focus on exploring the intersection of urban policy and educational institutions as landowners. Specifically, she wants to examine to the role of universities as urban planners and help define their legal, socioeconomic, and ethical obligations to neighboring communities.