Third-Year Students
Keton Kakkar '25
Keton is interested in how changes in technology alter the background presumptions of substantive and procedural law. He writes on the relationship between artificial intelligence and the common law subjects, such as tort and physical and intellectual property. 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. At the law school, Keton has received the Butler, Pomeroy, and Cybersecurity Scholar awards and had the honor of being one of three Robert A. Katzmann Fellows his 2L year. In addition to running various student organizations, he has worked as a teaching assistant for Barry Adler and a research assistant for over seven members of the faculty — most significantly heading up the recent revision of Cases and Materials on Torts, Volume 1, under Professor Sharkey. During his summers he worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn and the firms Gibson Dunn and Susman Godfrey. In the 2026–27 term, Keton will clerk for the Honorable Richard J. Sullivan of the Second Circuit.
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 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 '25
Jordan is interested in administrative law, and its intersection with cultural policy, in the United States and internationally. At NYU, she is a Senior Articles Editor for the Journal of International Law and Politics and Research Assistant for Professor Erin Murphy. Jordan has also served as a teaching assistant for Professor Barry Adler’s first year Torts class. She spent her 2L summer at the Smithsonian Institution's Office of the General Counsel. 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. Upon graduation from NYU School of Law, Jordan will clerk for Judge Lisa Wang of the Court of International Trade for the 2025-2026 term and Chief Judge Virginia Kendall of the Northern District of Illinois for the 2026-2027 term.
Second-Year Students
Hannah Pittock '26
Hannah is interested in Antitrust law, competition policy, and consumer protection. During her 1L summer, she worked as a law clerk on Senator Amy Klobuchar's Judiciary Committee staff, focusing on antitrust and competition issues. This fall, she will extern with the Federal Trade Commission's Anticompetitive Practices I division before joining Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider as a summer associate in 2025. Prior to law school, Hannah worked at Morgan Stanley as a stock analyst covering the retail sector and publishing consumer economic research. She received her B.A. in 2020 from the University of Chicago in Political Science and Economics.
Micah Musser '26
Micah’s research interests include tort, national security, and procedure, especially in the context of technological change. He is particularly interested in how the law codes and responds to “harms” or “threats” posed by new technologies. He graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University with a B.A. in Government. After undergrad, he worked for four years at a D.C.-based think tank, writing on AI and cybersecurity policy issues. At NYU, he has worked as an RA for Professors Mark Geistfeld, Helen Hershkoff, and Maggie Gardner (Cornell), and will be a TA for Professor Burt Neuborne’s Civil Procedure course in Fall 2024. He is a staff editor on Law Review. He spent his 1L summer as an intern for Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A and will spend his 2L summer at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.
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.
First-Year Students
Zachary Lewis '27
Zach is interested in the historical origins of America’s criminal justice system and welfare state, and their relationship to the economy and labor market. He received his BA in Comparative Literature, with High Honors, from New York University in 2018. After graduating, Zach worked at a labor union in New York City and as a research assistant for Professor Adaner Usmani in the Department of Sociology at Harvard. Zach is currently pursuing a PhD in sociology at NYU, where his interests include crime and punishment, political sociology, labor and social movements, and inequality and social stratification.
Jess Robinson '27
Jess’s research employs a mixed methods approach to the study of criminal law, social networks, and the politics of expertise, social science, and technology. She holds a B.A. (2020) in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Chicago and an M.A. (2024) in Sociology from Columbia University, where she is currently also a PhD student. Previously, Jess worked as a Senior Data Analyst at CORNERS: The Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research and Science, where she collaborated with community-based violence intervention organizations in Chicago.
Eva Yguico '27
Eva is interested in the philosophical foundations of criminal law, along with other issues in moral, political, and social philosophy. She is currently pursuing a PhD in philosophy at Harvard University, where her dissertation asks: What would a just system of criminal law look like? And what lessons, if any, does that teach us about our present system of criminal law? Before starting her PhD, Eva graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a B.A. in philosophy. She also worked as a legal intern for the Open Society Foundations and the CA Superior Courts.
Cecilia Zhou '27
Cecilia’s research interests center around ontological issues in art, technology, and intellectual property law. Her article “Real World, Real Time,” on historical scientific instruments, is forthcoming in a special issue of RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics. Cecilia holds an MPhil in History of Art from the University of Cambridge, where she was the Paul Williams Scholar at Emmanuel College. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an AB in History of Art & Architecture and English.