Current Furman Scholars
Third-Year Students
Joseph Borges-Santos '27
Joseph is interested in the taxation of emerging businesses and their investors, tax administration, and the policy challenges and opportunities created by artificial intelligence. He is also broadly interested in corporate law and legal history. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge and an M.St. in Philosophy from the University of Oxford. Prior to law school, Joseph worked as a legal analyst at Y Combinator, where he helped startup founders navigate the legal aspects of launching a venture-backed business. He is a staff editor of Tax Law Review, a research assistant to Professor Helen Hershkoff, and will serve as a teaching assistant in Professor Hershkoff’s Civil Procedure course in Fall 2025.
Joanna Cohen '27
Jo is interested in technology law as it intersects with constitutional law, civil rights, and consumer protection. Prior to law school she worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, using data science techniques to address racial bias in machine learning/AI underwriting algorithms and strengthen lawsuits against predatory financial services and products. She graduated from Columbia University with a BA cum laude in Physics. After 1L she spent the summer at the Orleans Public Defenders. At NYU she has worked as an RA for Professor Erin Murphy and Professor Emma Kaufman, and in Fall 2025 she will be a TA for Professor Samuel Issacharoff's Civil Procedure class.
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.
Lior Polani '27
Lior is interested in the allocation of judicial power in personal jurisdiction, examining how courts distribute authority between state and federal systems and the practical mechanisms that determine where cases can be heard. His research interests also include AI and law, the intersection of law and technology, privacy implications of emerging technologies, and how artificial intelligence shapes legal practice.
Originally from Boca Raton, Florida, Lior earned his B.A. in Philosophy cum laude from the University of Florida. Before law school, he worked as a paralegal at a plaintiff’s firm in Florida and served on the board of Brain Bowl Events, an annual charity which has raised over one million dollars to combat neurodegenerative diseases. At NYU, Lior is a staff editor on the NYU Law Review and has worked as a research assistant for Professors Oren Bar-Gill, Helen Hershkoff, and Samuel Estreicher, with whom he recently published an article on AI’s limitations in the practice of law in Justia Verdict. During his 1L summer, he worked at NYU’s Institute for Judicial Administration and will spend his 2L summer as a summer associate at Holwell Shuster & Goldberg.
Sarah Wheaton '27
Sarah's research interests are at the intersection of administrative law and economic policy. She graduated with High Honors in Economics and Political Science from Swarthmore College. Before law school, Sarah spent three years in the Biden-Harris Administration, first at the White House Council of Economic Advisers and then at the Department of Commerce. At NYU, she has worked as an RA for Professors Lily Batchelder, David Kamin, and Ricky Revesz, and she co-authored a forthcoming Duke Law Journal article with Professor Revesz on regulatory benefit-cost analysis. She has also served as a TA for Professor Noah Rosenblum and as a Notes Editor for the Law Review. She spent her 2L summer litigating cutting-edge appropriations and administrative law issues at Jacobson Lawyers Group and will clerk on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the D.C. Circuit after graduation.
Eva Yguico '27
Eva questions the normative foundations of the penal state, and the meaning and permissible means of racial justice. These questions often find expression in areas like criminal law, criminal procedure, immigration, and constitutional law. As a law student, Eva has worked at the Policing Project, the Immigrant Defense Project, and the Immigrant Rights Clinic. She has also worked as a research assistant for Professors Barry Friedman and David Garland. Additionally, Eva is a PhD candidate at Harvard University, where her research and teaching covers broad topics in moral, political, and legal philosophy. Born and raised in California, Eva graduated with a B.A. in philosophy from UCLA.
Cecilia Zhou '27
Cecilia’s research interests center around ontological issues in art, technology, and intellectual property law. Prior to law school, she worked on scientific instruments, astronomical diagrams, and the shift from manuscript to print culture between the later Middle Ages and Early Modern period. Her work has been published in the peer-reviewed academic journal 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. At NYU, Cecilia serves as an Articles Editor on the NYU Law Review. She has worked as a teaching assistant for Professor Noah Rosenblum and as a research assistant to Professors Barton Beebe, Amy Adler, Brittany Farr, and Noah Rosenblum. Cecilia will spend her 2L summer at Debevoise & Plimpton.
Second-Year Students
Reuben Kadushin '28
Reuben’s research explores the intellectual and institutional history of Latin American jurists’ theories of economic and political sovereignty, social property, corporatism, and state-led development. He is interested in examining the extent to which these legal and political frameworks shaped and circulated within Non-Aligned Movement states during the global 1960s. He earned his B.A. in Political Sociology with a minor in English Literature from Swarthmore College, graduating with Highest Honors. At Swarthmore, he was awarded the Oak and Ivy Award and was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. His honors thesis analyzed the relationship between anti-communism and state-sponsored indigenismo in the immediate aftermath of the Mexican Revolution. As a Mellon Mays Fellow, he also conducted research on the political thought of W.E.B. Du Bois during the Cold War, culminating in a peer-reviewed article published in the October 2024 issue of Science & Society. Reuben is currently pursuing a JD at NYU Law and a Ph.D. in History at New York University, where he is affiliated with the Department of History and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He can be reached at: Rk5187@nyu.edu.
Brandon Liu '28
Brandon studies the effects of artificial intelligence on administrative decision-making, discrimination, labor, and the courts. He is also a PhD student in Information Science at Cornell Tech, advised by Professors James Grimmelmann and Solon Barocas. In 2024, he worked on AI policy and regulation in the Office of Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya at the Federal Trade Commission and at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Previously, he was Head of Engineering at Blue Rose Research, where he applied machine learning to political message testing to advance progressive politics. Prior to Covid, Brandon lived in India for four years, where he developed and deployed technology for tuberculosis care with Everwell Health Solutions and spent a year living with farmers and Gandhian activists in rural north India. He studied development studies at SOAS, political sociology at the LSE, and received his undergraduate degree in computer science from Harvard.
Jess Robinson '28
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.
Annabelle W. Tao '28
Annabelle is interested in all things fire, from prescribed fire regulations to natural disaster insurance. They received an A.B. (2021) in philosophy, with highest honors, from Harvard University and then spent a year working in prescribed and cultural fire in California and Australia. Annabelle is currently pursuing a PhD in philosophy at NYU, focusing on philosophy of ecology and environmental ethics. They also collaborate with the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford on reports about prescribed fire policy.
First-Year Students
Jacob Meir Miller '29
Jacob studies empirical public finance, financial crises, and banking, particularly how tax law and bank regulation can promote fiscal capacity and financial stability. Concurrent with law school, he is an economics Ph.D. student at Yale. He has worked as a research assistant for John Geanakoplos on a microsimulation of the U.S. economy and its implications for Social Security's solvency, and as a teaching assistant and grader in courses on international trade and statistics. Originally from Chicago, Jacob graduated from Harvard with an A.B. cum laude in mathematics and economics and a concurrent A.M. in statistics.
Aurelie Ouss '29
Aurélie Ouss studies the design and evaluation of criminal justice policies and practices. Her work examines the determinants of legal decision-making, the socio-economic consequences of criminal justice contact, and how media coverage shapes public perceptions of crime and justice. She has conducted large-scale empirical studies with policymakers and practitioners in the United States and France, spanning policing, prosecution, courts, and prisons. She holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard University, an MA in Economics from the Paris School of Economics, and a BA in Economics and Sociology from the École Normale Supérieure.