Falling in love at NYU Law
Law school may not always seem like the most romantic of venues, but these alumni can vouch that love shows up everywhere at NYU Law—in Torts class, on the stage at Commencement, at Reunion, on a sidewalk outside D’Agostino Hall, in the corridors of Vanderbilt Hall. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Jason E. Carter ’92 and Dorothy P. Patton ’94
Jason Carter and Dorothy Patton can recall exactly the date and location that they met: Monday, August 19, 1991, in Vanderbilt Hall. Orientation was underway, and Jason, a 3L, decided to check out a 1L gathering, then joined a walking tour of Greenwich Village for new students. Dorothy was in the group.
“Within probably 10 minutes of us meeting,” Dorothy recalls, “as Jason was trying to strike a pose and look really cool in front of D'Agostino Hall at the beginning of the tour, both of us had the same thought: ‘Oh—could this be the one?’”
They dated soon thereafter, throughout Jason’s third year and Dorothy first year at NYU Law. Following his graduation, while Dorothy finished her final two years of law school, Jason stayed in New York and clerked in the Southern District of New York. They married in 1994 after Dorothy’s graduation and right after she took the New York bar exam. After working at law firms in New York for a few years—Jason at Schulte Roth & Zabel and Dorothy at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal—they moved to Arlington, Virginia, in 1996. Both have worked for the federal government: Jason is a long-time supervisory attorney at the Department of Justice focusing on international affairs; Dorothy, a lawyer at the State Department, is currently a US delegate to the United Nations in New York. They have two sons.
“Going to NYU Law, whether you work in public interest or private sector, you will be able to do lots of things that maybe you otherwise wouldn't have been able to do,” says Jason.
He notes that he still keeps in close touch with a core group of friends from NYU Law. They get together every other year and travel together with their spouses and children to different regions of the country. “Dorothy and I [will] have been married 32 years later on this year,” says Jason. “But the friends that you make outside of that relationship also can be quite lasting.”
Layton Z. Niu ’13 and Sophia S. Tian LLM ’11
The day that Layton Niu and Sophia S. Tian came to Greenwich Village to start their JD and LLM programs at NYU Law was also the first time that either of them had come to the United States. “Life in America felt at once so familiar, as we grew up in China watching American-made shows and films, and so novel, as we were first-timers.” says Layton.
Layton and Sophia had started dating as undergraduates in China, but decided to move to the US together to pursue law degrees. Layton enrolled in NYU Law’s JD program, while Sophia earned an LLM in 2011 and then attended the University of Maryland. Layton began splitting his time between his studies at the Law School and taking the bus to Baltimore.
After years of travel and long distance, Layton and Sophia got married on the day of his Commencement in 2013. “She turned my tassel on stage at Commencement, and we headed straight from Beacon Theater downtown to City Hall, and we got our marriage certificate that very morning,” says Layton.
After graduation, Layton started at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York, then transferred to the firm’s Hong Kong office. He and Sophia—with their baby daughter—settled in Hong Kong in 2014. Sophia now heads the legal team at China CITIC Financial AMC International.
“We love the school,” Layton says of NYU Law. “It had everything we could ask for and more.”
Matthew Fishbein ’79 and Gail Stone ’80
Matt Fishbein and Gail Stone couldn’t have avoided each other: during law school, Matt lived one floor above Gail in an apartment building on West 11th Street. But they actually met in Vanderbilt Hall on Gail’s first day as a 1L, when her student advisor, Sam Spear ’79, one of Matt’s close friends, introduced them. As they went their separate ways, Gail looked back over her shoulder and smiled.
“Of course I had no idea this was going to be the woman I would spend the rest of my life with,” says Matt, “but I’ll never forget that image.”
They remember fondly their time together and with close friends in a West Village that felt grittier than now, but also vibrant. A few of their former haunts, such as Caffè Reggio and Washington Square Diner, still thrive. Others, like the Bagel, Balducci’s, and Ray’s Pizza, are long gone.
Matt clerked after graduating while Gail was a 3L. He proposed during a romantic weekend in Boston and Gail accepted, neither one noticing the absence of an engagement ring. “It just wasn’t an issue,” says Gail. (For their 30th anniversary, he gave her a diamond ring to make it official.)
Matt served as chief assistant US attorney in both the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. He retired as a litigation partner at Debevoise & Plimpton in 2018 but still mediates and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Gail, after practicing corporate law at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, transitioned to the nonprofit sector and is currently executive director and corporate counsel at the Bay and Paul Foundations, a grant-making institution. They have three grown children and two new grandchildren.
The couple, who live in Brooklyn, remain connected to NYU Law through annual giving and attending events such as Reunion and the Madison Lecture. “The intellectual community at the Law School was so exhilarating,” says Gail of her JD years. “And then to fall in love with someone and have it be enduring in that atmosphere—the whole thing was just such a golden start to our future.”
Jed Davis ’90 and Susanna Zwerling ’90
When they were NYU Law students, Jed Davis and Susanna Zwerling were casual friends with overlapping social circles, but it wasn’t until a brief encounter at their 10th Reunion that Cupid struck. Both Jed and Susanna are native New Yorkers. Both say they relished intellectual exploration and the real-world application of the law at NYU Law. Each pursued public service. Why did it take them so long to get together? Blame it on the fact that they were in different 1L sections.
After graduation, both Jed and Susanna worked for large New York firms before entering public service. Jed was an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, then an assistant US attorney in the Eastern District of New York. Susanna clerked in the Eastern District of New York, became an attorney with the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division in Washington, DC, and then went on to a legal advisor role at the Federal Communications Commission.
Their parallel paths converged at the 2000 Reunion. A 10-minute conversation led to their first date in Philadelphia, halfway between New York and DC. Their relationship deepened. In 2001, when their respective cities were struck on 9/11, they managed to communicate briefly. The national tragedy accelerated Jed’s thinking about commitment, and he proposed that December. They were married in October 2002 in Lower Manhattan. “We did feel like that was important because the downtown area had just been decimated, and [we wanted] to bring people back to that area,” says Susanna.
Jed is a partner at virtual law firm Pierson Ferdinand, focusing on investigations, cybersecurity, and litigation. Susanna is senior vice president for regulatory compliance and privacy at NBCUniversal. Now living in Brooklyn, they have two daughters in college, at least one of whom is interested in law school. She may have been influenced by her parents’ communication style. “Sometimes we say, ‘Look, we’re not actually arguing,’” says Jed. “We’re just having a conversation where both parties are skilled at argument.”
Judy Mogul ’85 and Dan Kramer ’84
In 1982, Judy Mogul was trying to decide which New York law school to attend. She called a friend from college, Dan Kramer, who was in his first year at NYU Law, for some advice. Come to NYU Law, he said—and Judy did. They’ve been inseparable ever since. “It was my first successful legal argument,” Dan recalls with a laugh.
“Danny was actually my first-year Torts TA, so that was great,” Judy said. “When you’re dealing with first-year doctrinal classes, there were times when I was a little frustrated. Dan was very good at helping me to stay grounded.”
Deeply engrossed in coursework—with Martin Guggenheim [Fiorello LaGuardia Professor of Clinical Law Emeritus] and Linda Silberman [Clarence D. Ashley Professor of Law Emerita] among their favorite professors—Judy and Dan took rare breaks by relaxing in Washington Square Park. It wasn’t until the evening before Dan took the bar exam that the couple granted themselves a genuine date night. “We really enjoyed law school, but it was all-consuming,” Dan said. “We went out and saw Ghostbusters.”
They married in 1984. Judy was an assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York, then became a partner at Morvillo Abramowitz Grand lason & Anello PC, and served as a special assistant to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Dan, a senior partner in Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison’s securities litigation and enforcement group, also leads the firm’s Center to Combat Hate, which opposes hate-driven violence through litigation and advocacy. Each Valentine’s Day, Dan and Judy dote over their three children and two grandsons. “You can definitely say that NYU Law brought us together,” Judy said.
