Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center

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Touro Law Center
Image:Touro Law Center.jpg
Established: 1980
Type: Private
Location: Central Islip, New York, USA
Dean: Lawrence Raful
Website: http://www.tourolaw.edu/

Touro Law School or Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center was established in 1980 as part of Touro College, a private, coeducational institution based in New York City. Founded under Jewish auspices by Dr. Bernard Lander, the College was chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York in 1970.

In April 1986, the Law Center was officially named the Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, in honor of Judge Fuchsberg, a distinguished litigator who served as an associate justice of the New York State Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, from 1975 to 1983.

The Law School had been housed in a former public school in Huntington, Long Island, until December 2006. In January 2007, the law center opened the doors to its new state-of-the-art facility located alongside the Alfonse M. D’Amato United States Courthouse in Central Islip (the second largest federal courthouse in the nation) and the John P. Cohalan, Jr. state courthouse. Touro is the only law school in the country on the same campus as both a state and federal courthouse.

The new campus, which opened on January 2, 2007, stresses hands-on legal education, expanding learning from the classroom and textbooks into real courtrooms. The total cost of the project is approximately $35 million. This modern, 180,000-square-foot law campus is the first of its kind anywhere and a national model. It will also be a cornerstone in an effort to revitalize Central Islip. Touro Law Center, with a student body of around 750, welcomed record-setting entering classes over the past two years. Selectivity and test scores for the 25-year-old institution are at all-time highs, surpassing national trends for law schools.

In addition to its regular programs, Touro hosts a number of specialized institutes and international law programs. Touro's 2005 conference at the site of the Nuremberg Trials has led to a new film, "Hitler’s Courts: The Betrayal of the Rule of Law in Nazi Germany," which premiered in the fall of 2006. Touro also hosts the Institute of Jewish Law, the Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, and the Institute for Business, Law and Technology, each of which offers courses for students and programs for attorneys and others.

Further, Touro Law Center maintains five study abroad progams. The programs, in China, Germany, India (the only ABA acredited program in India), Israel (Jerusalem) and Russia take place during the summer months, usually the end of May through June. [1]

On February 1, 2008, Newsday reported that Touro College President Bernard Lander and SUNY Stony Brook were in early discussions regarding a possible sale of the school. Dean Lawrence Raful has indicated that talks were in the preliminary stages, but State Sen. Kenneth Lavalle, himself a Touro alum, was quite enthusiastic about the possibility of such a deal.

On February 25, 2008, Dean Raful indicated that Touro College President Bernard Lander and the College Board of Trustees had elected not to pursue a sale of the Law Center. Dr. Lander and the Board decided to retain the law school as part of Touro College, reaffirming the Law Center as a Jewish-sponsored independent institution of professional education.

[edit] Prominent faculty

[edit] Notable alumni

  • Matthew Daus - Commissioner/Chair of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission [4]
  • Kenneth LaValle - New York State Senator, 1st Senate District. Elected to the Senate in 1976.
  • Christine Malafi - County Attorney, Suffolk County, New York. [5]
  • Kathleen Rice - Nassau County District Attorney (2005- )
  • Hon. Rhonda Erin Fischer - Nassau County District Court Judge
  • John Flanagan, New York State Senator, 2nd Senate District.

[edit] External links