Scott Gutterson '83 ~ September Alumnus of the Month

Touro Law Center's Office of Institutional Advancement is proud to announce that Scott Gutterson ’83 has been selected as the alumnus of the month for September 2014. Mr. Gutterson is a member of Touro Law Center’s inaugural graduating class of 1983 and a leading tax arbitrator known as The Taxx Man.

On behalf of the entire law school community, we extend our congratulations to Scott Gutterson.

As a practicing solo attorney with almost 30 years’ experience in tax strategy, tax preparation, and financial planning, Scott provides direct services, as well as referrals, to other excellent and trustworthy professionals when needed. He has built his practice into one that manages over 2,300 clients in 40 states and 15 countries.  With a main office on Madison Avenue, he handles all areas of Wills, Trusts & Estates, Real Estate and Acquisitions and often works in conjunction with the attorneys who make their practice in rented space on his 40th floor suite.

Mr. Gutterson attributes the fulfillment he derives from his career to the ability to develop close relationships with clients, whom he treats as friends. The viewpoint of clients as friends drives him to work harder for those he serves and to think about financial issues from a myriad of different angles. The diversity of his client base has provided him with an education about the vast array of professions and talents that exist in the world.  In addition to providing direct services, Mr. Gutterman maintains an informative blog covering topics such as; Budgeting, Saving, Retirement, College Tuition, Rainy Day Savings, Investing, Insurance, Estate Planning and First Time Home Buying.

In May of 2014 Scott established the Gutterson Family Scholarship at Touro Law Center with a gift of $100,000. The scholarship is to be awarded annually to 2 continuing students who are interested in the fields of business, tax or entrepreneurship. That same month, his son Matthew also received his Juris Doctorate from Touro and will officially join The Taxx Man team upon acceptance into the Bar.

Dehai Zhang '00 Shares His Journey to Law School

In a new Alumni Spotlight featured on the Touro Law website, alumnus Dehai Zhang discusses his law school experience and shares words of advice for current students.

As a native of China, Dehai Zhang’s earliest desires to become an attorney began with watching American movies about lawyers and realizing that he wanted to become more educated about the American legal system. Ultimately, it was his desire to make a difference in people’s lives that pushed him to apply to law school. He attributes the decision to select Touro Law specifically in part to Dr. Susan Thompson, Touro Law Center Director of Enrollment, whom he met at a Law School Forum in Boston in 1996. Dehai recalls, “she gave a very persuasive and warm-hearted introduction about Touro Law Center. She is very knowledgeable, super-friendly.” He decision to apply was reaffirmed by his discovery that Touro Law Center offers first class legal education with convenient access to comprehensive court systems just across the street.

The decision to attend law school signaled a drastic career change and did not come easy to Dehai. He was teaching English in a college in China before obtaining his Master’s degree in Theological Studies. He states, “I now realize that those experiences laid a necessary foundation for me to study law and I would readily take the same journey again. I believe that when one loses passion for his or her current career path, it is time for a change.” Legal practice requires a tremendous amount of rational and passion but he finds it wholly rewarding in terms of being able to make a difference in people’s lives. He first felt the satisfaction of being able to help others while working as a teaching assistant in Contracts as part of Touro Law’s Legal Education Access Program (LEAP). The experience gave him the opportunity to utilize what he had learned in class to help other minority students academically.

Read more here:

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Congratulations to Connie Corsentino ’01 - Touro Law's August 2014 alum of the month!

 

 

Before entering law school, Connie Corsentino was a Medicaid Investigator on the joint team effort of the Nassau County Department of Social Services and Department of Health where she reviewed and investigated allegations of fraud and abuse in the Medicaid system on the part of providers. As a result of her efforts large recoveries were procured in settlement.

Connie earned a Masters Degree in Health Care Administration to supplement her health care knowledge while working at Nassau County and later at a local health care provider in the Administrative office assisting with day to day operations. She later attended Hofstra University to obtain a second Masters Degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology; she left the program after ultimately deciding to achieve a life dream of becoming a lawyer.

Connie was accepted to Touro Law Center in the fall of 1997 and the rest is history. While working during the day and attending law school at night for most of her law school career, she received her Juris Doctor in 2001, and was also honored with the Cali Award for Excellence in Employment Discrimination Law.

Upon completion of law school, Connie began her legal career by starting her own practice in the state of New Jersey and serving as a court appointed mediator on the New Jersey Superior Court roster where she successfully handled and mediated the resolution of dozens of cases involving all matter of pending lawsuits prior to Trial. She regularly engages in ongoing professional development to keep her mediation/negotiation skills honed and to assist persons needing objective guidance to help resolve their legal disputes before more time, money and personal resources were depleted.

She is currently serving as a Deputy County Attorney representing Nassau County as Attorney and Counsel for diverse legal matters including employment disputes with Public Assistance clients at Fair Hearings, municipal liens and recoveries, and previously prosecuting child neglect cases by parents or guardians in Family Court.

Connie is admitted to the bars of the state of New Jersey, Federal District Court for the District of New Jersey, state of New York, District of Columbia, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the United States Supreme Court. She is well versed in all aspects of legal work including Health and Social Services Law, Municipal Law, Real Property Law, Trusts and Estates, and Mediation and Negotiation. She is also a member of the New Jersey, New York, District of Columbia and Nassau County bar associations. Other than when she learned she had passed the Bar Exam, and the first days of semester classes at the Law Center, the most exciting day in her legal career was the day of admission to the bar of the United States Supreme Court in 2010 with her classmates from Touro Law Center. Connie recounts it as a truly joyous and humbling experience.

Connie has assisted in Hurricane Sandy relief efforts after the storm, performed pro bono work in New Jersey to help war veterans with legal matters in Court, and volunteers at Touro Law Center as a member of the Alumni Council.
Connie Corsentino attended St. Bonaventure University where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She is a resident of Locust Valley and East Marion, New York and maintains a law office in Pennington, New Jersey.

Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, P.C. Creates New Scholarship at Touro Law

Touro Law Dean Patricia Salkin is pleased to announce the creation of the Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, P.C. scholarship. Each year for the next five years, a second or third year Touro Law student who shows academic promise will receive the $5,000 Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, P.C. scholarship.

“Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, P.C. is a well-known and respected law firm on Long Island that has always had a great relationship with Touro Law,” said Dean Salkin. “This new named scholarship shows a true commitment from the firm to our students and our law school. Touro Law alums at Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, P.C. include senior partners and associates in the firm’s financial services, trusts and estates, real estate and health law departments and we are excited to continue to work with them to foster the relationships especially in growth areas for legal services.

Read more about this collaboration here. 

NYCLA to Hold Public Forum on the Mandatory Reporting of Voluntary Pro Bono May 27th

NYCLA will hold a Public Forum on May 27, 2014 to address new rules that now require New York attorneys to report certain information about their pro bono service, as well as their charitable contributions to organizations that provide pro bono legal service, on their biennial registration statements.

Speakers, through a series of panel discussions, will address:

• The mechanics of and rationale for the new rules.
• Whether the Administrative Board of the Courts had the statutory authority to impose mandatory reporting.
• Whether the new rules advance legitimate public policy goals.
• Whether they impermissible infringe on the privacy rights of New York lawyers.
• Whether the definition of “pro bono” used in the new rules is appropriate.

   Presenters include:

• Barbara Moses, President, NYCLA, Counsel, Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC
• Hon. A. Gail Prudenti, Chief Administrative Judge of the Courts of New York State
• John McConnell, Counsel to the New York Unified Court System 
• Sarah Jo Hamilton, Partner, Scalise & Hamilton LLP
• Lisa E. Cleary, Chair, NYCLA Pro Bono Committee, Partner, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP
• Samuel B. Cohen, Chair, NYCLA Civil Rights and Liberties Committee, Partner, Stecklow Cohen & Thompson
• Hon. Barry Kamins, Administrative Judge of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, Chief of Policy and Planning for New York State's Unified Court System
• Glenn Lau-Kee, President- Elect, NYSBA, Partner, Kee & Lau-Kee, PLLC
• Richard M. Gutierrez, Attorney, Queens County, former President of Queens County Bar Association
• Robert L. Ostertag, Partner, Ostertag, O' Leary, Barrett & Faulkner, Former President of NYSBA
• Geoffrey Bickford, Co-Chair, NYCLA Criminal Justice Section, Court Attorney, New York City Criminal Court
• Hon. Fern Fisher, Deputy Chief Administrative Judge, New York City Court   
• Bruce Green, Louis Stein Chair of Law; Director, Stein Center, Fordham Law School
• Ronald C. Minkoff, Chair, NYCLA Task Force on Professionalism, Partner, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, PC
• Ronald J. Tabak, Special Counsel, Skadden, Arps, Slate, & Flom LLP & Associates            

     Click the link for registration information.

Lieutenant Colonel Joseph M. Fairfield ’99 is our May Alumnus of the Month!

Touro Law Center's Office of Development, Alumni Relations and Communications is proud to announce that Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Joseph M. Fairfield ’99 has been selected as the alum of the month for May 2014. LTC Fairfield is a leader in his profession, serving as an active duty judge advocate in the U.S. Army since November of 1999. Since 9/11 he has served over 53 months deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq.  His accomplished career is highlighted in the bio below. On behalf of the entire law school community, we extend our congratulations to Joseph Fairfield.

LTC Joseph Fairfield is currently deployed to Afghanistan, serving a 12 month deployment which ends this June.  He is the Staff Judge Advocate for the Special Operations Joint Command-Afghanistan (SOJTF-A) and Senior Legal Advisor for the NATO Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan (NSOCC-A).  SOJTF-A/NSOCC-A is a division-level headquarters and is commanded by a two-star general and encompasses all in-country NATO special operations forces and assets, close to 13,000 special operators, staff, and support from over 25 different nations. The SOJTF-A/NSOCC-A mission spans the entire spectrum of special operations in a counterterrorist and a counterinsurgent environment. The missions range from direct action to capacity-building.  As the senior legal advisor, LTC Fairfield oversees over 20 attorneys from three different nations and 15 legal support personnel.  He is responsible for providing advice to the command and staff regarding the rules of engagement, international law, administrative law, fiscal law, contract law, and military justice.     


LTC Fairfield’s first assignment as a judge advocate was with the 82d Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, NC, from 1999-2002, where he served as the Division’s family law attorney, Administrative law attorney, Operational law attorney, and prosecutor. From 2002-2004 he was assigned as the Deputy Detachment Legal Advisor for 1^st Special Operations Detachment-Delta (Airborne), Fort Bragg, NC.  During this time he made numerous deployments to both Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2004 he was assigned to the Department of Law at the United States Military Academy, West Point, NC, as an associate professor, teaching Constitutional and Military Law.

Following his assignment at West Point, he attended The Judge Advocate General’s School and Legal Center, Charlottesville, VA, where he received his LLM in military law.  From 2007-2010 he returned to Fort Bragg, NC to serve as the Command Detachment Legal Advisor for 1^st Special Operations Detachment-Delta (Airborne), where he again made numerous deployments to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  In 2010 he was awarded the US Special Operations Command’s Major General William F. Garrison Award for his years of support to US Special Operations Forces.

In 2010 he attended the Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, KS. From 2011-2013 he served as the Deputy Staff Judge Advocate (DSJA) for Fort Benning, GA, where he oversaw the day to day operations of over 125 attorneys and legal support personnel.
Following his current deployment, he will become the Director of the Center for Law and Military Operations (CLAMO), located in Charlottesville, VA.   CLAMO is a joint, interagency, and multinational legal center responsible for: (1) collecting and synthesizing data relating to legal issues arising in military operations, (2) managing a central repository of information relating to such issues, and (3) disseminating resources addressing these issues IOT facilitate the development of doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel, and facilities as these areas affect the military legal community.

LTC Fairfield is married to Mrs. Sandi Fairfield.  They met in Savannah, GA, while she was attending SCAD and he was assigned to the 24^th ID, at Fort Stewart, GA.  They have two children.  Emily is age 10 and Gavin is age 8.

Franchise Law Journal's Call for Articles for Rising Scholar Award

The deadline for the Franchise Law Journal Rising Scholar Award is just a few months away.  To be eligible, entrants must be members of the ABA Forum on Franchising and zero to four years out of law school. Qualified participants should prepare articles according to Franchise Law Journal author guidelines. The due date is July 14, 2014. The submissions will be judged by current and former members of the Franchise Law Journal and The Franchise Lawyer editorial boards. The current Forum chair will also be consulted and provide input on the selection of the winning article.

The author of the winning article will receive the following: (1) the article will be considered for publication in a future edition of Franchise Law Journal; (2) the author will be recognized and presented with a plaque at the Annual Forum on Franchising; (3) the author will receive a small financial award to reimburse in part expenses for traveling to the Annual Forum for the award presentation; and (4) the author's registration fee for attending the Annual Forum will be waived.

Articles must be submitted to Bethany L. Appleby, the current Editor-in-Chief of the Franchise Law Journal, by no later than Monday, July 14, 2014, to be considered in this year's competition.  All inquiries about the competition should be directed to:  bappleby@wiggin.com.