The lawmakers “provide a strong case on the facts for opening a criminal investigation of Justice Thomas,” Bruce Green, a professor at Fordham Law School and the director of the school’s Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics, told Newsweek. “And, of course, allegations of criminal and ethical misconduct by a Justice should be taken seriously, because they erode the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.”

But Garland is unlikely to appoint a special counsel, Green said, because if he did so, he would face accusations of weaponizing prosecutorial power in the months leading up to a presidential election.

“That would undermine public respect for the legitimacy of the Department of Justice,” he added. “The Attorney General is unlikely to risk the legitimacy of his own institution to protect the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. He will leave it to Chief Justice Roberts and the other justices to keep their house in order.”

Approximately 140 Judge Calabresi admirers, including many of his judicial colleagues from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, gathered at the Law School to honor a man who generally eschews professional honorifics.

“The first thing to understand about Judge Calabresi is that no one calls him that,” said Dean Matthew Diller. “He is known, plainly and simply, as Guido. … Only a few people throughout history have been able to pull off a successful mononym, and none of them—not Madonna, not Cher, not Plato—compares to Guido.”

Dean Diller extolled Judge Calabresi’s historic impact on the legal profession in his multifaceted roles as legal scholar, Yale Law professor, Yale Law dean, and federal judge.

After clerking for Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, Judge Calabresi joined the Yale Law faculty in 1959 and two years later became the youngest-ever full professor at the school. In 1985, he became dean and helped turn a financially shaky Yale Law into a well-funded, national powerhouse. Judge Calabresi was appointed to the Second Circuit court in 1994.

In his remarks following his acceptance of the prize, Judge Calabresi spoke about how his academic pedigree informs his judicial behavior. He defined the term “academic judges” to describe scholars like himself who are later elevated to the bench.

“Properly, academic judges are people who think that our job is to be part of lawmaking together with a lot of other institutions—to talk,” he said. “To talk to the legislatures…to talk to the states…to talk to the agencies, and to talk to the academy…and, together with all those, slowly introduce things which bring the law forward and make it better.”

As the Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and Professorial Lecturer in Law, Judge Calabresi still teaches a course on torts at Yale Law every semester. His 1970 book The Cost of Accidents transformed the study of torts from a fault-finding venture into a strict-liability enterprise. Scholars have said that this publication and other torts scholarship by Judge Calabresi contributed to the development of no-fault insurance.

A widely beloved figure who is known as much for his personal warmth and compassion as he is for his intellectual output, Judge Calabresi was alternately playful and serious in his comments at the dinner.

“To come up with crazy ideas—that maybe is the most fun that I have as an academic judge,” he said. “To come up with ideas that are really strange and then to say, ‘Please brief these.’ But to know that these crazy ideas are to be thrown out, to be made part of a discussion, and then often to be ignored.”

At the end of his address, Judge Calabresi, who had earlier in the day met with Fordham Law students to answer their questions about his career and the federal judiciary, sounded a heartfelt note of gratitude for the praise he had received about his lifetime of achievements.

“I am particularly happy about the things you all said about me because I try to do that and to do it in a way that respects the values that a place like this, whose values I share, embodies in all that it does,” Judge Calabresi said. “For that, which makes this evening for me one of the truly great evenings of my life, I thank you more than I can say.”

In accepting the Fordham-Stein Prize, Holder spoke hopefully to the 150 alumni, faculty, colleagues, and friends gathered at the event, four days after terror attacks in Paris. “Some would just despair, but in times of national stress, lawyers are often at their best,” he said.

“Studies have shown that lawyers are disproportionately responsible for the greatest advancements in the past decades,” Holder said. “Wherever you are and whatever you do, you have the power to serve, so find the time, the program, or the cause to serve your fellow citizens and improve their lives.”

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham University, praised Holder as an inspiration and a lodestar for the United States.

“We’re not just honoring you for your achievements, but for your principles, your great heart, your devotion to justice and your willingness to ask and answer the deep, unsettling questions that challenge our society,” Father McShane said. “For us, you continue to be part noodge and part prophet, as you show us how to live our lives marked by a noble purpose.”

Fordham Law Dean Matthew Diller made clear the reasons Holder was a perfect fit for the award, first given in 1976.

“Mr. Holder has always said the Attorney General’s job was never about winning cases or gaining leverage, but about achieving ‘just ends’,” Diller said, citing some of Holder’s advancements during his six-year tenure at the Justice Department, including efforts to protect the Voting Rights Act, release nonviolent drug offenders from prison, and prosecute terrorism cases in federal court.

“In late September of last year, Mr. Holder formally announced his resignation as attorney general, but made it abundantly clear that he was not resigning his commitment to his—and his country’s—values,” Diller said. “He said, ‘I will leave the Department of Justice, but I will never—I will never—leave the work. I will continue to serve and try to find ways to make our nation even more true to its founding ideals.’”

Holder, the 82nd U.S. Attorney General, was appointed by President Barack Obama in January 2009 and became the first African-American man to hold the office. He left in April to return to private practice at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., where he represents such clients as Merck and the National Football League.

The Fordham-Stein Prize is presented annually to a member of the legal community whose work embodies the highest standards of the profession. Prize recipients exemplify outstanding professional conduct; promote the advancement of justice; and bring credit to the profession by emphasizing in the public mind the contributions of lawyers to our society and to our democratic system of government.

—–Adrian Brune

“Matthew Diller possesses a rare combination of vision, practicality, experience, integrity, and a deep (and proven) commitment to justice and the service of others that makes him the ideal dean to lead Fordham Law School into the future,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “In Dean Diller we have someone who has met many of the challenges facing legal education in the current climate and who has built a reputation as a strong fundraiser. Moreover, he is a consensus builder who can bring people together to move an institution forward. We are delighted to have him back home at Fordham.”

A scholar of social welfare law and policy, Diller has published articles in leading law reviews including Yale Law Journal, UCLA Law Review, Texas Law Review, and Michigan Law Review. His service to the legal profession includes membership on the Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York, for which he chairs the Committee on Law School Involvement. He is also a member of the Board of The Legal Aid Society and the Executive Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (ABCNY). He served on ABCNY’s Task Force on New Lawyers in a Changing Profession from its inception in July 2012 through November 2013, when the Task Force issued its report. In addition, from 2000 to 2008, he was a member of the board of directors of The National Center for Law and Economic Justice.

Jonathan Lippman, Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, said, “He is one of the truly exceptional deans in our state and in the country. … Matt is a great thinker and an example of someone who understands what being a lawyer is all about. He is writing the script of what deans should be doing today.”

Diller received his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in European History from Harvard College in 1981 and his J.D., also magna cum laude, in 1985 from Harvard Law, where he was an editor at the Harvard Law Review. He clerked for the late Honorable Walter R. Mansfield on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Before coming to the Fordham Law faculty, he was a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society’s Civil Appeals and Law Reform Unit in New York City.

He came to Fordham Law in 1993. Diller was named the Cooper Family Professor of Law and served as co-director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics. While at Fordham Law, he received the 2000 Louis J. Lefkowitz Award for the Advancement of Urban Law from the Fordham Urban Law Journal and the 2002 Eugene J. Keefe Award for outstanding contributions to the School. In 2009, he was recognized with the Dean’s Medal of Recognition, the highest honor bestowed by the dean for outstanding contributions to Fordham Law.

“Matthew Diller has earned respect for his scholarship on social welfare policy and his strong leadership in legal academia,” said Stephen Freedman, Ph.D., provost of the University. “He is primed to engage and inspire the faculty, alumni, and students of Fordham Law to new heights of innovation and achievement.”

Michael M. Martin, who has served as the dean of Fordham Law since 2011, will return to the Law faculty in 2015. Martin joined the faculty in 1972. In addition to serving on numerous Law School and University committees, he was associate dean from 1995 to 2001, and interim dean from 2010 to 2011. In 2001 and 2010 he received the Dean’s Medal of Recognition, and in 2005 he was named Teacher of the Year.

“Fordham owes a debt of gratitude to Mike Martin. Under his tenure the Law School completed its fundraising campaign and moved into a new state-of-the-art building at the Lincoln Center campus,” Father McShane said. “He has seen the Law School through tremendous upheavals in the legal profession and legal education while ensuring that a Fordham Law education retained its integrity and focus on ethics and service. I know the Law School and the University communities are thankful for his steady leadership and unstinting devotion.”

During his tenure at Cardozo, Diller initiated new programs designed to better prepare graduates for practice in the new environment, strengthened the clinical and experiential programs, and worked with the alumni leadership and the Yeshiva University community to advance the school’s mission in a difficult climate for the legal profession and legal education.

“I have loved being part of the extraordinary Cardozo community. Returning to Fordham where I began my career in teaching has special meaning to me and am honored to have the opportunity to follow Mike Martin and other great academic leaders who have served as deans at Fordham Law,” Diller said. “I look forward to working with Father McShane, my colleagues on the faculty and in the administration and with Fordham’s vibrant students and alumni.”

Theodore B. Olson has been selected to receive the 2010 Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize.

Olson will accept the prize at a dinner in New York on Oct. 27. He is the 35th recipient of this national honor, bestowed by Fordham Law School’s Stein Center for Law and Ethics, which recognizes one person each year whose work, according to the prize’s charter, “exemplifies outstanding standards of professional conduct, promotes the advancement of justice, and brings credit to the profession by emphasizing in the public mind the contributions of lawyers to our society and to our democratic system of government.”

Olson served as the 42nd solicitor general of the United States from 2001 to 2004. He was nominated by, and served in the administration of, President George W. Bush. Currently, he is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, D.C. office and is a member of the firm’s executive committee.

“Ted Olson is a champion for the basic American principles outlined in our Constitution,” said Michael M. Martin, interim dean of Fordham Law. “He has demonstrated this throughout his career in his representation of various clients, including our country.”

Before his service as solicitor general, Olson served as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel from 1981 to 1984. Except for those two intervals, he has been with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. since 1965.

Olson has argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

Last July, President Barack Obama appointed Olson to serve as a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States, a public-private partnership charged with providing nonpartisan, practical assessments and recommendations to improve agency procedures and operations.

Named after Louis Stein (LAW ’26), the prize recognizes the positive contributions of the legal profession to American society.

He was the 34th recipient of this national honor, bestowed by Fordham Law’s Stein Center for Law and Ethics, which recognizes one person each year whose work, according to the prize’s charter, “exemplifies outstanding standards of professional conduct, promotes the advancement of justice, and brings credit to the profession by emphasizing in the public mind the contributions of lawyers to our society and to our democratic system of government.”

“[John’s] commitment to serving the public has brought great credit to the legal profession,” said Dean William Michael Treanor, before presenting Judge Keenan with the award. “He has inspired and mentored countless attorneys and judges—those who join him in his stewardship of Lou Stein’s legacy. The winners of the Fordham-Stein Prize form a pantheon of the legal profession, and tonight’s recipient deservedly joins them.”

After accepting the prize, Judge Keenan gave remarks expressing his gratitude: “For my name to be added to the list of recipients of the Fordham-Stein Prize is indeed a humbling experience for me. And for it I shall be eternally grateful. The roster of former recipients is more than impressive—it is overwhelming!”

After graduating from Fordham Law and serving for two years in the U.S. Army, Judge Keenan served as an assistant district attorney in New York County from 1956 to 1976.

He rose to the position of chief assistant under District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau. He headed the homicide bureau and prosecuted some of the city’s most complicated and high-profile murder cases, earning a reputation as one of the nation’s top trial lawyers.

In 1983, Judge Keenan was appointed United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York in by President Ronald Reagan.

Judge Keenan’s reputation has continued to flourish during his 26 years as a federal judge. He was praised for a “statesmanlike” ruling in the complex case of the Union Carbide Corporation Gas Plant Disaster. He has evolved into a leader of the federal bench, serving on several national panels such as the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

Judge Keenan joins a list of Stein Prize recipients who are leaders in American law, including seven members of the U.S. Supreme Court, two of whom were Chief Justices; three lawyers who have served as Secretary of State; and an Attorney General.

The event, titled “Rockefeller Drug Law Reform: A Step Toward Smarter Sentencing Policy for the 21st Century,” was moderated by Anita R. Marton, vice president of the Legal Action Center.

Established in 1973, and named for their primary advocate, Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, the laws required judges to impose a sentence of 15 years to life for possession of four ounces of a narcotic or sale of two ounces of a narcotic.

The laws were the harshest in the nation and resulted in a skyrocketing prison population.

Rockefeller’s belief that only severe penalties would deter people from drug use and sales has been superceded by an acknowledgement that, in some cases, “people’s addictions are driving their criminality,” Marton said.

The new reforms, signed into law by Gov. David Paterson this past April, reflect a movement toward treatment rather than imprisonment for the addicted.

During his years of experience within the penal system, panelist Martin Horn came to believe that imprisonment is a “lousy social investment,” one in which “we don’t get a very good return” he said.

“The only thing that people do in prison is time,” said Horn, a former commissioner of the city’s probation department. “Prison doesn’t cure very much . . . There are better ways to create public safety.”

Panelist Cy Vance Jr., a candidate for Manhattan district attorney and member of the New York State Commission on Sentencing Reform, shared that sentiment:

“We know a lot more now than we did when I was a young DA about how to reduce recidivism, especially in drug cases,” Vance said.

The key reforms include:

• returning to judges much of the sentencing discretion they had pre-Rockefeller;
• allowing some who are currently incarcerated to apply for re-sentencing;
• conditional sealing of first-time felony drug convictions and up to three misdemeanor convictions;
• allocating $72 million for treatment, alternatives to incarceration, re-entry and other programming.

Panelist Alan Rosenthal concurred, seeing the old sentencing system as “an abysmal failure,” but he warned that “these are very modest reforms and we have miles to go.”

Rosenthal, co-director of justice strategies at the Center for Community Alternatives, stressed the importance of “informed judicial discretion,” where judges have access to all of the information and resources needed to provide evidence-based decisions.

All three panel members emphasized the continued importance of considering how a given sentence would help promote the successful re-entry of an individual into society after incarceration.

“I believe that we have a responsibility for everyone we send to state prison to have an exit strategy,” Vance said. “We don’t spend enough time owning the future of the individual that we sentence with an eye toward enhancing public safety and making that person a success when he or she comes out of jail, at the same time ensuring fairness in the sentences that we mete out.”

“Rockefeller Drug Law Reform: A Step Toward Smarter Sentencing Policy for the 21st Century” was sponsored by the NY Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society, the Legal Action Center and Fordham’s Stein Center for Law and Ethics.

“New York City is an economic engine and one of the most efficient places in the world to make money,” said Jackson. “We can’t possibly make the city so secure without destroying the very reason we want to live here in the first place.”

The daylong conference, sponsored by the Fordham Urban Law Journal, the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics, and the William and Burton Cooper Chair on Urban Legal Issues, examined the impact the threat of terrorism has had on urban architecture and design, constitutional rights, and security in American cities.

Following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, security barricades were erected around potential terrorist targets and access was limited at many public places.

“The security parameters…that are so central to the response for 9/11…fundamentally endanger our ability to build cities in the spirit that has created their greatness,” said David Dixon, an urban designer at Goody Clancy & Associates in Boston, Mass., and a panelist at the conference. “It is the buildings and spaces that promote the free exchange of ideas and that are the bedrock of great cities.”

Peter Marcuse, a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, echoed that belief and explained that the attacks prompted a shift in priorities in major cities that has “distorted” their planning processes.

There are efforts underway to limit the adverse impact of security measures at public places. Patricia Gallagher, executive director for the National Capital Planning Commission in Washington, D.C. and a panelist said, that her commission provides planning guidance for federal land and buildings in and around Washington, D.C. Utilizing street furniture, benches, lampposts, bus shelters, water fountains, garden walls, planters and fencing, the commission strives to improve security while not undermining the form and function of public places.

“It is with great anticipation and excitement that I accept the appointment as dean of St. John’s School of Law,” said Daly. “I want to express my gratitude to the Fordham community. The leadership of Dean Feerick and Dean Treanor, the compan-ionship of my colleagues and the enthusiasm of my students have enriched my career and life.”

Daly, a 1972 graduate of Fordham Law School, has served on its faculty since 1983. She is the director of the graduate program and co-associate director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics. The Stein Center sponsors programs, develops publications, and supports scholarship on contemporary issues of law and ethics, and encourages professional and public institutions to integrate moral perspectives into their work.

“Mary is simply irreplaceable, and her departure will be an extraordinary loss, but I am delighted that the St. John’s community – and the legal community as a whole – will have the opportunity to benefit from the way she will use her great gifts as dean,” said William M. Treanor, J.D., dean of Fordham Law School. “’In the service of others’ is the motto of our law school; her life bears eloquent witness to that motto every day.”

As a law student she served as the editor of the Fordham Law Review and gradu-ated cum laude. After receiving her J.D. from Fordham, Daly studied at the University of Paris Law School as a Zichkla Fellow, and she later completed her LL.M at New York University Law School.

Considered an authority on issues of legal ethics, she has published numerous articles on the subject, especially in the area of cross-border practice. She is one of the editors of Rights, Liability, and Ethics in International Legal Practice (1995) and the editor of The New York Code of Professional Responsibility: Opinions, Commentary, and Caselaw (1997, 1999).

She has served as a reporter for the ABA Commission on Multidisciplinary Practice. She is also a past chair of the Committee on Professional and Judicial Ethics of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Professional Responsibility Section of the Association of American Law Schools, the Graduate Programs for For-eign Students Section of the Association of American Law Schools and the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct.

Prior to her career at Fordham Law School, Daly worked as an associate at Rogers & Wells from 1973 to 1975, when she joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in 1975.  She worked as an Assistant U.S. Attor-ney in the Civil Division until 1980. From 1980 to 1983, she served as deputy chief and chief of the Civil Division.

Fordham University School of Law was founded in 1905, and has more than 14,000 alumni practicing in all 50 states and throughout the world. Over the past 20 years, Fordham Law School has secured a place as a national leader in public interest law, legal ethics and human rights law.

Justice O’Connor spent the day (Sept. 30) at Fordham, participating in a spirited question and answer session with law students. She discussed internship opportunities in the Supreme Court and controversial issues such as cameras in the courtroom. In the evening she gave the keynote address to the Law School’s Millennium Tribute Honoring Fordham Law Faculty.

In November, Chief Justice Rehnquist was the recipient of the 1999 Fordham-Stein Prize. Rehnquist, the 24th Stein Prize recipient, was chosen for setting high ethical standards during his 27 years in the legal profession. Rehnquist most recently presided over the second presidential impeachment trial in the nation’s history. In doing so, Law School Dean John Feerick says “he earned the gratitude and respect of individuals across the political spectrum.” Feerick adds, “with his wise and mature leadership he provided a much needed balance to the politics of the moment and helped restore public confidence in our government institutions at a very turbulent time.”

The Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics at Fordham Law School is one of the nation’s leading centers for professional practice and legal ethics.

Previous Fordham-Stein Prize winners include George W. Mitchell, Warren E. Burger, Marian Wright Edelman, Sandra Day O’Connor, Cyrus Vance and Warren M. Christopher. The Fordham-Stein Prize is administered through the Stein Center for Law and Ethics at Fordham Law School, the leading center in the nation for the discussion and study of ethical and professional issues for lawyers. It also includes the Stein Institute and the Stein Scholars Program.

The Fordham University School of Law opened in 1905 and has more than 13,000 alumni practicing in all 50 states and throughout the world.