Stein Scholars Program

The Public Interest Resource Center with the Stein Center, oversees the student driven Stein Scholars Program, an academic and service program in which selected students participate through all three years of law school, and throughout their career.

Deliberately chosen from diverse backgrounds, Stein Scholars community reflects the broad spectrum of culture, education, and experience that is the United States today. This diversity is one of the strengths of the program, enabling students to learn from each other, and to appreciate differing views, as they pursue common goals.

Fordham Law Stein Scholars Fall 2015

Student and Alumni Programs

  • Overseen by the Stein Center and the Public Interest Resource Center, the Stein Scholars Program offers select Fordham Law School students with an expressed desire to work in public interest law the opportunity to receive tailored academic guidance, mentorship, community, support and experience in not-for-profit law offices, government and pro bono law. The alumni network of Stein Scholars now exceeds 440 graduates in nearly every aspect of the legal profession.

    Read more about what Stein Scholars Program.

  • Each year, we host the Stein Alumni Awards Reception, at which the Stein Alumni "in the Service of Others" Award is presented to two graduates of the Stein Scholars Program, in recognition of their demonstrated leadership, commitment and significant public service contributions.

    Previous Award Recipients

    1999: Roland Acevedo '96

    2000: Matthew Lee '96

    2001: Eva Landeo '96

    2002: Dean John Feerick '61

    2003: Laurel Hoffman '95 and Jennifer White '98

    2004: Dora Galacatos '96 and Rita Glavin '96

    2005: Carl Hum '97 and Rose Rodriguez '99

    2006: Karen Loewy '00 and Julianne Cohn Metzger '96

    2007: Udi Ofer '01 and Amy Loprest '95

    2008: Kimberly Chin Salandy '97 and Joshua Gradinger '99

    2009: Sue Welber '98 and Elysa Gordon '97

    2014: Afua Atta-Mensah '04 and Eric Montroy '03

    2015: Seth DuCharme '03 and Jessica Rose '01

    2016: Alejandro Forte '99 and Rachel Kleinman '05

  • The Stein Alumni Networking Initiative facilitates connections and networking between students and graduates of the Program, by identifying over 200 Stein Scholars alumni by areas of practice.  Find out about the Stein Alumni Networking Initiative.

  • Sally Bellet '76, Founding Chair

    • Yvette Garcia '95, General Counsel, Chief Administrative Officer and Managing Director at Rockefeller Financial
    • Trey Sandusky '96, Principal Court Attorney for the Honorable Ethan Greenberg, Acting Justice of the Supreme Court (Bronx County Criminal Court)
    • Emily Drucker '97, Labor Management Consultant, RN Labor Management Initiatives, 1199SEIU Training and Employment Fund
    • Sue Welber ’98, Staff Attorney, The Legal Aid Society’s Civil Practice Law Reform Unit
    • Kate Lang '99, Staff Attorney, Justice in Aging’s Income Team (DC)
    • Karen L. Loewy '00, Senior Staff Attorney, Lambda Legal
    • Jessica Feingold '01, Counsel, Teitler & Teitler, LLP
    • Louise Feld '02, Staff Attorney, The Children’s Law Center
    • David W. Knight '03, Trial Attorney, Disability Rights Section, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice (DC)
    • Susan M. Cordaro '04, Pro Bono Manager, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
    • Amanda Jeannopoulos '05, Assistant Chief Counsel at U.S. Department of Homeland Security
    • Kathryn Neilson '06, Director of the Housing Unit, Bronx Legal Services
    • Erica (Gersowitz) Bond ’07, Special Advisor for Criminal Justice and Public Safety, Office of First Deputy Mayor
    • Michael Siudzinski '08, Assistant Attorney General at the Office of the NYS Attorney General
    • Melissa Lardo Stewart '09, Associate, Outten & Golden LLP
    • Sarah Lorr '10, Staff Attorney, Brooklyn Defender Services, Family Defense Practice
    • Sirrah Harris '11, Storefront Project / Legal Hand Staff Attorney at New York Legal Assistance Group
    • Preetha Chakrabarti ’12, Associate in Crowell & Moring's New York office and a member of the firm's Intellectual Property and Environment & Natural Resources groups
    • Inessa Abayev '13, Assistant Deputy Public Defender, Office of the Public Defender
    • Alex Berke '14, Associate at Berke-Weiss Law PLLC
    • Alex Cardenas '15, Trial Attorney with U.S. Department of Labor
    • Helen Terero-Black ’16, Assistant Corp Counsel, NYC Law Department
    • Sahar Moazami ’17

Alumni Oral History Project

Find out more about the Stein Scholars Program by listening to Stein Scholars alumni reflect on the their involvement in the Stein Scholars Program while they were students at Fordham Law School. 

Awards

The Stein Scholars Program is the proud recipient of multiple awards from City and State officials. 

  • By: Senator Hoylman and Assembly member Rosenthal

    Senate No. 2026; Assembly No. 453

    COMMEMORATING the 20th Anniversary of the Stein Scholars Program
    established by Fordham University School of Law's
    Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics on June 6, 2013

    WHEREAS, Fordham Law School’s Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics established the Stein Scholars Program twenty years ago to support and educate law students who are committed, in the words of the Law School’s motto, to practicing law “in the service of others”; and

    WHEREAS, The Stein Scholars Program selects approximately 20 students from each entering Fordham Law School class to participate in the Program throughout the time they attend the Law School; and

    WHEREAS, Interning in public interest law offices and participating in student volunteer organizations, Stein Scholars collectively contribute more than 10,000 hours of public service each year; and

    WHEREAS, Through their regular presentation of programs on contemporary issues of public interest law and their establishment of and leadership in other student organizations, Stein Scholars have enhanced Fordham Law School’s efforts to train students dedicated to public service and committed to the highest professional and ethical values; and

    WHEREAS, Stein Scholars have undertaken specialized academic work in public interest law and ethics to educate themselves for future careers in which they will employ their skills and knowledge to improve their communities and the lives of its members; and

    WHEREAS, Graduates of the Stein Scholars Program, as attorneys and public citizens, have gone on to serve the public in countless ways, including through positions in federal, state, and local government agencies, through service to vulnerable and low-income clients who seek fulfillment of basic human needs such as housing, medical care, and fair work conditions, by protecting public safety and defending individual liberty, by promoting civil rights, environmental justice, and other causes, through efforts to improve the law and the legal profession, and through volunteer work and civic engagement in their communities; and

    WHEREAS, Over the past 20 years, the Stein Scholars Program has benefitted from the dedication of its faculty and directors, from the support of the Fordham Law School administration, and from the generosity of the late Louis Stein and his friends and family, including his wife, the late Bess Stein, their three daughters, Ruth Nathanson, Audrey Merves, and the late Marilyn Bellet, and his grandchildren & great grandchildren; and

    WHEREAS, Twenty years after its establishment, the Stein Scholars Program has grown into a strong, ongoing professional community of students and graduates who support each other’s efforts to serve the public and who, through their work, daily reaffirm the ideal of law as a public calling; now, therefore, be it

    RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to commemorate the Stein Scholars Program established by Fordham University School of Law’s Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics for 20 years of public service; and be it further

    RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be transmitted to the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics.

    Adopted in Senate on May 23, 2013. Adopted in Assembly on May 20, 2013.

  • By: Council Member Gale Brewer, 6th District Manhattan

    WHEREAS: Gale A. Brewer, Council Member of the 6th District, is proud to honor Fordham Law School's Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics on the 20th Anniversary of its Stein Scholars Program; and

    WHEREAS: Established two decades ago, Fordham Law School’s Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics' supports and educates approximately 20 students from each entering Fordham Law School class that are committed, in the words of the Law School’s motto, to practicing law “in the service of others”; and

    WHEREAS, Interning in public interest law offices and participating in student volunteer organizations, Stein Scholars collectively contribute more than 10,000 hours of public service each year. Stein Scholars have undertaken specialized academic work in public interest law and ethics to educate themselves for future careers in which they will employ their skills and knowledge to improve their communities and the lives of its members; and

    WHEREAS: Through their regular presentation of programs on contemporary issues of public interest law and their establishment of and leadership in other student organizations, Stein Scholars have enhanced Fordham Law School’s efforts to train students dedicated to public service and committed to the highest professional and ethical values; and

    WHEREAS: Stein Scholars have undertaken specialized academic work in public interest law and ethics to educate themselves for future careers in which they will employ their skills and knowledge to improve their communities and the lives of its members; and WHEREAS: Graduates of the Stein Scholars Program, as attorneys and public citizens, have gone on to serve the public in countless ways, including through positions in federal, state, and local government agencies, through service to vulnerable and low-income clients who seek fulfillment of basic human needs such as housing, medical care, and fair work conditions, by protecting public safety and defending individual liberty, by promoting civil rights, environmental justice, and other causes, through efforts to improve the law and the legal profession, and through volunteer work and civic engagement in their communities; and

    WHEREAS: Over the past 20 years, the Stein Scholars Program has benefitted from the dedication of its faculty and directors, from the support of the Fordham Law School administration, and from the generosity of the late Louis Stein and his friends and family, including his wife, the late Bess Stein, their three daughters, Ruth Nathanson, Audrey Merves, and the late Marilyn Bellet, and his grandchildren & great grandchildren; and

    WHEREAS: Twenty years after its establishment, the Stein Scholars Program has grown into a strong, ongoing professional community of students and graduates who support each other’s efforts to serve the public and who, through their work, daily reaffirm the ideal of law as a public calling; now, therefore

    BE IT KNOWN: That Gale A. Brewer, Council Member of the 6th District, honors The Stein Scholars Program in celebration of its 20th Anniversary

    Signed this 6th day of June in the year Twenty Thirteen