“What if each piece of apparel was required to bear a label that it was — or was not — sweat-free? Mandating prominent sweat-free labels is not on the legislative or regulatory agenda at the moment, but it would solve a long-standing problem,” writes Robson.

Distinguished Professor Robson

Prof. Robson teaches in the areas of constitutional law, family law, feminist legal theory, and sexuality and the law. She is the author of many articles in such journals as New York Law School Journal of Human Rights, Albany Law Review, Women’s Rights Law Reporter, Hastings Law Journal, Australian Feminist Law Journal, and Yearbook of New Zealand Jurisprudence. Prof. Robson’s upcoming book, Dressing Constitutionally, will be available August 15, 2013.

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Professor Borgmann

Professor Borgmann has litigated reproductive rights cases and has also spoken and written widely about reproductive rights and given testimony before several state legislatures on this issue. She is the editor of the Reproductive Rights Blog.

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Under the new partnership, the CED Clinic, in collaboration with Pennsylvania-based Regional Housing Legal Services, will help launch the Pittsburgh Clean & Green Laundry, an eco-friendly laundry based on Mondragon’s cooperative model. Pittsburgh Clean & Green aims to re-employ 100 primarily minority laundry workers, who were laid off when their Sodexho Corporation laundry closed. They will work in a new state-of-the-art facility in Pittsburgh’s Central District.

CUNY’s CED Clinic will provide legal support for a new model of unionized worker cooperatives—called “union coops”—recently launched by Mondragon, the United Steelworkers union (USW), and the Ohio Employment Ownership Center (OEOC).

“Union coops can create well-paying, democratically run workplaces in communities hard hit by the economic recession,” explains Carmen Huertas-Noble, associate professor and director of the CED Clinic. “The union component of the model provides front line worker-owners with the security of a collective bargaining agreement and leverages the organizational expertise and economic power of the labor movement.”

By partnering with Mondragon USA, the CED Clinic aims to become a national leader in the integration of cooperative and labor law and to help union coops like Pittsburgh Clean & Green Laundry get off the ground.

The CED Clinic will collaborate with Mondragon USA to:

•  Develop the legal framework for the USW-Mondragon-OEOC union-coop model nationwide
•  Support other ongoing union-coop projects following the USW-Mondragon-OEOC model
•  Connect with key sources of U.S. financing, such as the National Cooperative Bank, foundations, advocacy groups, and public sector labor departments
•  Contribute to union-coop project strategy and roll-out
•  Ensure union-coop model legal standardization in both design and execution

“We are inspired by the news that CUNY Law’s CED Clinic will be working with us to develop the union coop model legal framework,” said Michael Peck, Mondragon’s North America Delegate. “Professor Huertas-Noble and CUNY Law students bring to this project a wealth of ‘hands-on’ experience and a deep commitment to community service and economic justice.”

The CUNY Law CED Clinic serves low-income and working class communities that are fighting for social and economic justice. The clinic helps build and expand the capacity of grassroots organizations to implement community development projects. These projects include creating neighborhood institutions that provide needed services and opportunities. The clinic also works with more established nonprofits in expanding and sustaining their social service programs and organizing campaigns.

With a 55-year history, Mondragon is the world’s largest industrial-cooperative group, the seventh largest corporation in Spain and the largest in Spain’s Basque region. Mondragon has annual sales of nearly $20 billion through the labor of 85,000 worker owners in 70 countries, fielding over 75 overseas production plants, backed by over 255 separate cooperative businesses and 12 proprietary cooperative R&D centers headquartered in Spain. It has its own cooperative university, cooperative bank, and cooperative social security mutual. Mondragon cooperatives contribute between 15 percent and 20 percent of their annual profits (depending on specific business areas and associated margins) to projects reflecting the group’s social conscience and democratic principles, including “one worker, one vote,” the sovereignty of labor over capital, and community solidarity.

In October 2009, the USW and Mondragon International launched a North American partnership to create union-coop hybrids based on collective bargaining rights and in conjunction with the Mondragon principles. In March 2012, the USW, Mondragon International, and the OEOC announced the official union-coop template at the USW headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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Founded in 1983, CUNY School of Law is the premier public interest law school in the country. The school trains lawyers to serve the underprivileged and disempowered and to make a difference in their communities. A greater percentage of graduates from CUNY Law choose careers in public interest and public service than any other law school in the nation. PreLaw magazine ranks CUNY Law as the #1 law school in the nation for public interest, and National Jurist ranks the Law School second in the nation for diversity. U.S. News & World Report ranks CUNY fourth in the nation for “Best Clinical Programs,” and the Princeton Review ranks CUNY Law in the top ten in the nation for “Best Law Professors.” The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has praised CUNY Law School for being one of the few law schools in the country to prepare students for practice through integrated instruction in theory, skills, and ethics.

Contact:

John Whitlow, whitlowj@law.cuny.edu, (718) 340-4477
Abbi Leman, abbi.leman@law.cuny.edu, (718) 340-4472

This year’s CUNY Law recipients are:

• Lindsay Adams (’14) — The Legal Aid Society
• Rebecca Arian (’15) – Lutheran Social Services, Immigrant and Refugee Project
• Zamir Ben-Dan (’15) – Law Library at Rikers Island
• Conor Carrigan (’14) – The Legal Aid Society
• Shakera Ebanks (’14) – Catholic Charities
• Kurtis Falcone (’14) – New York State Attorney’s Office (Harlem Office)
• Tana Forrester (’15) – South Brooklyn Legal Services
• Jonathan Hurt (’14) – Urban Justice Center
• Marsha Ignatyeva (’14) – Lawyers for Children
• Marisa Imazu (’14) – The Children’s Law Center
• Jesse Levine (’15) – The Legal Aid Society, Special Litigation Unit
• Alexandra MacDougall (’14)  – Sanctuary for Families
• Ethan Middlebrooks (’14) – New York Lawyers for The Public Interest
• Rachel Nager (’15) – Brooklyn Legal Services
• Jeannine Schoos (’15) – National Center for Law and Economic Justice
• Jillian Schuster (’15) – New York Legal Assistance Group
• Darlene Sevilla (’14) – Urban Justice Center – Community Development Project
• Diana Sidlowski (’14) – The Legal Aid Society, Juvenile Rights Practice
• Stacey Silliman (’14) – MFY Legal Services
• Maabo Tsheko (’15) – Brooklyn Legal Services
• Kara Wallis (’15) – The Bronx Defenders
• Humbert Wong (’14) – Safe Horizon

Back Row (l-r): Zamir Ben-Dan (’15), Jillian Schuster (’15), Ethan Middlebrooks (’14), Kurtis Falcone (’14), Jonathan Hurt (’14), Lindsay Adams (’14)

Middle Row (l-r): Kara Wallis (’15), Tana Forrester (’15), Rachel Nager (’15), Jesse Levine (’15), Alexandra MacDougall (’14), Marisa Imazu (’14)

Front Row (l-r): Maabo Tsheko (’15), Jeannine Schoos (’15), Rebecca Arian (’15)

The Revson Fellowship program aims to foster a commitment to service by exposing aspiring lawyers to public sector work, providing them with relevant training for a future career in public interest law, and making it possible for them to forgo summer employment in the private sector.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) filed a categorical exemption and claimed there is no significant environmental impact, as defined under NEPA, resulting from the new flight patterns. Professor Bratspies said the FAA should not have filed a categorical exemption. “The choices the FAA have made are questionable at best,” said Bratspies. “Even if you can assume it was reasonable to issue a categorical exclusion, to proceed down that path in light of the impact it’s had on the community is wholly inappropriate. If something is highly controversial, they are not supposed to use an exemption.”

Prof. Bratspies’ Environmental Law class is working with Community Board 11 to analyze the new flight patterns.

Professor Rebecca Bratspies

Prof. Bratspies is the director of CUNY Law’s Center for Urban Environmental Reform. Her teaching and scholarly research focus on environmental and public international law, with a particular emphasis on how legal systems govern the global commons and how law can further sustainable development. She has published widely on the topics of environmental liability, regulatory uncertainty, regulation of international fisheries, and regulation of genetically modified food crops.

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The CLEAR project primarily aims to address the legal needs of Muslim, Arab, South Asian, and other communities in the New York City area that are particularly affected by national security and counterterrorism policies and practices. CLEAR’s recent report, Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and Its Impact on American Muslims,  documents the devastating impact of the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) extensive surveillance program that targeted American Muslims throughout the Northeast.

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See photos from the protest

Professor Ramzi Kassem recently spoke with MSNBC about the hunger strike by detainees at Guantanamo.

Watch videos of Prof. Kassem on MSNBC

Professor Zeidman

Zeidman is a professor and director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at CUNY Law. He advocates on behalf of indigent defendants in many venues, including as a member of the Indigent Defense Organization Oversight Committee. He presently serves on the Board of Directors of Prisoners’ Legal Services and has also served on several statewide commissions, including the Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense Services and the Jury Project.

Read the full article

Read Prof. Zeidman’s law review article [pdf]

On April 18th, Prof. Zeidman took part in a press conference outside the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan where the Floyd v City of New York stop-and-frisk trial is being heard.  Prof. Zeidman’s remarks begin at the 9:20 mark.

Honorable Bryanne Hamill (’90)

New York State Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell (’87)

Professor John Cicero

Attorney Andrea Ritchie

PILA also recognized the hard work of Barbara Kopp, a member of the Institutional Advancement Department, by presenting her with the Outstanding Staff Member Award.

Alfia Agish (’13), Wade Schreiber (’13), Barbara Kopp, and Luke Schram (’13)

 See more photos on our Facebook page

Professor Kassem

Prof. Kassem is the director of the Immigrant & Non-Citizen Rights Clinic and oversees the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility project at CUNY Law. Before joining the CUNY Law faculty in 2009, Professor Kassem was a Robert M. Cover Teaching Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, where he taught in the Civil Liberties & National Security Clinic as well as the Worker & Immigrant Rights & Advocacy Clinic. Professor Kassem also previously served as Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law, where he taught in the International Justice Clinic.

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