Panelists and participants talking during "Immigration Law and Policy Under the Biden Administration: U.S.-Mexico Border and Beyond."
The Center for Public Service Law's annual Public Interest Law Advocacy Week (P*LAW), held January 24-27, was a virtual event series, with the P*LAW Student Planning Team offering a robust schedule that included 14 informative panels focusing on a range of topics that engaged students in the practice of public interest law.
“This year Cardozo's P*LAW program featured fourteen dynamic discussions focused on timely and crucial issues in the public interest law sector,” said Alissa Bernstein, director of the Center for Public Service Law. “We were joined by many leading experts and community advocates who addressed issues ranging from restorative justice in the cannabis market, attacks on educational equity, immigration law and policy under the Biden administration, supervised consumption sites for overdose prevention, the crisis at Rikers Island, and more. We are so grateful to the P*LAW Student Planning Team for identifying such engaging topics and panelists to share with the Cardozo community.”
View the complete P*LAW schedule here.
“Hate Speech and the U.S. Constitution,” included guest panelist Robert Corn-Revere, First Amendment Lawyer and Partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. Corn-Revere said, "The First Amendment isn’t a policy document – rather, it is a prohibition against the government controlling public dialogue." He was joined by Alex Morey, Program Officer, Individual Rights Defense Program, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the session was moderated by Cardozo Professor Michel Rosenfeld.
Several Cardozo alumni who were formerly public service-focused students participated as panelists, including Nikki Blumberg ’98, Chief of the Child Abuse Unit, New York County District Attorney’s Office; Sean Parmenter ‘99, Staff Attorney, Criminal Defense Practice, The Legal Aid Society; Stephanie Alvarez-Jones ‘18, Staff Attorney Immigrant Justice Project, Southern Poverty Law Center; and Bella Pori ’21, State Legislative Fellow, State Policy and Advocacy Team at the Center for Reproductive Rights.