Dalton welcomed distinguished legal professionals District Judge Hon. Ronnie Abrams '86 (P'21, P'23, P'28), and Joseph Solomon Distinguished Professor of Law and Co-Dean for Faculty Scholarship at NY Law School Rebecca Roiphe as panelists for the Assembly. 

Judge Abrams and Professor Roiphe answered thoughtful and in-depth questions from the students and discussed the relationship of the federal court system to the rest of the government and to the public. 

 

Ronnie Abrams '86 (P'21, P'23, P'28) was nominated by President Barack Obama to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, on which she has served since 2012. Before her appointment, Judge Abrams worked as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District. She served as Chief of the General Crimes Unit from 2005 to 2007 and Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division from 2007 to 2008. Judge Abrams has also worked at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, first as a litigation associate, and has also served as counsel to the New York State Justice Task Force, which examines the causes of wrongful convictions and makes recommendations for changes to safeguard against such convictions in the future.

Rebecca Roiphe is the Joseph Solomon Distinguished Professor of Law and Co-Dean for Faculty Scholarship at New York Law School, where she studies lawyers’ ethics and the history of the legal profession, focusing on the interaction between lawyers’ work and the evolving ideals of legal professionalism. Prior to joining New York Law School, Professor Roiphe worked as a Manhattan prosecutor. She also served as a law clerk for Judge Bruce Selya of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Professor Roiphe holds a law degree from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Chicago. Roiphe’s work has appeared in a wide variety of both academic and popular publications, and she draws on both her legal and historical training in her writing.