Brooklyn Law School establishes Dean Nicholas Allard Chair

Chuck Otey's Pro Bono Barrister

January 8, 2019 By Charles F. Otey, Esq. Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Nick Allard. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Law School

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Former Dean Honored for Expanding BLS’ International Presence, Engagement

In significant tribute to its former dean, the leadership of Brooklyn Law School (BLS) announced that a new funded chair will be denominated the Dean Nicholas Allard Chair “to honor the immediate past president and dean who expanded the law school’s international presence and engagement.”

Dean Allard headed BLS from 2012 until last year.

When attorney Allard arrived here to take over the helm of a challenged BLS almost seven years ago, many of us grads wondered how he was going to pick up the spirit and verve for which BLS had been known for decades.

After all, he was giving up a major partnership at Patton Boggs (need we say more?) in the prime of his career with an international reputation as a problem solver. It seemed that BLS and the community at large truly appreciated his problem-solving during his tenure on Joralemon Street.

At Patton Boggs, he served as chair of its prestigious Public Policy Department and co-chair of the Government Advocacy Practice Group. Prior to that he was a partner in Latham & Watkins, where he chaired that firm’s Government Relations Group.

Profession Jolted by Job-Cutting Internet

Back in Brooklyn, we were aware that most law schools were facing financial and enrollment problems. Many attorneys were stunned to learn that – thanks to the internet – $5-per-hour interns in Mumbai were turning out bills of particulars ranging from personal injury to commercial, medical malpractice and beyond for a fraction of what it cost here to employ lawyers and paralegals to produce the same documents.

Thousands of attorney and law-related jobs disappeared virtually overnight. Law students expressed their concern and, in some areas, initiated protests over law school professors’ salaries.

What could the new dean do to halt the disturbing trend? Well, the first thing we learned about was his determination to convert BLS from a three-year to a two-year institution.

“Heresy!” some of us responded. Implicit in our reaction was a simple truth: “I had to go to law school for three years; how dare they give out the same JD to students in a two-year program?”

Allard responded respectfully to fears that the profession was about to be minimalized. He put forth a pragmatic proposal that assured most of us that the rigors of the two-year program would match – and possibly improve upon – the rewards and demands of the traditional three-year requirement.

BLS Moved Upward During Dean Allard’s Tenure

Yet over the next five or six years of innovations and changes instituted by Allard, BLS had seen a steady upturn in funding and enrollment.

That almost certainly was why the Allard Chair was instituted and will honor former BLS deans like

the late David G. Trager, who led the school from 1983 to 1993, when he became a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of New York; Joan G. Wexler, who served as dean from 1994 to 2010 and as president from 2010 to 2012; and I. Leo Glasser, who was dean from 1977 to 1982, when he became a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of New York.

Chair Subotnick: Brooklyn Law ‘Blessed by Giants’

“This chair is the first of a series of exciting initiatives to honor the law school’s tradition of extraordinary leadership in legal education and support faculty scholarship and teaching as well as student success,” said Stuart Subotnick, chairman of the Board of Trustees and a member of the Class of 1968.

“Brooklyn Law School has been blessed by giants in the field of law whose impact as teachers and scholars is evidenced in the successful legal careers of our exemplary alumni,” he added.

Kings Inn to Portray Historic Actions of Constance Baker Motley and James Meredith

A story that carries as much force and humanity today as it did 50 years ago will be retold Jan. 15 when the Kings County Inn of Court, led this year by President Victoria Lombardi-Bodnar, presents the historic deeds of Constance Baker Motley and James Meredith in their courageous, unrelenting effort to have the University of Mississippi accept Meredith as its first black student.

The presenting team will be directed by federal Judge William Kuntz, Supreme Court Justice Carl Landicino and Dave Chidekel – a former president of the Kings Inn who now heads the Brooklyn Bar Association (BBA).

Other team members who will assume the roles of Thurgood Marshall, Gov. Ross Barnett and other players in this dramatic presentation include Hon. Joy Campanelli, Hon. Catherine Levine, Kings Court Administrator Charles Small, Judy Mock, Bill Gentile, Jennifer Held, Andrea Hill and this writer.

Inn Administrator Lucy DiSalvo advises that, as has become the tradition, a gourmet buffet dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m. before the meeting takes place at BBA Headquarters, 123 Remsen St.