Brooklyn Law School announces new Fagen Professorship: Endowment honors longtime faculty member and his family’s legacy

Brooklyn Law School announced the establishment of the Fagen Professorship on Monday. It is a newly endowed position created through a significant gift from Les Fagen, a veteran trial lawyer and longtime adjunct faculty member at the school.

The endowment pays tribute to the strength of the school’s faculty and its mission of educational access while honoring Fagen’s late father, Herman Fagen, a Class of 1942 alumnus.

“We could not be more grateful to Les Fagen for this extremely generous and meaningful gift,” said President and Dean David Meyer. “It recognizes that the foundation of excellence for any law school is its faculty and that attracting and retaining gifted scholars and teachers is vital to our future and to our students’ success. That the gift comes from a longtime member of our faculty and celebrates Brooklyn Law’s distinctive mission of educational access makes it all the more special.”

Les Fagen, who has been dedicated to education throughout his career, was inspired by Brooklyn Law School’s history of making legal education accessible to immigrants’ children and its commitment to part-time programs that offer night classes. He also noted the school’s longstanding admission of a large number of women, distinguishing it from many other law schools.

“Brooklyn Law School is an important and iconic institution in the City of New York, and that is part of why I decided to make this grant,” Fagen said. “In its history and to this day, the law school has enjoyed an extraordinary faculty and admitted wonderful students who later became impressive lawyers.”

The Fagen family has deep ties to Brooklyn Law School. Herman Fagen, born to immigrant parents, attended the school at night while working day jobs, including as a truck driver and ironworker. He followed his older brothers, Bernard Fagen (Class of 1930) and Israel Fagen (Class of 1931), to the school. Herman Fagen, who later became a significant executive at the New York City Transit Authority and an expert in tort law, wore his Brooklyn Law School ring until his death at age 93 in 2010.

Les Fagen, a graduate of Yale College and Columbia Law School, spent over 40 years at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where he chaired the litigation department and served on the firm’s management committee. He also became a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. At Brooklyn Law School, he teaches a course titled “Litigating an IP Case.”