Dear NYLS Community,
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Lynn Boepple Su as our inaugural Dean for Advocacy and Co-Curricular Programs. Dean Su will oversee, coordinate, and continue to build our highly successful Advocacy Program. She is exceptionally qualified to take on this new role, having served in a number of key positions on our faculty for many years. This position will be located within the Office of Clinical and Experiential Learning and Dean Su will coordinate closely with Dean for Clinical and Experiential Learning Kim Hawkins and Academic Dean Matt Gewolb.
In recognition of the importance of NYLS’s Advocacy and Co-Curricular programs, Dean Su will also implement a significant gift that has been given to support and grow these programs, which will collectively be known as Harris Keenan & Goldfarb Advocacy Program at New York Law School. More will be shared in the weeks to come on this very generous gift made by Harris Keenan & Goldfarb Attorneys at Law founding partner Seth A. Harris and named partners and NYLS alumni Alison R. Keenan ’06 and Blake G. Goldfarb ’10.
“On behalf of the entire firm, I am thrilled to support New York Law School’s Advocacy and Co-Curricular Programs,” shared Seth Harris, “I know first-hand how well these programs have prepared NYLS students once they enter the profession. Dean Su is the ideal leader to oversee their continued success, and will develop new ideas, strategies, and synergies so that NYLS students continue to be standout members of our profession. I look forward to working with her and supporting NYLS as the premier institution for graduating first-rate advocates and litigators who advance justice and opportunity. The firm’s partnership with NYLS’s advocacy programs reflects our core commitment to trial advocacy and the rights of the injured.”
NYLS’s Advocacy Program has been a critical part of ensuring our students are practice-ready and can excel in their legal careers. Beginning in the first year with Legal Practice I and II, NYLS students learn advocacy skills in context, employing cutting edge pedagogical innovations to ensure that our students gain a solid understanding of advocacy skills from day one. The basic introduction in Legal Practice is complemented by the opportunity to participate in co-curricular programs to deepen these skills: Trial Competition Team, Moot Court Association, and the Dispute Resolution Team. In the upper levels, students in the Advocacy Program can earn an Advocacy Certificate by taking a combination of procedure, writing, and skills courses. Students interested in Alternative Dispute Resolution can similarly follow a set of course offerings that lead to a Certificate in ADR. The combination of these course offerings and co-curricular offerings provide students with a diverse set of opportunities to develop their advocacy skills.
Just as importantly, these programs operate with a diverse and extraordinary group of faculty members and practitioners, many of whom are alumni of the School. These programs provide an exceptional opportunity for our alumni to continue their professional development and mentor new generations of NYLS students, creating lifelong connections and career opportunities for these students. Dean Su’s appointment will ensure an integrated, streamlined, and well managed set of opportunities are available for students and alumni to develop advocacy skills, especially as the practice of law continues to rapidly evolve and necessitates new thinking and approaches—a hallmark of Dean Su’s work at NYLS.
Dean Su is a longtime member of the NYLS community. She began her legal career as an Assistant District Attorney in Bronx County, followed by a number of years in private practice. During this time, she began teaching at NYLS as an adjunct professor, and once she joined NYLS full-time began working and shaping our Legal Writing Program, eventually becoming Co-Director. She was appointed as an Associate Professor of Law in 2011, and became a Professor of Law in 2015. She currently teaches Legal Practice; Evidence; Deposition Skills; Race, Bias, and Advocacy; and the Criminal Prosecution Clinic Seminar—New York County. She is the Faculty Advisor for the NYLS Trial Competition Team, a co-curricular she helped establish in 2016.
Committed to promoting wellness initiatives in the legal profession, Dean Su designed a new course, Mindful Lawyering, during the pandemic. The course, which focuses on mindfulness as a tool to enhance lawyering skills and attorney well-being, debuted at NYLS in 2022. She is the faculty co-advisor for The Organization for Healthy Minds, a student group formed in 2023.
Drawing on her teaching and practice experience, Dean Su co-authored The Lawyer’s Craft: An Introduction to Legal Analysis, Writing, and Advocacy and Teacher’s Manual for The Lawyer’s Craft. She also is a 2018 recipient of the Global Legal Skills Award, presented at the 13th Annual Global Legal Skills Conference held at Melbourne Law School in Melbourne, Australia, for “significant contributions to the promotion and improvement of global legal skills,” and she has been selected to serve as a Fulbright Specialist at the Facultad de Derecho – Universidad de Chile in 2023. She is a former Co-Chair of the Legal Writing Institute’s Clinical Cooperation Committee, and she is a current a member of the AALS Section on Balance in Legal Education. She also serves on the New York State Bar Association’s Law, Youth and Citizenship Committee and its Mock Trial Subcommittee. She received her J.D., cum laude, from Washington and Lee University School of Law, and her B.A., magna cum laude, from New York University. Read full bio.
Dean Su is a wonderful colleague, and demonstrates extraordinary care and dedication to her students. Please join me in congratulating Dean Su and wishing her the best as she takes on this new and exciting role at the Law School.
-Dean Anthony W. Crowell