New York Law School

Associate Dean Deborah Archer organized the Racial Justice Project in the fall of 2006. The goal was to create a legal advocacy initiative to protect the constitutional and civil rights of people who have been denied those rights on the basis of race and to increase public awareness of racism and racial injustice in the areas of education, employment, political participation, and criminal justice. Since then, the Project has worked to achieve these goals through the efforts of a growing number of faculty and student participants. To learn more about the individuals working on the Project, click their names below.

Deborah N. Archer (Project Director) | Tamara C. Belinfanti | Kirk Burkhalter | David Chang | Xusana Davis | Amanda Gayle | Mercer Givhan | Chaumtoli Huq | Lailah Hanit Pepe | J. Alanna Pittard | Erika L. Wood

			Deborah N. Archer Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Director, Racial Justice Project Specialties: Anti-Discrimination Law and Economic Justice, Civil Rights
An expert in the areas of civil rights, racial discrimination, Deborah N. Archer directs New York Law School’s Racial Justice Project and the Civil Rights Clinic. Associate Dean Archer was previously an assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., where she litigated at the trial and appellate levels in cases involving affirmative action in higher education, employment discrimination, school desegregation, and voting rights. She was also a Marvin H. Karpatkin Fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union, where she was involved in federal and state litigation on issues of race and poverty. Prior to joining New York Law School, Associate Dean Archer was an associate at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP.As the Director of the Racial Justice Project and the Civil Rights Clinic, Associate Dean Archer continues to work to protect the constitutional and civil rights of people of color and increase public awareness of racism, racial injustice, and structural racial inequality. Associate Dean Archer has also participated as amicus counsel in several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Courts of Appeal, including Ricci v. DeStefano, Fisher v. University of Texas, and Hithon v. Tyson Foods. Associate Dean Archer graduated with honors from Smith College in 1993 and was awarded her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1996. Thereafter, she clerked for Judge Alvin Thompson in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. Associate Dean Archer is a member of the National Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Board of Directors of the New York Civil Liberties Union. She was selected as an Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar and has also served on the Association of the Bar of the City of New York’s Civil Rights Committee, and on the Committee on Civil Rights of the New York State Bar Association.
			Tamara C. Belinfanti Associate Professor of Law Specialties: Corporate Law, Law and Culture
Tamara C. Belinfanti joined the Law School in the fall 2009 semester and will teach Contracts, Corporations, and a transactional skills course entitled “Closing the Deal.” Her teaching and scholarly interests are primarily in the fields of corporate law and law and culture. Previously, Professor Belinfanti was a corporate attorney at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. While at the law firm, she counseled domestic and international clients on U.S. securities and general corporate law matters; was co-editor of a securities law treatise, U.S. Regulation of the International Securities and Derivatives Market (Aspen, 2003); and participated in a law teaching pilot program in New York City public high schools. Professor Belinfanti’s recent article on the proxy advisory industry is forthcoming in the Stanford Journal of Law, Business & Finance. She is a legal aid volunteer and a member of the New York bar.
			Kirk D. Burkhalter Associate Professor of Law
Kirk D. Burkhalter ’04 joined the faculty in the fall 2010 semester and teaches Legal Practice. Previously, he was the Visiting Assistant Professor of Academic Support at Hofstra School of Law, where he taught Legal Methods. In addition, Professor Burkhalter helped Hofstra students adjust to the academic demands of law school and develop the skills to enable them to realize their full academic potential through workshops, seminars, and individual counseling. He also conducted workshops and seminars that focused on the analytical and organizational skills specific to preparation for the New York State Bar Examination. Professor Burkhalter was formerly the Associate Director of Academic Affairs and an adjunct professor at New York Law School, where he provided academic counseling and taught The Principles of Legal Analysis. He has also taught at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Before working in academia, he was an associate in the Corporate Securities and Finance practice group at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. Professor Burkhalter also served 20 years in the New York City Police Department (NYPD), retiring as a detective first grade. He spent the majority of his career with the NYPD conducting long-term investigations into organized criminal enterprises and domestic, ecological, and industrial terrorism.
			David Chang Professor of Law Specialty: Constitutional Law
At first glance, David Chang’s reserved exterior belies the deep feelings he has for righting society’s wrongs, especially with regard to racial discrimination. But his passion and commitment to addressing these issues quickly become clear not only through his conversation and writings, but also through his actions. Former cochair of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, Professor Chang worked hard to combat some of the City’s most heinous incidents of brutality and to push for legislative remedies through the passage of anti–hate crimes statutes. He has written extensively on hate crimes legislation and the constitutionality of affirmative action policies. He has also worked with the Los Angeles–based Center for Law in the Public Interest. He is the former chairman of the Board of Directors of Pratt Area Community Council, an organization that serves a wide range of housing-related needs for low- and moderate-income residents of Brooklyn.
			Xusana Davis Member, Justice Action Center Co-Director, Street Law Project
Xusana is a third-year student and a Co-Director of the Street Law Project. She is passionate about civil and human rights and the sociological dynamics that jeopardize them. She looks forward to a career through which she will advocate for the protection of human rights and civil liberties.
			Amanda Gayle Member, Justice Action Center Co-Director, Street Law Project
Amanda Gayle is a second-year law student from Brooklyn, New York. She attends New York Law School where she serves as both the Co-Director of the Street Law Project and a co-chair of Black Law Students Associaton’s mentoring committee. Committed to civil rights and social justice, Amanda is an affiliate of the Law School’s Justice Action Center. Upon completion of her studies, Amanda plans to pursue a career as a civil rights attorney with a focus in impact litigation. Amanda also seeks to continue on her path toward criminal public defense. Profoundly affected by racial disparities within the criminal justice system, Amanda recently completed a summer internship with the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem and looks forward to working at Bronx Defenders next summer where she will continue to facilitate her interests in racial justice. Amanda also maintains strong community ties through her volunteer work. Devoted to assisting minority youth achieve their goals, in 2010 Amanda co-founded a mentoring program for young women in her neighborhood. The program, F.I.E.R.C.E (Finding Inspiration and Empowerment to Realize Character Enrichment), works with young women between the ages of 15 and 18 to build their self-esteem, prepare for college, and discover their purpose. Amanda received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Legal Studies from John Jay College of Criminal Justice with a minor in English.
			Mercer Givhan Associate Professor of Law Faculty Advisor, Street Law Project
Mercer Givhan, or “Monte” as he is commonly known, is an associate professor with the Legal Practice Program. Professor Givhan has spent virtually his entire adult life working with and on behalf of low income communities of color and has extensive experience in the fields of indigent defense, criminal justice, and community development. After graduating from Yale Law School in 1994, Professor Givhan clerked for the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, then joined the staff of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia where he worked for nearly five years in the trial division. Professor Givhan has also served as a program officer with the Soros Foundation/Open Society Institute’s Criminal Justice Initiative, managing a grant-making portfolio that included supporting efforts to abolish the death penalty, hold prosecutors accountable for misconduct, combat racial profiling by law enforcement, and raise the quality of legal services available to indigent criminal defendants nationwide.Currently, he is a member of the faculty of the Southern Public Defender Training Center. In addition to his work in the arena of criminal justice, Professor Givhan spent several years working in various capacities with Groundwork, Inc., a Brooklyn-based nonprofit organization that partners with community members to improve outcomes for children and families living in or near to public housing in East New York and Bedford Stuyvesant. Prior to joining the faculty at New York Law School, Professor Givhan spent two years as a clinical teaching fellow with Fordham Law School’s Community Economic Development (CED) clinic and one year as a clinical instructor with the CED clinic at CUNY Law School. He is a native of Philadelphia, PA, a graduate of Morehouse College, and the father of a teenage son.
			Chaumtoli Huq Associate Professor of Law
Chaumtoli Huq joined New York Law School in the Fall of 2011 to teach Legal Practice. She recently served as the Director of Litigation at Manhattan Legal Services, an affiliate of Legal Services NYC, and through its offices in Harlem and Lower Manhattan provided free legal services to low-income New Yorkers on a wide range of legal issues, including housing, consumer rights, and employment.For more than 10 years Professor Huq has devoted her career to the public interest, serving in positions such as the director of the first South Asian Workers Rights Project (SAWRP) in the country at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), and as the first Staff Attorney to the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), a multi-ethnic immigrant worker–led labor organization of taxi-drivers. Professor Huq serves on the Council of Advisors for South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), a national non-profit organization that elevates the perspectives on South Asian individuals and community based organizations through public policy analysis and advocacy.
			Lailah Hanit Pepe Member, Justice Action Center Fellow, Racial Justice Project
Lailah is a third-year law student from Brooklyn, New York, where she lives with her wife and tiny dog. Lailah is deeply concerned about institutionalized racism, structural inequalities, and income disparity. She came to law school seeking a career change, and intent on developing tools for uncovering and challenging these forces and their direct effects on people’s lives, opportunities, and ability to access justice. She has worked with Legal Services New York, Brooklyn Branch, in the Housing Unit and at the New York State Attorney General’s Civil Rights Bureau. She was a student attorney and court evaluator in the Elder Law Clinic last spring and is currently an intern at South Brooklyn Legal Services in the HIV Unit. Lailah worked with the Racial Justice Project on the amicus briefs filed in Fisher v. University of Texas and Shelby County v. Holder. She is Chair on the Executive Board of the NYLS Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. She looks forward to a long, productive career in social justice lawyering and aspires to be a fierce advocate.
			J. Alanna Pittard Member, Justice Action Center Fellow, Racial Justice Project
Joycelyn Alanna Pittard is currently a 3L at New York Law School and is expected to obtain her Juris Doctor in May 2013. As a Texas native, Alanna obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the University of Houston. Since moving to New York in 2010 to pursue her legal education, Alanna has gotten involved in the fight for social justice and continues her commitment to social action as a Racial Justice Project Fellow and student-attorney in the Civil Rights Clinic at NYLS. Alanna is looking forward to embarking on the next chapter of her legal career and hopes to continue learning and advocating for civil rights.
			Erika L. Wood Associate Professor of Law
Erika L. Wood teaches Legal Practice at New York Law School. Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Wood was the Deputy Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, taught the Public Policy Advocacy Clinic at New York University School of Law, and was an attorney with the Legal Action Center. She has designed and launched major reform campaigns around the country, litigated complex civil rights cases, and authored several groundbreaking reports and numerous articles. Professor Wood provides legal counsel and strategic guidance to advocates, legislators and policymakers nationwide, and is a frequent speaker and commentator on voting rights, criminal justice reform, and racial justice issues. In 2009, Rutgers School of Law awarded her the Eric. R. Neisser Public Interest Award in recognition of her efforts to carry forward the Law School’s mission of providing liberty and justice for all. Professor Wood earned her BA cum laude from New York University, and graduated with honors from Rutgers School of Law where she earned the Kinoy-Stavis Fellowship and the Myron Harkavey prize.