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It is my great pleasure to introduce to you John Feerick, the Norris Professor of Law and former Dean of Fordham Law School. John's storied career includes his joining what was then a small firm, Skadden, Arps and building a very successful Labor Law practice and then making the move to academia to serve for twenty years as the Dean who brought Fordham Law School into the modern era. John's service to the law school, the bar and the larger community is the stuff of legend and you can get a bit of the flavor of it here, but I want to say a word about John as my friend and hero.
When I first met John, I simply did not have a clue about what to make of him. Speaking in his deliberate way, asking me questions about myself and listening intently, he gave me none of the cues I had come to expect from the many brilliant, accomplished New York lawyers I had been privileged to meet. But he was the Dean and he wished me well, so I went on my way and gave our meeting little thought. I can only plead callowness as an explanation for not recognizing that I had met a man who would change my life, as he has changed so many lives.
John’s unwavering and almost unlimited support for our clinical program gave me professional opportunities I would not have had anywhere else, but his friendship and role as moral example have come to mean the most to me over time. He is the most authentic person I know and his loyalty and faith in others is unbounded.
In this clip, he talks about being asked to bring his expertise in ADR, alternative dispute resolution, to bear on the problem of homelessness in New York City. You can learn a bit about the work he did and also get a sense of this very straightforward, approachable man whose character runs so deep.
-- Ian Weinstein
Fordham, Law School, Clinical Legal Education, Law Clinic, Labor Law
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