A Year of Remarkable and Unmistakable Progress

Dear members of the Columbia Law School community,

As the academic year draws to a close, I want to thank all of you—our faculty, students, staff, and alumni—for contributing to a period of remarkable and unmistakable progress here at Columbia Law School. Your commitment to our mission, creative pursuit of new knowledge, and unwavering support sustain the Law School’s continuing excellence and inspire boundless confidence in our future.

Together, we are embarking on a new era. We are moving forward with clarity and purpose in advancing the principles, pillars, and priorities that I set out earlier this year:

• Embracing free expression and open discourse, so our students and faculty can test new ideas and pursue the truth wherever it leads
• Advancing our commitment to academic rigor and scholarly excellence
• Preparing our students to practice law in a rapidly changing professional environment
• Strengthening the fabric of our community, so our students, faculty, and staff can flourish and feel a sense of belonging
• Seizing every opportunity to lead—in legal education, in the profession, and in the world at large

The highlights and accomplishments below demonstrate how these priorities are already taking shape across our campus—in our physical spaces, our scholarship, our curriculum, and our engagement with the profession and society.

A New Sanctuary for Learning

One tangible symbol of our forward momentum—and the undisputed highlight of the year—is the spectacular new Li Lu Law Library. The culmination of years of planning and contribution, we opened the doors to the library in December, with two special ribbon-cutting events that each featured remarks from Li Lu ’96.

With its soaring two-story reading room and flexible areas for individual and group study, the library has transformed the student experience and become a point of pride for our community. It has been so rewarding and inspiring, on a personal level, to see the library become such a vibrant nexus of academic and cocurricular life for our students. 

Intellectual Vibrancy

We welcomed five new full-time faculty members this academic year: Kate Redburn, a historian with expertise in anti-discrimination law and the First Amendment, who is the director of the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law; Robert H. Smit ’86, an active arbitrator and experienced litigator, who is director of the Center for International Commercial and Investment Arbitration; Nicole Smith Futrell, an expert in criminal law and mass incarceration, who is launching the Post-Conviction and Reentry Justice Clinic in the fall; Reilly S. Steel ’17, an expert in the areas of business, law, and politics, who employs empirical and social science research methods in his work; and Rebecca Wexler, a scholar of criminal law and technology, who focuses on data privacy and secrecy.

I am also thrilled to announce that two new faculty members, Neel Guha and Gabriel V. Rauterberg, will join the Columbia Law School community on July 1. 

Neel is an emerging scholar exploring the intersections between law and artificial intelligence. Trained as both a lawyer and a computer scientist, Neel is an innovative researcher with a wide scholarly berth. His work brings together deep technical expertise in machine learning with sophisticated legal analysis, focusing both on how AI systems are transforming legal institutions and on how law should respond to the swift development of AI technologies.

Gabriel is a leading scholar of corporate and securities law whose influential work on corporate governance, capital markets, investment funds, contracts, and financial institutions has appeared in the nation’s top law reviews and been cited by the Delaware Supreme Court, Delaware Chancery Court, and Securities and Exchange Commission. He brings to the Law School a distinguished record of scholarship, teaching, and practice, including prior service as a fellow in Columbia Law School’s Program in the Law and Economics of Capital Markets and, most recently, as the Nathaniel Fensterstock Visiting Professor of Law during the fall 2025 semester.

In April, we announced the establishment of the Center for Law and the Economy, led by Professors Lina Khan and Lev Menand. Dedicated to advancing the study, practice, and implementation of laws and policies that structure the U.S. economy, the center will address the shortfall of knowledge in economic law and institutions in the U.S. and develop the scholarship and expertise needed to advance this work across key areas of economic law and policy.

This year also brought opportunities to celebrate and remember longtime faculty members. At Columbia Arbitration Day, we paid tribute to Professor George A. Bermann ’75 LL.M., who has taught at the Law School for five decades and will retire next year. On a somber note, Barbara Aronstein Black ’55, the first woman to serve as dean of Columbia Law School and a singular figure in the institution’s history, died this winter at the age of 92.

Looking ahead, we are also pleased to welcome an exceptional cohort of visiting faculty who will teach at the Law School next year: I. Glenn Cohen, James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics at Harvard Law School; Sandy Steel, Professor of Law and Philosophy of Law in the Faculty of Law at Oxford University; Rebecca Stone, Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law; Salomé Viljoen, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School; and Gideon Yaffe, Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School.

Innovation in the Curriculum and Beyond

Top employers across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors have long sought out Columbia-trained lawyers. In response to the rapid changes occurring in the legal profession, we have launched several initiatives to update our curriculum and enrich the overall academic journey, ensuring our students remain prepared for leadership—no matter where their career paths lead.

Generative artificial intelligence, in particular, has already begun to transform legal practice, legal education, and legal research. Last fall, I created the Generative AI Curriculum and Training Task Force, co-chaired by Professors Talia Gillis and Benjamin L. Liebman and charged with making recommendations for evolving our curriculum and capitalizing on Columbia Law School’s unique strengths.

The task force consulted with students, faculty, practitioners, and an alumni AI advisory council, among others, and outlined a series of action steps aimed at integrating AI literacy into the curriculum and student experience. Recommendations identified opportunities to expand course offerings, enhance cocurricular programming, and implement training for students and faculty, while creating the institutional infrastructure to support scholarly innovation and collaboration. Grounded in Columbia Law School’s long-standing commitment to rigorous analytical training, these efforts—beginning this fall—will help make certain that graduates can capably use emerging technologies and critically evaluate their implications for the legal profession and society.

Separately, our faculty also came together to explore strategies to better fulfill our teaching and scholarly missions. Through extensive dialogue and engagement, the faculty recommended substantive enhancements to the 1L year, including curricular changes, a refreshed Criminal Law course, and smaller first-year sections to strengthen the teaching and learning experience for instructors and students. I am grateful to our faculty for their openness and foresight. I would like to offer a special thank you to Professor Michael Heller, who was instrumental in advancing this effort, as he concludes five years of distinguished service as Vice Dean for Academic Affairs. Professor Kate Andrias will succeed him in this role, and I look forward to working with her starting in July. 

Dialogue and Discourse

Our commitment to free expression and open inquiry was reflected throughout the year in a robust calendar of events that brought together leading voices from across ideological, professional, and disciplinary perspectives. Events also provided opportunities for intellectual engagement, provocative discussions, and professional development.

The Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series brings leading voices from law, government, academia, business, private practice, and civil society to campus to explore novel ideas and gain insights to better understand law’s distinctive role in a rapidly changing world. In February, Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, joined me for a wide-ranging conversation about how her legal education advanced her extraordinary career as a practicing lawyer and global leader in international banking. And in March, Professor Tom Ginsburg, faculty director of the Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression at the University of Chicago, delivered an engaging lecture entitled “The American Attack on Academic Freedom in Comparative Perspective.”

As part of our signature Lawyers, Community, and Impact series, I hosted a fireside chat with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg about his path to a career in public service and innovative approaches to public safety. The series also continued to leverage the expertise of our faculty for conversations on topical legal issues, including examinations of the legality of presidential tariffs, the executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship, and the Supreme Court’s emergency docket (frequently referred to as the “shadow docket”).

Leadership in Action

I am delighted that our outstanding students and alumni continue to pursue and secure prestigious clerkships across the country. In that spirit, I am pleased to highlight that three Columbia Law alumni will serve as U.S. Supreme Court clerks next year. We have also recently launched two signature initiatives, with the support of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, to help prepare Columbia Law students and alumni for judicial clerkships and bring accomplished jurists to campus. In April, Judge Brian E. Murphy ’06 of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts visited campus as part of the inaugural Distinguished Jurist Speaker Series. And in May, we convened the second annual Judicial Clerkship Training Institute, featuring a distinguished array of federal and state judges. 

Our students also demonstrated leadership, intellectual tenacity, and commitment to their chosen fields of interest. Here are just a few of their achievements: The university named outgoing Student Senate President Celeste Woloshyn ’26 one of this year’s winners of the Campbell Award, which is presented to a graduating student at each school who shows exceptional leadership and Columbia spirit. On April 13, four exceptional student finalists—Margaret Broihier ’27, Jason Harward ’26, Coley Hungate ’26, and Benjamin Tutt ’27—competed in the 100th anniversary of the Harlan Fiske Stone Moot Court Competition finals (Tutt won the prize for best oral presentation, and Hungate won for best final-round brief). The competition was followed by a special reception featuring remarks from Professor Alexandra Carter ’03, herself a Stone finalist and winner of the prize for best oralist. And Jennifer Morgan ’26, a Max Berger ’71 Public Interest/Public Service Fellow, received a prestigious Skadden Fellowship. She plans to represent workers, especially women, seeking paid family leave benefits. 

Every year, we recognize staff members who show a commitment to innovation, leadership, and citizenship with the Law School’s Staff Appreciation and Recognition (STAR) Award. The following current employees received STAR Awards this year: Ernesto Colorado (Building Services and Operations), James Huerta (J.D. Admissions), Jessica Jimenez (Experiential Learning), Rebecca Kaplan (Communications, Marketing, and Public Affairs), Amanda Roden (Graduate Degree Programs), John Soto (Building Services and Operations), Mercedes Suazo (Li Lu Law Library), and Jennifer Torres (Private Sector Careers).

Of course, our faculty continue to be recognized among the most respected legal minds in the world. This year, five faculty members—Lina Khan, Dorothy S. Lund, Lev Menand, David Pozen, and Tim Wu—were among the Top 100 Legal Scholars of 2025. Several more were honored for their scholarly achievements: Ashraf Ahmed and Lev Menand received the annual Award for Scholarship in Administrative Law from the American Bar Association’s Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice; Anu Bradford was elected to the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters; Jeffrey Fagan was named a Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Distinguished Scholar; Kellen Funk received the Legal History Article of the Year Prize from the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation; and Elizabeth Scott was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition, Chief Judge Debra A. Livingston was presented with the Judith S. Kaye Award from the Historical Society of the New York Courts, and Kimberlé W. Crenshaw’s recently published book, Backtalker: An American Memoir, debuted on The New York Times Best Sellers List last month.

This year’s graduating class awarded Professor Olatunde Johnson with the Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching, the second time she has earned this meaningful honor. For the first time this year, we also recognized two adjunct instructors—Scott Ruskay-Kidd ’98 and Graeme Simpson for superb classroom teaching and student mentorship. Professor Elora Mukherjee received Columbia University’s Faculty Service Award at University Commencement in recognition of her tireless advocacy for migrant children and families, as well as members of the Columbia community with immigration concerns. 

As you can see, we have accomplished so much this year. We have set ourselves on an ambitious path—one that reflects a community energized by the future and united by a commitment to excellence. I know that Columbia Law School will lead the way in legal education, scholarship, and service for generations to come. And I am grateful for your partnership. 

Thank you again, and best wishes for the summer,

Daniel Abebe
Dean and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law