At finals time, we get complaints about noise in the library. We do what we can to cultivate a quiet environment by asking people to be quieter when we observe an issue but we can’t be everywhere. We count on your cooperation to help maintain a quiet space for all.

All areas in the library are Quiet Study Zones, with the exception of the area next to the Reference and Circulation Desks on the first floor. We ask that you keep verbal communication to a minimum in all Quiet Study Zone areas and that you do no more than whisper. Cell phones and computers should be silenced completely. If you are listening to music or other audio via headphones, please ensure the volume is low enough that sound is not leaking from the headphones.

If you encounter a noisy facilities condition like a squeaky door or noisy library equipment, please report it immediately to Reference or Circulation. Send an email to reference@nyls.edu or call extension 2332. We’ll do what we can to get the problem resolved as quickly as possible.

We understand that during finals the library gets crowded, and people may be stressed and on edge, so we appreciate your cooperation in helping us maintain a quiet place for everyone to study. Thank you for your help and good luck on exams!

At a time when women lawyers were often relegated to handling only “women’s issues,” Sybil Shainwald ’76 turned that limitation into a trailblazing career.  Earning her law degree in the school’s evening program in her late 40s, Sybil went on to specialize in women’s health reform.  She litigated cases involving drugs and medical devices that have inflicted harm on women and their children.  She has written, testified, and lectured extensively on obstetrical malpractice, IUDs, unnecessary hysterectomies, hormone therapy, and products liability litigation.

She received the New York Law School President’s Award in 2007 and is a Trustee Emeritus after having served on the Board for many years. In 2004, Sybil created the Sidney Shainwald Public Interest Lecture Series at NYLS in honor of her late husband Sidney, an impassioned advocate for social justice. In 2018, the lecture was delivered by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

You can learn more about Sybil and other esteemed alums by visiting our Digital Commons.

Did you have trouble waking up on Monday?  Or maybe overslept on Sunday?  Well, changing the clocks may be a thing of the past.

On Tuesday, March 15^th, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent.  Marco Rubio introduced the bill back on March 9, 2021 but unfortunately it was not voted on in time for this most recent spring forward.  The bill now moves to the House of Representatives where it will need to pass before the end of this legislative session, and then be signed by the president, in order to become law.

On February 25, 2022, President Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she would fill the seat of the retiring Associate Justice Stephen Breyer—the Justice for whom she once clerked.  Judge Brown Jackson currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

If confirmed, Judge Brown Jackson will be the first African-American woman to serve on the Court, as well as one of the youngest justices.  Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Brown Jackson practiced in both the public and private legal sectors, including as a public defender.  She would be the first justice since Thurgood Marshall to have experience representing criminal defendants.

If you want to learn more about Judge Brown Jackson and about the SCOTUS nomination process in general, check out this helpful Supreme Court Nominations Research Guide. It lays out both the background of the nominee as well as the confirmation process.  You can also study the nomination and confirmation process of previous justices, including Amy Coney Barrett, the most recent appointment.

In 1869, Myra Bradwell, who had passed the Illinois bar exam, was denied admission to the bar, on the grounds that a married woman couldn’t enter into contracts because of the common law doctrine of coverture and also because of her gender.  In the Illinois Supreme Court’s view, women weren’t entitled to practice law. Voting 8-1, the United States Supreme Court, 83 U.S. 130, affirmed that decision in 1872.  Undeterred, Bradwell continued advocating for women’s rights and continued to publish the Chicago Legal News, which she had founded in 1868 and which had become the most widely circulated legal newspaper of the time.

In 1890, the Illinois Supreme Court reconsidered Bradwell’s 1869 application and granted it nunc pro tunc, retroactively making her the first woman lawyer in Illinois.

Celebrating Black History Month provides the opportunity to highlight some of New York Law School’s most distinguished Black alumni.  For our final Black History Month post, we honor Marianne Spraggins, NYLS class of 1976, who was the first African American female Managing Director on Wall Street, at Smith Barney.  Ms. Spraggins also holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School.  Before beginning her financial career, she was an associate professor of law at NYLS and director of the school’s Urban Legal Studies Fellowship program.  Ms. Spraggins was an NYLS trustee in the 1990s and received a distinguished alumna award from NYLS in 1992.

In the early 1990s, Ms. Spraggins was appointed by President Clinton as the director of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation and she also served as a Super Delegate for New York in President Obama’s 2008 presidential election.  Past board memberships include the Apollo Theater and Africares, and she has served on the Executive Committee of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute.  Additionally, she is also a former member of the Steering Committee of The Wall Street Project, an organization founded by Rev. Jesse Jackson that advocates for minorities in the financial sector.  Ms. Spraggins’ father, Roy Travers Spraggins, also graduated from NYLS in 1950.

More information relating to these and many other prominent alumni can be found in the Law School’s Digital Commons.

We hope you had fun “Finding Love in the Library” during our 2022 Valentine’s Day Info Hunt.  A big THANKS to everyone who entered!  While we promised to select 10 prize winners, because we had such great participation, we instead have randomly selected 15 lucky prize winners, each of whom will receive a prize from our selection of doctrinal course and bar study aids, law dictionaries, NYLS commuter mugs, Lexis points, and online subscriptions to the Bluebook.

The fifteen lucky students, in alphabetical order by last name, are:

• Elizabeth Athy
• Sean Deighan
• Molly Dowd
• Ishra Glasswala
• Martha Kostiuk
• Eitan Lindenberg
• Rey Llena
• Haley McPherson
• Carley Perine
• Natallia Popchanka
• Caroline Shea
• Emily Smith
• Genevieve Smith
• Steven Smith
• Jihao Yu

A separate email will be sent from Darlene Young to the prize winners with instructions for claiming their prize.

Congratulations to all the winners!

–Mendik Library Staff

Love is (Still) In the Air in the Mendik Library!

A quick reminder that today, Friday, February 18th is the last day to enter the Mendik Library Valentine’s Day Info Hunt for a chance to WIN one of 10 great prizes, including study aids, Lexis points, law dictionaries, NYLS commuter mugs, and online subscriptions to the Bluebook!  Just answer our seven Valentine’s Day Info Hunt questions.  Your answers don’t need to be perfect—just close!

Click here to access the questions.  The entire quiz should only take about 15 minutes to complete.

Thanks for your participation in this year’s Valentine’s Day Info Hunt.  Winners will be announced on Tuesday, February 22 so stay tuned!

Moses Leonard Frazier, Class of 1899, is believed to have been New York Law School’s first African American graduate.  An “Item of Interest” published in the July 23, 1902 issue of The Religious Telescope notes that he had been born into slavery in New Orleans in 1860.  A December 1902 issue of Successful American (published by The Writers’ Press Association) refers to Frazier as “a shining light” and “the only negro who was ever graduated from the School of Political Science in Columbia University.”  Frazier received an M.A. from that school in 1902.  He had received his Ph.B. degree from Mt. Union College in 1896, and a Ph.M. in 1899, the same year he graduated from New York Law School.  In 1903 he received an LL.D. degree from the law school of Morris Brown College in Atlanta, where he served as dean.

Although the extent to which he practiced law is uncertain, Frazier was active in a number of business ventures, including a real estate firm, a barber shop, and serving as president of the Academy of Chiropody & Dermatology.