As the managing editor of Family Court Review, one of Hofstra Law’s five law journals, Trinh Tran manages staff and oversees article selection, development and editing for this unique publication, which is written not only by lawyers, but also by other professionals, including doctors, social workers and psychologists. Despite the workload, Tran appreciates the added insight and experience.

Tran had a long track record of community involvement before coming to Hofstra Law; in fact, her activism is what ultimately led her to law school. After graduating from college, Tran was a Peace Corps volunteer for two years in Mali, where she helped women develop their microbusinesses. "When I joined the Peace Corps, people teased me by asking if I thought I could change the world," she says. But the Peace Corps showed Tran that broader change starts on a more personal level.

Tran, who is focusing her studies in immigration, family and civil rights law, believes that a legal career will allow her to do just that. She adds, "It's a good fit, really. You work with a client one on- one and find ways to work out their problems."

Professor Walker teaches courses in scientific evidence, torts, administrative law and European Union law. He has been a consultant to private and governmental institutions in both the U.S. and Europe. As director of Hofstra Law's Research Laboratory for Law, Logic and Technology, he and his team of researchers — in collaboration with peers at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa — are using advanced software and Internet-based technologies to explore logical analysis of the underlying patterns of reasoning in legal decisions, and especially the fact-finding portions of those decisions.

The mission of the LLT Lab is not merely to study fact-finding using scientific methods, but also to improve actual decision making in society. The lab uses its website – available at www.LLTLab.org – to make publicly available its database of logic models of decisions. "By making its work available to all participants in legal decision-making processes," says Walker, "the LLT Lab aims to increase the transparency, accuracy, efficiency and accessibility of such decision making."

"Within the first few months of classes, I knew I had made the right decision," says 2L Francisco Cebada of his choice to attend the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. Cebada, who was considering law schools in Pennsylvania and Florida, ultimately chose Hofstra Law for the quality of its education and its proximity and connections to the New York law community, where he hopes to build his career.

Although Cebada originally applied to the J.D. program, he also applied to and was accepted into Hofstra's M.B.A. program to broaden his legal skills. "My first-semester contracts course came naturally to me, and I realized the practical nature of the law,” he explains. "At the same time, the course demonstrated the business aspects of the law, and I thought a business degree would improve my understanding of legal negotiations."

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While first-year law students may need to adapt to a new curriculum and way of thinking, Hofstra Law's dedicated faculty and welcoming student body help students adjust and introduce them to the law. Inside the classroom, the curriculum grounds students in legal theory and develops the skills necessary to succeed as an attorney.

Beyond the classroom, learning is enhanced as 1Ls get involved with organizations designed to help them explore different areas of the law, meet like-minded classmates and build their resumes. Hofstra Law's student organizations have a tradition of making a difference in the lives of the people they serve as counselors to those in need, conveners of thought leadership, contributors of ideas, mentors to young people and friends to the business community.

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This innovative program is designed to support students’ growth as professionals through the development of their unique skills, abilities and leadership styles. Students also learn how to communicate these distinct characteristics and differentiators to compete and convey their relevance in an increasingly competitive, entrepreneurial and technologically sophisticated global legal marketplace. The program enables Hofstra Law graduates to enter the workplace and immediately contribute in substantive ways, and ultimately to make a powerful, authentic and confident mark in the legal community.

The Professional Success and Leadership Development Program offers highly interactive seminars, panels, workshops, individual coaching, mentoring and events, including a Distinguished Practitioner Lecture series. The program’s signature event is the annual Success Strategies Boot Camp.

Professor Burke teaches criminal law and criminal procedure subjects. Her research intersects criminal law and procedure and focuses on policing and prosecutorial policies. She has written about prosecutorial decision making, community policing and non-punitive responses to crime problems, and the criminal law's treatment of domestic violence, both in punishing batterers and in explaining the conduct of battered women. Professor Burke has published articles in the Michigan, George Washington, North Carolina, Washington, and William and Mary Law Reviews, among other journals.

Before joining the law school faculty in 2001, Professor Burke served as a deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon, where she tried more than 30 criminal cases, primarily against domestic violence offenders, and helped innovate neighborhood-based prosecution methods.

The Law School offers several exciting, ABA-approved study abroad programs. One program take place in Pisa, Italy over the summer, and one program takes place in Curacao, the Netherlands Antilles over the winter. Each program includes courses that focus on international or comparative law, as well as extensive interaction with local students, faculty and members of the local legal community. Faculty in our study abroad programs have frequently included Justices of the United States Supreme Court and other highly distinguished jurists and law professors. Students who attend Hofstra's study abroad programs thus have a unique opportunity to gain a rich understanding of foreign legal institutions, and to appreciate the cultural dimensions of lawyering in a global environment.

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