Alumni Fellows

CLASS OF 2007

Casie McGee

Casie was born and raised in a small town in West Virginia. While earning degrees in English and mathematics at Marshall University, she became involved with several student groups focused on political advocacy. She helped re-establish the Lambda Society, Marshall’s LGBT student group, and served as president for two years. She was the first president and co-creator of the Marshall University Civil Liberties Union. Casie also held positions as Marshall University’s LGBT Outreach Office Co-Coordinator and Co-Chair of the LGBT Affairs Subcommittee of the Marshall University Commission on Multiculturalism. She served on the board of directors for the ACLU of West Virginia and interned with them on their Legislative and Freedom of Speech Projects. Off campus, she organized lobbying efforts to block anti-gay Huntington City Council initiatives.

Upon coming to Hofstra, Casie ran for and was elected as 1L Representative for the Student Bar Association. She worked to coordinate the efforts of the three LGBT groups on campus, allowing the groups to work more efficiently and cooperatively. In her effort to bring the groups together, she started a Pride Week, which she hopes will continue to be a Hofstra tradition. She also served as president of People Responding to the Issues of Sexual Minorities (PRISM). Casie has joined the LGBT Legal Association of Greater New York (LeGaL) and served on their board of directors.

After her first year of law school, Casie interned with Rainbow Pride of West Virginia. She spent part of her second summer in Washington DC, interning for the Liberty Education Forum, an LGBT political activism think tank. Then, she went to Amsterdam for a study abroad program on LGBT legal issues from an international perspective.

After graduation, Casie wants to get as much courtroom time as possible. She would eventually like to work on impact litigation with a major LGBT non-profit organization.

Joseph Passoni

Joseph Passoni graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in Political Science in 2000. During college, Joseph volunteered with LGBT rights groups both on and off campus. After graduating he continued volunteering at the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgendered Community Center in New York City, the largest such center in the country. He worked with both the public policy and promote the vote committees.

At Hofstra, Joseph is currently involved with PRISM and is interning at Masliah & Soloway, P.C., where he interned during his second year summer. At the firm, he worked on political asylum cases on behalf of individuals who were persecuted in their native countries because of their status as Transgendered, Homosexuals and Lesbian individuals. Joseph is also a member of the Hofstra Law Review.