James D. Hopkins Professor of Law Memorial Lecture
Professor Noa Ben Asher was named the James D. Hopkins Professor of Law for the 2021-2023 academic years. The Hopkins professorship is an endowed chair established to honor Judge James D. Hopkins, who served as interim dean of Pace Law School from 1982-83. The Chair is awarded every two years to a faculty member who has made extraordinary contributions to the law school primarily in the areas of scholarship and teaching.
PREVIOUS HOPKINS PROFESSORS AND THEIR LECTURE TITLES
August 2019-May 2021
Leslie Y. Garfield Tenzer
"Social Media and the Common Law"
>> View lecture video
August 2017-May 2019
Bridget Crawford
"Democracy, Termites and Trust(s)"
>> View lecture video
August 2015-May 2017
Lissa Griffin
"Wrongful Convictions: A Comparative Perspective"
August 2013-May 2015
Jill Gross
"Setting the Record Straight: The Supreme Court and 21st Century Arbitration"
August 2011-May 2013
Linda Fentiman
"Are Mothers Hazardous to their Children’s Health: Law, Culture, and the Framing of Risk"
August 2009–May 2011
John R. Nolon
"Sustainable Development Law: Keeping Pace"
August 2007–May 2009
Bennett L. Gershman
"The Most Dangerous Power of the Prosecutor"
August 2005–May 2007
Michael B. Mushlin
"The Prison Crucible: Race and the American Penal System"
August 2003–May 2005
Barbara Black
"Is Securities Arbitration Fair to Investors?"
August 2001–May 2003
Donald Doernberg
"The New Federalism: Sovereign Immunity or the Rule of Law."<br />
August 1999–May 2001
Jeffrey G. Miller
"Evolutionary Statutory Interpretation or Mr. Justice Scalia Meets Darwin, Dean Ottinger, and Various Theories of Memes, Ecology, Complexity, and the Common Law"
August 1997–May 1999
James J. Fishman
"Tenure and Its Discontents"
August 1995–May 1997
M. Stuart Madden
"The Vital Common Law: Its Role in a Statutory Age"
August 1993–May 1995
John A. Humbach
"Property Rights, Takings and Justice in a Democracy"
August 1991–May 1993
Nicholas A. Robinson
"Emerging Earth Law"
August 1989–May 1991
Maurice Rosenberg
HOPKINS LECTURE HISTORY
Justice James D. Hopkins
Interim Dean (1982–1983),
Pace Law School
The James D. Hopkins Professor of Law is an endowed chair established with contributions from alumni/ae of Pace Law School and members of the legal community to honor Judge James D. Hopkins who served as Interim Dean of the Law School in 1982–1983. The title of James D. Hopkins Professor of Law is held by a distinguished member of the faculty for a two-year term in recognition of outstanding scholarship and teaching. The Hopkins Lecture is delivered by the honoree in the fall semester of the first year.
Judge James D. Hopkins' service to society and to the legal community was a shining example of the life one should live in the law. At the time of his retirement from the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court in December, 1981, he had served with distinction at the highest level of all three branches of the Westchester County Government: legislative, executive and judicial.
A lifelong resident of Westchester County, Judge Hopkins began his legal career as an associate with Strang & Taylor and later became partner of Bleakley, Platt and Walker, now known as Bleakley Platt & Schmidt. In 1954, he became County Executive of Westchester County following a one-year term as majority leader of the Westchester County Board of Supervisors which he also served as Chairman from 1952-1953. Judge Hopkins was Councilman and later Town Supervisor of the Town of North Castle. On appointment by Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Judge Hopkins served on the New York State Supreme Court, 9th Judicial District, a post to which he was subsequently elected, in 1960, for a 14-year term. He joined the Appellate Division, Second Department, in 1962.
Judge Hopkins passed away at the age of 84 in 1996. Pace University School of Law owes a special debt to Judge Hopkins. He served as Interim Dean at a critical time in its development, from 1982-1983, and served as Honorary Chair of its Board of Visitors. We are honored to have our first Chair in Law bear his name.