Elisabeth Haub School of Law Professor Bennett L. Gershman Honored with New York Law Journal's Lifetime Achievement Award
Pace University Distinguished Professor Bennett L. Gershman was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the New York Law Journal’s 2022 New York Legal Awards on Thursday, October 6th. The New York Legal Awards honor attorneys who have made an impact on the legal community and the practice of law over an entire career. Professor Gershman is one of 10 distinguished honorees to receive the 2022 Lifetime Achievement accolade in recognition of his decades of service in the field of law and his record of extensive, extraordinary research, scholarship and teaching.
“Professor Gershman has led a remarkable career as prosecutor, scholar and teacher. His pioneering work in prosecutorial ethics has influenced reform in our criminal justice system,” said Horace E. Anderson Jr., Dean of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law. “As an exceptional educator for the past 48 years, his knowledge and passion have helped to shape the future of our profession.”
Professor Gershman has been a professor of law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law since its founding as the Pace Law School in 1976. Prior to coming to Pace, he was a prosecutor in the New York State Anti-Corruption Office, where he argued cases in state and federal courts involving public and political officials charged with corruption.
Professor Gershman has written four books, over 100 articles in law journals, and hundreds of book reviews, essays, and op-ed pieces. His treatise, Prosecutorial Misconduct, initially published in 1985 and now in its 2nd edition, has become a preeminent resource for scholars and practitioners seeking guidance on wrongful convictions.
As a leading authority in the country on prosecutorial misconduct, Gershman is continuously called upon by the news media for his expertise. He has served as an expert witness on prosecutorial misconduct in numerous criminal cases and devoted much of his time to training prosecutors and judges.
Professor Gershman was named a Pace University Distinguished Professor in 2020, the highest honor the University bestows upon faculty. He has been a recipient of the Law School’s Outstanding Professor of the Year award eight times in the past 20 years. In addition, his lifetime work was recognized in a special edition of the Ohio State Journal of Criminal law dedicated to and “In Honor of Prof. Bennett L. Gershman” in 2019.
Thomas Hoffman, a lawyer who has spent his career devoted to the exoneration of innocent people, outlined Professor Gershman’s successful career in an article for the New York Law Journal, reflecting on his extraordinary expertise as a leading resource for scholars, practitioners and judges regarding the proper and ethical role of a prosecutor. He writes, “Professor Bennett L. Gershman has devoted his career to the ideal of equal justice for all. His body of work and accomplishments are revolutionary. Yet he is humble and unpretentious. When asked to name his greatest accomplishment, he replied, ‘I was able to retain my integrity.’”
Read the full article in the New York Law Journal.
