Faculty

Oberlin College, BA, 1988
Northeastern University School of Law, JD, 1997

As a patient care and employment senior attorney and manager of attorney development in the Office of General Counsel at Mass General Brigham (MGB), Professor Abrams represents and counsels MGH, Brigham & Women’s and other MGB healthcare providers. He leads a team of attorneys who provide MGB entities counsel on patient care-related legal matters, in addition to serving on hospital bioethics committees. He also represents MGB institutions in employment law matters before the MCAD, EEOC and in court. He previously served as legal counsel to State Senator Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr. and as a litigation attorney at Sullivan & Worcester LLP.

National University of Juridical Sciences in India, BA
Harvard University, LLM
Harvard University, SJD

Professor Saptarishi Bandopadhyay’s research and teaching interests are in the areas of intellectual property (particularly, copyright), disaster management, environmental law and politics, as well as issues related to risk, technology and society. He has published in these areas in encyclopedias, edited volumes as well as legal and interdisciplinary journals such as, the University of British Columbia Law Review, the Fordham Environmental Law Review, Global Jurist, the Indian Journal of International Law, and the Journal of Intellectual Property Rights. He has also developed a series of cases studies for Harvard Law School’s Case Studies Program. Professor Bandopadhyay’s work often integrates historical, socio- scientific and humanities research into legal analyses. He is currently at work on two projects: the first studies the status of photography in copyright law, while the second attempts to retell the history of international refugee protection through the lens of environmental history and science and technology studies.

Prior to joining the faculty, during the 2016-2017 academic year, Professor Bandopadhyay served as a Visiting Professor and Catalyst Fellow at Osgoode, and an adjunct faculty at Northeastern University School of Law. He holds an SJD from Harvard Law School, Masters degrees from Harvard and American University’s Washington College of Law, and a BA LLB (with honors) from the National University of Juridical Sciences in India.

At Harvard Law School, Professor Bandopadhyay received the Irving Oberman Memorial Environmental Law Prize and the Abram Chayes International Public Service Fellowship. He has also received research and advocacy fellowships from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University’s Office for Scholarly Communication, the Public International Law and Policy Group, the Center for International Environmental Law, and the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. Professor Bandopadhyay has studied disasters in the borderlands between India, Pakistan, and China, and in the Philippines. His doctoral dissertation at Harvard, entitled: ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Disasters: Early Modern Precedents to Twenty-First Century Disaster Management, 1660-1800,’ offered a socio-legal history of the emergence of disaster management practices in relation to the rise of the State in the early modern period.

Before starting doctoral work, from 2006 to 2010, Professor Bandopadhyay served as an associate with Radon & Ishizumi in New York, where he worked on pharmaceutical and biotechnology projects, assisted with constitution development in Nepal, and environmental policymaking in the Caucasus.

University of California Los Angeles, BA 1998
University of California Los Angeles, JD 2001

Professor Jeff Blank is a business litigation attorney at Garcia Rainey Blank & Bowerbank LLP, which has been certified by Supplier Clearinghouse as a women-owned law firm. Professor Blank specializes in all forms of commercial litigation, intellectual property law, sports law, employment litigation and contracts, real estate law, and alternative dispute resolution.

As a certified baseball agent and sports attorney, Professor Blank has represented baseball players in baseball arbitration cases and has handled arbitration work for other baseball agents for their clients. In 2008, Professor Blank obtained the second-largest raise of any major league baseball player through the arbitration process, and in 2009 he obtained a contract in excess of $7 million through the arbitration process for his client Garrett Atkins.

Professor Blank also represents agents and sports agencies in various matters, including grievance proceedings and the drafting of employment agreements. He has served as an adjunct professor in sports law, most recently teaching the class at UC Irvine School of Law.
Professor Blank’s most recent accomplishments include a bench trial victory in a lawsuit involving an ownership dispute concerning a duplex, and the obtaining of a dismissal of a lawsuit brought by six operators of medical marijuana dispensaries regarding the constitutionality of a city’s total ban on such dispensaries. He is currently one of the two lead attorneys representing a cosmetics industry manufacturing giant in a lawsuit against several of its former employees for claims including trade secret misappropriation.

Professor Blank began his legal career at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, one of the top law firms in the country. He was a member of the firm’s Business Trial practice group and the Real Estate and Land Use Litigation practice group, and was in charge of mentoring and handling assignment coordination for the summer associates in the Orange County office. Professor Blank was elected by his peers to serve on the firm’s Associate Issues Committee. He served as the lead associate on the litigation team that represented the City of Anaheim in the high profile lawsuit brought against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim regarding the team name change.

In December 2014, Professor Blank was selected as one of the Most Influential People In Orange County, California, by the Orange County Register and was featured in the Laguna Niguel News, an edition of the Orange County Register.

Professor Blank has served as the volunteer attorney coach for the Trabuco Hills High School mock trial team for the past seven seasons. In 2014, Professor Blank was recognized as the Constitutional Rights Foundation-Orange County Mock Trial Attorney Coach of the Year.

Quinnipiac University, BA 2001
Suffolk University Law School, JD 2005

Professor Cicchitto teaches in the online Master of Legal Studies degree program. She is a cum laude graduate of Quinnipiac University with a Bachelors of Arts in Legal Studies and minor in English, and a graduate of Suffolk University Law School.

While working towards her Bachelors, Professor Cicchitto began her legal career in a solo practitioner’s office in Hamden, Connecticut, focusing on Plaintiff’s Workers’ Compensation and Civil Litigation. During her law school tenure, she had the opportunity to work for medium-sized boutique firms specializing in Employment defense, Complex Business Litigation and Special Education law. Upon graduation, she happily accepted a position with a small boutique firm in New Hampshire, focusing on litigation defense in federal and state Courts. Professor Cicchitto currently lives in South Carolina with her husband and 2 sons, working in the Trust, Estates and Probate division of a local firm.

Professor Cicchitto joined as an Instructor of Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies, Paralegal program in 2010. She had the pleasure of serving as a Consultant in the creation of the Master of Legal Studies program during its inception and creation, and accepted a position to teach the Introduction to Legal Studies I course within the program when it launched in 2017.

Manhattan College, BA 2007
University of New Hampshire School of Law, JD 2013

Vincent DePalo teaches courses in Torts and Financial Transactions at Northeastern. In his private practice, Mr. DePalo specializes in complex civil litigation, including toxic torts, environmental claims, and commercial disputes. His courtroom experience includes securing a defense verdict in the first joint asbestos-tobacco trial in Massachusetts history.

Mr. DePalo has been published in both scientific and legal journals. As an attorney, Mr. DePalo extensively researched attorney-directed voir dire and jury dynamics. That work culminated in a law review article authored jointly with Associate Justice Dennis J. Curran and published in the Suffolk Journal of Trial and Appellate Advocacy, entitled “Attorney-Directed Voir Dire Comes to Massachusetts: The Republic is Safe.” Most recently, Mr. DePalo co-authored the Massachusetts law chapter of the “Claims Professional Desk Reference” published by The Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel.

In addition to teaching at Northeastern, Mr. DePalo has been invited to lecture at Brown, Tufts, and Roger Williams School of Law. He also frequently presents at Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (M.C.L.E.) and Massachusetts Bar Association programs.

The Massachusetts Bar Association selected Mr. DePalo as a Fellow in the 2017-2018 Leadership Academy. He currently serves as a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Judicial Administration Council.

University of Texas at Arlington, BA 2004
University of Texas at Arlington, MBA 2004
Vanderbilt University Law School, JD 2009
The University of Houston Law Center, LLM 2013

Professor McCoy joined the faculty in 2017 and directs the law school’s Academic Success Program, which provides students with a variety of services to maximize their academic experience. Previously, she was the assistant director of academic support and bar readiness at Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Professor McCoy is a graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School, where she was a managing editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. After law school, Professor McCoy clerked for the Hon. Eric L. Clay of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and later worked as a litigation associate at Mayer Brown in Chicago. She also completed an LLM in environmental, energy and natural resources law at the University of Houston Law Center.

University of Vermont, BA, 1970
Drucker/Ito School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, MBA, 1975
University of Santa Barbara, PhD, 1995
Northeastern University School of Law, MLS, 2020
UC Berkeley Law, Certificate in Chinese IP Law, 2021

Professor Furst teaches Regulation and Global Business Strategies at Northeastern University’s School of Law. He also serves as the chair of NG Capital, LLC, a formerly Beijing-based private investment company that focused on China’s education sector.
Previously, he has been professor of economics and business at the Beijing Center for Chinese Studies and associate dean and professor at the Beijing International MBA Programs at Peking University’s China Center for Economic Research. He has also been on the faculty of the Grossman School of Business at the University of Vermont. He is a certified business mentor with SCORE (of which he also serves as chair of the Vermont chapter), a federally funded, SBA-affiliated, entrepreneur and small business counseling organization.

He was the executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in China from 1998 to 2003 and was one of a small group of people who were key to the effort to bring China into the WTO and extend to China Permanent Normal Trade Relations. During his tenure at the Chamber, he actively worked with the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Commerce Department, the U.S. Trade Representative, as well as other U.S. Government agencies; he also served as a U.S. Warden at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and as an advisor to Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption.

He is a member of the Development Review Board (DRB) for Elmore, Vermont, a quasi-judicial appointment that adjudicates land use and zoning issues, Conditional Use Permit approvals and denials, etc. The DRB is a part of the Vermont Environmental Court system.

University of Southern California, AB 1986
Yale University, JD 1989

Professor Hackney teaches in the areas of torts, corporate finance, corporations, critical race theory, and law and economics. Prior to joining the Northeastern faculty, Professor Hackney was an associate with the Los Angeles law firm of Irell & Manella. He was book review and comment editor of the Yale Law Journal during law school.

Professor Hackney’s research focuses on intellectual history, torts, the mutual fund industry, law and economics, and critical race theory. His fields of expertise also include corporate law, as well as race and the law. He is the author of two acclaimed books: “Under Cover of Science: American Legal-Economic Theory and the Quest for Objectivity” (Duke University Press, 2007) and “Legal Intellectuals in Conversation: Reflections on the Construction of Contemporary American Legal Theory” (New York University Press, 2012).

Harvard University, BA
St. John’s College, MA
Duke University School of Law, JD

At Northeastern, Professor Hart teaches courses on Privacy Law, Compliance, and Data Regulation. With significant trial litigation, appellate advocacy and data privacy and security experience, Professor Hart has counseled and represented sovereign nations, Fortune 500 companies, start-up companies, non-profits, and individuals in a wide variety of contexts for over a decade. He represents clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, argues in appellate courts across the country, including successfully before the Massachusetts Appeals Court and Supreme Judicial Court; and advocates on behalf of clients in federal and state courts nationwide. He also frequently represents clients in significant internal investigations.

As a civil litigator in U.S. courts, Professor Hart has helped obtain successful outcomes for clients before, during and after trial. He has successfully defended national law firms against allegations of legal malpractice and employment discrimination; represented sovereign nations in high-stakes suits brought by private litigants; defended large corporations in patent infringement suits; defended against large and complex claims arising out of lengthy construction contracts; and challenged state and federal administrative actions. Professor Hart also represents companies and individuals in investigations brought by federal and local law enforcement authorities, including the Massachusetts State Attorney General’s office.

Yale University, AB 1979
University of California-Berkeley School of Law, JD 1982

Lori Kornblum recently completed her service as a judge on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. She is an adjunct professor at Marquette University and Northeastern University School of Law and a full-time faculty member of Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), Paralegal Department. In Kornblum’s private attorney practice, she focuses on adult services, guardian ad litem work for disabled adults and children, child abuse, private CHIPS and foster care. Professor Kornblum is a founding director and board member of L’Chaim Chaverut Northshore, a non-profit focusing on the needs of independent seniors in the Northshore of Milwaukee area. She also serves on the board of Wisconsin CASA.

Professor Kornblum is the past chairperson of the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s Office of Lawyer Regulation Board of Administrative Oversight and of the Special Preliminary Review Committee, and has served on the City of Mequon Board of Appeals. She continues to research and write on issues relating to the well-being of children and the law. Professor Kornblum has served numerous non-profit organizations in a leadership position. Prior to her teaching service, Professor Kornblum served as an assistant district attorney in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, for 22 years, specializing in child abuse and neglect. She received her JD from University of California-Berkeley School of Law in 1982 and her AB from Yale University in 1979, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Georgetown University, JD, 1993
Columbia University, BA, 1986

Peter McLaughlin is a seasoned privacy and data security attorney who advises clients with respect to a broad range of technology transactions, U.S. and international privacy and cybersecurity issues.

Peter’s practice focuses on uses of data across a range of industry sectors, with a particular depth of experience in health care. He guides clients in their domestic and international handling of personal information, new product development and the assessment of legally defensible cybersecurity programs.

Prior to joining Armstrong Teasdale, Peter served as partner at a Boston-headquartered law firm. He has also been assistant general counsel and chief privacy officer for Cardinal Health and assistant general counsel for Sun Microsystems.

Northeastern University, LPD
Benjamin Cardozo Law School of Yeshiva University, JD, cum laude
New York University, BS, MPA

Professor Mosenson teaches courses in business organizations and information and record in the Law School’s MLS program, and law of privacy and confidentiality in the LLM program. As general counsel and corporate integrity officer of The Center for Discovery, Inc., Professor Mosenson oversees the legal, regulatory and quality improvement program of an internationally recognized provider of services to individuals with complex developmental disabilities and medical frailties. An attorney for 40 years, he is an expert in not-for-profit regulatory compliance and corporate governance, public/private partnerships and health care law.

Prior to his work with The Center for Discovery, Professor Mosenson served as counsel to a statewide association of providers of services to individuals with complex medical conditions, was an assistant corporation counsel in the New York City Law Department and was associated with a boutique litigation firm in New York City. He is also a frequent presenter at continuing legal education conferences sponsored by the New York State Bar Association. He is past chair of the Association’s Corporate Counsel Section and Committee on Issues Affecting People With Disabilities. He also served in the NYSBA’s House of Delegates.

Professor Mosenson serves as the elected town justice for the Town of Roseboom, New York, where his court has jurisdiction over misdemeanor-level criminal offenses, orders of protection, vehicle and traffic matters including DWI, code violations and civil matters including landlord/tenant summary proceedings and small claims. He hears arraignments for the county of Otsego, for any arrests that were made in the county outside of normal business hours.

Duke University, BA
Harvard Law School, JD

Professor Pao, JD, is an attorney and educator with extensive experience in online education, an interest in online pedagogy at law schools and a passion for helping students be successful in the online environment. A graduate of Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, and Duke University, summa cum laude, he worked as an attorney at a couple prominent law firms in the Boston area and served as associate provost, assistant provost and dean of undergraduate studies for the New England College of Business and Finance.

He has taught a variety of online graduate-level law courses, including but not limited to courses in Constitutional Law, Civil Rights Law, Employment Discrimination, Business Organizations, Financial Institution Regulation, Civil Procedure and Litigation, Professional Communication, Legal Foundations, Alternative Dispute Resolution and American Jurisprudence. Among the institutions that he has taught for include but are not limited to University of Southern California, Gould School of Law; Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law; and Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Georgetown University, AB 1967
Duke University, JD 1970
Duke University, LLM 1978

Professor Rowan is an expert at representing poor people and their organizations.

His fields of expertise include administrative law, benefits law, civil liability, civil rights, clinical legal education, community development, constitutional law, consumer protection, cooperative legal education, court procedure and evidence, disability law, domestic violence, employment law, insurance, legal education, legal ethics, poverty law, public interest advocacy, race and the law, and social security. He has taught courses in Welfare Law, Poverty Law and Practice, Trial Practice, Lawyering Process, Professional Responsibility, and an advanced course in Criminal Procedure. He is also involved with the Pathways to Practice program.

Professor Rowan heads the Poverty Law and Practice Clinic and supervises all of the clinical programs. His specific interests include community legal education, economic development, and grassroots organizing. He works collaboratively with a range of legal services and private practitioners on these issues.

Amherst College, BA
Harvard University, JD

Professor Robert (Rusty) Russell is an attorney and environmental consultant who over his career has worked almost exclusively with nonprofits and government agencies. He recently served as executive director of a watershed advocacy organization, the Merrimack River Watershed Council, which protects and promotes public use of the Merrimack River and its watershed, the fourth largest in New England. Professor Russell also has extensive experience collaborating with students on law- and policy-related projects, including ten years as a full-time instructor in Tufts University’s graduate Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning (UEP), where he coordinated and co-taught its Field Projects program, co-led a multidisciplinary, graduate-level water resources program, and offered courses in environmental law and policy, water and air quality, and the law of climate change.

Professor Russell also taught property law and environmental practice at the Northeastern University School of Law and energy law at Boston College Law School. For a decade, he served as an attorney and then communications director for the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation. Prior to that, he directed the staff of a health policy program at a Massachusetts regulatory board, served as an environmental consultant to public agencies and private nonprofits, worked as a corporate lawyer and spent several years as a daily journalist.

University of California, Los Angeles, BA
University of Oxford, MPhil
Harvard Law School, JD

Professor Urman is the director of the School of Law’s online and hybrid programs and holds a joint appointment with Northeastern University’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, where he leads the undergraduate law and public policy program.

Professor Urman joined Northeastern University in 2009 where he has taught undergraduate and graduate classes and led several university programs. His classes explore the American Legal System, Law & Policy, Constitutional Law & the US Supreme Court. He also developed a short seminar for prelaw students to meet lawyers, policymakers and Northeastern alumni. Professor Urman lectures about law, policy and politics at learning communities around New England.

Before coming to Northeastern, he practiced law at a private law firm and served as a criminal prosecutor for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He earned his bachelor’s degree at UCLA, his M.Phil at the University of Oxford and his Juris Doctor at Harvard Law School.