Brian Koppelman ’95 was an unlikely law student.

The co-creator and showrunner of Showtime drama Billions, which aired its finale in October 2023, had a successful music industry career when he enrolled at Fordham Law. After graduation, he put his skills to work writing screenplays and television scripts.

Legal themes feature prominently in Koppelman’s shows and movies, including the tense rivalry between a fictional U.S. attorney and a hedge fund manager on Billions. After seven seasons, Billions may be over, but viewers can look forward to more of Koppelman’s gripping narratives about money and power. He has hinted at a Billions Miami spin-off.

In the film Rounders, which Koppelman co-wrote soon after graduating, there’s a Fordham Law Easter egg many alums might recognize. Abe Petrovsky, the law professor who encourages the main character to pursue his dream of playing professional poker, was inspired by the late Fordham Law professor Abraham Abramovsky.

Game Changer

BY Elizabeth Moore

pathbreaking Afro-Latino leader and legal trailblazer, Felipe N. Torres led a life of “firsts.” He was born on a farm in 1897, in the town of Salinas on the island of Puerto Rico. A year later, during the Spanish-American War, the U.S. military invaded and occupied Puerto Rico, displacing Spain as the island’s colonial ruler. The American government instituted sweeping economic and political changes, including an official campaign of “Americanization” of Puerto Rican children. Torres was a member of the first generation to attend the newly constructed schools where English-only instruction was imposed. In 1917, Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship under the Jones Act. After enlisting in the army and serving as a second lieutenant in World War I, Torres settled in New York City, becoming a pionero of the nascent Puerto Rican community.