#FutureFordhamLawyers Speak Up

#FutureFordhamLawyers Speak Up typography
These law students are creating change on Fordham Law School’s campus, on social media, and beyond.

Jordan Adams ’22

Supporting Social Impact
As the Black Lives Matter movement unfolded last summer, my brother and I were searching for social impact initiatives to create lasting change. My late grandfather, a community and civil rights leader, had always stressed the importance of giving back and uplifting communities in need. To accomplish these goals, we joined the Social Justice League (SJL) and raised over $850,000 for the NAACP and the Legal Defense Fund, then pivoted the SJL into a social impact consulting firm. Currently, my brother and I are working with the SJL to put together an art show featuring independent minority artists in hopes of raising money for families in up-and-coming Brooklyn communities. A lot of law firms like to say, “We do pro bono, pro bono work is important to us,” but I think it’s more than just doing pro bono work. It’s about how that work impacts, improves, and continues to support the communities where we offer these legal services.
Jordan Adams sitting on stacked stone wall
Jordan Adams sitting on stacked stone wall

Jordan Adams ’22

Supporting Social Impact
As the Black Lives Matter movement unfolded last summer, my brother and I were searching for social impact initiatives to create lasting change. My late grandfather, a community and civil rights leader, had always stressed the importance of giving back and uplifting communities in need. To accomplish these goals, we joined the Social Justice League (SJL) and raised over $850,000 for the NAACP and the Legal Defense Fund, then pivoted the SJL into a social impact consulting firm. Currently, my brother and I are working with the SJL to put together an art show featuring independent minority artists in hopes of raising money for families in up-and-coming Brooklyn communities. A lot of law firms like to say, “We do pro bono, pro bono work is important to us,” but I think it’s more than just doing pro bono work. It’s about how that work impacts, improves, and continues to support the communities where we offer these legal services.
Kevin Burns in Fordham crewneck smiling in office chair

Kevin Burns ’24

Proud to Serve
While part of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) at Cornell University, I was accepted into the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program as a submarine officer and was commissioned into the service as an active-duty officer upon graduation. When it came time to submit preferences for where I’d like to be stationed—either overseas or in the United States—I chose Guam, for the same reason I joined the U.S. Navy: to challenge myself, explore, and open my horizons. I was attached to the USS Oklahoma City, promoted to lieutenant, steamed more than 100,000 nautical miles underwater, and completed three deployments and five missions vital to national security between January 2017 and November 2019. In the navy, the order of priorities is ship, shipmate, and self. I think the law is a bit like that. When you’re a lawyer, you put your client and the public before yourself. The skills I learned and developed in the navy—like excelling in interpersonal communications and working with established bodies of procedures—will transfer well during my time at Fordham Law as a Decennial Fellow and in the legal field.

Sydney Park ’22

Wearing the Crown
After being crowned Miss New York this past spring and becoming part of the Miss America organization, I’ve really appreciated the person I’ve become. In that very concentrated week of competition, you work on so many aspects of yourself, and your year as a titleholder prepares you for so many different aspects of life. The legal skills I’ve attained at Fordham Law School, including public speaking, have also been useful. The ability to communicate the points you want to make—whether through a keynote address or radio interview—are skills I’ve learned as a law student. And if you’re interested in litigation, as I am, you realize that public speaking is going to be a big part of your career. In the meantime, I have a great job offer at BakerHostetler for when I graduate. They have been so incredibly supportive of my extracurricular life as Miss New York.
Sydney Park in pencil skirt and tweed sweater walking through a crosswalk in the city
Sydney Park in pencil skirt and tweed sweater walking through a crosswalk in the city

Sydney Park ’22

Wearing the Crown
After being crowned Miss New York this past spring and becoming part of the Miss America organization, I’ve really appreciated the person I’ve become. In that very concentrated week of competition, you work on so many aspects of yourself, and your year as a titleholder prepares you for so many different aspects of life. The legal skills I’ve attained at Fordham Law School, including public speaking, have also been useful. The ability to communicate the points you want to make—whether through a keynote address or radio interview—are skills I’ve learned as a law student. And if you’re interested in litigation, as I am, you realize that public speaking is going to be a big part of your career. In the meantime, I have a great job offer at BakerHostetler for when I graduate. They have been so incredibly supportive of my extracurricular life as Miss New York.
Roosevelt B. Ettienne in white button up shirt and light grey slacks sitting in a chair

Roosevelt B. Ettienne ’22

From Starbucks to Head of the Student Bar Association
My journey to law started as a student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and while working as a supervisor at the Starbucks in Rockefeller Center. I’d be there at four o’clock in the morning, serving coffee to customers, and would just talk to everybody. After speaking with two lawyers I met at Starbucks, I realized that I wanted to help people who have labor and employment issues. As a boy, I saw my single mother from Haiti, as well as others in my community, face discrimination from employers or not be properly paid. There was no one to help us or to do something about those issues. I later ended up walking to Fordham Law, just three blocks away from John Jay. I talked to different members of the Fordham Law community, including the security guard, to get a sense of what law school was like. Fast-forward five years and I’m in my final year as a first-generation student at my top-ranked school, serving as the first African American male Student Bar Association president and supporting student groups as much as possible now that we’re back on campus. After law school, I’ll be working with the New York City Law Department in their labor and employment division helping employers with disputes that city workers bring to them, but also helping employees, because we’re working to make city agencies a better place for them. I’ve always wanted to make my mother proud because of all the sacrifices she’s had to make in her life, and having her attend my graduation—the first graduation from graduate school in our family—is really rewarding for me.

Abdulai Turay ’22

Making Change for Black Students
I’m originally from Sierra Leone in West Africa. My parents always placed a high value on education, and I always thought of law school as a way to empower myself and others. When I started looking at schools, I reached out to alums, and Fordham Law’s were very responsive, including Khasim Lockhart ’18, the former president of Fordham’s Black Law Students Association (BLSA). After a conversation with him, he offered to pay for my application. He’s now one of my mentors and has made me want to pay it forward too. I was elected BLSA president for the 2020–2021 term at the start of the pandemic, and then George Floyd was murdered. It led our executive board into a process of self-reflection, and we collectively sought to advocate for changes that would make the Law School a more equitable institution. There is an increase in the number of Black students in this year’s 1L class, and new initiatives have stemmed from our conversations, including the launching of the Judge Deborah A. Batts Scholarship Fund and new leadership programs. We have an obligation to advocate for future Black law students and ensure these changes are not only substantive but sustained for decades to come.
Abdulai Turay smiling in white denim jacket with city skyline and lake in the back
Abdulai Turay smiling in white denim jacket with city skyline and lake in the back

Abdulai Turay ’22

Making Change for Black Students
I’m originally from Sierra Leone in West Africa. My parents always placed a high value on education, and I always thought of law school as a way to empower myself and others. When I started looking at schools, I reached out to alums, and Fordham Law’s were very responsive, including Khasim Lockhart ’18, the former president of Fordham’s Black Law Students Association (BLSA). After a conversation with him, he offered to pay for my application. He’s now one of my mentors and has made me want to pay it forward too. I was elected BLSA president for the 2020–2021 term at the start of the pandemic, and then George Floyd was murdered. It led our executive board into a process of self-reflection, and we collectively sought to advocate for changes that would make the Law School a more equitable institution. There is an increase in the number of Black students in this year’s 1L class, and new initiatives have stemmed from our conversations, including the launching of the Judge Deborah A. Batts Scholarship Fund and new leadership programs. We have an obligation to advocate for future Black law students and ensure these changes are not only substantive but sustained for decades to come.
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