Syracuse University College of Law graduates are achieving new bar passage and employment milestones, directly impacting the reputation of a Syracuse Law degree.
Class of 2025 graduates achieved a record 97.6% 10-month post-graduation employment and continuing education outcomes rate, as reported to the American Bar Association as of March 16, 2026.
This milestone marks the culmination of an unprecedented three-year period of excellence for Syracuse Law. Following 97% for the Class of 2023 and 96% for the Class of 2024, the Class of 2025 sets a school record, marking Syracuse Law’s highest three consecutive years of employment outcomes ever reported to the ABA.
In addition, Syracuse Law graduates achieved 94% Ultimate Bar Passage rate for 2025, representing the cumulative efforts of the Class of 2023. Graduates took the bar exam in 25 states, reflecting the increasing national reach of our JD programs.
“The record employment outcomes and bar passage are the direct reflection of the hard work our students have put into their education and career path,” said Dean Terence Lau L’98. “Our dedication to preparing students for the bar and for guiding them through their career development means our graduates are more than ready to enter the legal profession.”
Syracuse Law has climbed seven spots to reach the top 100 in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report rankings. Additionally, our Trial Advocacy Specialty Ranking, based solely on peer rankings, is #9 in the nation. This is our best overall ranking in six years and the only time we have been ranked in the top ten for Advocacy in consecutive years.
Dean Terence Lau L’98 spoke with Axios on the repayment of tariffs to businesses and the potential risks for companies pursuing refunds.
“You don’t want to hold a press conference when you do it, but I think as a company you have to file,” says Lau. “If you are owed billions of dollars from the federal government and you don’t get it back, you’re going to have a derivative shareholder lawsuit on your hands so fast it’ll make your head spin.”
Syracuse University College of Law alumni are putting their legal training to work at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across various industries, combining law with other expertise to drive real impact.
Melissa Vierling L’07
Assistant General Counsel, Technology Contracts, IP, and AI Attorney, Primerica, Inc.; Co-founder AI Governance Collective (AIGC); Speaker on Legal AI
It took more than 20 years for Melissa Vierling’s L’07 undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and her Syracuse Law degree to come together. But “the day I was told I would be the legal advisor for AI at my company was truly rewarding,” she says.
She began her career at Lockheed Martin, a global aerospace, defense, and security company, working as a senior technical program manager and systems engineer. While at Lockheed, she enrolled part-time at Syracuse Law, which offered a certificate in technological commercialization & management that aligned with her interests in IP, technology, and program management.
Three years ago, she started at Primerica, Inc., and became assistant general counsel for the legal technology group. In this role, she focuses on technology transactions, intellectual property, and AI governance, as well as evaluating technology and AI tools, and helping implement corporate policies. As an AI lawyer—a relatively new role in law—she works closely with information technology and cybersecurity teams advising on the adoption and use of AI and helps develop internal training on responsible AI use.
“My career in technology and program management taught me to understand the system, anticipate risks, and solve complex problems. I bring that same mindset to law. Defense systems are high-stakes, but safeguarding people’s information and privacy carries its own important responsibility,” she says.
Advice to law students: “You don’t need to become an ‘AI lawyer’ to work with AI. It touches so many areas of law. Lawyers should know how to use AI tools, understand how AI tools manage data, and have knowledge of its risks, especially around bias and privacy. Think about what excites you, and do what makes you happy. AI will almost certainly be part of it.”
Syracuse University College of Law alumni are putting their legal training to work at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across various industries, combining law with other expertise to drive real impact.
Pete Su L’94
Vice President and General Counsel, Moley Robotics; Expert in AI Robotics and patent strategy; Former Partner at Silicon Valley office of Dentons U.S.; Practiced intellectual property law at Fenwick & West; Co-chair of San Francisco Regional Council of Syracuse University; IAM Strategy 300 Global Leaders • IAM Strategy 300 • Design Engineer at AMD
While a partner at the Silicon Valley office of Dentons U.S., Pete Su L’94 represented and incorporated Moley Robotics, a London-based company developing the world’s first fully-automated robotic kitchens with AI models that prepare a variety of gourmet dishes. He now serves as the company’s general counsel.
Su was a design engineer at AMD in Silicon Valley before studying at Syracuse Law in its Law, Technology and Management Program (now known as the Innovation Law Center). Since graduating, he has been advising emerging technology companies in Silicon Valley and venture funds.
Ten years ago, robots were mostly limited to niche areas such as automobiles, space exploration, and toys, with relatively small markets and little venture capital interest,” he says. “The world has changed dramatically in just the three years with the explosion of physical AI.”
“While working with the founder of Moley Robotics on patent strategy, I had a eureka moment: this could be an ‘iPhone moment,’ similar to when Steve Jobs and Apple filed their first smartphone patent,” he says. “Since 2014, we have developed and continue to build an industry-leading robotic patent portfolio.”
As a member of the general counsel community within L Suite—an executive peer network from both public and private companies—he has hosted roundtables with major law firms and corporations on AI governance for boards of directors.
Advice to law students: “In the age of AI, I encourage law students to develop and adapt knowledge in emerging multidisciplinary fields to add value beyond rapidly advancing AI models and tools.” Su says.
Syracuse University College of Law alumni are putting their legal training to work at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across various industries, combining law with other expertise to drive real impact.
Jeffrey Saviano L’92
Expert in Ethical AI Strategy and Governance; Business AI Ethics Leader, Harvard University Safra Center for Ethics; Senior Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Retired Partner, Emerging Technology Strategy and Governance Leader, EY
After focusing on tax law at Syracuse Law, Jeffrey Saviano L’92 began his career at Ernst & Young (EY).
“I love the law and being a tax lawyer, but lifelong learning is essential,” he says. “Careers rarely follow a straight line. The winding path is often the most exciting; seek out new challenges that stretch you and help you grow.”
Early in his career, innovation was not his focus, but EY asked him to explore it as a potential area for growth. He couldn’t have known what that assignment would set in motion, but it ultimately became the foundation for his AI leadership role at the firm.
Retired from EY after three decades, Saviano now focuses on advancing ethical AI strategy and governance through his work at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has advised more than 100 corporate boards and senior leadership teams on aligning AI innovation with governance best practices, regulatory requirements, and organizational values.
“History shows that humans adapt to major technology disruptions, from electricity to the internet, and I expect AI will be no different,” he says. “While a small number of roles may be fully displaced, most will evolve. More often, people will be replaced by others who effectively leverage AI, not by AI alone.”
Saviano’s first book, “Boundaries of Tolerance” (Wiley, September 2026), introduces a new framework for ethical AI leadership across both the public and private sectors.
Advice to law students: “Embrace the AI revolution and its legal applications. Look to your state bar or the ABA for guidance, and consider using generative AI to build a personal learning plan,” Saviano says. “Immerse yourself in these tools, so you can say, ‘I am an AI-enabled lawyer. Hire me because I use AI responsibly in my work.’”
“In most cases, the consumers are bearing the burden of the tariffs through higher prices, but they can’t specifically identify that their money went to pay a particular tariff,” said Germain.
He continues, “There may be some businesses that—just like paying a sales tax or something—itemized it [the tariffs] on the receipt saying, ‘We’re charging $15 for a tariff.’ Those customers … would have a pretty good argument.”
Artificial Intelligence (AI), and generative AI in particular, is no longer a distant concept for lawyers and soon-to-be lawyers. This is a new technological revolution in the legal industry. James Kelly L’99, member of the Board of Advisors of Syracuse University College of Law, and partner and chair, New York Private Equity, at DLA Piper LLP (U.S.), who has a role in helping shape his firm’s AI transformation efforts, shared insights on how AI is changing the practice and advice on what law students can do now to build their AI skills.
“AI is transforming legal service delivery models and empowering legal professionals in ways not previously possible,” Kelly says.
At his firm, he helps lead a cross-functional team of lawyers and business professionals to integrate AI into its client service and its business functions. Responsible adoption of this technology by lawyers demands clear objectives, client transparency, and adherence to ethical and professional obligations. It should also leave some room for experimentation;
Kelly says, “This will allow lawyers to focus more on solving the complex problems of their clients.”
According to Kelly, the “true Nirvana state” is when “the technology, tools, and workflow design are able to seamlessly leverage subject matter expertise and proprietary practice data,” to deliver better solutions for clients.
He notes that “This is somewhat quixotic at least in the near term because the practice of law is a living thing, and so too is the market, and the technology will chase that human capital and lawyering aspect when it comes to nuance, judgment, and experience. But it’s a big leap forward and changing the way things can be done. Students should be ready.”
Efficiency and Speed but With Accuracy and Trust
“Maintaining trust in the delivery of your services is paramount. If you don’t have trust, you don’t have a client,” Kelly says, emphasizing that efficiencies gained through speed and automation do not diminish the lawyers’ responsibility to always deliver their highest-quality work.
“The sweet spot today is a task that is repetitive and time-consuming but easy to verify. You need to choose your spots carefully in terms of where, when and how you want to integrate AI into your client service delivery,” he adds. “A lot of thinking, planning, and training goes into making that choice. This is not so much about balancing something opposite of trust, as that the quality of the work can never be sacrificed. This is about leveraging AI as a tool to drive better outcomes for clients consistent with the duties we as lawyers owe to them.”
Lawyers are now able to rapidly review vast quantities of documents or instantly analyze contracts while flagging critical provisions, tasks that may have been prohibitively time-consuming and costly in years past, depending on the volume of the data set.
“This has the potential to enable lawyers to offer clients data-driven advice that is far more sophisticated than previous data sets,” says Kelly. “These capabilities free up attorneys to focus on higher-value work and creative problem-solving, making the overall delivery of legal services faster and more insightful without any compromise with regard to trustworthiness.”
A Big Mindshift
Only a handful of years ago, many clients prohibited their law firms from using AI. Today, some clients mandate that it be utilized in service delivery. And many clients remain neutral, leaving it to their lawyer to determine how and when to use AI ethically and responsibly.
“I believe that it is generally expected at this point that leading law firms will leverage the best generative AI technology to deliver faster, cost-effective, and data-driven solutions. It is not just a select few using this,” Kelly says. “At my firm, every lawyer has the ability to use AI but only after completion of mandated ethical training.”
This is in part driven by the big mind shift in the market and with clients. “The notion that service businesses must strive to always be ‘faster, better, and cheaper’ has been subtly shifting in this AI era to what I call ‘immediate, perfect, and free,’ in certain aspects of the delivery model. But again, this may just allow for more time spent on what truly matters to our clients in a technology-enhanced way,” he says.
AI can accelerate research, surface patterns in large data sets, and generate initial drafts—while attorneys remain responsible for strategy, judgment calls, client communication, and relationships. The result is technology-enabled subject matter expertise.
“AI should be used to elevate, not replace, the human element in legal service. As fiduciary advisors rooted in trust, we’re uniquely positioned to deploy AI to enhance the human elements of our value,” Kelly says.
AI in Legal Education at Syracuse Law
The rapid rise of AI is transforming not only legal practice but legal education as well—and Syracuse Law is positioning itself at the forefront of that shift. Through a combination of coursework, practical learning, and real-world application, the College integrates AI across the curriculum, ensuring students understand both the opportunities and ethical considerations that come with emerging technologies.
“Syracuse Law’s forward-looking approach reflects the firm belief that today’s law students must graduate as AI-proficient professionals to excel in the modern legal landscape,” says Dean Terence Lau L’98.
The curriculum is designed to evolve alongside the profession, incorporating practical exposure to tools such as generative AI, legal research platforms, and data-driven analysis, while also emphasizing responsible use, client confidentiality, and professional judgement.
Syracuse Law continually monitors which technology skills are most valuable in legal practice and adjusts its curriculum accordingly, often tapping into the expertise of experienced alumni like Kelly.
Lau adds, “This collaboration between academia and the legal industry is particularly critical in times of great technological change to ensure that our programs are at the leading-edge—and to prepare our student talent for the challenges that await them in their legal careers.”
Because AI tools evolve so quickly, what students learn as 1Ls may look very different by the time they enter practice. To stay ahead, Syracuse Law emphasizes early and consistent exposure to AI technology. Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with common AI platforms by their second semester, as many will encounter these tools during 1L summer internships and externships. By the time they earn their J.D., Syracuse Law graduates will have a strong foundation in AI applications for law, giving them a competitive edge as they enter firms where junior associates are now expected to use AI tools as soon as they begin practice.
“If I were a law student or junior associate today, I would spend at least 90% of my free time figuring out generative AI and how it can be used in the practice of law,” advises Kelly, noting that advancing the skills to navigate this technology will be essential for career growth. “Overcoming fear of using this new AI machine will become a major differentiator of future talent.”
By contrast, those who avoid the technology will likely fall behind their AI-prone peers. “Best to start now, in law school, while you can freely experiment and collaborate with your fellow classmates. It’s a wonderful time to be a student when a digital revolution is underway,” says Kelly. “I was a law student when the internet was just getting out of the gate in a real way. The internet created massive opportunities for new lawyers, and AI will too.”
Alumni Combine Law With AI, Technology in Fascinating Careers
Syracuse University College of Law alumni are putting their legal training to work at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across various industries, combining law with other expertise to drive real impact.
Expert in Ethical AI Strategy and Governance; Business AI Ethics Leader, Harvard University Safra Center for Ethics; Senior Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Retired Partner, Emerging Technology Strategy and Governance Leader, EY Pete Su L’94
Vice President and General Counsel, Moley Robotics; Expert in AI Robotics and patent strategy; Former Partner at Silicon Valley office of Dentons U.S.; Practiced intellectual property law at Fenwick & West; Co-chair of San Francisco Regional Council of Syracuse University; IAM Strategy 300 Global Leaders, IAM Strategy 300, Design Engineer at AMD Melissa Vierling L’07
Assistant General Counsel, Technology Contracts, IP, and AI Attorney, Primerica, Inc.; Co-founder AI Governance Collective (AIGC); Speaker on Legal AI
Syracuse University College of Law Professor Jack Graves has developed an Artificial Intelligence bot that uses curated, course-specific materials to assist students in mastering the applicable legal rules and their application. These digital “coaches” are available 24/7 to assist students in understanding challenging concepts and then to quiz students on the application of these concepts, providing immediate feedback in a variety of Q&A formats. Thus far, Graves has deployed the concept in his Evidence and Contracts courses.
Graves uses OpenAI’s private custom GPT feature, which allows him to provide students with an interactive experience that is narrowly tailored to Graves’s specific course. Graves accomplishes this with (1) a comprehensive set of instructions (i.e., prompts) telling the custom Coach exactly what to do and providing guardrails to keep it focused on the objective of assisting students in this course; and (2) uploaded copies of the course text and other key instructional materials that facilitate Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). This domain specific RAG layer increases the accuracy of the Coach’s responses in the context of this specific course and dramatically reduces the potential for errors, as compared to a generic LLM trained on generic data of varying quality.
This “walled garden” of course-specific material addresses the common issue with Large Language Model (LLM) AI platforms that indiscriminately draw from all information on the internet. “The LLMs pick up a good deal of erroneous information from unreliable sources, and they miss a lot of really good information that’s behind firewalls,” said Graves.
“The bot has been instructed to respond to students when they ask for answers by walking them through in a Socratic-style dialog much as I might in class or office hours,” said Graves. “When assisting students, the Coach relies first and foremost on the information uploaded in its RAG layer, not only helping to explain and quiz the students on accurate course doctrine but pointing students directly to appropriate sources within the course text itself.”
Of course, the key to this approach is a collaborative relationship between Graves and the publisher of his course textbooks. While Graves is a co-author of his Contracts textbook, the copyright is held by West Academic (the publisher of both the Learning Evidence and Learning Contracts textbooks used by Graves). Thus, Graves worked closely with West Academic in developing an approach that would appropriately protect all copyrighted material uploaded to the Coach’s RAG layer, and his use of both Learning Evidence and Learning Contracts is done under license from West Academic.
The use of the primary course text within the RAG layer effectively expands the value of the text far beyond the initially assigned readings. At the core of the Coach’s domain-specific content, the textbook continues to anchor the Coach’s role in assisting and quizzing students as they better learn to apply that content.
Graves is quick to explain, “The Coach does not replace basic course prep or attendance. It is purely a supplement to these traditional teaching and learning tools—albeit a very effective one, arguably far more effective than traditional generic study aids or generic LLMs often used by students today. Perhaps most valuable is the Coach’s ability to provide students with unlimited opportunities to apply the course material in a variety of assessment formats, all of which are subject to immediate feedback. At the end of the day, this is often the single most effective teaching and learning tool for law students, and the Coach provides this tool in a manner that is always available and fully aligned with course content and course outcomes. Graves emphasizes, “the teacher’s role is not being outsourced to the Coach—it is being supplemented in new ways for which narrowly tailored AI is uniquely suited.”
Students access the Coach through a dedicated course link, which provides for private interaction between student and Coach, unless the student voluntarily decides to share the unique link generated by a specific conversation. The initial privacy of the conversation encourages students to ask questions they might otherwise be uncomfortable raising (the proverbial “dumb question,” which is often anything but). However, it also allows students to use the Coach in collaborative study sessions or to forward a conversation to Graves for further exploration. This latter feature is particularly useful in terms of quality control of both student prompts and responses by the Coach.
Graves explains, “During the past two semesters, I’ve seen a few responses from the Coach that could be improved and one blatant error. However, the vast majority of interactive challenges arose from imperfect student prompts.” Thus, the students get two additional benefits from using the Coach: (1) they learn the importance of effective inputs (prompts); and (2) they learn the importance of verifying outputs. While the Evidence and Contract Coaches have proven very accurate (Graves directly tests them regularly himself, in addition to frequent student feedback), AI remains imperfect, and Graves has continued to “fine-tune” his Coaches by uploading additional course-specific material based on his own testing and observations of student/Coach interactions. And Graves further explains that his Coaches have thus far proven “far more dependable than generic LLMs alone or generic traditional study aids.”
Graves teaches exclusively in the College of Law’s JDinteractive hybrid online program, so the 24/7 availability of his Coaches is particularly important to a body of students located around the world. “This has allowed me to be more efficient and effective with my time while giving our global students a uniquely tailored experience that will help them master course material, while being available at any time that is convenient to them,” said Graves.
College of Law Dean Terence Lau L’98 spoke with NPR News on the possibility of tariff refunds to consumers. The story notes that companies can try to pass refunds along to consumers, but it’s nearly impossible to determine how much individual consumers paid.
“How much of that price increase do you attribute to tariffs? Companies can’t even answer that question,” said Lau, an expert on tariffs.
The news segment can be found at 1:10 on the 4-21-26 4 a.m. News Now podcast.
Lau began his career in the Office of the General Counsel at Ford Motor Company in the International Trade and Transactions practice group. His practice focused on U.S. law for foreign affiliates and subsidiaries, among other topics. Later, he served as Ford’s director for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Government Affairs.
Syracuse University College of Law celebrated a historic event with the unveiling of an official portrait of Joseph R. Biden Jr. L’68, H’09, the 46th President of the United States, now hanging permanently in the Bernard R. and Carol K. Kossar Reading Room in the College of Law library.
17 members of the Class of 1968 return to Syracuse Law for a reunion lunch before the Portrait Unveiling.
The Portrait Unveiling was preceded by a joyful Class of 1968 reunion lunch, which welcomed President Biden back among his classmates and introduced two students who embody the class’s enduring investment in the next generation: 3L Gabby Kehoe, recipient of the Class of 1968 Scholarship Fund, and 3L Lacey Caputo, the Beau Biden Memorial Scholar.
Devin McDuffie L’26, Anthony Ruscitto ’22, G’23, L’27, Lacey Caputo L’26 (Beau Biden L’94 Memorial Scholar), and Gabby Kehoe L’26 (Class of 1968 Scholar) join Dean Terence Lau L’98 to welcome President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden to Syracuse Law.
In meeting these students, the reunion achieved its most meaningful purpose — connecting a class that helped shape the law with the young men and women who will carry it forward.
Dean Terence Lau L’98 welcomed President Biden and his classmates in a speech that transported the room back to the spring of 1968 and the world they were preparing to enter as new lawyers. The Vietnam War raged on, and in the span of a single month, President Johnson announced he would not seek reelection, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the Fair Housing Act was signed into law.
Dean Terence Lau L’98 offers remarks to the Class of 1968.
“You were young. You were about to become lawyers. You had your whole lives ahead of you,” Lau reflected. “But the world outside these walls was on fire.”
Yet the class graduated, went out into that world, and many built careers dedicated to service, leadership, and justice. Lau drew a direct line from that turbulent moment to today, noting that current students are asking the same questions the Class of 1968 once asked: What kind of lawyers does this moment need us to be?
His answer, he said, was already written in their lives. “You show up. You do the work. You use your training not just to argue cases, but to build something.”
Lau also offered special thanks to Syracuse University Trustee William Brodsky ’65, L’68, whose dedication to honoring his classmate and their shared alma mater brought the project to life.
Syracuse University Trustee William Brodsky ’65, L’68’s dedication to honoring his classmate and their shared alma mater brought the Portrait to life.
Speaking to his classmates, Biden said, “Since the time I left Syracuse, life has handed me significant highlights and very low blows. The Syracuse community has been with me through it all.”
The 17 members of the Class of 1968 who returned to Syracuse Law made this occasion more than a ceremony. Graduating at one of the most consequential moments in modern American history, the class has maintained deep ties to Syracuse Law across six decades — returning not only to celebrate and support one of their own, but to mentor students and invest in the institution’s future.
Debby Goldman L’68, the only female in her graduating class, joined by the all-female presidents of Syracuse Law: Kayzjah Charles, 3L Class President, Class of 2026, Ariel Box, 1L Class President, Class of 2028, Emery Bielecki, Executive President of SBA, and Devin McDuffie, 2L Class President, Class of 2027.
Among those in attendance was Deborah Goldman L’68, who graduated as the only woman in her class. Today, 52% of Syracuse Law’s incoming Class of 2025 is female, and all four of the College of Law’s current student body presidents are women — a measure of how much, and how deliberately, the institution has changed.
For the Class of 1968, the reunion was a reminder that the bonds formed at Syracuse Law have proven as durable as the law itself.
President Biden welcomes his classmates and family members at the Class of 1928 reunion lunch.
