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JDi Program Helps State Legislator Serve His Community, Become a Better Policymaker

Growing up in southeastern Pennsylvania as the son of a small-business owner, John Lawrence saw first-hand some of the challenges faced by family-run businesses. Later on, he didn’t agree with some of the decisions coming out of Pennsylvania’s capital in Harrisburg, so in 2010 he decided he could best serve his community by throwing his hat into the ring to run for the House of Representatives as a Reformer. In 2011, Lawrence was sworn in to serve the 13th Legislative District, located in Chester County, and he hasn’t looked back.

“Serving as an elected official is humbling and a great honor,” says Lawrence, who is now in his eighth term.

John Lawrence sites at a desk with his laptop and books.

A graduate of Penn State University with a degree in business, Lawrence has built a reputation for bringing a common sense approach to state government. He has authored bills to consolidate redundant government services, reform budgeting practices and even require state legislators to submit to drug tests. Putting his words into action, Lawrence refuses to take a state pension, per diems, drive a state vehicle or take advantage of other perks that come with the job.

This past session, Lawrence authored floor amendments to be sure citizens are aware of their right to counsel, that disabled veterans receive constitutionally mandated property tax relief and that police officers working in some of the most challenging areas in the state are rewarded. He has also had legislation signed into law to ensure victims of domestic violence are not required to financially support their convicted abusers during an ongoing divorce.

John Lawrence looks in his briefcase in an office.

Outside of work, Lawrence is active in his church and community, and he and his wife are heavily involved in their two children’s high school activities.

With all of that going on, how is Lawrence possibly going to law school? Through the JDinteractive program at Syracuse University College of Law.

After college, Lawrence went to work at J.P. Morgan Chase as an account officer. Pursuing law was in the back of his mind, and he knew a legal background would be helpful in his line of work. After transitioning to politics, he considered part-time traditional law programs, but they were either too far away from his family and community or conflicted with his other obligations. So, when he discovered Syracuse Law’s hybrid JDi program, Lawrence thought it just might work.

“I did a lot of research before applying and visited the campus several times,” he says. “Before making the commitment to law school, I wanted to make sure I could make it work with my schedule. The JDi program gave me the flexibility to make it happen.” 

Today, he is taking asynchronous classes and completing other tasks and activities online around his busy schedule through Syracuse Law’s JDi. He notes that one of the best things about the program has been the other students in his cohort.

“The caliber of others in my cohort is remarkable,” he says. “It’s such a diverse group with very different life experiences—a doctor, a dentist, several working on Wall Street. These people have great perspectives and bring some interesting experiences to the program. Most tend to be a little older than those in traditional law school, and, in a way, it’s helpful that we’re all dealing with the pressures of career, family, community and more. I think I’ve learned as much in law school through the others in my cohort as I have from my professors.”

Living about five hours from Syracuse University, Lawrence has attended several residencies on campus, including one on cryptocurrency just a few months ago.  Now a 2L, he is preparing for higher level classes, and while he intends to keep serving the people of Pennsylvania, Lawrence also knows that a degree from Syracuse Law will allow him to expand his work and make him a better policymaker.

John Lawrence stands in a hallway with his briefcase over his shoulder.

“Enrolling in the Syracuse Law JDi program was a great decision,” Lawrence says. “People might wonder if a hybrid online program can be engaging and rigorous, I can assure you that the program at Syracuse Law is both. I know that my experiences during the program and attaining a law degree will help me in ways that would not otherwise have been possible.”

JDinteractive Students Donate Winter Clothing to Unhoused Veterans, Build Stronger Connections at On-Campus January Residency

In January, JDinteractive (JDi) students came to the Syracuse University College of Law for several in-person residencies. Many brought heavy winter coats, hats, mittens and scarves, not just to endure the snowy Syracuse weather themselves but, more importantly, to donate to military veterans in need.

Operation Veteran Warm-Up was the idea of Inge Gedo L’25, a 3L in the JDi program who wanted to create a way for the JDi students to feel more connected to Syracuse Law by participating in a service project similar to what some of the Law School’s residential students do throughout the academic year.

Operation Warm-Up team holding up a Military and Veterans Law Society sign at their event.

A retired U.S. Air Force officer who lives in Virginia, Gedo bounced the idea off a few others during a residency on mediation held in Miami in December. It was well received, so she approached the Syracuse Law Military and Veterans Law Society (MVLS) and its faculty advisor Teaching Professor Elizabeth Kubala, who is also the director of veteran and military affairs; the executive director of the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic (VLC); and the director of clinical legal education at Syracuse Law.

The MVLS agreed to facilitate the project and decided that this year’s Operation Veteran Warm-Up would support an initiative that the VLC was already involved with in the greater Syracuse community. In partnership with the Syracuse VA Medical Center, The Altamont Program operates a transitional housing facility with 55 beds for unhoused veterans, both male and female, and provides case management, therapy and other services with the intention of finding veterans permanent housing and helping them get back on their feet. Operation Veteran Warm-Up complemented the efforts that the wider University holds each winter to assist students in need through its Operation Orange Warm-Up, as well as Syracuse Law and the entire University’s long-standing commitment to veterans in the community.

With only a few weeks until the on-campus residency, Gedo sprang into action to get the word out to the JDi students from the classes of 2025 to 2028 who planned to come to the Law School in January. She even set up a way for students to purchase through Amazon, so they wouldn’t have to pack items in their luggage. Delivery to Dineen Hall was difficult at this time of year, however, as the building was closed prior to the residency for the University’s annual winter break Orange Appreciation Days. Thankfully, Kubala stepped up and volunteered her home address for package delivery, and soon the items started rolling in. Donations even came from JDi students who were not attending the January residency.

Another wave of donations arrived when the residency began on campus, as JDi students brought winter clothing with them or purchased items locally when they arrived and heard about the service project. At the end of the residency week, some students from warmer parts of the country even donated the gently used coats, hats and scarves they had bought for themselves specifically for the trip to chilly Syracuse. In the end, more than 100 items were donated to Operation Veteran Warm-Up and distributed to those in the transitional housing program.

“Inge is the kind of person who gets behind something and makes it happen,” says Kubala, who got to know Gedo when she worked as her research assistant. “The participation and generosity of our JDi students and the willingness of the MLVS to facilitate Operation Veteran Warm-Up was simply amazing. Our residency programs are always a way for our JDi students to connect on a more personal level and get acquainted with the Syracuse Law campus, but this time it was even more special as the service project gave so many of the students an added sense of belonging by working together to meet a real need in the local veteran community.”

Gedo, who currently works as a legal intern at the Fairfax County General District Court in Virginia, will complete her degree in August 2025, but she is hopeful that the MLVS will continue to facilitate Operation Veteran Warm-Up with the JDi program annually and expand it, possibly including residential students, too.

“We intended to just start small this year, and we weren’t sure what the response would be,” says Gedo. “But, we were thrilled with the donations, and the feedback from the JDi students has been so encouraging. Not only did we assist veterans, which is, of course, very near to my heart as a veteran myself, but we also added another level of camaraderie to the JDi program. It turned out to be a very special project that I hope will continue in the years ahead.”

Professor Jenny Breen Discusses Executive Powers in the Wake of SCOTUS Order in USAID Case

Professor Jenny Breen spoke with the Washington Post for the article “Supreme Court says judge can force Trump administration to pay foreign aid”. The article discusses the recent 5-4 order in Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition on USAID funding.

Breen said it was difficult to draw sweeping generalizations from a single case, but “if we are going to take away anything, it might be that the Supreme Court is going to pay attention when the government does not comply with court orders.”

But Breen said the fact that four justices signed on to the dissent indicates “a tolerance for a very expansive notion of executive power” in a significant segment of the court: “The 5-4 split here makes clear there is definitely turbulence ahead here, and there is going to be division.”

Professor Shubha Ghosh Speaks with Law 360 for Article on Shein and Intellectual Property

Crandall Melvin Professor of Law Shubha Ghosh, director of the Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute, spoke with Law 360 for the article “6 Things To Know About Shein’s Fast Fashion Feuds”. The in-depth article examines the growing number of intellectual property lawsuits filed against Shein.

“There’s always been a question of whether China has been respecting intellectual property rights, and that gets very complicated with respect to fashion,” given the complex application of IP law to fashion, said Ghosh.

Rebeca Puente Chavar L’27 Wins the Hancock Estabrook First Year Oral Advocacy Competition

Rebeca Puente Chavar L’27 prevailed over Nicholas R. Hardy IV L’27 in the 15th Annual Hancock Estabrook First Year Oral Advocacy Competition.

The competition was judged by the Hon. Thérèse Wiley Dancks L’91, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of New York; S. Alexander Berlucchi L’18, an associate at Hancock Estabrook; Michelle Whitton Cowan L’07, Managing Attorney, AmTrust Financial Services Inc.; and Gabriela Groman L’23, an associate at Hancock Estabrook.

Thirty-three first year students participated in the competition.

Professor Lauryn Gouldin Participating on the 6th AAAI Workshop on Privacy-Preserving Artificial Intelligence Panel

Professor Lauryn Gouldin will be a panelist on the 6th Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Workshop on Privacy-Preserving Artificial Intelligence. This workshop is part of the 39th Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence. She will participate in an interdisciplinary panel discussion on Understanding and Regulating the Privacy Risks in an Embodied Agents World.

Professor Robert Nassau Discusses Penalties for Not Filing Your Taxes

Professor Robert Nassau, director of the Sherman F. Levey ’57, L’59 Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, spoke with CNBC for an article on penalties the IRS can impose for failure to pay your income taxes.

According to Nassau, some taxpayers don’t file returns for various reasons.

In some cases, they may think,”[the IRS is] never going to find me” or “they’re frightened and overwhelmed by the prospect of owing money,” he said.

The Hon. James E. Baker and Professor Emeritus Wiliam C. Banks Contribute to the ABA’s “Strengthening Democracy: A Civics Education Series for Military Members” Video Series

The American Bar Association (ABA) has recently launched a video series “Strengthening Democracy: A Civics Education Series for Military Members.” Two topics feature the College of Law’s Hon. James E. Baker, Director of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law, and Professor Emeritus William C. Banks.

The “Military Law and the Constitution” series of videos highlights the role of the military in a constitutional democracy. Judge Baker, a former Judge and Chief Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, is interviewed.

The “Domestic Use of the Military” series of videos covers the history and law around the use of the military in domestic pursuits featuring discussions with Banks, the author of a book on the topic, Soldiers on the Homefront.

This video series aims to improve the civic knowledge of active service members of the military. The videos and resources were developed by the ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security in collaboration with the ABA Division for Public Education. It was funded by the Leonore Annenberg Civic Mission of the Nation Initiative, which is sponsored by the Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics (LAIC). LAIC is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

College of Law Faculty, Students, and Alumni Write Guest Opinion “Automatically handcuffing people during police stops violates the Constitution”

In response to an incident where Syracuse City Police handcuffed an 11-year-old girl during questioning. College of Law faculty, students, and alumni wrote the Guest Opinion article “Automatically handcuffing people during police stops violates the Constitution” at Syracuse.com.

Contributors are Laura J. & L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence and Crandall Melvin Professor of Law Lauryn Gouldin, director of the Syracuse Civics Initiative; Martin Feinman L’83 former director of Juvenile Justice Training for the Legal Aid Society of New York, Juvenile Rights Practice; Jocelyn Anctil G’25, L’25; Megan Hartman L’26, and Nicholas Marasco L’25.

They write: “Court decisions (and even police training manuals) from across the state and country make clear that automatically handcuffing people during stops is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Although handcuffs may be used when specific, individualized safety or flight risks are alleged, the facts available from media reports and the video of the stop do not provide support for the use of handcuffs during the stop shown in that video.

Police might prefer to use handcuffs in an excess of caution. And, of course, police work involves important exercises of caution. But the Constitution requires that caution be balanced against the liberty and dignity of people — especially children — who interact with police. Excesses of caution are unconstitutional.”

Frank Ryan IV ’90, L’94 Announced as Class of 2025 Commencement Speaker

We are honored to have Frank Ryan IV ’90, L’94, Americas Chair, Global Co-Chair, and Co-CEO of DLA Piper and a Member of our Board of Advisors, as our Commencement speaker!

Ryan leads one of the world’s largest law firms, with lawyers in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific. Throughout his legal career, Ryan has handled numerous high-profile matters in various areas and is known as a go-to strategist for some of the world’s most sophisticated media and sports corporations.  

Frank Ryan Headshot wearing a blue suit and standing in front of a grey background

He is a member of the Legal Service Corporation’s Leaders Council, the nation’s largest funder of civil legal aid programs for low-income people, and sits on the Board of Directors for Beat the Streets NYC, an organization dedicated to mentoring NYC student wrestlers (Ryan was a member of Syracuse University’s Wrestling team as an undergraduate.) Ryan is a Founding Partner of the Legal Elite Athlete Pipeline Scholarship Program (LEAP), a DLA Piper initiative aimed at supporting student-athletes in their pursuit of legal careers through scholarship aid and educational guidance.

“New lawyers are joining the practice of law at an exciting time, with technology enabling lawyers to work smarter and faster, and clients relying on their lawyers more than ever for strategic advice at the highest levels of business,” Ryan said. “At the same time, there are important legal questions yet to be explored about how our government functions, where the boundaries of individual rights lie, and how our laws will adapt to changing technologies such as AI. I look forward to speaking with Syracuse Law grads about all that awaits as they embark on their legal careers.”  

It is an honor to welcome Ryan back to the College of Law, and we are excited to hear his inspirational message in the JMA Wireless Dome on Friday, May 9.