The College of Law’s Asian Pacific American Law Student Association (APALSA) recently held its annual alumni panel. The panelists spoke about their legal careers, skills that were of most help as they began their practice, and gained insight into what employers are looking for in today’s job market.
The alumni participants were:
Jean Cha L’02, Cha Law Ethics, Founder and Attorney
Mark O’Brien L’14, Chief Deputy Clerk, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Abigail Ramos ’21, L’25
Pete Su L’94, Partner, Radlo & Su LLP
Peony Teo L’24, Associate, Skarzynski Marick & Black LLP
Syracuse University College of Law now offers the nation’s first joint J.D. and M.S. in Sport Analytics program in conjunction with the Syracuse University David B. Falk College of Sport. The joint program, to be offered starting the Fall 2026 semester, allows College of Law students to earn their J.D. and M.S. concurrently, typically graduating in three years and at no cost beyond that of the J.D.
College of Law on campus students entering their second year can apply for the J.D./M.S., the College of Law’s 13th joint program.
The master’s degree requires 36 credits. A total of 15 credits from the sport analytics program can be counted toward the J.D. Further, six designated law credits will count toward both the J.D. and the M.S. electives. Law students enrolled in the joint JD/M.S. must take 72 unique law credits and 30 unique M.S. credits. Therefore, obtaining the joint J.D./M.S. requires completing 102 total credit hours.
“This is a program that only Syracuse can offer. Our College of Law and the Falk College of Sport are literally next door to each other, and that proximity translates into a truly integrated curriculum. No other law school in the country can pair a J.D. with a world-class sport analytics program under one roof,” said College of Law Dean Terence J. Lau L’98.
The joint J.D./M.S. is designed for law students interested in working in the front office of sports teams, the legal departments of sports leagues, sports agents, sports gambling companies, and others involved in sports.
“Being able to combine a law degree with a master’s degree in sport analytics provides our law students with an advanced credential that will set them apart when entering the workforce,” said College of Law Professor Todd Berger.
The M.S. follows Falk College’s established graduate Sport Analytics curriculum that emphasizes Applied Statistics, Econometrics, Databases and Machine Learning, R/Python Programming, Sport Gambling Analytics, and Visualization, among other disciplines.
“There is increasing demand for professionals who can navigate the complex intersection of law, analytics, and sport business. The combined J.D./M.S. degree prepares graduates to meet this demand by equipping them with both legal acumen and advanced quantitative skills these roles increasingly require,” said Rodney J. Paul, Ph.D., Professor and Chair in the Department of Sport Analytics at the Syracuse University David B. Falk College of Sport.
“Analytics has been largely popularized in the sport industry, but it has the ability to impact many other industries. Based on my personal background as a sport lawyer, bringing analytics into the study of law is a natural extension for Falk College of Sport. But it is also an incredibly valuable tool for practicing attorneys and even judges to better understand trends and precedents in the law and to predict probable outcomes of cases,” said David B. Falk ’72, Syracuse University Life Trustee and Founder & CEO, Falk Associates Management Enterprises.
Graduates will be uniquely positioned for roles in compliance, regulation, governance, player representation, sport betting and gaming law, collective bargaining, and analytical decision-making across professional teams, leagues, sportsbooks, and regulatory agencies.
Professor Keith Bybee spoke with the National Journal for an article on how Presidential civility has changed after the death of former FBI Director Robert Mueller.
“Stepping forward even a few terms, it looks very much like a different Republican Party,” said Bybee, author of How Civility Works. Bybee, director of the Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media at Syracuse University, sees Trump’s latest outburst as both a case of “strategic incivility”—changing the subject away from the war and the economy—and a “deeper effort to redefine what constitutes the baseline of respect in our public life.”
“He is seeking to gerrymander the boundaries of polite society,” said Bybee.
Professor Katherine Macfarlane is a presenter at the Disability Rights Bar Association Annual Baltimore Conference on March 27. She is speaking on the Disability Rights and Higher Education session.
Macfarlane, Director of the College of Law’s Disability Law and Policy Program, will discuss her article, The Higher Education Accommodation Mistake, which appears in the Georgetown Law Journal.
The College of Law’s Black Law Student Association (BLSA) Trial Team advanced to the national semifinal round and a third-place finish at the Constance Baker Motley Mock Trial Competition.
The team is comprised of Nicole Boadu L’26, Dia Bolton L’26, Kayzjah Charles L’26, and Johnnie Nichales Conner IV L’26.
The team was coached by the Hon. John F. Boyd II L’16, Douglas Bullock L’19, Tatiana Vaz L’25, and William M.X. Wolfe L’16.
“This marks the highest finish ever for a BLSA team in program history—an extraordinary accomplishment that reflects the team’s talent, preparation, and determination. It also continues a remarkable run of success, with our BLSA team advancing to the national round in nine of the past ten years,” said Professor Todd Berger, Director of Advocacy Programs.
Where better to learn about international tax law than Switzerland? Its prominence in global taxation comes from a combination of low tax rates, financial privacy, and political stability, which has long attracted multinational corporations and wealthy individuals. With a sophisticated financial sector, favorable tax treaties, and a highly developed business environment, Switzerland is a hub for international wealth management and corporate structuring, making it a powerful influence in the field of international tax law.
In March, 25 students from Syracuse University College of Law got an inside look as they traveled to Zurich to take part in a three-day course, The Evolving Role of International Tax, Transparency and Tax Equalization, led by Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law Craig Boise and Marnin J. Michaels G’96, L’96, a partner at global law firm Baker McKenzie Zurich, known for its high-end, cross-border corporate, finance, and tax expertise.
“Throughout this trip, students realized just how critical tax law is because taxes are one cost that every company, everywhere, has, and is always trying to reduce,” says Boise, who practiced tax law before entering academia. “This experience gave students insight into why tax planning is so important to how companies structure themselves around the world and how many corporate decisions are actually driven by taxes and tax laws.”
Open to on-campus and hybrid online JDinteractive (JDi) students, the course offered presentations from a prestigious slate of Swiss-based tax attorneys, government officials, and corporate experts brought together through Michaels’s extensive professional network. Topics included tax treaties, cross-border business structures, trade issues, trust and wealth planning, and the renewed interest, particularly in the U.S., in tariffs.
“What stayed with me most was a presentation by Pablo Bentes, a partner at Baker McKenzie, on the convergence of taxes, tariffs, and sanctions,” says Omar Ismael Nuno L’27. “What made it so impactful was the way he explained that there are no longer isolated policy tools but those that increasingly work together as revenue generating and geopolitical instruments. That really changed the way I think about international legal systems because it showed how economic policy, cross-border regulation, and global power can all intersect.”
The group was hosted by Baker McKenzie and also visited Bank Vontobel, a leader in private banking and investment service with global presence and vast expertise in wealth management services.
One of the three days was spent in Liechtenstein, where students visited Kaiser Partner, a family-owned financial service group and private bank specializing in wealth management, family office services, trusts, fund administration, and investment advice.
Students also had time to experience the people, sites, and culture of Switzerland. This is the third time Syracuse Law has offered a course on international tax law outside the U.S. with this being the largest group to date, a testament to its popularity. Olivia Roberson L’27 was most impressed by the long global reach of Syracuse Law.
“Marnin Michaels truly exemplifies that there are no boundaries for us as law students, as he went to Syracuse Law and now works at Baker McKenzie in Zurich,” she says. “This shows that our opportunities are endless, and our legal careers can bring us anywhere in the world.”
Crandall Melvin Professor of Law Shubha Ghosh recently participated in the Missouri Law Review “The Defend Trade Secrets Act at 10” symposium.
Ghosh, Director of the Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute, was a Commentor during the first paper session which questioned the power of the Defense Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) through the lens of reverse engineering restrictions, examined the circuit split over pleading standards for trade secret litigation, and analyzed how the readily-ascertainable bar to trade secrecy should be interpreted under the DTSA.
When Emma Boehme Grant L’29 was accepted into the Syracuse University College of Law’s JDinteractive (JDi) program, she looked forward to sharing experiences with others studying the law through the hybrid online program. However, Emma was fortunate to already have someone very special in her corner to help her acclimate to law school — a 3L who just happened to be her father, George Boehme L’26.
Shared Values Draw Father/Daughter to JDi Program
George is currently completing his last semester in the JDi program, after retiring from a successful career in newspaper publishing and starting his “second act” in his 60s by enrolling at Syracuse Law.
Feeling he hadn’t done enough to make the world a better place throughout his career, George decided that a law degree would allow him to offer pro bono legal services to those in need and possibly teach law at some point. Located in Houston, George found Syracuse Law’s JDi program allowed him to stay in Texas while achieving his goals.
Emma lives in Memphis, Tennessee, where she works full-time as the homeless management information systems director at the Community Alliance for the Homeless.
Emma Boehme Grant (orange scarf) at a January 2026 JDi Residency in Syracuse, NY with fellow classmates Jenny Blanch Dickinson, Heather Winnie and Jill Ayers.
She always wanted to contribute to the “greater good” and, at first, focused on art, culture, and community as a way of empowering people and creating change. Later, she chose to be a preschool teacher to impart good values, morals, and decision-making on young children.
“It was gratifying, but neither was fulfilling me the way I had hoped,” she says of her early career choices. However, Emma’s current job has shown her the many challenges organizations and the people they serve face that could benefit from someone with a formal legal background to guide them.
“Through a combination of my life experience and the current political climate, I see law school as a step in positively impacting the world around me,” she says.
Crossing Paths and Sharing Experiences
At the time, George was already enrolled in the JDi program, and Emma admits he was an inspiration to her. Seeing how much her father valued the JDi program, she decided to explore it herself and quickly realized that its flexibility and online courses could be an ideal fit for her, too.
“When my daughter first asked me about Syracuse’s JDi program, I was flabbergasted, as she had never mentioned an interest in the law before,” George says. “I wasn’t sure if she was serious at first, and I didn’t want to scare her off. But now that she is a student here, too, I am incredibly proud. I tend to be a big cheerleader for the Syracuse JDi program, as I can’t find a single flaw in my own experience, so I love telling others about it— and that included my daughter.”
Because George is two years ahead of Emma in the program and classes are held online, she did not expect much interaction with her dad. But she did not anticipate that he would serve as an academic success fellow for Civil Procedure during her first semester and for Contracts this semester.
“It just worked out that way, and it’s nice to know he’s there for me, but he doesn’t give me special privileges. He still makes me schedule office hours with him, and not just pop on the phone and say, ‘Dad, can you help me?’” Emma explains, noting that most people at the College of Law are aware that they are father and daughter.
“But, it is an advantage that he knows better than anyone how my brain works and how I process information, so, of course, he helps me and is very forthcoming with letting me know what resources are available to me at the law school,” she adds.
While Emma has a way to go in the program, she is eager to continue. George is preparing to graduate this May and start his legal career.
“Honestly, I’m disappointed that my Syracuse Law experience is about to be over, but I’m eager to see what’s in store for me after graduation, as I’ve been working hard towards that goal,” George says.
“I’m confident my daughter will have a similar experience over the next two years. And I can’t wait for the day I’ll be able to say that both father and daughter are alumni of Syracuse University College of Law.”
Crandall Melvin Professor of Law Shubha Ghosh spoke with the Associated Press about the recent LiveNation antitrust settlement.
Ghosh said at best he expects to see a small dent in ticket prices. He doubts high-profile acts will suddenly start charging less or that aggressive resellers will slow down anytime soon.
