Touro Law Center Students Hit Home Run in New Orleans

Hearsay: "Information gathered by a first person from a second person concerning some event, condition, or thing of which the first person has no direct experience." See Wikipedia. While this definition of "hearsay" may seem familiar to most law students and lawyers, a new definition is slowly working its way into the vernacular.

Hearsay: "A new newspaper written, edited, and published by Touro Law Center students." Hearsay is in its second month of publication, after an immensely successful pilot edition in April 2009. The April issue was spearheaded by several students, but its motivating force was graduating student Ray Malone. Mr. Malone is such a large and energetic presence on campus that the SBA recently named an annual award after him, with the first winner of the Ray Malone Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Student Body going to, not surprisingly, Ray Malone. With Mr. Malone graduating, however, new energy was needed to spearhead Hearsay.

Stepping up to the plate is the new Editor-in-Chief, Cheryl Van Dyke. Ms. Van Dyke has put together a winning team and the May issue of Hearsay is outstanding. While the issue includes articles by students, alumni, and professors about the law school community, most impressive are the articles written by students describing their efforts to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Over the past 24 months, more than 120 Touro Law Center students have devoted their spring and other breaks to traveling to New Orleans and surrounding communities to help with the legal, financial, and social problems of Katrina victims. They have been warmly welcomed into communities which, understandably, in light of the pathetic federal response, have been somewhat leery of outsiders. Faculty members traveling on their own have mentioned Touro and have heard residents quick to express praise and thanks to the law students from Long Island who have helped them over the past two years. Everyone in New Orleans, it seems, knows about Touro Law Center and the students who decided to give up spring breaks to help them.

Hearsay contains the moving accounts of the students and faculty who talked the talk and walked the walk in New Orleans. This law school is so very proud of them. They, quite frankly, make the rest of us look good. Even as these students go through law school and graduate, they will never be forgotten, as they are heroes to the people of New Orleans and, just as much, heroes to us.

To ready the May edition of Hearsay, go here.