Albany Law School announced today that two standout faculty members—Christine Sgarlata Chung and Melissa L. Breger—have been named to distinguished professorships. The Board of Trustees approved the appointments on September 25, 2020.

"Professors Chung and Breger are pillars of our law school. They not only educate the next generation of leaders, but also advance the conversation around critical issues facing society," said Albany Law School President and Dean Alicia Ouellette. "They have more than earned these distinctions."

Prof. Christine Sgarlata Chung is the new Gov. George E. Pataki Distinguished Professor in International Commercial Law.

With a deep knowledge of and experience with financial markets, financial crimes, transactional law practice, and internal and government investigations, Prof. Chung’s teaching and scholarship focuses on financial regulatory systems, corporate and securities law, municipal finance, and consumer and investor protection.

She frequently presents on issues associated with securities fraud and investor protection, financial crimes, financial market regulation, and municipal financial distress. Her extensive scholarship includes her most recent article, “Rising Tides and Rearranging Deckchairs: How Climate Change is Reshaping Infrastructure Finance and Threatening to Sink Municipal Budgets,” published in the Georgetown Environmental Law Review in 2019. The second edition of her co-authored casebook BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS LAW IN FOCUS was published in 2020.

Prof. Chung joined Albany Law School in 2007 after serving as a partner at Goodwin Procter LLP and a branch chief in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She has since received all three of the law school’s faculty awards: Excellence in Service (2010), Excellence in Teaching (2017), and Excellence in Scholarship (2020).

Her courses focus on business organizations, contracts, financial crimes, and financial market regulation. She is also director of the Institute for Financial Market Regulation.

The Governor George E. Pataki Distinguished Professorship supports the teaching, scholarship, and community leadership of faculty members at the forefront of international commercial law and legal practice.

Prof. Melissa L. Breger is the new President William McKinley Distinguished Professor in Law and Public Policy.

Prof. Breger has been teaching at Albany Law School since 2002 and has dedicated her career to working on issues involving children, women, and families. Her scholarly interests include the rights of children and families, gender and racial equality, procedural justice in the courtroom, juvenile justice, the increasing epidemic of child sexual trafficking, implicit bias, law and culture, family violence, and the intersections between psychology and the law.

Her prolific scholarship includes “Making the Invisible Visible: Exploring Implicit Bias, Judicial Diversity, and the Bench Trial,” published by the University of Richmond Law Review in 2019. She is the co-author of the two-volume treatise NEW YORK LAW OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE; her new book, EXPLORING NORMS AND FAMILY LAWS ACROSS THE GLOBE, is forthcoming in 2021.

Prof. Breger received the 2005 Shanara Gilbert Award in recognition of her excellence in teaching and contributions to the advancement of social justice from the American Association of Law Schools; and the faculty awards for Excellence in Teaching (2016), Excellence in Service (2018), and Excellence in Scholarship (2019) from Albany Law School.

She teaches a variety of courses, including: Evidence; Family Law; Criminal Procedure: Investigation, Gender and the Law; and Children, Juveniles and the Law.

The professorship is named for the 25th President of the United States, William McKinley, a member of the Albany Law School Class of 1867. It was established to expand and maintain excellence and leadership in government law and public policy.