Associate Dean Ray Brescia Honored with Prestigious Sanford D. Levy Ethics Award From NYS Bar Association
Albany Law School is proud to announce that Raymond H. Brescia, Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life and the Hon. Harold R. Tyler Chair in Law and Technology, has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Sanford D. Levy Professional Ethics Award, presented annually by the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics. Established in 1981, the Levy Award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of legal ethics, particularly through influential scholarship published in law journals and law reviews.
With this recognition, Brescia joins a group of past recipients whose collective work has shaped the modern landscape of legal ethics. The roster—sometimes described as a “Legal Ethics Hall of Fame”—includes leading scholars, judges, practitioners, and publications that have elevated the profession’s understanding of ethical responsibility. Brescia’s addition to this distinguished list underscores the impact of his extensive and influential scholarship, teaching, and advocacy on issues at the core of legal professional responsibility.
“Dean Brescia is a pathbreaking scholar and teacher whose work spans a remarkable breadth of topics, from the role of social movements in driving legal change to legal ethics, technology, and access to justice. Across his work, Dean Brescia draws upon his depth of knowledge of history to engage critical questions about the past and future of the legal profession, with a particular focus on professional ethics. With his recent work focusing on how technology has transformed our profession in the past and how those transformations give us a window into how lawyering is likely to function in an AI-infused world, Dean Brescia directly engages some of the most pressing and profound professional ethics questions of our time. His work is timely, accessible, and impactful.” said Cinnamon P. Carlarne, Albany Law School’s 19th President and Dean. “This award is a testament not only to the breadth and impact of his scholarship, but also to the example he sets for our students, and for all who believe in the power of the rule of law as a tool to improve access to justice.”
Brescia said he is honored to join such an inspiring group of recipients: “The scholars and practitioners recognized by this award have had a profound influence on how the profession in general and I in particular think about lawyers’ duties to clients, the courts, and the public. To be counted among them is truly humbling.”
Brescia combines his experience as a public interest attorney in New York City with his scholarly interests to address economic and social inequality, the legal and policy implications of financial crises, how innovative legal and regulatory approaches can improve economic and community development efforts, and the need to expand access to justice for people of low and moderate income.
His latest book, “Lawyer 3.0: A Guide to Next-Wave Lawyering” argues that technology is creating a new, third version of the legal profession (Lawyer 3.0) that can be more affordable and effective than the current model, which was shaped by late 19th-century changes. The book provides a roadmap for lawyers, clients, and educators to navigate this disruption, focusing on using new technologies like AI to better serve the millions of people currently underserved by the legal system, rather than just focusing on traditional lawyer employment.
In addition to his scholarship, he is regularly an expert voice in the media both through op-eds and interviews. He has appeared in numerous outlets, including Fast Company, The Hill, MS NOW, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Forbes, and many more. He is also a regular contributor to the Legal AF podcast on the MeidasTouch Network.
Before coming to Albany Law, he was the Associate Director of the Urban Justice Center in New York, N.Y., where he coordinated legal representation for community-based institutions in areas such as housing, economic justice, workers' rights, civil rights and environmental justice. He also served as an adjunct professor at New York Law School from 1997 through 2006. Prior to his work at the Urban Justice Center, he was a staff attorney at New Haven Legal Assistance and the Legal Aid Society of New York, where he was a recipient of a Skadden Fellowship after graduation from law school.
Professor Brescia also served as Law Clerk to the pathbreaking Civil Rights attorney-turned-federal judge, the Honorable Constance Baker Motley, Senior U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York. While a student Yale Law School, Professor Brescia was co-recipient of the Charles Albom Prize for Appellate Advocacy; was a student director of several clinics, including the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Law Clinic and the Homelessness Clinic; and was Visiting Lecturer in Yale College.
