Albany Law School Promotes Professors Brescia, Hirokawa, Rogerson

Albany Law School recently promoted three professors: Raymond H. Brescia to Professor of Law; Keith H. Hirokawa to Professor of Law; and Sarah F. Rogerson to Clinical Professor of Law.

Professor Brescia, an alumnus of Fordham University and Yale Law School, was previously an Associate Professor of Law. His scholarly interests 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. He has articles published or forthcoming this year in numerous law reviews. His co-edited book, How Cities Will Save the World: Urban Innovation in the Face of Population Flows, Climate Change and Economic Inequality, was published last year. Professor Brescia was director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School from 2013 to 2016. Before joining the faculty, he was associate director of the Urban Justice Center in New York City, a staff attorney at New Haven Legal Assistance, a Skadden Fellow with the Legal Aid Society of New York, and law clerk to civil rights pioneer Hon. Constance Baker Motley.

Professor Hirokawa was most recently an Associate Professor of Law. He teaches courses involving environmental and natural resources law, land use planning, property law, and jurisprudence. Professor Hirokawa’s scholarship has explored convergences in ecology, ethics, economics, and law, with particular attention given to local environmental law, ecosystem services policy, watershed management, and environmental impact analysis. He has authored dozens of professional and scholarly articles. His books include Environmental Law and Contrasting Ideas of Nature: A Constructivist Approach (editor) and Rethinking Sustainability to Meet the Climate Change Challenge (co-editor). Prior to joining the faculty in 2009, Professor Hirokawa was an Associate Professor at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Oregon School of Law. He studied philosophy and law at the University of Connecticut, where he earned his J.D. and M.A. degrees. He earned his LL.M. in Environmental and Natural Resources Law from Lewis & Clark Law School.

Professor Rogerson was previously an Associate Professor of Law. She is director of the law school’s Immigration Law Clinic, an experiential clinical course through which students represent immigrant victims of crime including child abuse and neglect, domestic violence and sexual assault. Her scholarship is focused on the intersections between domestic violence, family law, race, gender, international law and immigration law and policy. This year she published “The Politics of Fear: Unaccompanied Immigrant Children and the Case of the Southern Border” in the Villanova Law Review. Professor Rogerson joined the faculty in 2011 after completing a two-year Clinical Teaching Fellowship at University of Baltimore School of Law, where she taught and supervised students enrolled in the Immigrant Rights Clinic. She also worked at the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, Inc., and as an associate attorney at a law firm with offices in New York and New Jersey. She earned her M.A. and J.D. degrees from Seton Hall University and her LL.M. from Southern Methodist University.