Brooklyn Law School Announces the Michael Simmons and Michael Gerber Professorship

This Endowment, Generously Gifted by the Parents of Michael Simmons ’20, is Named for the Late Brooklyn Law School Student and His Professor and Mentor

/EIN News/ -- New York, Oct. 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brooklyn Law School announced today the Michael Simmons and Michael Gerber Professorship, which is endowed by the parents of the late student to honor his beloved alma mater and the special relationship he had with his professor and mentor, Michael Gerber. The endowment is a generous $775,000 that will be used to encourage and support ongoing faculty mentorship at the Law School.

“We are so grateful and deeply touched by Kathy and Brad Hoffman’s decision to honor their son’s memory by endowing this new professorship and by ensuring that it would support faculty mentorship of students,” said David D. Meyer, President and Joseph Crea Dean. “From our first conversations, they saw the vital role that faculty play in the lives of students and how central that is to the culture and identity of Brooklyn Law School.”

The new Michael Simmons and Michael Gerber Professorship will be uniquely designed to foster faculty support for students. It will be awarded chiefly to recognize faculty who go above and beyond in helping students and will provide the faculty member with funds to undertake creative initiatives to support students’ professional and personal development. Unusually, the professorship will be awarded on a rotating basis for two-year terms, ensuring that a variety of Law School faculty can be recognized for their efforts to support students.

Professor Gerber, who is set to be inducted as an American College of Bankruptcy fellow in 2025, noted Brooklyn Law School’s long-running tradition of mentoring students.

“Michael was incredibly talented and had great potential, along with the leavening grace of a delightful personality. Serving as a mentor to Michael was a privilege that I shared with my colleagues, and I’m honored to share this chair with him,” said Professor Gerber.

After graduation, Michael served as a judicial clerk in the chambers of Bankruptcy Judge Louis Scarcella in the Eastern District of New York. He had just recently begun his second clerkship, with District of Delaware Bankruptcy Judge Karen B. Owens, when he died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism on Nov. 7, 2021. Michael was only 26 years old and had intended to practice bankruptcy law in New York City following the clerkship.

An investiture ceremony to celebrate the Hoffmans’ gift and formally install Michael Gerber is planned on Monday, Nov. 18, at 5 p.m. at Brooklyn Law School. 

To learn more about the Michael Simmons and Michael Gerber Professorship visit the Brooklyn Law School website here.

About Brooklyn Law School

Founded in 1901, Brooklyn Law School offers a vibrant intellectual community emphasizing teaching excellence, leading-edge scholarship, and an innovative academic program designed to prepare students for public service, business, and private practice, nationwide and across the globe. It is an independent institution, unaffiliated with any university or college, and the only law school in Brooklyn. The Law School offers J.D. options that include a traditional 3-year program and an extended part-time 4-year program. Visit Brooklyn Law School at www.brooklaw.edu

 

Attachments

• Brooklyn Law School Alumni Michael Simmons '20
• Brooklyn Law School Professor Michael Gerber

Peggy Swisher
                    Brooklyn Law School
                    718-780-0350
                    peggy.swisher@brooklaw.edu
                    
                    Kate Alexander
                    Brooklyn Law School 
                    201-638-3946
                    kate.alexander@brooklaw.edu