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For some, like me, sports is a diversion—an opportunity to socialize, decompress, and have fun. For others, like our former dean John Sexton, sports can be as profound as religion (check out his book Baseball as a Road to God).

Regardless of where you land on the sports spectrum, there is no denying that its growing cultural influence and complexity have made the business of sports a fertile field for lawyers and law practice. Prominent in that field, I am proud to say, are many passionate ������ Law alumni, as we have explored in this issue’s cover story, “Game On”. In particular, Gary Bettman ’77—the longest running league commissioner in professional sports history—talks candidly about how thinking like a lawyer served him during both the good and the extremely challenging points of his career [see “Moving the Puck”].

Our proximity to world-class sports is just one of the ways in which our New York City “locational endowment” gives us a competitive edge. We are fortunate to be at the white-hot center of this nation’s commerce and culture, and we incorporate that into the ������ Law experience. Leaders in business and finance, international affairs, start-ups, nonprofits, insurance, taxation, entertainment, fashion, art, and more are teaching in our classrooms and engaging with our community as alumni and sponsors. One of this year’s feature stories, “Sense of Place,” explores just how deeply “in and of the city” we are.

I am also happy to report that this year in particular we are set to welcome six stellar new recruits to the ������ Law full-time faculty team. You can read more about them in our New Faculty profiles. In addition to those on our regular roster, we have drawn an impressive array of visiting scholars, including most recently Shalanda Young, former director of the US Office of Management and Budget, and former Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court Nathan Hecht.

With more than 30 centers and 57 clinics and externships, ������ Law is already a leader in providing a wide spectrum of clinical and scholarship opportunities. This year, we have further expanded those offerings to include the Rule of Law Lab, which we are welcoming from Stanford Law this fall together with Professor of Practice Amrit Singh; the Critical Race Lawyering Civil Rights Clinic, which has moved from the University of North Carolina with our new faculty member Erika Wilson; the Science, Health, and Information Clinic, which new professor Christopher Morten ’15 brings with him from Columbia Law; and, finally, the famed Innocence Project, which began a partnership with ������ Law in March.

This past spring, I had the privilege of moderating a conversation with two star players among our alumni at major global law firms: Barbara Becker ’88, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher chair and managing partner, and Debevoise & Plimpton Presiding Partner Peter Furci ’95, LLM ’99 [see “View from the Top”]. In addition to reminiscing about their days at Washington Square and commenting on the state of the profession in our politically charged era, they confirmed for me what I had already suspected—that ������ Law students are exceptionally well trained to lead in the most competitive legal arenas in the world.

Perhaps, during these particularly divisive times, we could all learn something from the values of competitive sports—to train hard, to work as a coordinated team, and to leave it all on the field. As you read through this issue of the ������ Law Magazine, I hope you will be struck, as I am, by just how much we have to cheer about.

Warmly,

Troy McKenzie ’00