Fordham's Recipients of the 2021 CLEA Outstanding Clinic Team Award

Via Prof. Paul Radvany: 

Emily Entwistle, Estelle Georges, Jocelyn Ng and Zulkifl Zargar from the Securities Arbitration Clinic are the recipients of CLEA’s Outstanding Clinic Team at Fordham Law School.

The four students worked on a case that was scheduled for a 4 day arbitration during the Spring 2020 semester. Their clients’ broker had defrauded them by churning their account and trading on margin without their knowledge or approval. As a result, they had lost most of their life savings. Because of Covid the case was originally postponed to the Fall but their clients wanted to have the arbitration over the summer. Due to the pandemic, the only option was to have it virtually. However, their adversary objected to having a virtual hearing. The students drafted one of the first motions to compel a virtual hearing and won the motion. The students then prepared for much of the summer. Preparation involved drafting a pre-arbitration brief, an opening statement and closing argument, and direct examination outlines. The students also had numerous prep sessions with both of their expert witnesses and their clients to ready them to testify. They also prepared to cross-examine several witnesses for the respondent. The case settled on the eve of arbitration after the students advocated at an all-day mediation and obtained a very favorable settlement. During the Spring semester, Estelle, Jocelyn and Zulkifl presented at a conference sponsored by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding broader lessons learned from their representation.