About
Change of Command at Touro Law Center Vets Clinic
July 26, 2016Rosanne Trabocchi, a 23-year veteran U.S. Coast Guard JAG officer, and Sarah Fetherston, who went to law school after service in the U.S. Air Force, including a stint as a pilot, will be the new leaders of the Touro Law Center Veterans Clinic, Touro Law Dean Patricia Salkin has announced. They will replace Ken Rosenblum, who retired in June 2016 after 25 years at the school. Rosenblum, a former U.S. Army JAG officer who served a tour in Vietnam, revived the clinic in 2013.
“Our Veterans’ and Servicemembers’ Rights Clinic serves many in the community and provides hands-on learning opportunities for our students,” stated Dean Salkin. “I look forward to Professors Trabocchi and Fetherston providing leadership for our clinic and continuing to find new ways to have law students provide much needed legal assistance to our veterans.”
Since 2013, the Touro Law Center Veterans’ Clinic has focused primarily on representing homeless, sheltered and at-risk veterans, with a view to removing barriers to their reintegration into the community, in areas such as landlord-tenant, debt relief, bankruptcy, mortgage foreclosure, driver’s license restoration/traffic tickets, child support modification, federal and state income tax problems, and discharge upgrade applications.
Trabocchi, of Mount Sinai, retired from the Coast Guard in 2012 with the rank of Captain. Her assignments included Chief of the service’s Office of Claims and Litigation in Washington, DC, and as Commanding Officer of the Coast Guard Hearing Office, the unit responsible for the adjudication of violations of Coast Guard laws and regulations by recreational and commercial mariners, marine facilities and maritime transporters. She earned an Associate’s Degree from Suffolk Community College, a B.B.A. from Dowling College, an MBA in Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and her J.D. from Washburn School of Law.
Fetherston, of St. James, graduated from Georgetown, then served four years as a U.S. Air Force Lieutenant, where she was a public affairs officer and fighter squadron adjutant before completing multi-engine jet pilot training. After leaving the service, she graduated magna cum laude from Pace Law School, then clerked for a U.S. Magistrate Judge and worked as an environmental litigator.
Touro Law’s clinical program teaches practice-ready skills required for effective advocacy while providing no cost legal services for the community. Students work under close faculty supervision to provide legal assistance to actual clients. Currently, 13 clinics are offered: Advanced Bankruptcy Clinic, Bankruptcy Clinic, Criminal Defense Clinic, Criminal Prosecution Clinic, Disaster Relief Clinic, Elder Law Clinic, Family Law Clinic, Federal Prosecution Clinic, Immigration Law Clinic, Mortgage Foreclosure Clinic, Small Business and Not-for-Profit Law Clinic, the Veterans' and Servicemembers' Rights Clinic and the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic.
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Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center’s 185,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art law school is located adjacent to both a state and a federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York. Touro Law’s proximity to the courthouses, coupled with programming developed to integrate the courtroom into the classroom, provide a one-of-a kind learning model for law students, combining a rigorous curriculum taught by expert faculty with a practical courtroom experience. Touro Law, which has a student body of approximately 650 and an alumni base of more than 6,000, offers full- and part-time J.D. programs, several dual degree programs and graduate law programs for US and foreign law graduates. Touro Law Center is part of the Touro College system.
Touro Law’s newly implemented Portals to Practice is a cutting-edge, experiential learning program that reconceives and restructures the law school experience. Portals to Practice expands the scope and quality of legal education by focusing on the development of legal professionals, from pre-law through post-graduation.
About the Touro College and University System
Touro is a system of non-profit institutions of higher and professional education. Touro College was chartered in 1970 primarily to enrich the Jewish heritage, and to serve the larger American and global community. Approximately 18,000 students are currently enrolled in its various schools and divisions. Touro College has 29 branch campuses, locations and instructional sites in the New York area, as well as branch campuses and programs in Berlin, Jerusalem and Moscow. New York Medical College; Touro University California and its Nevada branch campus; Touro University Worldwide and its Touro College Los Angeles division; as well as Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Ill. are separately accredited institutions within the Touro College and University System. For further information on Touro College, please go to: http://www.touro.edu/news/.
Patti Desrochers
Director of Communications
pattid@tourolaw.edu
(631) 761-7062