Assistant Dean of Public Interest Resource Center

Email: tschoenherr@law.fordham.edu

Dean Tom Schoenherr is the founder of the Public Interest Resource Center at Fordham Law School and has served as its director since it was established in 1991. Previously he was the Associate Director of the Career Planning Center at Fordham Law School for 5 years. He has counseled thousands of law students and alumni extensively in all phases of career planning and development.

Dean Schoenherr has been a moderator and a speaker on numerous public interest career panels at conferences including: the American Bar Association/National Legal Aid and Defenders Association (ABA/NLADA) Equal Justice Conference, the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), Equal Justice Works (EJW), Lavender Law, the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (ABCNY), the Lesbian & Gay Law Association of New York (LeGaL), and the New York County Lawyer’s Association. He is a member of the ABA, AALS, the New York State Bar Association's Pro Bono Coordinators' Network, the ABCNY’s Public Service Network, and the NYC Metro Law School Public Interest Administrators Network. He did his graduate coursework in Clinical and Counseling Psychology at New York University and holds a BA in Liberal Arts from Binghamton University.

Dean Schoenherr currently serves as the co-chair of the National Advisory Committee of EJW. He has also served as the chair of the AALS Section on Pro Bono and Public Service Opportunities, chair of NALP’s Public Service Committee and LGBT Committee, and as the Member-at-Large on NALP’s National Board of Directors.

Director of Public Interest Student Engagement

Email: lhorowitz2@law.fordham.edu

Leah Horowitz received her law degree from Fordham Law School and her undergraduate degree from Cornell University. During her years at Fordham, Leah was a Stein Scholar and served as the president of two PIRC student organizations. Upon graduation, Leah worked as a public defender at the Bronx Defenders for nine years. While at the Bronx Defenders, in addition to zealously representing clients, Leah created the Client Library to provide books to incarcerated and non-incarcerated clients and started an initiative to address Solitary Confinement.

Leah is admitted to the Bar in New York and Connecticut.

Director of Public Interest Scholars & Counseling

E-mail: abaruni@fordham.edu

Aisha works with the Law School’s Stein Scholars Program in Public Interest Law & Ethics. She also counsels students and alumni on all aspects of the public sector job search and organizes programs and events for the Fordham community. For almost ten years prior to coming to Fordham, Aisha worked as a civil legal services attorney representing low and moderate-income homeowners facing foreclosure, many of whom had predatory mortgage loans. She began this work in Philadelphia, as an Independence Foundation Fellow at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, and continued it in New York at Queens Legal Services (part of Legal Services NYC). Prior to her direct legal services work, Aisha clerked for Judge James T. Giles of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and for Judge William L. Chapman, Jr. and Judge Michael K. Newell of the Delaware Family Court.  Aisha is a graduate of the Temple University Beasley School of Law and Swarthmore College.

Aisha is admitted to the Bar in New York and Pennsylvania. 

Office Manager

E-mail: aeno@fordham.edu

Adiaha Eno is the Office Manager for The Public Interest Resource Center. She will be able to help with any administrative task you may need such as helping with e-mail accounts, petty cash, student group space, and listing opportunities in PIRC UP!