In 2000, New York Law School (NYLS) announced the creation of the Daniel Finkelstein Commencement Award as a way to honor our senior partner's distinguished career, and to acknowledge his many years of service to the legal profession.
The award is given each year to the graduating student that displays excellence in researching and writing on a topic related to real-estate law.
The partners of Finkelstein Newman Ferrara LLP, together with faculty members of NYLS, select the student-written work from all papers, journal essays, notes, and articles submitted over the course of the academic year.
We are pleased to announce the 2007 recipient of the Daniel Finkelstein Commencement Award is Jennifer Addonizio. Jennifer has been an active member of the Stonewall Law Students Association since her first year at NYLS and currently serves as the organization's Vice President.
During her second year, Jennifer worked as a legal representative for the NYLS Special Education Clinic, where she advocated on behalf of students who were denied services to which they were lawfully entitled. She has held research and teaching assistant positions for three different professors at NYLS and is a member of the Law Review. Jennifer is currently a legal assistant at Fishman & Neil, where she works on behalf of consumers and tenants.
In her paper entitled, " BLACKLISTING TENANT BLACKLISTS: A CHARGE FOR NEW YORK LEGISLATURES ," Jennifer points to the harm caused to tenants as a result of the release of sensitive court data (related to case filings) to credit and screening reporting bureaus.
When this (often incomplete or inaccurate) information is flagged on a credit or screening report, a tenant's ability to secure credit, financing, or even alternate housing, is severely impaired or impeded.
Fearing "blacklisting," tenants are now being stifled from asserting bona-fide claims or defenses or from withholding rent in response to code violative conditions or other breaches of the warranty of habitability.
While there has been federal litigation to address this patently unfair practice, tenants must still submit copies of court orders or judgments together with written requests to the credit-reporting bureaus to ensure that any inaccurate information is expunged from their records. (A daunting hurdle, to say the least.)
Surprisingly, the New York State Office of Court of Administration (OCA) -- which oversees the administration and operation of all the courts throughout the state -- is enabling reporting agencies to wreak havoc on tenants' lives, by permitting the sale of this sensitive case-related data to the various bureaus. As Jennifer correctly notes:
OCA is facilitating tenant screening bureaus ... in their pursuit to infringe upon a tenant's access to the very system that was established to protect them.
Since it has come time to end the injustices triggered by the release of this information, we strongly concur with Jennifer's call for legislative action.
For a copy of Jennifer's paper, please use the following link: BLACKLISTING TENANT BLACKLISTS: A CHARGE FOR NEW YORK LEGISLATURES