CURRICULUM VITAE
Lawrence Welsch Kessler
E-Mail: LAWLWK@Office.Hofstra.edu
Employment
Richard M. Cardali Distinguished Professor of Trial Advocacy, Hofstra Law School
(1989 - present)
Professor of Law, Hofstra Law School (1980 - present)
Director, Hofstra Law School's Intensive Program in Trial Advocacy (1981-99).
Full responsibility for administering a program teaching 150 students in 10
eight hour per day sessions with over 100 volunteer faculty members.
Co-Director, Hofstra Law School's Externship Program.
Committee Responsibilities Included: Chair, Admissions and Academic Standard
Committee; Chair, Appointments Committee; Chair, Dean Search
Committee; Chair Self-Study Committee; Chair Curriculum Review
Committee.
Courses Taught: Torts, Evidence, Criminal Procedure, Criminal Law, Trial
Techniques, Conspiracy Seminar, Externship Seminar and the Tutorial
Program.
Associate Professor of Law, Hofstra Law School (1974-80).
Associate Professor of Law, University of Cincinnati College of Law (1971-4).
Trial Attorney, Federal Defender Service for the United States District Court for the Southern
District of New York (1968-71).
Law Clerk for United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, Edward C.
McLean (1967-8).
Publications
Work in Progress: The Death of the Strategic Defense in Legal Malpractice Actions
Lawrence W. Kessler, “The Unchanging Face of Legal Malpractice: How the “Captured” Regulators
of the Bar Protect Attorneys”, 86 Marquette L.Rev.457 (2002).
Lawrence W. Kessler, “Alternative Liability in Litigation Malpractice Actions: Eradicating the Last
Resort of Scoundrels,”37 San Diego Law Review 401 (Spring, 2000). Republished in, 50
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Defense Law Journal_(2001)
Lawrence W. Kessler & Barbara S. Barron, Slovin v. Slovin, Matrimonial Trial Simulation
Case File (National Institute for Trial Advocacy, (2001)
Barbara S. Barron & Lawrence W. Kessler, People v. Southley, Criminal Law and Procedure
Trial Simulation Case File, (National Institute of Trial Advocacy, 2000).
Lawrence W. Kessler, “Evidentiary Foundation in the Criminal Case”, A Primer on Evidence for the
Criminal Practitioner, (Spring,1999), New York State Bar Association
Lawrence W. Kessler, "Trial and Federal Rules of Evidence", Federal Civil Court Practice, 1996,
Reprinted as revised, Basic Federal Civil Practice (Fall, 2001), New York State Bar
Association
Lawrence W. Kessler, "Preliminary Issues of Fact in Conspiracy Cases",5 Hofstra L.Rev. 77 (1976).
Lawrence W. Kessler, "Defense for the Poor", 1 C.B.A. Journal 14 (Winter 1974).
"Indigent Representation: A Report of Systems in Hamilton County", Unpublished Report to the
Cincinnati Bar Association under funding from the Lichter Foundation (175 pages - January
1974).
"Cases and Materials in Environmental Law" - Unpublished materials prepared for the instruction
of Environmental Law (700 pages).
"The Instability of Federal Air Quality Enforcement Provisions", Interact, Nat'l Environmental
Research Center, Cinci., 1974 - p.60.
Lawrence W. Kessler, "The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy - Due Process, The Media and Their Critics",
41 U.Cin.L.Rev. 313 (1972).
"Note: Rights and Rehabilitation in the Juvenile Court", 67 Colum.L.Rev. 281 (1967) and was cited
by the United States Supreme Court, In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1 (1967).
Court-appointed Referee Activities
Court-appointed referee to supervise discovery in the New York State Supreme Court, Nassau
County, action encaptioned: Barry/Dave/Glenn, Inc., d/b/a Sports Connection Health &
Fitness Center v. A.H.Salkowitz, Expressway Interiors, Inc.,Kenneth J. Herman, Inc., Ira
Salk, A.I.A.P.C.,15 Barstow Road Associates, FRP Sheet Metal Contracting Corp., and
Energy Administration Inc., Index Nos: 3911/84; 1991
Court-appointed referee to supervise discovery in the New York State Supreme Court, Nassau
County, action encaptioned: Bamberger Polymers, Inc., v. David Searles, Gina Hayes,
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Richard Meade, Lisa Rosas, Nicholas Dator, Vincent Bevlacqua, Troy Lewis, Patrick
Straub, Steven Saltzman,James Gubera, Sanford Schulssman, Nancy Dales, Goldmark
Plastics Sales Corp., G.P.C. Plastic Sales Corporation, Kenneth Gross, Stanley Goldmark,
George Weir, Trans-Source Polymers, Inc., and "John Doe" Defendants One
Through Thirty, Index Nos: 15879/90; 1991-1992
Trial Advocacy Teaching Activities
Co-Director, National Institute for Trial Advocacy Northeast Regional Intensive Program in
Advocacy, 1981-2004.
Team Leader, Intensive Trial Training Program for the Office of the Attorney General for the State
of New York, Albany (1999,2002), New York City (2001, 2004).
Director, National Institute for Trial Advocacy Northeastern Advanced Advocacy Program - 1989 1999.
Vice-President (1989-90); Chancellor (1988-89), Member of Executive Committee (1989-96).
Theodore Roosevelt Inn of Court.
Co-Director, Trial Training Program for the New York State Department of Health (1988) -- Drafted
special trial advocacy materials for this program.
Team Leader, Widener Law School Trial Advocacy Teacher Training Program, Harrisburg Campus,
December 1992.
Team Leader & Material Preparation for a new Teacher Training Program for the Queens County
District Attorney's Office (September,1992).
Team Leader, New York County Lawyers' Association/National Institute of Trial Advocacy Program
in Direct and Cross Examination, nine courses, 1992 - 1996,1998- 1999.
Teacher, In-House Trial Training Program run by the State Farm Insurance Company, Chicago, Ill.
(April, 1994)
Teacher, National Institute for Trial Advocacy Teacher Training Program at Harvard Law School,
(1986, 1988, 1992,1995,1997-1999).
Evaluator, United States Department of Justice, Advanced Trial Advocacy Program, Washington,
D.C., August, 1994.
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Public Service Activities
Panelist, Basic Federal Civil Procedure, New York State Bar Association,
Presented a paper on, “Trials and Federal Rules of Evidence”, November 1996, 1999 & 2001
Panelist, A Primer on Evidence for the Criminal Practitioner, New York State Bar Association,
Presented a paper on, “Evidentiary Foundation in the Criminal Case”, April 16, 1999.
Panelist, Federal Civil Court Practice Seminar, New York State Bar Association, Presented a paper
on "Trials and the Federal Rules of Evidence", November 1, 1996.
Commentator: Law, Literary Theory, and Critical Legal Theory: A Forum, Law and the Arts
Symposium, October 30, 1996 Hofstra Law School.
Presentation to the Nassau County District Court Judges' Association -- Criminal Procedure Update,
"Judicial Discretion on Fact Finding in Suppression Motions", May, 1996
Panelist in a CLE program on "Legal Ethics and Professionalism, The Pennsylvania Code of Ethics.",
held at the Georgetown Law Center, July, 1994.
Litigation Activities
Representation of defendants in federal criminal prosecutions: I represented 100's of defendants
during my tenure at Hofstra Law School. These cases have permitted me to try almost two
jury trials each year in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New
York, and have caused me to appear regularly in the United States Court of Appeals for the
Second Circuit.
Bar Memberships
New York State, Ohio, United States Circuit Court for the Second Circuit, United States District
Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the Southern District of Ohio.
Education
Columbia Law School
J.D. 1967
Honors: Associate Editor, Columbia Law Review, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar,
Journal Of Law & Social Problems
Columbia College
B.A. 1964
Honors: Kinney Award; Dean's List
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