During the height of the pandemic, many small businesses struggled to pivot—making tough decisions that would ultimately impact whether their companies would sink or swim. For companies working with Pace, it was more smooth sailing than white water rapids.

NAME GLO, a women-owned and Lower East Side-based custom neon light studio, found itself in an interesting predicament during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. When COVID-19 guidelines regarding non-essential businesses were implemented, NAME GLO had to temporarily close its physical storefront and studio space, forcing the business to transition to operating exclusively online with limited operational capacity. To say the least, the future was uncertain.

Enter Pace’s Small Business Development Center. Funded in part by the US Small Business Administration and the State of New York, the Pace SBDC combines the resources of Pace University, the private sector, and local/state/city government to enable small businesses to reach their full potential.

Through working with Pace’s SBDC, NAME GLO was able to do just that—namely, by turning the immense challenges of the pandemic into an opportunity.

When NAME GLO hooked up with Pace’s SBDC, they were not only able to get guidance on how to apply for financial assistance to support their business, but they were able to work with Pace’s up and coming business students. Two undergraduate consumer behavior classes, taught by Lubin Professor Mary Long, helped NAME GLO research changes in buyer behavior during the pandemic and in turn provide valuable insights and recommendations for business growth.

Ritvi Shah ’22, a Global Marketing Management and Finance major, was one such student that took up the challenge of finding dynamic ways for NAME GLO to adapt to running a business during a pandemic. She explains, “While working for NAME GLO, my team and I had our own roles according to our talents. My role was looking at social platforms the company was on and analyzing what could be improved on. I dug up information that even the company didn’t realize was available and presented it to NAME GLO.”

“Working on this project with a real business in NYC was a great experience. I was able to learn about the different nuances that come with running a business, and the cutthroat competition that exists in NYC.”

The opportunity for students to work directly with a real business was a major value add, not just in terms of hard skills and research, but the soft skills that only experience can really give. According to Shah, “Working on this project with a real business in NYC was a great experience. I was able to learn about the different nuances that come with running a business, and the cutthroat competition that exists in NYC.”

For Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications student Luanne Dinh ’22, one of the most important things she learned was empathy and listening to her clients’ needs to help develop a strategy.

“NAME GLO was very adamant about their craftsmanship of neon lighting, even if that meant their prices were higher than their competitors,” explains Dinh. “Instead of suggesting to offer major discounts or lower their prices, we instead opted for an awareness campaign that would inform consumers why NAME GLO’s neon lights are more expensive—better quality, professionally installed. Essentially, turning their price into a benefit.”

With assistance from Pace SBDC Business Advisor Sandra Cely, NAME GLO was able to secure more than $200,000 in financial support through the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, helping retain the venture's eight jobs.

For the students who worked on the project, the rewards of working with the SBDC and NAME GLO helped create new opportunities and possibilities for their own futures.

“Working with NAME GLO was a great way to challenge myself. Rather than simply reiterating what I was learning in class onto a piece of paper, I was able to apply what I had learned,” says Shah. “I was able to see how extensive my academic and professional capabilities were when I put in the hard work. I found ways to research other than the conventional Google search and clicking on the first thing that I popped up. Instead, I dug deeper to find problems that lay within the organizational structure that caused core problems.”

In the future, Dinh, who currently freelances as a brand designer for an Aruban coffee shop, hopes to turn her work into a full-fledged design company.

“In the future, I would definitely consult Pace SBDC for starting my own business,” she says. “Every student should get a chance to work with a real client, it is extremely rewarding to see your strategies create positive changes in a real business.”

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The Pace BLSA Mock Trial team attended the 54th Northeastern Black Law Students Association Convention and placed first in the 2022 Constance Baker Motley Mock Trial Competition. In four back-to-back rounds, the Mock Trial team edged out multiple law schools in the Northeast region. This year’s team included students Laura Felix, Nechelle Nicholas, Juan Rodriguez, and Naja Williams. Professor Betty Lewis coached the team. For months, a shadow team prepped alongside the competition team, consisting of students Katherine Boyd, Idalis Davis, Derek Segars, Aaliyah Smith.

Competitor Nechelle Nichols stated, “We have been preparing vigorously for the past four months and honed our trial skills. Every single team member stepped up to the plate, and that is what ultimately allowed us to think quickly on our feet, sharpen our acting skills, make multiple changes to our strategy, and deliver passionate arguments. Placing first in the Northeastern region in a competition named after a trailblazer who we each aspire to be like, and moreover, being a part of a convention which brought Black law students together was a true honor.”

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Instituted in 1989, the Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition (NELMCC) is one of the nation’s largest interschool moot court competitions. Under pre-pandemic conditions, NELMCC is known for hosting as many as 350 law students and attorney judges on the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University’s Westchester campus. Despite the pandemic, last year, Haub Law did not skip a beat and hosted the first ever all virtual NELMCC – allowing students to continue to participate in the highly competitive competition. This year, still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Competition was held virtually once again.

NELMCC has established a national standard of excellence in moot court competitions. Each year the “Problem” presented to the teams focuses on timely issues of national importance to the practice of environmental law. This year, Professor Karl S. Coplan challenged both teams and judges alike with a unique, timely, and complex “Problem” focused on the Clean Water Act. Assisting in editing this year’s “Problem” and writing the Bench Memo, was Haub Law Environmental Fellow, Katie G. Horner. Chaired by a Haub Law student each year, this year, Haub Law 2L Christen T. Maccone had the honor and responsibility. Prior to the Competition, competitors research and analyze the issues presented in the environmental problem before writing persuasive arguments for one party (either the government, a public interest group, or a member of the regulated industry) advocating how the issues should be resolved. Competitors are then required to argue the issues orally for all three parties, rounding out the rigorous academic experience.

Associate Director of Environmental Law Programs at Haub Law, Achinthi Vithanage, noted, “Students participated from around the country, from Hawaii to Florida, and so did judges, with some even joining us internationally. I am pleased to say that 51 law schools competed and over 300 students, coaches, and judges participated this year. Many of our judges included Haub Law alumni who have been returning for over 20 years as volunteers.”

The preliminary, quarterfinal, and semifinal rounds were held virtually on Zoom on Wednesday, February 23, Thursday, February 24, and Friday, February 25. The final round took place on Saturday, February 26 and was presided by three judges: Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, Baker Botts LLP, Judge Mary Kay Lynch, EPA Environmental Appeals Board, and Professor James R. May, Visiting Professor of Law, Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University (2022).

Finalist teams included, Duke University School of Law (Maia Foster, Zoe Gabrielson, and Mikaela Johnson), Lewis & Clark Law School (Haley Nicholson, Kassie Kometani, and Matthew Campa), and Stetson University College of Law (Lauren Beames, Emily Witthoeft, and Mia Hartley). After the final round, the esteemed judges gave excellent critique and feedback to all teams. Ultimately, taking first place for the 2022 Competition as the winning team was Lewis & Clark Law School.

The Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition is grateful to the organizations and people whose generous financial support help make the event possible. This year, we were pleased to have the following major supporters: The American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER), Baker Botts LLP, and Riker Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Perretti, LLP.

Watch 2022 NELMCC competition

Professor Shelby Green is the Susan Taxin Baer ’85 Faculty Scholar at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. She joined Haub Law in 1991 and teaches Property, Real Estate Transactions and Finance, Advanced Real Property, Historic Preservation, and Housing Development and Discrimination. In this edition of Faculty Focus, she talks about the many facets of property law and gives advice on staying positive in a polarized world.

Can you tell me about your recent work?

I’m preparing for a few symposia. I’m preparing for the 2022 Arkansas Law Review Symposium – Construction Law In The Legal Academy on March 12. I’ll be on the Design Liability: Professional Responsibility, Safety, and Social Justice panel. On that panel, I will talk about the effect of new construction inventions on the cost and supply of housing construction.

I’m also preparing for the Seton Hall Law Review Symposium – American Cities Struggling with Economic Justice Reform on February 25. I’ll be on the Reinventing Cities to Create Opportunities for Affordable Housing panel. I plan to talk about rethinking zoning, adaptive rezoning to promote greater affordability and availability of housing. Adaptive rezoning means moving away from Euclidean zoning. Euclidean zoning makes sense on the fringe, keeping factories away from where people live, but it doesn't make sense to keep a school out of a place where people live. Adaptive rezoning means allowing for infill, all kinds of housing – like tiny houses, adaptive reuse, and changing height, space, and parking requirements. And it means being adaptive towards creative design with issues like climate change. For example, how we orientate houses.

I am also the Editor of Keeping Current Property column in Probate & Property Magazine. It’s a bi-monthly magazine and the column summarizes cases of note from all across the country, new legislation, and what academics in the field are writing about. I am also working on an article with Bailey Andree, a 2L and research assistant to Professor Emeritus John Nolon and a Land Use Law Center Scholar, on state control of land use policy, which we hope will be published by the magazine.

I am the Chair for the Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section of the American Bar Association’s Legal Education Group, which among other things offers the “Professors’ Corner”, a monthly webinar on current topics. The hour long discussions recently covered a book called “Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives” that talks about how we may think we own something, but there are all kinds of limitations. For example, you see people lined up for the Supreme Court and they look like regular people, who want to see the actions, be there for the discussions, but they’re just paid to stand there and are replaced by people in business suits who had them hold the spots. Do those people own the line space? Next month we’ll talk about purpose trusts, which are just trusts set up for a particular purpose, and how to draft them so they’re properly carried out. We’ll be discussing monuments in April. The statue of Teddy Roosevelt was just removed from the Museum of Natural History; next to the image of Roosevelt, stood one of an Indigenous person and a shirtless black man, implying subservience from both. What do these silent monuments say in these public spaces?

​​I’m also co-counsel at the Land Use Law Center with Professor John Nolon. We’re working on a project to help small commercial tenants navigate the effects of the pandemic. The eviction moratorium applied to them as well, but many had to close. We’ve been working on a recovery lease for small businesses that keeps tenants in and helps the landlords avoid vacancy.

How do you find teaching in today’s climate?

Teaching is always challenging, all the issues happening that you have to think through. The polarized nature of society is disturbing. People are too mean and not reticent to express that meanness. I have hope in your generation, though - I hope you will be calm, gentle, and caring because my generation certainly hasn’t always been. I try to engage in discussion in class that isn’t too political, but it’s hard because everything is polarized. I see a lot of students that care about society and the world, despite the media being so overwhelming with negativity.

Teaching is always challenging, all the issues happening that you have to think through. The polarized nature of society is disturbing. People are too mean and not reticent to express that meanness. I have hope in your generation, though - I hope you will be calm, gentle, and caring because my generation certainly hasn’t always been.

How did you become interested in law?

I’m not sure, in undergrad I studied sociology. There are a lot of political and social issues raised and pondered. Research is fundamental, but law allows you to be out there making direct and immediate impact. I think back to the Brown v. Board of Education strategy, where they had sociologists talking about the impact of segregation on the intellectual development of young minds. It was really interesting. I don’t discount sociology at all, but lawyers make so much impact. They get the courts to say those things are wrong.

What keeps you interested in property law?

Property is the world. It involves everything – where we can go, housing, assets, including intangible assets, access to water. What happens when the Colorado river drops another 10ft? Even criminal law has origins in property; trespass was a crime. . All about jockeying for control, it interests me.

A current issue that interests me is allocating the burden of tenants that can’t be evicted because they can’t pay their rent. Mega landlords can’t evict a handful temporarily, and although the landlords probably can't ever collect the rent, it's a risk they may have to take to enter the business. However, most landlords are small and need food for their families. I think the government should provide financial assistance to tenants to pay, which has happened.

With the 2019 tenant landlord law, they were worried about small landlords going into bankruptcy and the big ones waiting to take those buildings. Buildings were already under rent control, so the law just added more procedural protections, rights to more notice prior to eviction proceedings and limited the use of self-help – which I think is wise. Tenants can also seek stay against eviction in case of hardship.

What advice do you have for students interested in real estate and property law?

Just to keep being curious, keep reading and thinking about the larger issues and what it means for society – like ensuring housing is available and accessible, rethinking what homeowners and property owners can do, how we further limit rights, as we have done from the beginning of time, how governments need to think about what communities should look like.

Pay attention to stories. I heard one about a tenant that toured an apartment and the broker asked him if he noticed anything in the bathroom missing. He said no, but there was no toilet, you had to use a shared one down the hall. Does that meet the building code? Who alerts the inspectors? Someone rented it eventually. Pay attention to stories like this.

At Haub Law, we have a path to practice in Real Estate and Land Use. There’s an externship as well. Students are placed in firms, title companies, etc. where they get guidance and experience. The Land Use Law Center is also a great resource and place to gain experience.

Can you tell me about a non-academic interest or hobby you have?

I love hiking. My husband and I go to Colorado often in the summer. Connecticut has nice places as well. Recently, we braved the frigid temperatures and set out on an icy trail. My husband wore cleats, I only had normal hiking shoes on, so at a certain point we had to turn around. We want to go to Glastonbury State Forest next. Sometimes I play the piano. I keep buying leisure books, but don’t have time to read them, so they keep piling up!

Gabriella Mickel, a 2023 JD Candidate at Haub Law, authored this faculty Q&A. Gabriella is a Land Use & Haub Scholar, the President of the Environmental Law Society, a Junior Associate on Pace Environmental Law Review, and on the E-Board for NLG, Lambda, and ACS. Outside of school, she owns three sports supplement stores and is the co-editor of the Law Student Corner section of the NYSBA EELS Journal.