In Appreciation
Feerick Center Welcomes New Senior Staff
Lauren B. Kanfer joined the Feerick Center
Karuna B. Patel joined the Feerick Center as Deputy Director in September of 2019. Before joining the
We express our deepest gratitude to FordhamUniversity, Fordham Law School and the center’s donors for their generous and unwavering support of our work. We especially thank Father Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of FordhamUniversity, and Dean Matthew Diller of Fordham Law School for their leadership in championing social justice and the center’s work. As this Report demonstrates, it is our collaborations with community and legal services organizations, volunteers, and partners in government agencies and the courts that shape our work and define its impact. We are humbled that the Feerick Center will celebrate its fifteenth anniversary next year and we are privileged to continue our work to advance social justice.
as Associate Director in October of 2019. Prior to that, Lauren served as counsel to the New York State Permanent Commission on Access to Justice following its 2010 creation by former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman. In this role, Lauren worked to implement the Permanent Commission’s multi- faceted agenda to enhance access to justice to all New Yorkers facing challenges to essentials of life matters. Lauren‘s work focused on promoting access-to-justice collaborations among New York’s 15 law schools. Lauren also served as the Executive Director of the New York State Institute on Professionalism in the Law, supporting efforts to advance discourse on professionalism in practice and law school education. Lauren began her legal career in the New York State court system as a law assistant in Supreme Court, New York County. Lauren served as a law clerk to Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick at the New York Court of Appeals. After a hiatus, Lauren returned to serve as a law clerk to then Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman. Following Judge Lippman’s elevation to Chief Judge, Lauren was appointed as counsel to the Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York, which became the Permanent Commission on Access to Justice. Lauren earned her J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law and her B.A. fromMcGill University.
Law School, Karuna spent over five years at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), most recently as a managing counsel in the Office of Regulations. She worked on a range of administrative law and consumer protection issues including mandatory arbitration in consumer contracts and consumer protections for remittances and emerging payments services. She previously worked at the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs leading a division focused on enforcing the City’s consumer protection laws and on educating consumers, and at the Center for Responsible Lending, where she represented consumers in all aspects of predatory lending impact litigation. Karuna began her legal career at Mobilization for Justice (formerly MFY Legal Services, Inc.), a legal services organization where she started the Consumer Rights Project. Karuna is a Queens native and received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics fromColumbia University and her law degree fromNew York University School of Law. Karuna clerked for the Honorable John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and the HonorableTheodore McKee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for theThird Circuit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
John D. Feerick Senior Counsel and Founder
Dora Galacatos Executive Director
Biennial Report 2018–2020 | 3
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