John Feerick

John D. Feerick is a law professor at Fordham University School of Law in New York City. He served as the school’s eighth dean from 1982-2002. From 2002-2004, he was the Leonard F. Manning Professor of Law at Fordham, and in 2004 was named to the Sidney C. Norris Chair of Law in Public Service. In 1982, following a 21-year legal career at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, he became dean of Fordham Law. During his 20-year tenure, he built the law school’s ethics and dispute resolution curriculum, public service and clinical programs, as well as various centers and institutes. His dedication to the Jesuit philosophy of service to others led to the establishment of nationally recognized programs in legal ethics, public interest law, clinical legal education, and international human rights. Widely respected for his mediation and arbitration skills, Feerick served as the inaugural chair of the ethics committee of the Dispute Resolution Section of the American Bar Association. He also chaired a joint committee of legal, arbitration, and conflict resolution professionals that generated national standards for mediation, and he adjudicated several high-profile labor cases, including the 1994 transit negotiations in New York and the 1999 National Basketball Association lockout. Feerick has also held a number of public positions. He served as a member of the New York State Law Revision Commission and the New York State Committee to Promote Public Trust and Confidence in the Legal System, and he was chair of the state’s Commission on Public Integrity. In 2006, Fordham University established the Feerick Center for Social Justice at Fordham Law School. The center’s mission reflects that of its founding director: to protect the underprivileged from a wide array of social ills, while working to bolster workers’ rights and access to legal services.