"In the shade of an oak": a video tribute from Pace Law School faculty + staff

The following has been transcribed from a collective video contribution by faculty and staff of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, available to watch at the bottom of this webpage.

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Jill G: Hi, Vanessa. I cannot express to you enough how much you have meant to me and my career and my life over these past 25 years. Ever since you took a chance on me in 1999, and allowed me to join Barbara to co-teach the Securities Arbitration Clinic. I have been an incredible admirer of your brilliance, your mentorship, your leadership, and your friendship. I wish you eternal love and peace in your well-deserved retirement and will always be thinking of you every single time I think about a clinic, a law school, a brilliant mind, and a wonderful human being. Good luck.

Carol B: Vanessa, even though it's been 30 years since we first met, I still remember that day very vividly when I came to campus to talk to you about my new role as supervising assistant DA for the prosecution of domestic violence clinic that Pace had at the Manhattan DA's office. And ever since that day, I have learned something from you. Whether it was from our one-on-one conversations or watching you interact with clients and students in the clinic, or from one of your legendary and inspirational emails where you were calling attention to injustices that were happening in various areas to vulnerable people and calling your colleagues to action. You were truly one of the most brilliant, talented, and selfless people I've ever known. And I've been honored to work with you and get to know you as a friend. Thank you for everything you've done.

Barbara S: Hi, Vanessa. You are an inspiration to me and it has been an honor to know you and work with you over the past five and a half years. I've learned so much from you about being a supportive and caring attorney and advocate for your client and for immigrant rights. A quote that I've always loved that was in your office is that one person can make a difference and everyone should try. And I really believe this is true. And I believe that you have made such a big difference in the lives of so many, your students, your clients, your colleagues, and certainly in my life as well. And I'm very grateful to you for many things, and I look forward to serving as a fellow in your name in the Immigration Justice Clinic in the fall and to be able to carry on with your good work. Thinking of you and sending you hugs.

Theresa P: I wanted to just say it's been a lot of years of hard work and I'm so incredibly proud of you and you've helped so many and we've succeeded the bureaucracy yet again with the posting, and “the strong internal candidate has applied.” So well done. And I love you.

Nicholas R: Hi, Vanessa. It's wonderful to be with you through the magic of high technology, or low technology. I wish I could be with you in person. I've missed very much being with you in the last weeks and months. I'm grateful to you for everything you've done for me personally, for Haub Law School, for our students, for our faculty, for our staff. You've really been a wonderful, wonderful mentor and role model for all of us. Your service to society, your service to immigrants, your belief in the goodness of each individual is infectious and wonderful. I'm grateful to you for having agreed to peer review my theory that there should be a principle of law for resilience and promoting resilience in human societies, just as there is in biology. This is an asset we need for climate change implications and impacts. I'm grateful to you for your clarion voice, your critique at faculty meetings when we all gather together. I miss very much hearing your voice from the back bench at the top of the teaching amphitheater. You've always provided insight and pushed us to be better as a collective, as a faculty. And you've done this with tremendous humility and modesty and good grace. It's always been a joy to be with you. Let me share with you the thoughts then of a community that John Dewey provides:
“Within the flickering inconsequential acts of separate selves dwells a sense of the whole which claims and dignifies them. In its presence, we put off mortality and live in the universal. The life of the community in which we live and have our being is the fit symbol of this relationship. The acts in which we express our perception of the ties which bind us to others are its only rights and ceremonies.”
So whether it's a faculty meeting or a tutorial or a meeting with clients and students in your immigration clinic, we are part of this wider community, a community that builds upon itself and draws strength from each member in it. And the legacy you have left is enormous. You are a pillar of strength and have created pillars of strength at Haub Law and in our society which will persist for years and years to come. They have been made part of the fabric of who we are. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry put it this way:
“Bit by bit, nevertheless, it comes over us that we shall never again hear the laughter of our friend. that this one garden is forever locked against us. And at that moment begins our true mourning, though it may not be rending, is yet a little bitter. For nothing, in truth, can replace that companion. Old friends cannot be created out of hand. Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions. It is idle, having planted an acorn in the morning, to expect that afternoon to sit in the shade of an oak.”
Well, Vanessa, you have been that oak for us all. We've enjoyed very much the penumbra, the shadow of your being. And you have planted many, many acorns, and they will grow and sprout and carry on a lineage and produce further acorns. This is our great contribution as teachers, as scholars planting ideas. Hail and farewell. Ave atque vale. Algernon Swinburne had these parting notes:
“Content thee, how soe'er, whose days are done; there lies not any troublous thing before, nor sight nor sound to war against thee more, for whom all winds are quiet as the sun, all waters as the shore.”
I take refuge in nature. We came from nature. We go to nature. We shall be part of nature forever. And as we join again in nature, I want to thank you, Vanessa, and wish you very well.

Richard O: Vanessa was an extraordinary person. She was tremendously compassionate, always fighting for the underdog and doing so with remarkable success, both herself and through her students. There'll never be anybody who can match that for her. We’ll miss her a lot.

Jonathan B: Vanessa, I just want to let you know how much of a pleasure and a privilege it's been to be able to work with you and get to know you over the last seven or eight years. Since I've joined here, you've always been an inspiration and someone I've looked up to as a clinician, as a professor, as a lawyer. really looked up to you in so many different ways. Most of all, just your passion, your commitment, your integrity, and always fighting for your clients, fighting for what's right. With that, you've just been able to help so many people and do so much good. I can only hope to try to emulate the example you set. You’re really one of a kind in what you do. I've also always really looked up to the way you inspire your students. I've talked to so many students that are in your clinic or have graduated and the experience has really changed their lives and they've gone on to do really amazing things. You've really touched so many people in that way and it's pretty incredible. And just on a personal note, any time I've asked you for help or a referral or advice or something, you've just always gone above and beyond and you drop whatever you're doing and are just incredibly generous with your time and try to help, so I truly appreciate that. Really, I just want to let you know how much you're loved by everyone here at JJLS. Thank you, Vanessa.

Lori K: Vanessa is a powerhouse, the voice for so many without a voice. She is a true pioneer leading the way for the underrepresented and underserved looking for a better life. Her lifelong work in the immigration clinic at Pace has touched countless lives and changed them for the better. Her work is nothing short of remarkable. I worked with Vanessa to educate our local community through high school visits and programs and Vanessa is truly amazing. Thank you for all you do.

David C: Hey Vanessa, 20+ years ago you brought me to Pace. You invited me to interview for a visiting position, and you convinced me that it was possible to follow my life's work, pursue my professional dreams at Pace, and that it was possible to do things that really mattered and that Pace would support me as I did them. And that turned out to be true. More on that in a minute. But because I was lucky enough to be brought to Pace by you and to be hired by the faculty, I was able to watch you set an example of someone who not only lived by her principles, but who worked by her principles, who made things happen, made things better for those who most needed it, and you did that throughout your entire career, and you set an example for me. You gave me the opportunity to see how to do things, to make things matter for those who needed it, and to make my life and my work matter. And Vanessa, I can't thank you enough. I can't tell you how much that meant to me.

Smita N: I'm glad to be able to tell you. Vanessa, as I sit down to make this video, I feel overcome with a feeling of gratitude for the privilege of knowing you and learning from you. Your impact on the students, on the Academy, and on the lives of your countless clients is immeasurable. But what I keep reflecting on is the example you set just by being you. Through every email, interaction, and action, you've shown me what it means to stand up for justice and to lead each day with compassion, courage, and unwavering integrity. You're no doubt going to hear from so many people whose lives you've touched, and I wanted to share that I'm one of them and how much I've benefited from the example that you set and that I hope to live up to. Sending so much love your way.