WPCNR CAMPUS NEWS. From P.W.J.C. August 19, 2004: The Pace Women’s Justice Center at Pace University Law School has appointed Susan L. Pollet, Esq. as Executive Director. Pollet is an attorney known for her longstanding dedication to family law and women’s issues, and for her extensive community service.
Susan Pollet. Photo, Courtesey, Pace University Law School.
In the last decade the Pace WJC has emerged as a national leader in first response legal services for battered women, having pioneered 24/7 legal services so women can get help when they need it most. Staff attorneys carry beepers so they can be reached around the clock.
The Center also has expanded into training in such areas as sexual assault, gender violence, sex discrimination, stalking and teen dating violence. It provides practical experience for Pace law students and educates high school and middle school students as well as attorneys, judges, law enforcement officials, advocates and medical professionals.
Gender and cyberstalking. Pollet came to Pace after seven years as a court attorney with the Westchester County Family Court, where she negotiated thousands of cases and settled the vast majority of them as well as researching issues and drafting decisions. Before that, during nine years in private practice in Westchester and Putnam Counties, she concentrated on family law including child and adult protective cases.
She recently was appointed to the statewide Family Violence Task Force chaired by two Justices of the Appellate Division, the State’s highest court, Anthony Cardona and Sondra Miller, and to the Committee to Promote Gender Fairness in the Courts of the state’s Ninth Judicial District.
Other public service has involved work on virtually every committee of the Women’s Bar Association of New York State and the Westchester Women’s Bar Association.
A prolific author, Pollet has published more than 25 articles in publications like the New York Law Journal and the Family Law Review. Her recent subjects include mental health courts, the continued exploitation of child labor, in vitro fertilization, and cyberstalking.
Pollet is a graduate of Cornell, where she majored in consumer economics and public policy; She earned her law degree from Emory University School of Law in Atlanta.
For six years she taught law to undergraduates and paralegals as an adjunct professor at Mercy College. Her earlier experience included appointments at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the Long Island Lighting Company and Pitney Bowes Inc.
“Joy.” Pollet’s appointment was announced by Janet Johnson, Pace Law School’s executive director of academic programs. She said: “Susan’s abundant energy, great enthusiasm, leadership experience, wide recognition in the legal community, intellectual curiosity and passion for the work will be of great service to the Center and its clients.”
Pollet said her new job is “a tremendous honor,” adding: “The substantive work that is accomplished, and the talented, creative and energetic staff I am working with will make every day a joy for me. I look forward to continuing the Center’s fine traditions through direct legal service, educational programs and scholarship, and to charting new directions to meet the times.”
In May Pollet received two awards — the New York State Women’s Bar Association Marilyn R. Menge Award for “valuable and significant contributions,” and the Westchester County Bar Institute’s Joseph F. Gagliardi Award for distinguished service.
She has been a director of the Westchester Children’s Association, the League of Women Voters of New Castle, the Chappaqua Children’s Workshop and the Pleasantville Children’s Center, and has served on the nominating committee of Temple Beth El of Chappaqua.
Award-winning center. Part of the Pace University School of Law, the WJC recently was given New York Governor George Pataki’s 2003 Justice, Freedom, and Courage Award to End Domestic Violence.
Each year, the Center represents over 1,500 battered women and their children in family court. Since 1999, law students have contributed over 10,000 hours of free legal assistance, which have helped garner more than $2,000,000 in child support for victims. WJC education programs often are conducted in partnership with the White Plains Department of Public Safety and other Westchester police departments.