Cynthia Godsoe

Biography

Cynthia Godsoe teaches courses in family law, criminal law, children and the law, professional responsibility and public interest lawyering. She is the Director of the Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship and the Marsha Garrison Family Law and Policy Fellowship programs. Her scholarship centers on the regulation of intimate behavior and gender roles through family and criminal law, encompassing topics including the path to marriage equality, the designation of victims and offenders in intimate violence, and the criminalization of non-conforming girls. Her recent work has appeared in the Yale Law Journal Forum, Tulane Law Review, and California Law Review Circuit, among others. The media, including The New York Times and Time Magazine, have consulted Professor Godsoe on juvenile justice and family law issues.

Before joining the Brooklyn Law School faculty, Professor Godsoe represented children and youth in impact litigation and individual cases in juvenile justice, education and child protection matters as an attorney at the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Division and Advocates for Children, among others. Following law school, she clerked for Judge Edward Korman in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and was a Skadden Public Interest Fellow. She was chair of the Juvenile Justice Committee of the New York City Bar from 2008-2011 and continues to participate in pro bono work on a variety of children's rights issues.