Lecturer Bios
Timothy J. Koller
Timothy Koller received a bachelor’s degree in political science and business in 1977 from St.
John’s University and a J.D. in 1980 from Pace University School of Law. Appointed an
Assistant District Attorney in Richmond County in 1980, Koller has served there for 32 years as
a misdemeanor prosecutor, Chief of the Career Criminal Unit, Chief of the Investigations
Bureau, Chief of the Supreme Court, and Executive Assistant District Attorney, a position that
he currently holds where he oversees the day-to-day operations of that office.
In addition to being admitted to practice law in New York, Koller is a member of the Bar of the
State of New Jersey, the U. S. District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New
York, and the U.S. Court of Military Appeals. He is a member of the Richmond County Bar
Association, the New York State Bar Association, where he serves as a member of the Criminal
Justice Section Executive Committee, the National District Attorneys’ Association, as well as the
District Attorneys Association of the State of New York (DAASNY), where he serves as a
member of the Best Practices Committee. Koller has lectured at the NYPD Police Academy, the
New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services Basic Prosecutors’ Course, as well as
numerous continuing legal education presentations. He has also served as an Adjunct
Professor in both the graduate and undergraduate programs at St. John’s University.
Hon.Barry Kamins
The Honorable Barry Kamins is Administrative Judge of the Criminal
Court of the City of New York and Administrative Judge for Criminal
Matters, Second Judicial District. He was appointed a Criminal Court
Judge by Mayor Michael Bloomberg on September 11, 2008 and was
elevated to Acting Supreme Court Justice on May 6, 2009. He was elected a
Supreme Court Justice, effective January 1, 2013.
Judge Kamins is the former President of the Association of the Bar of
the City of New York. He co-chairs the Advisory Committee on Criminal
Law and Procedure for the Chief Administrative Judge of New York, as
well as the New York State Permanent Sentencing Commission. The
Commission was established in October 2010 by Chief Judge
Jonathan Lippman and is charged with evaluating sentencing laws and
recommending reforms on sentencing policy, statewide.
Judge Kamins is a member and special advisor to the New York State
Justice Task Force, established in 2009 by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman.
The Task Force is the only judicially created, permanent body in the nation
to address wrongful convictions. Judge Kamins also chaired the New York
State Bar Association’s Task Force on Wrongful Convictions.
Judge Kamins is an Adjunct Professor at Brooklyn Law School and
Fordham Law School where he teaches New York criminal procedure. He
is the author of New York Search and Seizure, a leading treatise on the
Fourth Amendment. Judge Kamins also writes the Criminal Law and
Practice Column for the New York Law Journal.
He is currently a member of the New York Law Journal Board of
Editors, the New York State Bar Association Journal’s Board of Editors and
a member of the Board of Trustees of the Historical Society of the Courts of
New York State. Judge Kamins is past Chairman of the Grievance
Committee of the 2nd and 11th Judicial Districts. In addition, he is a former
member of the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board.
From 1969 to 1973, Judge Kamins served as an Assistant District
Attorney in Kings County where he was Deputy Chief of the Criminal
Court Bureau. Before his appointment to the bench, he was a partner in
Flamhaft Levy Kamins Hirsch & Rendeiro, LLP.
Judge Kamins lectures extensively on criminal law for the Office of
Court Administration and to prosecutors and defense attorneys. Over the
years, he has served on several committees to address issues in the
criminal justice system: the Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense
Services; the Commission on Drugs and the Courts; the Committee to
Promote Public Trust and Confidence in the Legal System; the Committee
on Guidelines for Representation of Indigent Defendants; the New York
State Task Force on Processing Civilian Complaints by the New York City
Criminal Court; and the Assigned Counsel Plan Advisory Committee of
the Appellate Division, Second Department.
He received a B.A. from Columbia College and a J.D. from Rutgers
University Law School.
John Schoeffel
John Schoeffel is an attorney with the Special Litigation Unit of The Legal Aid Society's
Criminal Defense Practice. He authored Legal Aid’s discovery reform proposal for New York
State (2009; updated 2013). He has trained defense attorneys in many parts of New York on
Brady and Discovery issues. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law and
Harvard College.
John P. O’Mara, Jr.
John O’Mara began his career at the Kings County District Attorney’s office as a trial attorney in
the Criminal Court, Supreme Court, Sex Crimes and Homicide Bureaus. He then became Chief
of the Early Case Assessment, Investigations and Homicide Bureaus, and Executive Assistant
District Attorney. Currently he is Deputy District Attorney and Chief of the Convictions Integrity
Unit. Mr. O’Mara is a member of the Best Practices Committee of the District Attorneys
Association of the State of New York (DAASNY). He received a B.A. from George Washington
University and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, cum laude and Associate Editor
of the American Criminal Law Review.
Erin Flynn
Erin Flynn is a New York Criminal Defense attorney. She is a member of NYCLA’s Criminal
Justice and Young Lawyers Sections and chair of this program. She is a volunteer attorney at
CT Pro Bono Network and has previously volunteered at the Prisoners’ Rights Project, The
Legal Aid Society. She received a BA from Boston College and a JD from American University,
Washington College of Law.
Ellen Yaroshefsky
Ellen Yaroshefsky is Clinical Professor of Law and the director of the Jacob Burns Ethics
Center at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.
She teaches a range of ethics courses, organizes symposia, and writes and lectures in the field
of legal ethics. Ms. Yaroshefsky also counsels lawyers and law firms and serves as an expert
witness. She is co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Ethics, Gideon and Professionalism
Committee of the Criminal Justice Section, chair of the Ethics Committee of the National
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and serves on ethics committees of state and local
bar associations. Prior to joining the Cardozo faculty, she was an attorney at the Center for
Constitutional Rights in New York. She began her career as an attorney for the Puyallup Tribe in
Tacoma, Washington and subsequently was a criminal defense lawyer in Seattle, Washington.
She has received a number of awards for litigation and received the New York State Bar
Association award for “Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Criminal Law Education.”
Bruce Green, Esq.
Bruce A. Green is the Louis Stein Professor at Fordham Law School, where he directs the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics. He teaches and writes primarily in the areas of legal ethics and criminal law, and is involved in various bar association activities. Currently, Professor Green is a Council member and past chair of the ABA Criminal Justice Section, serves on the Multistate Professional Bar Examination drafting committee, and is a member and past chair of the NY State Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics.
He previously served on the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, was the Reporter to both the ABA Task Force on Attorney-Client Privilege and the ABA Commission on Multijurisdictional Practice, and co-chaired the ethics committee of the ABA Litigation Section and Criminal Justice Section.
Since joining the Fordham faculty in 1987, Professor Green has engaged in various part-time public service, including as a member of the NYC Conflicts of Interest Board, as a member of the attorney disciplinary committee in Manhattan, as Associate Counsel in the office of the Iran/Contra prosecutor, and as a consultant and special investigator for the NYS Commission on Government Integrity.
Previously, Professor Green was a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, where he served as Chief Appellate Attorney, and he was a judicial law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall and Circuit Judge James L. Oakes.