[Podcast to be posted soon.]

Mr. Michael Shapiro, a long-time Scarsdale resident and noted criminal defense lawyer. Michael has as an abiding interest in civil liberties, we will discuss the relevance of the “Establishment Clause,” and whether faith-based initiatives threaten the traditional constitutional “wall” envisioned by Thomas Jefferson.  Mr. Shapiro, who was raised in the Bronx, and was educated at the City College of New York, where he received a Bachelor of Arts cum laude, later earned his JD from New York University. He is currently a faculty member of the Cardozo Law School’s Intensive Advocacy Program and has been a frequent guest panelist at the Harvard Law School. Michael started his legal career as a prosecutor, serving as a special assistant attorney general in the then newly established NY State Office of the Special Prosecutor for Nursing Homes, Health and Social services. He is now a partner with the prestigious Wall Street, New York law firm, Carter, Ledyard & Milburn, which was established in 1854. As a testament to his career, and reflective of his interested in individual liberty, he was just elected to New York’s most exclusive criminal defense group, the NY Council of Defense Lawyers, an elite organization that promotes the protection of individual rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution through education and advocacy.