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Professor Yiran Zhang, Proskauer Assistant Professor of Employment and Labor Law at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) and an Associate Member of the Cornell Law School faculty, has been selected as the recipient of the 2026–2027 Haub Law Emerging Scholar Award in Women, Gender & Law for her article Family Caregiving as Work?, forthcoming in the Minnesota Law Review.

Zhang's article examines the rapidly growing class of publicly paid family caregivers under Medicaid home- and community-based services (HCBS) programs, who are compensated as employees while remaining embedded in interdependent relationships with the family members for whom they care. The article identifies a “work contradiction” at the heart of current law: classifying family caregivers as employees extends workplace rights, qualifies caregivers for social insurance, and satisfies safety-net work requirements, but treating care payments as wages can simultaneously trigger the loss of means-tested benefits, such as Section 8 housing subsidies, or expose caregivers to income garnishment in bankruptcy. Zhang argues that neither work law nor welfare law alone can govern the realities of family caregiving, and calls for deliberately strengthening a hybrid work/welfare category that protects caregivers’ interests as laborers while sustaining the interdependency at the heart of caregiving relationships.

Professor Zhang's research studies the interaction among family, market, and state through the lens of care, other work, and money. Her current project employs a socio-legal approach to examine care subsidy programs in the United States, and she also writes about gender and the boundaries of work law. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the UCLA Law Review, Boston University Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, Stanford Law & Policy Review, Law & Social Inquiry, among others. She holds an SJD and an LLM from Harvard Law School and an LLB from Tsinghua University.

Professor Margot Pollans, Haub Law's Associate Dean for Faculty Development, commented: “I’m thrilled the committee selected Professor Zhang for this award. Her article skillfully bridges family law and work law in order to take seriously the hybrid nature of family caregiving work. Focusing in particular on family caregivers who are eligible for payment through Medicaid, she explores the legal and personal consequences of classifying these payments as wages versus as welfare. Her account of the 'work contradiction' reframes a problem regulators and courts have struggled with for years, and it gives us real analytical tools for thinking about how the law should value care work going forward.”

The Haub Law Emerging Scholar Award in Women, Gender & Law is presented annually in recognition of outstanding legal scholarship related to gender and the law by a full-time law professor with five or fewer years of teaching experience. Papers are selected through a blind review process conducted by a committee of Haub Law faculty with expertise in gender and law. This year’s judges were Emily Gold Waldman, Jessica Miles, and Bridget Crawford. The award recipient will be invited to present her work to the Haub Law community during the 2026–2027 academic year.

Nominations for the 2027–2028 award are due by July 1, 2027, and should be emailed to Professor Bridget Crawford.

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Welcome to Law School!

I have been asked to offer a few words of advice to incoming law students.

The first year of law school is much like a marathon. Preparing for a marathon requires months of training—running consistently, building endurance, and gradually preparing for the 26-mile race. Beginning your training a week before race day is unlikely to produce a successful result. Law school is not different. Rather than cramming before final exams, study consistently throughout the semester. Come to class prepared, engage actively in class discussions, and review the material regularly. Those habits often distinguish successful students.

Two additional suggestions. First, know your audience. Professors frequently test the concepts and principles they emphasize in class, so pay particular attention to those topics. You may also find it worthwhile to look at your professors' scholarship—their articles (and books, if any). When their research overlaps with the course material, it can provide insight into the issues they consider especially important, issues that might appear on their exams.

Second, practice the skill that will be tested. Law school exams are unlike most college exams. The best preparation is to review your professors' prior examinations and regularly practice writing answers under exam conditions. It takes time to develop strong legal analysis and exam-writing skills, and consistent practice is the best way to improve.

Success in law school also depends on taking care of yourself. Regular exercise—even a 20-minute walk several times a week—can improve concentration and reduce stress. Eating well and getting sufficient sleep are equally important. Knowing the law is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition to excel. You also need to be alert and focused, as well as attuned to law exam-taking techniques, to maximize your performance.

Remember that law school is not only challenging—it is also an opportunity.

—Professor Thomas M. McDonnell

Finally, remember that law school is not only challenging—it is also an opportunity. Use your time here, including your summers, to explore different areas of law and different forms of legal practice. Ask questions, seek advice, and take advantage of the many resources available to you. Speak with your professors during and after class, visit during office hours, and reach out by email. Our librarians, Academic Success, the Registrar’s Office, Career Services, IT professionals, faculty assistants, and everyone else on the law school faculty and staff are here to support you on your journey.

I wish you every success as you begin your legal education.

Best,

Professor Thomas M. McDonnell

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For four decades, Dean Angie D’Agostino has been a constant presence at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law: guiding students, shaping campus life, and helping define the Law School community. As she enters a well-deserved new chapter, her legacy is deeply intertwined with the Law School’s history and can be found in the generations of students, alumni, faculty, and staff whose lives she has touched.

A three-time Pace graduate, Dean D’Agostino first arrived on campus in 1982 as an undergraduate student at the College of White Plains, Pace University. “My mother graduated from Good Counsel College, and I received an academic scholarship to attend,” she recalled. Just a few years later, after graduating with her BA from Pace University in 1986, she joined the Law School staff as an Admissions Assistant—beginning a career that would span 40 years and leave a lasting impact on countless students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

Over the years, Dean D’Agostino steadily rose through the ranks, serving in admissions and student affairs leadership before being appointed Dean for Students in 2000. In 2014, she assumed additional responsibilities overseeing campus affairs and residential life, managing everything from wellness initiatives and emergency response planning to scholarship oversight and student support services.

Her extraordinary commitment to the Law School community has been recognized through numerous honors, including the Pace University Outstanding Contributor Award, the President’s Award for Excellence, the University Award for COVID Leadership, and the Student Bar Association Award for Service to Community. She was also honored with the Honorable Richard J. Daronco Lifetime Service Award from the Columbian Lawyers Association of Westchester County—recognition that reflects the profound impact she has had on both the Law School and the broader Westchester legal community.

Yet despite the breadth of her responsibilities and accomplishments, colleagues and students alike consistently point to her humanity as the hallmark of her leadership.

I have tried to lead the Law School not by overseeing anyone or anything, but by taking care of those placed in my path.

—Dean Angie D'Agostino

“I have tried to lead the Law School not by overseeing anyone or anything, but by taking care of those placed in my path,” Dean D’Agostino shared in her retirement announcement to students. “That is what I hope you take from me—celebrate one another, comfort one another when needed, and understand that this journey at the Law School binds us together.”

That philosophy has shaped every aspect of her work. While serving full-time as Assistant Dean for Admissions, Dean D’Agostino enrolled in the Law School’s four-year evening program, earning her JD while balancing the demands of professional and academic life. “I entered the four-year evening program while serving as Assistant Dean to be able to advance my career in higher education,” she explained. “Having experienced the rigors of law school, especially as a part-time student, allowed me to meet students where they were in their journey and help them move forward.” In 1999, she graduated from the Law School with her JD, was admitted to the Second Department, and would ultimately complete an additional Pace degree, graduating in 2017 with her Master of Public Administration.

It was also during her time as a student at the Law School that she met her husband, Rocco Siconolfi (JD ’98). Together, they built a beautiful family while she devoted herself to supporting generations of law students.

Family remains at the center of Dean D’Agostino’s life. Their daughter, Abby, a graduate of Bucknell University, will be graduating from NYU’s master’s program in Communicative Sciences and Disorders in December, and their son, Joseph, who has multiple disabilities, has profoundly shaped the family’s perspective on resilience and purpose. As Dean D’Agostino shared, he “shows us every day that a life filled with meaning doesn’t have to follow a conventional path.”

Her experiences as both student and administrator gave her a unique understanding of the challenges students face and reinforced her belief that “service is grounded in faith, compassion, and humanity.”

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Over the course of her career, Dean D’Agostino has witnessed, and helped shape, significant changes at the Law School. She points to the institution’s growth in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, its renewed commitment to wellness, and the reinstatement of the evening program as especially meaningful milestones. She has also played a central role in developing wellness programming, creating emergency response protocols, increasing scholarship opportunities, and supporting generations of students through moments of achievement, uncertainty, and crisis—including serving as Haub Law’s Campus COVID Lead during the pandemic.

For many students, Dean D’Agostino, affectionately referred to as “Dean D.,” became more than an administrator. She became a mentor, advocate, and trusted source of support. Alumni frequently describe Dean D’Agostino as the person who helped them navigate some of the most difficult moments of law school and life. “If it wasn’t for you, I would not have survived law school,” one alumna shared. “Thank you for your human-centered kindness, strength, character, and ‘seeing’ me.”

Another graduate recalled Dean D’Agostino’s “kindness, steady hand, and compassion,” particularly during the uncertainty and aftermath of the September 11 attacks, which coincided with the beginning of their first semester of law school.

Alumni also credit Dean D’Agostino with helping shape their decision to attend Pace and fostering the sense of community that defined their law school experience. One alumna reflected, “Your dedication, care and leadership are simply the best,” thanking Dean D’Agostino for going “above and beyond for so many students, faculty and alumni for so long.”

“What an incredible run of service you have had at the Law School,” one student reflected. “Your regular engagement was an ongoing point of encouragement. Most of all, your kindness and deep connection to the school, the community, and your family was and will be a constant reminder about what is important.”

Colleagues echo that sentiment. One longtime faculty member described her as “absolutely unmatched in her contributions to the Law School,” adding, “It is so hard to imagine the law school without you—truly no less than a giant’s shoes to be filled.”

Having retired this past summer, Dean D’Agostino reflects on what it means to have spent 40 of the Law School’s 50 years on campus.

“I have been a part of this campus for 40 of the 50 years,” she said. “I have been trusted with student health and the ability to maintain and enhance the campus spaces.”

Still, for Dean D’Agostino, the Law School was never simply a workplace.

“The Law School has never simply been a workplace to me; it has been my home, my community, and my family,” she wrote to students. “I will carry the memories, friendships, and lessons from these 40 years with me always.”