Leonard M. Baynes is Professor of Law and the inaugural Director
of The
Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic
Development at St. John's University School of Law. On
January 25, 2007, at the Vincentian Convocation, St. John’s
University recognized Professor Baynes’s service and
accomplishments with the prestigious President’s Medal.
Professor Baynes received his B.S. from New York University and
J.D. - M.B.A. from Columbia University. At Columbia, Professor
Baynes was awarded the Earl Warren Scholarship, the COGME
Fellowship and was associate editor of the Columbia Human Rights
Law Review. He is also a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, the
International Economic Honors Society. Immediately after law
school, Professor Baynes served as a Law Clerk to Federal District
Court Judge Clifford Scott Green in the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania.
Professor Baynes teaches Business Organizations, Communications
Law, Regulated Industries, Race and the Law and Law and
Perspectives on Justice, a course exclusively offered to second
year staff members of the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic
Development in which the students write a note, blog and op-ed.
Professor Baynes is a nationally recognized communications law
scholar, specializing in race and media issues. While on leave of
absence and sabbatical, from 1997 to 2001, Professor Baynes worked
for then-FCC Chairman William E. Kennard as a Scholar-in-Residence
at the Federal Communications Commission, where he served as a
member of the Opportunity Team and worked on minority access and
ownership issues. In 1999, Professor Baynes lectured in
international continuing legal education programs on
telecommunications issues in Bogotá, Columbia and Panama City,
Panama.
In 2004, Professor Baynes served as an expert witness at the
Federal Communications Commission Federal Advisory Committee for
Diversity in broadcast ownership. Also in 2006, the Minority Media
& Telecommunications Council (“MMTC”) inducted Professor Baynes
into its Hall of Fame. In presenting the award, Former FCC
Commissioner and MMTC Chair Henry Rivera described Professor Baynes
as “a champion for diversity.” Past inductees include former FCC
Chairman William Kennard, Congressman John Conyers, Johnnie Cochran
(posthumously), former Congressman William Gray, and Inner City
Broadcaster founder and former Manhattan Borough President Percy
Sutton.
Also in 2006, Professor Baynes signed a contract with Aspen
Publishers to co-author (with Professors Allen Hammond IV and
Catherine Sandoval) a case book entitled: “Telecommunications Law:
Convergence and Competition.” Professor Baynes has written over
twenty-five law review articles on Race/Racism and the Law,
Corporate Law, Communications Law, or the intersection of the
three.
Professor Baynes has also won numerous other awards. In April
2004, the SBA presented Professor Baynes with an award for his
service to the law school community. In September 2004, Dean Mary
Daly presented Professor Baynes with an award for his teaching of
his Race and the Law course. In October 2004, Professor Baynes was
presented The Extraordinary Service Award for his teaching,
scholarship, and service by the Second National People of Color
Conference. In 2005 and 2006, Professor Baynes received an award
from the John Jay College of Criminal Law Puerto Rican/Latin
American Studies Department for his involvement in the creation of
The Ronald H. Brown Summer Prep Program for College Students. In
fact, in a memo to the law school community, Dean Daly cited
Professor Baynes as the “driving force” for the creation of the
Summer Prep Program. In 2010, Professor Baynes also was awarded the
Diversity Trailblazer Award by the New York Bar Association, and in
2011, Professor Baynes accepted the American Bar Association
Alexander Award on behalf of the Ronald H. Brown Law School Prep
Program for College Students, which was the first Law School-based
pipeline program to win this prestigious award.
Professor Baynes is also very active in academic circles and is
especially concerned about diversity issues. He is the past Chair
of the AALS Minority Law Section, and served as Chair of the
Planning Committee for the AALS Workshop on Racial Justice in A New
Millennium; From Brown to Grutter: Methods to Achieve
Non-Discrimination and Comparable Racial Equality. As Chair of the
AALS standing Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Minority
Faculty, Professor Baynes co-authored the committee commentary to a
report entitled “The Racial Gap in the Promotion to Tenure of Law
Professors.” The committee commentary and AALS report were the
first of their kind commissioned by the AALS and showed a clear
disparity in tenure rates between professors of color and white
professors.
On January 18, 2007, Professor Baynes testified at a forum
entitled “A Public Forum: A Lasting Blueprint for Judicial
Diversity. The forum was sponsored by then-New York State Senate
Minority Leader Malcolm Smith. In his testimony, Professor Baynes
examined the underrepresentation of people of color in the New York
State judiciary and in New York State law schools.
Professor Baynes is one of the founding members of Northeastern
People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference. This Conference
provides opportunities for junior faculty to present
works-in-progress in which they receive feedback in safe
environments. These annual conferences have been held at the law
schools throughout the Northeast and the Caribbean.
Lastly, Professor Baynes is admitted to practice in both New
York State and Massachusetts.