Brian Farkas ’10

Overview

• BA, History, Political Science, Vassar College
• JD, Litigation, Cardozo School of Law
• MPA, Public Policy and Nonprofit Management, New York University

Brian Farkas (he/him) is a Partner at ArentFox Schiff LLP, a national law firm, where he focuses his practice on complex litigation. He represents clients in state and federal court, as well as in arbitration and mediation proceedings. Before joining ArentFox, he served as a law clerk to a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and as an associate at a midsize litigation firm. In 2024, he was named a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers for Business Litigation. Outside of his law practice, Brian is passionate about education. He is an adjunct professor at Cardozo School of Law, where he teaches courses on arbitration, mediation, and dispute resolution. Multiple graduating classes have voted him “Best Adjunct Professor,” an award he received most recently in 2024. He is also an adjunct professor at the City University of New York (CUNY), where he teaches undergraduate courses on American law, negotiation, and conflict resolution. Brian is a member of the New York City Bar Association, where he serves on the Board of Directors. For the City Bar, he chairs the New Lawyer Institute, which plans career development programming and mentoring to law students and recent graduates. As a student at Vassar, Brian served as Editor-in-Chief of the Miscellany News and Vice President of the student government. As an alum, he has served as President of the Vassar Club of New York, and he now serves on the College’s Board of Trustees.

Advice to Students:

Find ways to serve Vassar every single day. That might involve picking up a piece of trash from the Quad; wearing your burgundy Vassar t-shirt in the airport to show your pride; emailing your high school to offer to speak with potential applicants; or making a modest gift to the Vassar Fund in honor of your favorite professor. The point is that each and every day, for the rest of your life, you should do something to advance Vassar. Why? Because Vassar is central to our identities, yours and mine. Our success is inextricably tied to Vassar’s success. When the College flourishes, so do its alums. And like any community, you will get from it what you give to it. If you tend to it, serve it, and advance its interests, Vassar will repay you a thousand times over—professionally, personally, and spiritually.