David Alexander Paterson is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer, who resigned, and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first legally blind person to be sworn in as governor of a U.S. state, and the first African-American governor of New York.

The Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University is a law school located in Hempstead, New York, on Long Island, affiliated with Hofstra University. Founded in 1970 and accredited by the ABA in 1971, the school offers a JD, a joint JD/MBA degree, and LL.M degrees in American law and family law. It also offers online LL.M and MA degrees in Health Law & Policy, an online LL.M in American Law, and an online MA in American Legal Studies. The Law School is on the southern portion of the 244-acre (0.99 km2) Hofstra University campus. The school was renamed to the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University in September 2011.