Team

Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Irina Tarsis, Esq. is an art historian and a practicing attorney admitted to the bar in New York State. She earned her Masters Degree in Art History from Harvard University and her J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (NY). Ms. Tarsis launched the Center for Art Law as a blog in 2008/2009. Starting in 2012, Ms. Tarsis began offering internship opportunities to interested law students, invited guest writers to publish research articles with the Center for Art Law website, and organized events to bring lawyers and artists together for meaningful conversations and exchanges of ideas. Under her leadership, the Center was incorporated as a stand-alone non-profit organization in December 2017. Ms. Tarsis has served on the faculty of the Sotheby’s Institute of Art (2021), FIT/CUNY (2021), Teachers College/Columbia University (2020), Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (2012, 2017-2018), and the European Shoah Legacy Institute/Provenance Research Training Workshops in Vilnius, Lithuania (2013), Athens, Greece and Rome, Italy (2014). An active member of multiple bar associations and art law committees in the US and Europe, she contributes to scholarship through regular publications and lectures on various topics, including resale royalty rights, due diligence in provenance research, and fair use issues affecting visual arts. Her publications include a chapter in The Art Law Review on artists’ rights as well as articles in the IFAR Journal, Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal, Cultural Heritage & Arts Review, Library and The Cultural Record, the ArtWatch UK Journal and the Institute of Art & Law’s journal, Art Antiquity and Law.

Atreya Mathur is a Master of Laws Graduate from New York University School of Law where she specialized in Competition, Innovation, and Information Laws, with a focus on copyright, intellectual property, and art law. She is an attorney from India and received her Bachelor of Laws and Business Administration from the School of Law, Christ University. Atreya also co-founded m e r a k i consultancy, a consultancy service focused on legal academia and higher education in law. She has had her papers on copyright, art, international trade, and corporate governance published in several journals including the European Journal of Sustainable Development, the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation, and the New York University Intellectual Property & Entertainment Law Journal Blog. She has also presented her papers and research at the Central European University in Budapest and at the International Conference on Sustainable Development in Rome. 

Tess is an attorney at Morrison Cohen LLP, where she focuses on intellectual property, technology, privacy and data security matters. She represents clients with respect to intellectual property rights and strategic licensing, art acquisitions, cryptocurrency and digital artwork, trademark prosecution, technology transactions, and privacy compliance and data security considerations. Tess studied classical archaeology at Tufts University and participated in archaeological excavations in Italy, where she cultivated a passion for art law. During her time studying art and intellectual property law at Brooklyn Law School, she began volunteering with the Center for Art Law and currently serves as an advisory board member and newsletter editor. 

Elena is an IP attorney and a long time fan of the Center for Art Law. In her private practice, Elena is a transactional attorney who represents clients in hospitality and creative industries. Elena is bilingual (Russian-English) and following graduation fromCardozo School of Law, she has researched and written extensively about the art market and collecting digital art. She has served as a Development Coordinator at the Center for Art Law since 2019 and Director of Development since 2022.

Alisa Grishin returns to the Center as the Social Media Coordinator, following her work as a Spring 2022 Intern and Summer 2022 Development Assistant. A Master’s student of Cultural Studies at KU Leuven in Belgium, she is originally from Salem, Massachusetts, a place that has influenced a specific interest in cultural policy and heritage preservation.

With a background working at a variety of nonprofits in the arts and culture sector – from museums to a cross-cultural NGO – Alisa was originally drawn to art law for its potential to restore (or damage) relationships between interested parties, whether it be artists, museums, states, or the public. In her role, she now helps promote Center for Art Law events to make sure they reach their intended audience within the art law community.

She previously received a B.A. in History with a concentration in Public History and minors in Political Science and Legal Studies from Salem State University.

Paulina Picciano is an MA student in Art History with a concentration in Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies at Rutgers University. Her research interests include cultural heritage in times of conflict and plunder, cultural property trafficking, collecting and provenance research, art law, and intersections with the art market. She has a BA in Classical Studies with a concentration in Ancient Greek from Loyola University New Orleans as well as a postgraduate certificate in art crime and cultural heritage protection from the Association for Research into Crimes against Art. She was a summer 2022 intern with the Center for Art Law and currently assists with publications as the Editing Coordinator. 

James Parker comes to the Center for Art Law as a recent graduate of New York Law School, Class of 2022. While there, his studies focused on Intellectual Property, namely Copyright. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the College of Wooster where he studied Art History and French Language. Before law school, James worked in Museums in Washington DC. As the Assistant Project Curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, he helped manage the Connecting the Gems of the Indian Ocean Project, a partnership between the Museum and the sultanate of Oman which explored the arts of East Africa and their relationship to West and Southeast Asia. Through the project, he co-authored and published a memoir, created a mobile app, and helped to produce two award-winning documentaries. In his spare time, James enjoys playing tennis, cooking, and caring for his many house plants.

Murphy Chen
Legal Intern, Summer

Daniela Baiardi
Int’l Legal Intern, Summer

Alisa Grishin
Undergraduate Intern, Spring

Soleil Hawley
Pre-Law Fellow, Fall

Wenni Ibel
Undergraduate Intern, Fall

Jane Kinsella
Undergraduate Intern, Summer

Blake Konkol
Legal Intern, Summer

Poppy Kemp
Int’l Legal Intern, Summer

Nicholas Michael
Undergraduate Intern, Spring

Anissa Patel
Legal Intern, Spring

Paulina Picciano
Graduate Intern, Summer

Nina Rice
Legal Intern, Summer

Irina Strelkovskaya
Int’l Legal Intern, Summer

Kenza Tahri
Undergraduate Intern, Summer

Hanna Tudor
Undergraduate Intern, Fall

Nikki Fefai
Legal Intern, Fall

Visala Alagappan
Legal Intern, Summer

Rinnah Anosike
Post-graduate Fellow, Summer (Zürich)

Michelle Bailes Perdew
Post-graduate Fellow, Spring

Alexandrea Canzano
Legal Intern, Summer

Kelsey Clifford
Legal Intern, Fall

Claire Darrow
Undergraduate Intern, Summer

Gabrielle Discafani
Graduate Intern, Spring

Adetokunbo S. Fashanu
Legal Intern, Summer

Tyler Heneghan
Legal Intern, Spring

Marissa Hong
Development Intern, Fall

David Jenkins
Legal Intern, Spring

Laura Kaiser
Legal Intern, Spring

Marie Kessel
Graduate Intern, Spring

Minelli Manoukian
Post-graduate Fellow, Summer

Alexis Redsahaw
Undergraduate Intern, Fall

Julianne Schmidt
Graduate Intern, Summer

Olivia Baker
Intern, Summer

Talia Berniker
Intern, Fall

SaBreigha Dixon
Legal intern, Fall

Elena Gurevich
Post-graduate Fellow

Marla Katz
Legal intern, Summer

Amber Lee
Legal intern, Summer

Sara Osinski
Legal intern, Spring

Michelle Bailes Perdew
Post-graduate Fellow, Fall

Isabella Rivera
Graduate Intern, Fall

Sabrina Soffer
Legal intern, Fall

Lucy Siegel
Intern, Summer

Alexa Sussmane
Legal intern, Spring

Kelley Tackett
Intern, Fall

Christopher Zheng
Legal intern, Summer

Sophie Chung
Graduate Intern, Fall

Timothy Chung
Legal intern, Summer

Jacqueline Crispino
Intern, Summer

Mia Guttmann
Legal intern, Spring

Angela Dimery
Post-graduate Fellow

Madhulika Murali
Legal intern, Fall

Jennie Nadel
Graduate Intern, Spring

Cates Saleeby
Intern, Summer

Laurel Salisbury
Legal intern, Summer

Hannah Tager
Intern, Summer-Fall

Yuchen Xie
Graduate Intern, Fall

Ethan Ashley
Intern, Summer

Samantha Bonilla
Intern, Spring

Louise Carron
Legal intern, Spring

Claire Dettelbach
Intern, Summer

Hanna Feldman
Legal intern, Summer

Shlomit Heering
Intern, Summer

Kathryn Moynihan
Legal intern, Spring

Jennie Nadel
Intern, Summer

Olivia Taylor
Intern, Fall

Jason Barnes
Legal intern, Fall

Madeline Conlin
Intern, Summer

Heather DeSerio
Legal intern, Spring

Caroline Keegan
Post-graduate Fellow

Marine Leclinche
Legal intern, Spring

Tyler Maxin
Intern, Spring

Colby Meagle
Legal intern, Summer

Wylie Rechler
Legal intern, Summer

Laura Richardson
Legal intern, Fall

Samantha Smart
Intern, Summer

Alexandra Terrell
Legal intern, Summer

Bianca Acquaviva
Legal intern, Spring

Lindsay Dekter
Intern, Spring

Adelaide Dunn
Post-graduate Fellow

Samantha Elie
Legal intern, Spring

Scotti Hill
Legal intern, Summer

Nina Mesfin
Intern, Summer

Jessica Preis
Legal intern, Spring

Elizabeth Weber
Post-graduate Fellow

Dennis C. Abrams
Legal intern, Spring

Lindsay Dekter
Intern, Fall

Debra Friedmann
Intern, Fall

David Honig
Post-graduate Fellow

Melissa (YoungJae) Koo
Legal intern, Spring

Adir Paner
Legal intern, Fall

Lesley Sotolongo
Legal intern, Spring

Mia Tomijima
Post-graduate Fellow

2014

Jessica Curley
Post-graduate Fellow

2013

Hanoch Sheps
Post-graduate Fellow