On May 25, the Board of Trustees of the John Jay College Foundation elected two new members: Muhammad Faridi and Brendan R. McGuire.

Muhammad Faridi ’04, is currently a partner at the law firm Patterson Belknap. Faridi’s journey began when he was seven years old and came to the U.S. from Pakistan. Faridi understood that in order to succeed in his new country he would need to master the English language. This determination led him at the age of 18, to take a job as a cab driver so that he could listen to CDs to improve his English. Faridi says that a life changing moment was when he gave a ride to a former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, who through the course of the cab ride inspired him to become a lawyer. Shortly after, he enrolled at John Jay, graduating in 2004, and later graduated from CUNY School of Law in 2007. He went on to become the recipient of the New York State Bar Association’s 2014 Outstanding Young Lawyer Award for having rendered outstanding service to both the community and the legal profession. Faridi has also received The Legal Aid Society’s Pro Bono Publico Award for multiple years, MFY Legal Services, Inc.’s Partner in Justice Award, the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project’s TD Bank Champion of Justice Award, and has been recognized for multiple years as a Rising Star in the New York-Metro edition of Super Lawyers. From 2007 to 2008, Faridi served as a Law Clerk to the Hon. Jack B. Weinstein of the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York. At John Jay’s Law Day on March 24, Faridi talked about his experience as a young immigrant and the struggle to stay true to oneself: “I loved working at my firm and representing my corporate clients, but I also felt an obligation to the community that I came from… So how do I measure my success as a lawyer and as a human being? I measure it in terms of the people I have helped.”

Brendan R. McGuire is a lawyer at the firm WilmerHale, where he advises clients on issues related to white-collar enforcement, as well as money laundering, national security, cybersecurity and privacy, and export controls and economic sanctions. Said McGuire, “I am delighted to be a part of such a distinguished group that serves such a worthy institution.  I very much look forward to it.”  An accomplished trial lawyer and litigator, he joined the firm after serving for more than 10 years in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.  During his tenure, McGuire was appointed to lead the two most sensitive units within the Southern District's Criminal Division. First, he served as Chief of the Public Corruption Unit for three years, and then as Chief of the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. McGuire handled some of the most significant terrorism cases within the Department of Justice, including the 2009 kidnapping of Captain Richard Phillips by Somali pirates on the Indian Ocean, the 2010 prosecution of Faisal Shahzad for the attempted bombing of Times Square, and the 2011 prosecution of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for conspiring to kill Americans.  He also clerked for the Honorable Peter K. Leisure of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. McGuire graduated from Williams College in 1998 and earned his law degree at New York University School of Law in 2002.