About Me

At A Glance

Name: Jamel Oeser-Sweat

Hometown: New York City

What does he do?

Attorney (Oeser-Sweat, P.C.)
- Represents individuals and companies
- Practice areas include:
  - Business/Corporate (General Counsel to multiple companies)
  - Intellectual Property (Patents Copyrights, Trademarks)
  - Criminal Law
  - Matrimonial Law
  - Personal Injury Law
  - Civil Rights & Related
Entrepreneur
Author
- DNA: Forensic & Legal Applications
- Birds, Bees, Babies
Owner of several Technology & Information Sites including:
Food & Lifestyle Blogger
Board of Directors – Supportive Children’s Advocacy Network
Outdoorsman/Camper

Biography

Childhood:

Jamel was born in Harlem, New York. His father was African American (from Holly Hill, South Carolina) and his mother is Italian, Puerto Rican, German and Irish. He did not learn of his mother’s true racial composition until he was 25 years old. He went to elementary school in the South Bronx, where he lived during the height of New York’s crack epidemic. His family was very poor and he rarely attended school. Because of this, a social worker attempted to take he and his two younger brothers into custody. his mother pushed the woman out of the apartment and he and his family escaped down a fire escape and left everything behind. The family became homeless and lived in shelters and welfare hotels as his they evaded capture by the police. While homeless, he joined Boy Scout Troop 103, which consisted at the time of only homeless kids from the Prince George Welfare Hotel. Years later, despite homelessness, group homes, truancy and a host of other challenges, he became an Eagle Scout and National Young American Award Winner. During this period, his mother fought with mental illness and as a result, he was eventually placed into a group home. Despite where he found himself at different points in childhood, he knew that those places were just situational, and kept trying to make things happen.

Education:

High School:

Jamel attended Martin Luther King High School in New York City. He conducted research in microbiology under the supervision of Dr. Edward J. Bottone. His research focused on Loofah Sponges and other exfoliative devices as reservoirs and vehicles in the transmission of potentially pathogenic bacterial species to the human skin. He also focused on viable but nonculturable bacterial species that inhabited sponges. He was a Westinghouse Science Talent Search (now Regeneron) Finalist and 10th Place winner. His accomplishments led to a front page article about him in the New York Times on Superbowl Sunday as well as countless other articles and television segments, including interviews with Tom Brokaw and Jane Pauley. A reader’s digest article about his life has been translated into over 70 languages over the course of two decades.

In January, The New York Times ran a front-page article on Mr. Oeser-Sweat, and since then he has received both movie and book offers, and even personal attention from the President of the United States.

When Vice President Gore met with the contest finalists last Friday, President Clinton stopped in, too. “He was talking to me and he said, ‘I read the Times article. Hang in there!’

New York Times – March 15, 1994
www.newyorktimes.com

College:

Jamel attended New York University on a full scholarship, where he studied Biology, Politics & Education. He was premed and prelaw. He was both a Samuel F.B. Morse Scholar and a University Scholar. He was the Sophomore Class Representative in the College of Art and Science and was an NAACP-NASA Superstar of Science. He continued his research while at NYU, splitting his time between Mount Sinai and his own lab at NYU, an empty, unused laboratory on campus which he was given permission to use by then head of the Biology Department and Dean of the faculty Philip Furmanski.

After his mother was sexually assaulted while he was at NYU, Jamel decided not to go to medical school and to write a book on DNA and litigation. After seeking advice from NYU President John Sexton, who was the Dean of NYU Law and his professor as a freshman, he applied to law school.

Law School:

Jamel attended St. John’s University School of Law. He did all sorts of things and accomplished a bunch. None of it is worth discussing. There is nothing cool about law school. However, St. John’s Law provided him with a great education.

Professional

Microbiology:

The work of Jamel and his colleagues has led to publications in several peer-reviewed journals and has been cited in countless articles and references. If you know that you must take special steps to clean a washcloth, loofah sponge or pumice stone, it is most likely because of the work that they did.

Law:

St. John’s Law Magazine paid tribute to Jamel’s work in a recent issue.

Business:

Books:

DNA: Forensic & Legal Applications