Staff

Stephen P. Tuttle
General Counsel and Secretary of the College

Stephen was appointed to the position as the College’s chief legal officer and as a member of the president’s cabinet in the fall of 2011. Before joining FIT, Stephen was senior vice president and chief legal officer for operations at Forest City Ratner Companies, the regional subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises, a publicly traded real estate development company. His responsibilities included management of a team of professionals that provided legal support on all matters related to the ownership and operation of more than thirty commercial properties in the New York metropolitan area inclusive of office buildings, shopping centers, residential developments, and hotels. In addition to real estate matters, his responsibilities extended to providing counsel on a broad range of general corporate matters and initiatives. He also served as the company’s senior legal counsel providing services to several subsidiary service companies and support departments, including information technology and human resources. Stephen’s career also includes more than 12 years of corporate and investment related in-house services to the New York Life Insurance Company. Prior to assuming in-house positions, Stephen was an Associate in the Banking and Finance practice group of Dreyer and Traub. He earned his Juris Doctorate degree from Syracuse University College of Law and his Bachelor of Arts from Franklin and Marshall College.

Tejuana A. Roberts
Assistant General Counsel

Tejuana joined our staff in the fall of 2015. Immediately prior to joining FIT, Tejuana completed an internship at Princeton University, serving as Assistant University Counsel. Her role was essentially that of a generalist, addressing issues for a variety of clients across the university ranging from the drafting and negotiation of contracts to matters involving international programs, to compliance considerations such as Dodd-Frank, Title IX, Title VII, HIPPA, ADA, FERPA, and EEOC policies. Tejuana also provided legal support to Princeton’s museum and its endowment organization. Prior to Princeton, Tejuana was a corporate associate with the New York City office of the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, LLP, where she worked on a variety of matters including mergers, acquisitions, and project financings. Tejuana received her Juris Doctorate from Cornell Law School, where she was an editor on the Cornell Law Review, and received her undergraduate degree from Binghamton University, magna cum laude.

Stephen R. Peoples
Office Manager / Paralegal

Stephen Peoples joined the OGC in the fall of 2013. Prior to joining FIT, Stephen worked as a paralegal and legal support professional for several nationally recognized top tier law firms including, among others, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, Sullivan & Cromwell, and Debevoise & Plimpton. He also worked in-house in the legal department at Chanel, Inc. Within the Office of the General Counsel, Stephen’s role is to act both independently and/or collaborate on a wide variety of administrative functions to assist the Office of the General Counsel with daily operational matters and to ensure efficient and effective office operations applying a high degree of confidentiality, discretion, responsibility, and judgment. His responsibilities include FOIL requests management, research, analysis, and writing on legal issues and related projects under the supervision of an attorney. Stephen earned his Juris Doctorate from the Howard University School of Law and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois-at Champaign.

Bafemi Silver
Legal Assistant

Bafemi Silver joined the College’s Office of the General Counsel in the summer of 2013. Prior to joining FIT, Bafemi was a Research Study Assistant at Memorial Sloane–Kettering Cancer Center. Within the Office of the General Counsel, Bafemi’s role is to perform a full range of secretarial and administrative functions including all aspects of document management and maintaining the offices database system; maintaining current budget information; and monitoring budget expenditures and reports. He also is expected to undertake research, analysis, and writing on legal issues and related projects under the supervision of an attorney. Bafemi is a graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology.