Faculty in the Program

Steve Zeidman, Professor, Director of the Criminal Defense Clinic, has spent the last 25 years working in the area of criminal defense. A graduate of Duke University School of Law, he is a highly-respected trial lawyer and former supervisor at the Legal Aid Society. He began his teaching career with substantive and clinical courses and has taught at Fordham, Pace, and New York University. Professor Zeidman was awarded the NYU Alumni Association's Great Teacher Award in 1997 and CUNY’s Outstanding Professor of the Year honor in 2011. Prior to joining the CUNY faculty in 2002, he was Executive Director of the Fund for Modern Courts, a nonpartisan, statewide court reform organization.

Professor Zeidman is a member of the Appellate Division’s Indigent Defense Organization Oversight Committee and serves on the Board of Directors of Prisoners' Legal Services. He was recently appointed by District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin to an Advisory Council created to help implement her remedial order in the Floyd v. City of New York stop-and-frisk litigation. He has also served on several statewide commissions, including the Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense Services and the Jury Project. Professor Zeidman was a member of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee for the Judiciary in the Bloomberg and Giuliani administrations. He has made numerous presentations on a range of issues, including judicial selection, hearsay, and the ethical dimensions of the effective assistance of counsel. His published work has been cited in numerous law reviews and journals, as well as by the New York Court of Appeals.

Publications

In The News

Re: "Jailing Old Folks Makes No Sense"
The New York Times Sep 5, 2016

Steven Zeidman, CUNY School of Law/Criminal Defense Clinic
CUNY TV August 31, 2016

Law Review Articles

Sexual Violence Legislation: A Review of Caselaw and Empirical Research, with Cynthia Calkins Mercado, Elizabeth Jeglic, Robert Beattey, and Anthony Perillo, Journal of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law (forthcoming).

Gideon: Looking Backward, Looking Forward, Looking in the Mirror, 11 Seattle J. for Soc. Just. 933 (2013).

Whither the Criminal Court: Confronting Stops-and-Frisks, 76 Alb. L. Rev. 1187 (2012/2013).

Padilla v. Kentucky: Sound and Fury or Transformative Impact, 39 Fordham Urb. L.J. 203 (2011).

Introduction, Notes from the Field: Challenges of Indigent Criminal Defense, 12 N.Y. City L. Rev. 204 (2008).

Careful What You Wish For: Tough Questions, Honest Answers, and Innovative Approaches to Appointive Judicial Selection, 34 Fordham Urb. L.J. 473 (2007).

Policing the Police: The Role of the Courts and the Prosecution, 32 Fordham Urb. L.J. 315 (2005).

Judicial Politics: Making the Case for Merit Selection, 68 Alb. L. Rev. 713 (2005).

To Elect or Not to Elect: A Case Study of Judicial Selection in New York City, 1977-2002, 37 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 791 (2004).

Who Needs an Evidence Code?: The New York Court of Appeals' Radical Reevaluation of Hearsay, 21 Cardozo L. Rev. 211 (1999).

To Plead or Not to Plead: Effective Assistance and Client-Centered Counseling, 39 B.C. L. Rev. 841 (1998).

Sacrificial Lambs or the Chosen Few?: The Impact of Student Defenders on the Rights of the Accused, 62 Brook. L. Rev. 853 (1996).

Other Publications

An Archaic Bail System, The New York Times, Op-Ed, April 24, 2015

Is 'broken windows' broken? Yes , Daily News, Op-Ed, August 3, 2014 at 34.

New York's Solitary Confinement Reforms May Spark Larger Discussion , JURIST - Forum, Mar. 5 2014.

Equal Protection Examined in the Context of Policing , N.Y.L.J., February 7, 2014 at 6.

Criminal Court After Stop-and-Frisk , N.Y.L.J., August 28, 2013, at 6.

Indigent Defense: Caseload Standards, N.Y.L.J., March 24, 2010, at 6.

Racial Impact of Quality of Life Policing, N.Y.L.J., April 2, 2009, at 6.

Time to End Violation Pleas, N.Y.L.J., April 1, 2008, at 2.

The Miracle of Jury Reform in New York, 88 Judicature 178 (2005).

Caseload and Trial Capacity in the Criminal Courts, 54 Rec. N.Y.C. Bar Ass'n 768 (1999) (primary contributor).

The Strange Case of Roland B. Molineux: 100 Years Old and Counting, N.Y.L.J., March 25, 1999, at 2.

Why I Teach at CUNY Law?

"I teach at CUNY Law because where else do you get to be surrounded by a community committed to the cause of social justice and constantly encouraged, challenged, comforted, motivated, and supported in pursuit of that goal?"