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The clinical programs at CUNY School of Law are nationally recognized as the
very best in legal education. In keeping with our mission to train students for
excellence in public service and public interest practice, our clinical programs
are the culmination of the lawyering curriculum and a critical step in the
transition from theory to practice.
Whereas most law schools offer students limited access to the clinical
experience, each third-year student at CUNY School of Law is required to
participate in one of seven clinics or one of two concentrations. Under the
auspices of Main Street Legal Services, Inc., the clinics provide direct service
in-house, supervised live-client representation. The concentrations are highly
supervised external placements.
CUNY School of Law clinical programs collaborate with local, national and
international organizations to strengthen communities and individuals through
the use of law. Every year, our clinics provide legal representation to more
than 1,000 people who otherwise would not have access to justice.
CUNY School of Law faculty members have been honored for their leadership and
contributions to the field of clinical legal education. They are regular
planners and presenters at national conferences and have published influential
ground-breaking work.
CUNY School of Law students have also received professional recognition for
their work. The Immigrant and Refugee Rights Clinic and the Workfare Advocacy
Project Seminar were recipients of the New York State Bar Association's
prestigious President's Pro Bono Service Award.
The clinics and concentrations described below may vary from year to year.
BWRC affords students in-depth exposure to the pressing social
problem of domestic abuse and teaches lawyering skills in a family law-based
practice. The inter-disciplinary focus of this clinic involves lawyers and
social workers collaborating to solve clients' problems. In addition to filing
and seeking enforcement of protective orders to meet their clients' immediate
goal of safety for themselves and their children, students learn to address the
full range of clients' legal needs, including issues of divorce, child custody
and visitation, child and spousal support. In a joint project with the Immigrant
and Refugee Rights Clinic, students represent non-citizen battered women and
study the connection between abuse and immigration issues. Students also
participate in programs to educate and transform the laws and practices
affecting the rights of battered women. These programs include community
education and prevention, such as teaching high school students about teen date
violence, and working as interns in District Attorneys' offices prosecuting
defendants for domestic violence crimes
CDC
prepares students for public and private criminal defense practice through
intensive training in the skills, legal doctrine and practicalities of
representing persons charged with crimes. After developing mastery through
readings, discussion, observations and simulations, students represent clients
in Criminal Court and assist private or Legal Aid Society attorneys in felony
cases. Primary responsibility in misdemeanor representation and second-seating
to respected criminal defense attorneys provides students with the range of
experiences and examples necessary to navigate the ethical, social, economic and
political issues confronting both the accused and the attorney. Students
experience the full range of criminal representation from client interviewing
and counseling, fact gathering and legal analysis, as well as case theory
development and motion practice, to negotiation, hearings and trials.
The
CUNY School of Law launched the Economic Justice Project (EJP) in 1997 in
response to regressive welfare policies adopted by the City of New York. One of
the tragic consequences of "welfare reform" in New York was that it forced
thousands of individuals who had been pursuing college degrees at CUNY to quit
school in order to fulfill stringent new "workfare" requirements. Most of these
individuals were single mothers struggling to obtain the skills and academic
credentials needed for jobs that could lift their families out of poverty.
The EJP has responded to this challenge on several fronts, providing
direct representation to hundreds of CUNY undergraduates, collaborating closely
with and supporting the organizing and political efforts of the Welfare Rights
Initiative and other grassroots organizations, and engaging in legislative and
other systemic advocacy. In recognition of these efforts, the New York State Bar
Association selected the Project for the President's Pro Bono Service Law
Student Group Award in 2002, and the Clinical Legal Education Association gave
the Project its Award for Excellence in 2004.
The theory, genesis and structure of the Project are described in Poverty
Law and Community Activism: Notes From a Law School Clinic, 150 U. Pa. L.
Rev. 173 (2001).
ELC provides students with the experience of working in an
ongoing elder law practice serving the legal needs of older adults who require
assistance with estate planning, maintaining control over medical and financial
decisions, enforcing their rights in guardianship and estate matters,
understanding and accessing available government benefits. Students learn to
recognize and resolve the unique ethical issues involved in representing older
persons as they investigate facts, draft legal instruments, counsel clients and
family members, all within the scope of the rapidly-developing social and
cultural context of aging and law. Through a partnership with the court system,
students serve as Court Evaluators for poor and low-income adults who are
alleged to be incapacitated. Individually and in collaboration with other
community organizations, students also participate in broader scale legislative
advocacy and public education projects.
IRRC educates students to represent non-citizen clients in a
broad range of immigration and poverty law matters. This clinic utilizes a
holistic approach to client representation so that in addition to dealing with
immigration issues such as citizenship, visa and asylum problems, students may
also address clients' other legal needs, such as housing and public benefits.
Representation and advocacy for immigrant workers provide a firm foundation for
students who aspire to worker-centered practice after graduation. Students hone
critical skills of collaboration and problem-solving as they work with
organizers and clients to promote changes in working conditions for immigrant
workers. Projects involving legislative advocacy, outreach and education to
immigrant communities round out the students' experience and foster the
development of expertise in the broad range of skills and tools used in public
interest practice
IWHRC involves students in cutting-edge work in international
human rights generally and, more particularly, the rights of women and girls.
Interns critique and explore human rights as a tool for social change. By
representing clients and/or partnering with activists, students can engage
directly in legal advocacy projects and litigation in international and U.S.
forums. The work of clinic students has contributed to the International
Criminal Tribunals in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, negotiations and
monitoring of the International Criminal Court, the Inter-American human rights
system and various UN conferences, treaty bodies and rapporteurs. Students
utilize international and human rights norms in domestic litigation through
IWHR's Immigrant Domestic Workers Project, other Alien Tort Claims Act cases,
and amicus curiae briefs in courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
This clinic experience sharpens skills in fact development, legal research and
analysis, writing oral advocacy and strategic thinking, as well as
client-centered and collaborative law-reform lawyering.
This clinic
focuses on the diverse range of intervenor and advocacy skills involved in
mediation practice. Students serve as mediators in a broad range of settings,
including disputes referred to local court-annexed mediation programs and the
New York State Division of Human Rights. Students mediate cases involving
workplace discrimination claims, public accommodations and disability issues, as
well as landlord-tenant, family, neighbor and consumer disputes. For students
interested in labor and worker-centered practice, the clinic includes both the
study and practice of mediation in union and non-union employee/employer
disputes. In addition to individual mediations, clinic students have worked in
projects that advance mediation practice, including child welfare mediation,
preparation of bench memos for mediators on a variety of legal topics and
drafting guidelines for not-for-profits' use of internal dispute resolution
mechanisms.
This program engages students in legal work combating
discrimination and promoting equal treatment. Students work as interns two days
a week in public interest organizations like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc.,
the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the National Employment Law
Project (NELP), as well as state and local human rights agencies like the New
York City Human Rights Commission and small firms engaged in Title VII and other
civil rights litigation. An extensive, intensive classroom component which
teaches the law of employment discrimination (i.e. discrimination based on
ethnicity, language, gender, sexual orientation, disability and AIDS)
complements and enhances student work in supervised field placements. Similarly,
classroom instruction utilizing simulation, research, fact investigation and
pre-trial and trial practice enables students to perform at an advanced level in
their internships and helps insure that their fieldwork includes opportunities
for meaningful lawyering and full participation in these challenging cases.
Weekly rounds or meetings explore the fieldwork experience and provide rich
opportunities for analyzing and understanding the ethical and professional
responsibility issues involved in civil rights practice.
This
concentration provides participation in the dynamic, growing and challenging
area of health law issues, including access to healthcare and the effect of the
law on the quality of care. Students work as interns two days a week in a
variety of public interest settings, including governmental agencies like the
Health and Hospitals Corporation, legal services offices, HIV advocacy centers
and plaintiff medical malpractice firms. Utilizing both the classroom setting
and supervised field placements, students study and critique health-care
programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, legal mechanisms that monitor the
quality of care, doctor-patient relationships, bioethics and issues of privacy
and civil liberties. In addition to legislative and policy work, the
concentration provides students with opportunities to enhance their legal
writing and litigation skills.
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