Course Description
The Public Interest/Public Service course accompanies a public interest legal internship and allows the student to receive academic credit for their internship placement. The course is designed with a career-advising lens, to help students maximize their professional development from their internships. The course may cover topics such as: communicating goals for an internship, developing relationships with supervisors and colleagues, setting appropriate boundaries, understanding vicarious trauma, having difficult conversations, networking, and navigating ethical issues. Students will be sharing their own experiences throughout the summer in both the larger class and small groups, so the topics covered in the course may be tailored depending on the types of practice areas and internships represented.
Internships may include working for a not-for-profit organization where an attorney admitted to practice will provide direct supervision of legal work, a government attorney’s office, or working with a private lawyer on pro-bono cases. The Career Planning Office is available to help students identify and apply for internship placements, but the school does not provide the placements. Placements must be approved in advance by the professor or one of the Academic Affairs Deans to assure that the public interest focus of the internship and the attorney supervision framework are consistent with ABA and NY Court of Appeals requirements. Students will be expected to work at their internship for a minimum of 20 hours per week for eight weeks for 2 credits, or 30 hours per week for eight weeks for 3 credits.
Students will be required as a condition of receiving credit to authorize the instructor or a representative of the Office of Academic Affairs to make inquiry to the placement attorney supervisor consistent with ABA standards. Additionally, students will be expected to attend all classes (which will be held remotely), submit weekly journals, keep office time sheets, submit one copy of work done at their placement site, prepare for and facilitate a seminar class conversation about a topic related to their placement work, and submit a final written reflection and assessment of their placement. “
Instructor
Anna Ognibene
Anna E. Ognibene (she/her) is an expert in family and matrimonial law, with a focus on intimate partner violence and economic abuse. She teaches Public Interest / Public Service at the CUNY School of Law. Professor Ognibene joined the CUNY faculty from the CUNY Career Planning Office, where she has been advising students since January 2023. She also teaches Foundational Lawyering Skills at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University.