Clinical Programs

Community & Economic Development Clinic (CED)

IH

The Community & Economic Development Clinic (CED) is an in-house clinic that provides legal support for community-led groups – like worker-owned cooperative, grassroots non-profits, and tenant unions – that are organizing for social, economic, and racial justice through two main practice areas: Economic Democracy, which focuses on workplace democracy and a more equitable distribution of wealth and resources, and Housing Justice and Tenant Power, which focuses on enhanced protections, rights, and benefits for tenants.

Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility Clinic (CLEAR)

IH · 2S

The CLEAR Clinic supports clients, communities, and movements that seek to contest the U.S. security state. Student attorneys litigate civil, criminal, and immigration cases and support movements organizing for social and racial justice, including designing and facilitating rights-awareness workshops in directly impacted communities.

Defenders Clinic

IH

The Defenders Clinic prepares students to fight mass incarceration through work on criminal court representation, parole preparation and appeals, clemency petitions, and other forms of post-conviction relief. Students support incarcerated people seeking second chances and collaborate with legal organizations on impact litigation and strategic advocacy.

Note: Defenders Clinic is not open for general registration. Students in the Defenders Lawyering Seminar III are automatically enrolled.

Disability Rights and Social Justice Clinic (DRSJC)

IH

The Disability Rights and Social Justice Clinic (DRSJC) is an in-house clinic where students advocate for the civil rights, autonomy, and self-determination of disabled people through direct client representation, civil rights litigation, appellate advocacy, and policy and community-based rights-awareness initiatives across areas such as prisoners’ rights, housing, immigration, family regulation, and access to medical care and services.

Economic Justice Project (EJP)

3L Lawyering Seminar

The Economic Justice Project (EJP) is a third-year lawyering seminar focused on economic justice advocacy through litigation, policy work, and community education. Students represent clients in public benefits cases, assist grassroots organizations, and contribute to policy initiatives that expand educational and economic opportunities for low-income communities.

Equality & Justice In-House Clinic (EJIHC)

IH · 2S

The Equality & Justice Clinic (EJIHC) is designed to give students the tools they need to fight and win civil rights victories both in and beyond court. The clinic maintains a docket of impact cases where students will directly litigate federal civil rights challenges. The substantive area studied is Section 1983—our nation’s core civil rights statute and the most critical tool we have to hold the government accountable for violating our constitutional rights. Students will learn firsthand how to apply constitutional law and civil rights statutes, how to navigate the procedural barriers that exist for civil rights plaintiffs in court, and how to use the litigation process not just as its own end—but as a tool of pressure and a platform to campaign for policy change. Cases will address issue areas such as police and prosecutorial accountability, voting rights, race and poverty discrimination, free speech and protest, and the rights of incarcerated people. Litigation tasks and active cases will vary each academic year.

Equality & Justice Practice Clinic (EJPC)

PC

The Equality & Justice Clinic (EJPC)  is a practice clinic that embeds students directly in labor, environmental, and other social justice organizations to work with practicing lawyers in the field. These placements are complemented by coursework focused on reflective lawyering, professional skills development, as well as the substantive and procedural aspects of right-based litigation. The seminar further draws on guest practitioners working across diverse movements—from civil rights to climate justice—to explore how litigation functions as part of integrated, community-driven advocacy and broader movements for equality and justice. Note the Equality Practice Clinic will also include workers’ rights placements.

Family Law Practice Clinic

PC

The Family Law Practice Clinic (FLPC) is an interdisciplinary, intersectional clinical program that immerses students in legal practice through externship placements at a variety of family law organizations. FLPC students work with on-site supervisors, for example, representing survivors of domestic violence in NYS Supreme Court and Family Court as well as children and young adults in a variety of contexts. Faculty supervisors focus on FLPC students’ learning in clinic seminar, facilitate externship placements, and support students in their various family law related placements. Based on their interests, past FLPC students have additionally represented LGBTQI+ persons, incarcerated and/or immigrant parents, litigants in matrimonial proceedings, as well as children and youth in various proceedings addressing abuse and neglect, juvenile delinquency, immigration, civil matters, and educational concerns.

Family Defense Clinic

IH

The Family Defense Clinic (FDC) is an in-house clinic where students work with families targeted by the family policing (child welfare) system. Students represent parents in investigations and court proceedings, challenge administrative findings and registry listings, and engage in appellate and federal civil rights litigation, as well as legislative and community-based accountability work.

Immigrant & Non-Citizen Rights Clinic (INRC)

IH · 2S

The Immigrant & Non-Citizen Rights Clinic (INRC) is an in-house clinic that empowers emerging social justice lawyers to confront the degradation of the rights of non-citizens through legal representation where we press for progressive, humane and fair interpretations of the law on behalf of those most excluded, marginalized, and criminalized—as well as through policy and advocacy projects in partnership with community-based organizations.

Human Rights & Gender Justice Clinic (HRGJ)

IH · 2S

The Human Rights and Gender Justice (HRGJ) Clinic is an in-house clinic where students work to advance gender justice and to counter multifaceted, intersectional discrimination in the U.S. and around the world. Students learn about and apply human rights law to combat gender discrimination, gender-based violence, reproductive oppression and criminalization of survivors of trafficking before international and regional human rights bodies and national and local courts and legal institutions.

Mediation Clinic

IH

The Mediation Clinic (MED) is an in-house clinic where students serve as mediators in court-annexed and EEOC mediation programs and community settings. Students handle disputes involving workplace discrimination, disability issues, and family, neighbor, and consumer conflicts while building advanced negotiation and conflict-resolution skills.