This Clinic isn’t just about learning how to defend a client against myriad matters related to criminal cases; it’s about finding a way forward from the untenable and unethical criminal legal system. Defenders Clinic students share a mission to end mass incarceration by gaining knowledge and first-hand experience in areas such as Criminal Court representation from arraignment through hearings and trial, parole preparation and appeals, solitary confinement, and clemency appeals to the Governor and the President. Members of the Clinic have assisted scores of people seeking clemency from the Governor of New York or the President of the United States, worked with Public Defender offices and experienced practitioners on serious felony cases, and engaged with numerous criminal justice organizations and think-tanks on current issues.
The Defenders Clinic teaching methodology revolves around a pattern of reading, observing, simulating, critiquing, reflecting, and then doing. As part of Clinic practice, student-attorneys counsel their clients with direct supervision from the Clinic directors. In addition to their in-house work, Defenders are also placed with criminal defense and other civil rights and social justice organizations, including all the trial and appellate defense offices in New York City.
Introducing the Second Look Project: Beyond Guilt, created to support incarcerated individuals in their clemency and parole petitions. To date, we have worked with more than 100 people, securing freedom for 40. With 2,300+ requests for help from people inside and their families, our work is only just beginning.
Faculty
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Co-Director, Defenders Clinic, Director of The Second Look Project and Professor of LawProfessor Steven Zeidman is the Founder and Co-Director of the Second Look Project: Beyond Guilt (secondlookprojectny.org) and the Defenders Clinic. A graduate of Duke University School of Law, he is a former staff attorney and supervisor at the Legal Aid Society. He has taught at Fordham, Pace, and New York University School of Law and was awarded the NYU Alumni Association's Great Teacher Award in 1997 and CUNY’s Outstanding Professor of the Year honor in 2011. Professor Zeidman is a member of the Appellate Division’s Indigent Defense Organization Oversight Committee and the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section Council, and serves on the Board of Directors of Prisoners' Legal Services and the Parole Preparation Project. Read Professor Steve Zeidman's full bio. -
Co-Director of the Second Look Project, Assistant Professor of LawErin Tomlinson ’10 (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Second Look Project. She and her Defenders Clinic students represent people charged with misdemeanors and incarcerated people pursuing parole, clemency, and post-conviction litigation. Before CUNY Law, she was a trial and appellate public defender in New York City. She is an alumna of CUNY Law and the Defenders Clinic. Read Professor Tomlinson's full bio -
Adjunct Professor, Defenders ClinicBahar Ansari is a public defender with the Legal Aid Society and an adjunct professor in the Defenders Clinic at CUNY Law School. Bahar graduated from CUNY Law School in 2006, where she served as a Project Equity Fellow and student attorney in the Defenders Clinic. After graduation, Bahar joined the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Practice representing children accused of misdemeanors and felonies in Bronx Family Court. In 2010, she transferred to the Criminal Defense Practice and was promoted to supervising attorney in 2019. Bahar has proudly represented over 3000 New Yorkers and strives to litigate every case with passion and creativity.