As the #1 clinical program in the nation, and a pioneer in clinical education, CUNY Law leads legal education in experiential, immersive learning focused on building professional experience, hard skills, and serving real human needs.
Every student participates in our clinical education, which is considered the capstone of your public interest lawyering education built on our unique experiential, hands-on learning for advocates. Our faculty are leading experts, advocates, organizers, and trailblazers in the social justice lawyering field; our community partners and clients help us create transformative justice. Get to know our clinical offerings and the impact they generate.
The Latest from the Clinics
What Sets Our Clinics Apart
INCREDIBLE COLLABORATION
We work collaboratively because we believe systemic injustice calls for systemic change led by those with firsthand experience of injustice. Clinic teams operate as true colleagues; faculty, staff attorneys, and students share equal responsibility and credit for research projects, program initiatives, as well as case approaches and solutions. Cross-clinic collaboration and partnerships with community stakeholders improve the quality, value, and accessibility of legal representation in the areas that need it most. Grassroots organizing and movement lawyering will always be at the core of our program.
EMBEDDED IN COMMUNITY
Our faculty and students are in the best position to generate impact because many of them entered the legal field to advocate on behalf of their own families, communities, and rights. These relationships guide who we represent, what advocacy strategies we employ, and how we engage with community leaders and groups as well as individual clients. Our communities run from local to global and are the center of our mission and work.
COMMITMENT TO PROCESS
We take a creative, full-spectrum approach to clinic work. Fieldwork includes project work that leverages outreach and education, media exposure, toolkits and resources, organizing and advocacy campaigns, and more to approach systemic issues. Client work focuses on live and direct representation of real clients where the student is the lawyer and the lead. Through all of this, we imbue the work and practice with mindfulness to combat the intensity and fatigue that can accompany urgent work on behalf of people facing oppression. Clinic faculty guide this learning as part of the law school’s commitment to disrupting systems of oppression through lawyering.