SIGNATURE CORE PROGRAMS
Who: 1Ls: FT required; PT optional | When: Orientation Week, August
About
Court Orientation is the culmination of Orientation Week, when students and attendees observe civil, family law, housing, immigration, and criminal court proceedings, in addition to meeting with individual judges at the U.S. District Courthouse. The day concludes with a welcome from the law school dean and a federal court or appeals court judge. For the past several years, the Honorable Jenny Rivera, Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, welcomes incoming students and leads them in the recitation of the lawyer’s pledge and a class photograph.
Who: 1Ls & 2Ls | When: September
About
More than 25 employers talk with students in an open house setting. Students can speak with senior attorneys and recruiting managers, many of whom are CUNY Law alumni, about the organization’s work, professional culture, hiring cycles, and information on how to prepare oneself for a position and apply. This career fair is a “warm-up” for the larger Public Interest Reception with more than 100 employers present.
Students navigate “table talk” and move from employer to employer to get information. No resumes are exchanged, but often students take home business cards and organization materials. This fair gives students a “head start” as they think about where they may want to spend their first law school summer or see themselves working after graduation. The smaller fair at CUNY Law prepares our students for the larger fair with students from the metro area at Fordham Law.
Who: 1Ls & 2Ls | When: September
About
CUNY Law is a co-sponsor of this annual event held at Fordham Law since 1991, which gives students an opportunity to meet a range of public interest employers. Students can check out employers’ names and organizations, pick up materials, and speak directly to more than 100 public interest hiring attorneys.
Who: Required for 1Ls | When: October, after midterms
About
First-year law students meet with their assigned counselors in small group sessions to complete a resume and cover letter workshop and review key aspects of developing their professional materials. Students receive a copy of the career planning guide with directions on how to write a legal cover letter, legal resume, sample interview questions, and examples of various resumes and cover letters for employers.
Who: all students | When: Ongoing
About
CUNY Law alumni working in public interest share their experiences in small group settings over lunch. Modeled on the tradition of “brown bag” lunch sessions in public interest law offices, students have the chance to speak with a CUNY Law graduate in a small group.
Who: 2Ls, 3Ls, 4Ls PT | When: Aug. 15-Oct.31; Jan. 15-Feb. 15
About
The Career Planning Office hosts employers every fall semester and a much smaller number of employers in the early spring. Nearly 40 employers participate, including legal service and defense agencies (criminal, juvenile rights, immigration, and family defense) from various geographic areas, district attorneys’ offices, impact litigation/policy organizations, metro-area judicial systems, private law firms (including one Top 100 firm hiring a diversity fellow), and government agency (city, state and federal) employers.
Who: 1Ls; 2Ls; 3L PT (3Ls and 4Ls invited) | When: January
About
The “Ace the Interview: Selling your Strengths & Skills” panel is part 1 of the Practice Interview Series held the third week of January, two weeks prior to the Public Interest Career Fair at NYU Law. Experienced hiring managers provide insights and advice to students on what organizations and firms are looking for in a prospective candidate(s), how to prepare for interviews, and give advice on interviewing techniques and etiquette.
Who: 1Ls; 2Ls; 3L PT (3Ls and 4Ls invited) | When: January
About
The “Speed Mock Interview Night” is part 2 of the Practice Interview Series and is held one week before the Public Interest Law Career Fair. It is an opportunity for students to practice what they learned at “Ace the Interview.” More than 20 alumni attorneys conduct speed (10-15 minutes) mock interviews with law students and provide real-time feedback. Feedback relates to overall presentation and style, how one talks about their prior experience and goals, and how students express their interest in the particular mock organization/field.
Who: 1Ls; 2Ls; 3Ls PT | When: February, first Thurs. & Fri.)
About
CUNY Law co-sponsors the largest public interest career fair. Our students have the opportunity to interview for summer internships with non-profit legal service providers, impact litigation and policy organizations, and government agencies from around the country with a majority based in New York. Some organizations host sponsored lunch events and many participate in networking or “Table Talk.”
Who: 1Ls, 2Ls, 3L PT | When: April
About
This end-of-the-year program is a reminder for first-year and second-year law students about the importance of maximizing their summer internship. Career Planning helps to provide strategies to get prepared, research the organization’s culture, set professional goals, communicate expectations clearly, and walk away with an internship writing sample and professional reference. We also review the expectations of organizations and internship supervisors and give tips on troubleshooting problems that may arise and solutions on who to reach out to for help.
TRAINING & PREPARATION
Who: Required for 1Ls | When: October Professional Development Time
About
The Career Planning staff do a brief orientation with first-year law students to introduce ourselves and talk about our backgrounds, experience, and specialized expertise. We also share the student checklists for first-year students and talk about what they can expect in terms of internship timelines, career counseling, and major programs and events throughout the year.
Who: 1Ls | When: October/November
About
An overview of the Public Interest Career Fair, the largest public interest career fair and longest-running (since 1977) in the country. Staff will review how to “bid” for interviews, how to prepare your materials, and explain how other features such as lunch seminars and “Table Talk” work. The list of more than 200 participating employers is also distributed.
Who: 1Ls | When: February
About
Come learn the basics of the PILC Fair including what to expect, how to get there; where to check in, how to navigate the interview locations at NYU Law; how to find CUNY Law staff, and how to prepare for interviews and Table Talk!
Who: 1Ls | When: Ongoing
About
Held throughout the semester, this training focuses on how to use the Symplicity recruiting tool, including searching job and internship postings, using the networking tools and features, how to apply directly for positions, how to apply via OCI, and how to make appointments and access resources, guidebooks and past presentation content.
Who: Rising 2Ls, 3Ls, 4Ls | When: June
About
Career Planning reviews On Campus Interviews to help students prepare materials and stay tuned for important submission requirements and deadlines. Staff demonstrates the Symplicity recruiting tool’s “OCI” feature which is used throughout the country by employers so that students can bid for interviews, accept, and schedule beginning in mid-August and through the end of October. This panel informs rising 2Ls and reminds rising graduating students of the importance of submitting materials timely to increase their chance for “on-campus” interviews, where the employer sets aside a day to interview CUNY Law students typically on campus. A third of interviewers are alumni.
Who: 1Ls, 2Ls, 3L PT | When: June
About
Career Planning staff meet students at the annual New York City Bar Association Summer Intern Reception. This is an opportunity to connect socially and professionally with fellow CUNY Law students and law student interns throughout the city at the City Bar.
POSTGRADUATE OPPORTUNITIES
Who: all students | When: TBA
About
Recent alumni serving as Immigrant Justice Corps fellows, a two-year fellowship focused on immigration rights and legal services, speak about their experience. Fellows share important insights about the application process and recommendations, including what personal and professional experience to highlight, how to select organizations of interest, and how to prepare for your interview. Fellows also share information on key aspects of the program such as supervision, training, mentoring, and developing a network of immigration legal service colleagues.
Who: all students | When: TBA
About
Recent alumni serving as clerks to New Jersey state judges talk about their experiences, including how and when they applied online and to how many judges, who they asked to be references, how the interviewing process works, and the value of their training and professional experience. The New Jersey State Court system has more than 430 clerkship positions as nearly all of the trial and appellate level judges hire graduating students. Alumni also share how this post-graduate experience opens doors and prepares them for their next career move.
Who: all students | When: October
About
CUNY Law supports students who attend the largest national public interest career fair in Washington D.C. More than 200 employers are present for interviews and tabling.
Who: 2Ls;3L PT; open to all students | When: April
About
CUNY Law hosts representatives of the prestigious Skadden Fellowship Foundation and former Skadden Fellows, such as current faculty Dean Ann Cammett, Prof. Chaumtoli Huq, and CUNY Law alumni. They describe the competitive fellowship application process from start to finish: how to develop a public interest project centering on an unmet, underserved, or burgeoning legal need, how to partner with an organization, and how to write a proposal and prepare for the interview. The Foundation has funded over 800 fellowships, and 90% of former fellows remain in public service, and almost all of them continue working on the same issues they addressed in their original fellowship projects. This post-graduate fellowship presentation also provides insight into the process of designing your own fellowship for similar organizations, such as Equal Justice Works or Echoing Green Foundation.
Who: all students | When: April
About
This program features CUNY Law alumni who are currently holding or recently held post-graduate judicial clerkships. Alumni share information about the highly competitive application and interview process and what to do in law school to prepare. They speak about their experiences as judicial clerks in state court, New York’s appellate division, the Court of Appeals, and federal clerkships. They also share important information about the experience in terms of building skills, training, and mentoring, and the resulting professional opportunities and overall impact on one’s career.