New York Law Schools & Their Legal Clinics

[Originally published in NYPRR September 2009]

New York has 16 law schools, more than any state except California. We list the schools and a description of their student clinics.

Albany Law School

In a typical year, the Clinic recruits more than 250 students for clinic projects, represents more than 600 clients, assists more than 1,500 individuals & organizations with technical assistance, and offers more than 40 community education activities.

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Nearly 400 students each year take advantage of the opportunity to represent real clients, under expert attorneys, gaining invaluable skills while performing important community service representing the poor, the elderly, and the indigent.

Brooklyn Law School

Has one of the nation’s leading and most comprehensive programs to prepare lawyers for public service. Three-quarters of all graduates have participated in the Public Service Law Program, which offers a high ranked clinical program with 18 in-house clinics.

City University of New York School of Law

Our clinics are a critical step in the transition from student to practitioner. While most law schools offer only limited access to clinical experience, each third-year student is required to participate in a clinic or concentration for one or two semesters.

Columbia University Law School

Clinic students test their strengths as they take on increasing responsibility for their clients’ cases under the watchful supervision of their experienced teachers. They feel the profound weight of representing clients in important, and often personal, matters.

Cornell University Law School

Clinic students represent clients in practice settings and in the use of the skills they learn in their courses. They learn an array of lawyering skills, including: interviewing, fact investigation, client counseling, case management and document drafting.

Fordham University School of Law

Our clinics rank 12th in the nation in the U.S. News survey of clinical legal educators. Your knowledge of a particular area of the law will be secondary to your immersion in the best traditions of our legal culture and your emergence as a legal thinker.

Hofstra University School of Law

Participation in a clinic may well be the only chance during law school to “practice” law. Students represent actual people in actual cases. They advocate in court, counsel clients, conduct investigations and mediate disputes. Clinics are one semester six-credit courses.

New York Law School

Students in clinical programs act as lawyers for real clients, mediators in real disputes, and court evaluators in real proceedings. Students represent indigents in the Criminal Law Clinic, take part in guardianship proceedings for seniors, and mediate claims in Small Claims Court.

New York University School of Law

In the Clinical and Advocacy Programs, students learn by representing real people with real problems. There are 29 clinics in all. Students can tackle a wide range of issues: immigrants facing deportation; juveniles accused of serious crimes; and defendants facing the death penalty.

Pace University School of Law

Pace Law School clinics give students the chance to handle actual cases. John Jay Legal Services is an umbrella for programs in criminal defense, disability rights and health law, immigration, and investor rights. Students represent clients in litigation and transactions.

St. John’s University School of Law

The school has the following clinics: Child Advocacy Clinic; Domestic Violence Litigation Clinic; Elder Law Clinic; Immigrant Tenant Advocacy Clinic; Prosecution Clinic; Securities Arbitration Clinic; and Refugee & Immigrant Rights Clinic.

State University of New York at Buffalo

The Family Violence Clinic offers students practical training through work with agencies throughout NY on issues impacting women, children and families. Other programs involve the Elderly, Law Guardianships, Advanced Mediation, and Child Advocacy.

Syracuse University College of Law

Clinic is an opportunity to represent clients while earning academic credit. The student is under the supervision of a faculty member who conducts seminars. The law school maintains an in-house law firm which supervises seven different clinics.

Touro College

Law school does not offer the complexity, ambiguity, and dynamics of actual law practice. To practice law, a student must learn the skills to deal with real people. Clients tell you their stories in a disjointed way. Our 11 clinics guide our students to the real world.

DISCLAIMER: This article provides general coverage of its subject area and is presented to the reader for informational purposes only with the understanding that the laws governing legal ethics and professional responsibility are always changing. The information in this article is not a substitute for legal advice and may not be suitable in a particular situation. Consult your attorney for legal advice. New York Legal Ethics Reporter provides this article with the understanding that neither New York Legal Ethics Reporter LLC, nor Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, nor Hofstra University, nor their representatives, nor any of the authors are engaged herein in rendering legal advice. New York Legal Ethics Reporter LLC, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, Hofstra University, their representatives, and the authors shall not be liable for any damages resulting from any error, inaccuracy, or omission.

NYPRR Editor