City University of New York School of Law

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City University of New York School of Law
Motto	Law in the Service of Human Needs
Established	1983
Type	Public
Postgraduates	406 (as of fall 2009)
Location	Flushing, New York, USA
Campus	Urban
Dean	Michelle J. Anderson
Website	www.law.cuny.edu

CUNY School of Law is the premier public interest law school in the country. Our mission is to graduate outstanding public interest attorneys and to enhance the diversity of the legal profession. Our motto, "Law in the Service of Human Needs," infuses everything we do.

At its founding in 1983, CUNY Law pioneered an innovative, public interest curriculum that integrates lawyering skills with traditional doctrinal study. Twenty-five years later, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching praised CUNY for being one of the best law schools in the country in preparing students for practice through instruction in legal doctrine, critical theory, lawyering skills, and professional ethics^[1].

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg praises CUNY Law as "an institution of incomparable value." She has noted the school's leadership for "innovations and tireless advancement of public interest law."

Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., Professor at Harvard Law School, also praises CUNY Law: "With all due respect to my legal institution and others, in my view CUNY Law School is the premier legal institution in the country and the world for training lawyers who are committed and dedicated to the public interest."

Consistently ranked as offering one of the top ten clinical programs in the nation, the School has also been recognized by National Jurist/PreLaw Magazine as one of the top 10 public interest law schools^[2] and by the Princeton Review^[3] for having the best professors, one of the most diverse law faculties in the nation, the most welcoming campus in the nation for older students, and the most liberal student body. According to the National Association for Law Placement Directory, CUNY Law sends a higher share of its students into public interest and public service law practice than any other law school in the nation.

One of the goals of CUNY Law is to provide access to the legal profession for communities that have been historically excluded, and to help the practicing bar better reflect the remarkable diversity and vibrancy of New York City. Among CUNY Law's 2009 entering class, 37 percent are students of color. Tenured or tenure-track faculty are 37 percent of color^[4].

In what is believed to be the first center on a law school campus devoted to studying diversity within the legal profession as well as the issues faced by people of color who practice law, CUNY School of Law in 2008 established the Center for Diversity in the Legal Profession. The main purpose of the Center is to be a clearinghouse for data on the participation of people of color in the law, as well as to conduct original research.

In another first in the country, CUNY Law established the Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality (CLORE), which focuses on issues impacting the Latino community in the United States, with the goal of developing progressive strategies for legal reform. The Center seeks to educate lawyers, law students, scholars and the general public on the status of Latinos and Latinas, as well as to advocate for expanded civil rights in the areas that affect the growing Latino population.

CUNY Law's Pipeline to Justice program demonstrates CUNY School of Law's commitment to provide access to legal education to those from communities underrepresented in the legal profession. This novel program, believed to be the first of its kind in the country, offers a second chance at admission to CUNY Law to excellent, public interest-focused students whose LSAT scores seem incompatible with their achievements. In its first year, the Pipeline to Justice program accounted for a 20 percent increase in students of color among the incoming class.

Contents 1 Curriculum & Clinical Programs 2 Justice Initiatives / Special Programs 3 Publications 4 Administration 5 Notable Faculty Achievements 6 Notable alumni 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Curriculum & Clinical Programs

The Law School curriculum combines traditional substantive law courses (like contracts, torts, civil procedure and criminal law) with lawyering skills throughout the three years of legal education. The first year curriculum consists of seven required substantive courses, Legal Research, and a four-credit Lawyering Seminar in each semester where students work on legal writing and other lawyering skills through simulations and other role-playing devices. CUNY Law pioneered the model of integrating a lawyering curriculum with traditional doctrinal study.

For over a decade, the clinical programs at CUNY School of Law have been nationally recognized as being among the very best in legal education. The culmination of the lawyering curriculum, CUNY Law's clinics are a critical step in the transition from student to practitioner. While most law schools offer only limited access to clinical experience, each CUNY third-year student is required to participate in a clinic or concentration for one or two semesters (12 to 16 credits).

Under the umbrella of Main Street Legal Services, Inc., the seven clinics provide direct service, in-house, supervised live-client representation. The two concentrations are highly supervised external placements.

• Community & Economic Development
• Criminal Defense
• Economic Justice Project
• Elder Law
• Equality
• Health Law
• Immigrant and Refugee Rights
• International Women's Human Rights
• Mediation

[edit] Justice Initiatives / Special Programs

Students who come to CUNY wanting to make a difference need not wait until after graduation to enhance access to justice. In addition to numerous pro bono opportunities available through student organizations and the Career Planning Office, the Law School supports a number of justice initiatives that engage students, graduates and faculty in serving immigrants, citizen and non-citizen workers and assisting and empowering historically underserved communities, through the Community Legal Resource Network (CLRN), the Community Micro-Enterprise Initiative (CMEI), the CUNY Law Immigrant Initiatives (CLII), the Worker Employment Labor Program (WELP), and the Workfare Advocacy Project. With yoga and mediation the Contemplative Lawyering Program offers tools for mindfulness and stress reduction to the Law School community, even as it explores new approaches to justice. The Haywood Burns Chair in Civil Rights brings prominent visiting civil rights figures to the Law School in memory of its second dean, a national civil rights scholar and activist.

• Community Legal Resource Network (CLRN) Started in 1998, is a collaborative that supports CUNY Law School students as they work to set up and run solo or small-group practices devoted to serving pressing needs of the poor and disadvantaged in communities that are underserved by lawyers.

• CUNY Law Immigrant Initiatives (CLII) Established in 1997, affords law students a wide variety of opportunities to broaden their views on the role of a lawyer as well as their experience with immigrant issues.

• Economic Justice Project (EJP) Launched in 1997 in response to regressive welfare policies adopted by the City of New York.

• The Community Micro-Enterprise Initiative (CMEI) Developing lawyers who can provide high-quality affordable legal services and education to small businesses in underserved communities and the creation of models that permit such community-based lawyers to survive and thrive.

• Worker Employment Labor Program (WELP) WELP seeks to respond to train and empower people who want to be engaged with workers-unionized and non-unionized, public sector, and within the global economy.

[edit] Publications

• New York City Law Review A student-run publication devoted to producing public interest scholarship, engaging with the public interest bar, and fostering student excellence in writing, legal analysis, and research. It is published twice-yearly. Recent issues include a Symposium issue on Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a special issue devoted to student scholarship, a special volume on Elder Law featuring winning articles from the ABA Law and Aging Student Competition, and a forthcoming Symposium issue on the work of Ruthann Robson. Additionally, forthcoming issues include a Public Practice Interest section featuring shorter articles focusing on issues facing progressive attorneys.

• CUNY Law Alumni Magazine

[edit] Administration

Current Dean Michelle J. Anderson, Dean of the Law School and Professor (appointed in 2006), is a Yale Law School graduate. Her previous position was as a member of the faculty of Villanova University School of Law from 1998 to 2006, where she taught criminal law, criminal procedure, children and the law, and feminist legal theory. Dean Anderson is an honors graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she earned a B.A. degree in Community Studies in 1989 and the Chancellor's Award for outstanding academic achievement. Dean Anderson was a member of the Board of Directors and Policy Chair for the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence.

Haywood Burns Chair in Civil Rights Haywood Burns, the Law School's second Dean, was an activist, attorney, and civil rights advocate who urged people to work to help underserved communities. His passionate commitment to human rights led him to engage in struggles against racism and economic and social injustice in the United States and around the world. Burns' civil rights career began at age 15, when he helped integrate the swimming pool in Peekskill, New York. As a law student at Yale, he participated in the 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi. He became Assistant Counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and later served as General Counsel to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign. A founder of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, he was the first African-American dean of a New York law school, leading the CUNY School of Law to full American Bar Association accreditation. After Burns died tragically in an automobile accident in South Africa in 1996, the Law School established a Chair in Civil Rights in his memory. Funded by an endowment and a generous contribution from the New York State Legislature, the Chair is a visiting position that has enabled a succession of lawyers, scholars, and activists to bring their experiences, wisdom, and perspectives to the classrooms of CUNY Law.

Past Deans

• Charles Halpern, founder of the D.C.-based Center for Law and Social Policy, a Georgetown law professor, and the acknowledged "father of public interest law" was the first Dean of CUNY Law.^{[citation needed]}
• Haywood Burns,^{[citation needed]} a famous civil rights attorney, was the school's second and most-notable Dean.^{[citation needed]} Haywood Burns' civil rights career began at age 15, when he helped integrate the swimming pool in Peekskill, New York. As a law student at Yale, he participated in the 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi. He was Assistant Counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and later served as General Counsel to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign. A founder of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, he was the first African American Dean of a New York law school, leading the CUNY School of Law to full ABA accreditation.
• Kristin Booth Glen,^{[citation needed]} CUNY Law's previous Dean, stepped down after being elected to the Manhattan Surrogate's Court and was replaced by interim Dean Mary Lu Bilek.^{[citation needed]} Dean Bilek, a graduate of Harvard Law School has since stepped down from her position, giving way to Michelle Anderson, but has remained at the University as the Dean of Special Projects.^{[citation needed]} The National Association of Public Interest Law (NAPIL) named Kristin Booth Glen, Dean of the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law, as "1998 Law School Dean of the Year."

[edit] Notable Faculty Achievements

• In 2006, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo appointed CUNY School of Law Prof. Jenny Rivera as Special Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights.^{[citation needed]}
• Prof. Julie Goldscheid is a Commissioner of the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence and serves on the Advisory Board of NYLAG's Domestic Violence Appellate Representation Project. Goldscheid is the former Legal Director at Legal Momentum.^[5]
• Prof. Caitlin Borgmann presented her paper The Meaning of 'Life': Abortion and Fetal Personhood at the International Society for Family Law North American Regional Conference held in 2006. She also serves on Barack Obama's Women's Policy Committee.^{[citation needed]}
• Prof. Ruthann Robson was named Distinguished Professor by the CUNY Board of Trustees in 2007. Prof. Robson was also the keynote speaker at Standard Margin: Contemporary Issues in Canadian Law & Sexuality, a conference held at the University of British Columbia in 2006.^{[citation needed]}
• Prof. Andrea McArdle presented a session on the design and teaching of her judicial writing course at the 2007 Biennial Conference of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) held in Denver on June 14-16. The conference theme was "Best Practices in Teaching, Management, and Scholarship."^{[citation needed]}
• Prof. Ruthann Robson received a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship.^{[citation needed]}
• In 2007, Prof. Beryl Blaustone joined a delegation of judges and dignitaries working with Yale Law School in Beijing, Peoples Republic of China, as a Mediation Expert assisting in the instruction of how to include Legal Mediation into Civil Small Claims Court Administration.^{[citation needed]}
• Prof. Natalie Gomez-Velez once served on the New York State Board of Regents, which sets education policy. She also was appointed by Chief Judge Judith Kaye to serve on the Judicial Screening Committee. Also, Prof. Gomes-Velez has been appointed by Chief Judge Kaye to serve as a member of the Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commission for the Twelfth Judicial District (the Bronx).^{[citation needed]}
• Prof. Rebecca Bratspies participated in The "New" New Haven School: International Law—Past, Present & Future, a conference at Yale Law School and presented her article, Crafting a Green Landing for Spaceship Earth: Some Navigational Advice from the New Haven School She was also the co-organizer of Free Trade or Fair? The Softwood Lumber Dispute and Beyond, the 5th Annual International Law Symposium in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.^{[citation needed]}
• Prof. Penelope Andrews' article, Learning to Love After Learning to Harm: Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Gender Equality and Cultural Values, was recently published in 15 Mich. J. Int'l L. 41 (2007). Her article "The South African Judicial Appointments Process" has been published in the Osgoode Hall Law Journal.^{[citation needed]}
• Prof. David Nadvorney is the newest contributing editor of the Law School Academic Support (ASP) Blog.^{[citation needed]}
• Prof. Rhonda Copelon won the 2006 Ruth G. Schapiro Memorial Award.^{[citation needed]}
• Prof. Sid Harring's report Our Land They Took: San land rights under threat in Namibia, which he co-wrote with Willem Odendaal, was published by the Legal Assistance Centre of Namibia.^{[citation needed]}
• Prof. Debbie Zalesne's article "Lessons from Equal Opportunity Harasser Doctrine: Challenging Sex-Specific Appearance and Dress Codes" has been published in the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy. The piece challenges the doctrine upholding sex-specific dress codes (e.g., women required to wear makeup, men required to keep their hair short).^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Notable alumni

• Rev. Dr. Iyanla Vanzant, life coach on NBC's Starting Over was a 1988 graduate of CUNY School of Law.^{[citation needed]}
• Arthur L. Aidala, prominent NY City defense attorney, New York City Council candidate and Fox News legal analyst was a 1992 CUNY School of Law graduate.^{[citation needed]}
• Paul Lewis, Chief of Staff to the Chief Administrative Judge of New York was a 1987 CUNY Law School graduate.^{[citation needed]}
• Benjamin Chevat, Chief of Staff, Rep Carolyn B. Maloney (D), 14th District of New York; Chief of Staff to New York Assembly Speaker Saul Weprin (D-Queens) (1986 to 1994), graduated from the first class of CUNY Law School 1986.^{[citation needed]}
• Robert Bank, Chief Operating Officer, Gay Men's Health Crisis, graduated from CUNY Law School in 1986.^{[citation needed]}
• K. Jacob Ruppert, New York City historian and presently Court Counsel and Judicial Hearing Officer of and for the 11th Judicial District Court of the State of Louisiana, is a 1994 graduate and was the founding Co-Editor-and-Chief of our CUNY Law Review, now known as the New York City Law Review. Ruppert is from a long line of notable New Yorkers including Jacob Ruppert, Sr. (1842-1915), a German-American brewer from Manhattan's Yorkville neighborhood, and Col. Jacob Ruppert, Jr (1867-1939), owner of the New York Yankees in the 1920's and 1930's.^{[citation needed]}
• Kary L. Moss, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, is a 1987 graduate.^[6]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• CUNY School of Law Official Website
• CUNY's Public Interest Law Association
• New York City Law Review
• CUNY Law on Facebook
• CUNY Law on Twitter
• CUNY Law on YouTube
• The Unofficial, Unaffiliated CUNY Law Blog
• The CUNY Law Suit Blog
• The CUNY Law Scrapbook

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