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CUNY School of Law

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City University of New York School of Law
MottoLaw in the Service of Human Needs
TypePublic
Established1983
Location
Long Island City
,
New York
,
United States
CampusUrban
DeanMichelle J. Anderson
Websitewww.law.cuny.edu

The City University of New York School of Law (or CUNY School of Law) is an American law school with its campus located in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York City. Founded in 1983, CUNY School of Law, was established as a public interest law school with a curriculum focused toward integrating clinical teaching methods within traditional legal studies.[1][2]

According to CUNY School of Law's 2013 ABA-required disclosures, 48.6% of the Class of 2013 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation.[3]

History

In 1981 CUNY hired Charles Halpern to be the founding dean of a planned law school. Halpern is regarded within the legal community as the "father of public interest law" with a professional career as a Georgetown law professor and co-founder of the Center for Law and Social Policy, an organization based in Washington D.C. that advocates for policies that aim to improve the lives of low-income people.

In Spring of 1982, Dean Halpern hired Howard Lesnick as a Distinguished Professor of Law. Professor Lesnick believed that CUNY law students needed to understand that the law only has significance in relation to the underlying human problems that it addresses.[4]

Campus

CUNY Law moved to 2 Court Square in Long Island City at the end of May 2012. CUNY purchased a six-floor condominium interest in the 14-story environmentally green building. Citigroup will retain ownership of the remainder of the building. The move gives the school nearly 70,000 additional square feet of space. The building is within walking distance of seven subway lines (two within one stop of Manhattan), the Long Island Railroad, and eight bus lines. It is only a few blocks away from the Long Island City Courthouse. The move will enable CUNY School of Law to develop a new part-time program, though it has yet to be announced when this program will start.

The building at 2 Court Square is LEED Gold certified, which means that its construction had a reduced environmental impact and its design increases occupants' health and well-being.

Organization and administration

Current Dean Michelle 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. Her article "Understanding Rape Shield Laws" was the basis for a proposal to reform the Wyoming rape shield law. The bill passed the House but did not pass the Wyoming Senate. Dean Anderson is 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. 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 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 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.

Academic profile

Curriculum and 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.[citation needed] 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 Concentration
  • Family Law Concentration
  • Health Law Concentration
  • Immigrant and Non-Citizen Rights
  • Human Rights & Gender Justice
  • Mediation

Publications

  • City University of New York 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.

Justice initiatives and special programs

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 Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality (CLORE), the Center for Urban Environmental Reform (CUER), the Center for Diversity in the Legal Profession (CDLP), the CUNY Law Immigrant Initiatives (CLII), and the Economic Justice Project (EJP). The Contemplative Lawyering Program offers yoga and meditation. 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.
  • Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality (CLORE) 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.
  • Center for Urban Environmental Reform (CUER) Founded on the belief that environmental justice is a critical aspect of social justice and that communities are entitled to participate fully and meaningfully in environmental decisions that affect them.
  • Center for Diversity in the Legal Profession 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.
  • 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. As well as its student clinical offering, students at CUNY along with the Welfare Rights Initiative and other community organizations advocate for policy change at the State and local level.

Rankings and reputation

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.[5]

In 2011, preLaw magazine ranked CUNY Law the #1 Public Interest Law School in the Nation.[6] Yale Law School came in second place.[6]

U.S. News & World Report, the provider of the "tiered" list of law school in the country recognized CUNY's exceptional clinical program by ranking them #4 in the country.[7]

The school has also been recognized by National Jurist/PreLaw Magazine as one of the top 10 public interest law schools.[8] and by the Princeton Review[9] 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.[citation needed]

Student life

Diversity

Among CUNY Law's 2012 entering class, approximately 49 percent are students of color. Tenured or tenure-track faculty are 37 percent of color.[10]

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.

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.

Notable people

CUNY Law's Pipeline to Justice program, directed by Associate Dean for Special Projects, Mary Lu Bilek 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.

Past Deans

Notable alumni

Employment

According to CUNY School of Law's official 2013 ABA-required disclosures, 48.6% of the Class of 2013 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation.[3] CUNY School of Law's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 37%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2013 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.[15]

ABA Employment Summary for 2013 Graduates[16]
Employment Status Percentage
Employed - Bar Passage Required
 
 52.9%
Employed - J.D. Advantage
 
 21.01%
Employed - Professional Position
 
 5.02%
Employed - Non-Professional Position
 
 0.0%
Employed - Undeterminable
 
 0.0%
Pursuing Graduate Degree Full Time
 
 2.69%
Unemployed - Start Date Deferred
 
 2.17%
Unemployed - Not Seeking
 
 0.72%
Unemployed - Seeking
 
 14.49%
Employment Status Unknown
 
 2.17%
Total of 138 Graduates

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at CUNY School of Law for the 2014-2015 academic year is $43,031.[17] The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $169,950.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ Maeroff, Gene I. “Dean Appointed, Moving City U’s Law School Closer to Reality,” The New York Times (24 December 1981).
  2. ^ Halpern, Charles R. "A New Direction in Legal Education: The CUNY Law School at Queens College", 10 Nova L.J. 549, 549 (1986).
  3. ^ a b "ABA Standard 509 Report 2013" (PDF).
  4. ^ Howard Lesnick, Infinity in a Grain of Sand: The World of Law and Lawyering as Portrayed in the Clinical Teaching Implicit in the Law School Curriculum, 37 UCLA L. Rev. 1157, 1184 (1990).
  5. ^ http://www.law.cuny.edu/news-events/archive_p=3171.html
  6. ^ a b Weyenberg, Michelle (2011). "Best Law Schools for Public Interest" (PDF). preLaw (Winter): 24–31. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  7. ^ "Best Clinical Training Programs - Top Law Schools - US News Best Graduate Schools". Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  8. ^ "Best public interest law schools". Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  9. ^ "Law School Admissions - The Princeton Review". Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  10. ^ CUNY School of Law. "About". Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  11. ^ "Mary Lu Bilek Appointed Interim Dean of the CUNY School of Law – CUNY Newswire – CUNY". Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  12. ^ http://www.law.cuny.edu/faculty-staff/MBilek.html
  13. ^ http://www.law.cuny.edu/magazine/archive/07-spring-cunylaw.pdf
  14. ^ "New York State Assembly - Daniel J. O'Donnell". Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  15. ^ "CUNY Profile".
  16. ^ "Employment Summary for 2013 Graduates".
  17. ^ "Cost of Attendance & Student Budget".
  18. ^ "CUNY Profile".

40°44′52″N 73°56′37″W / 40.74770°N 73.94369°W / 40.74770; -73.94369

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