Cornell Law School
Cornell
Cornell Law School
Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
www.lawschool.cornell.edu/
Law School Pro Bono Programs
Contact Information
Karen ComstockAssistant Dean for Public Service
kvc2@cornell.edu
607-255-3597
Category Type
Formal Voluntary Pro Bono Program Characterized by a Referral System with Coordinator
Description of Program
The Assistant Dean for Public Service has the responsibility, as part of her job description, for connecting law students with pro bono opportunities. Here are examples:
- During fall orientation a "Public Service Fair" was held where representatives from local legal aid and other public interest organizations spoke to law students about term-time pro bono opportunities in their offices.
- Promotion of the Law Students in Action Project (LSAP). LSAP collaborates with local legal service providers and Cornell Law School to create a broad array of projects designed to expand the delivery of legal services to low-income and underserved communities. For example, students from the Public Interest Law Union became part of the Volunteer Research Assistance Team and compiled a comprehensive list of adoption and child support law from various states. The Spanish Translation and Interpretation Assistance Team helps public interest attorneys communicate with their Spanish-Speaking clients.
- Advising and assisting a new student group, Cornell Advocates for Human Rights. The Assistant Dean connected students with alumni working for human rights, civil rights and other public interest organizations. As a result, students worked on several legal research projects for these attorneys.
- In July 2004, Joe Iarocci '84, General Counsel for CARE (which is Atlanta based) requested a volunteer law student or students to conduct research and write a memo addressing certain provision of the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003, and its validity under the U.S. Constitution. Many students jumped at the chance.
- In 2005-06, provided information, encouragment and funding for law students who traveled to New Orleans during winter break (4 students) and spring break (18 students) to do legal pro bono work and help with clean-up projects resulting from the effects of hurricane Katrina.
Location of Program
Staffing/Management/Oversight
Pro Bono projects are referred to the law school community through the Assistant Dean for Public Service.
Funding
Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education Projects
American Constitution Society - Held training sessions for lawyer and law student volunteers who wanted to act as Election Day poll monitors. Several students travelled to Pennsylvania to act as poll monitors on election day.Students for Marriage Equality - SME is a group dedicated to fighting for marriage equality in the state of New York and to educating the Ithaca community about the legal issues surrounding marriage equality. Several students committed significant volunteer hours helping Ithaca City Attorney Marty Luster research state and federal claims and important civil procedure tactics for how the city could realign itself in the lawsuit to be on the side of the plaintiffs (since the city was a necessary defendant to the initial claim).
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
Awards/Recognition
Cornell Law School Exemplary Public Service Awards and Celebration, held at the Cornell Club in New York City: Freeman Award for Civil-Human Rights - Awarded annually to the law student or students who have made the greatest contributions during his or her law school career to civil-human rights.
Stanley E. Gould Prize for Public Interest Law - Awarded annually to a third year student or students who have shown outstanding dedication to serving public interest law and public interest groups.
Seymour Herzog Memorial Prize - Awarded annually to a student or students who demonstrate excellence in the law and commitment to public interest law, combined with a love of sports.
Community Service
The following are projects from 2004-2005 which are representative of projects that take place every year:Women's Law Coalition: Organized a school supply drive, collecting notebooks, pens, highlighters, markers and other supplies which were then donated to the Counseling for School Success Program, a school for emotionally disturbed elementary through high school students in Ithaca.
Phi Alphi Phi: Organized a law school blood drive.
LAMBDA law students: Distributed free Safer Sex Valentines on February 14 (included condoms).
Cornell Law School Veterans Society and Phi Alpha Delta: Collected donations for care packages that were sent to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Law School Relay for Life Team: Several law students participated in this 24 hour non-stop walking relay that raised funds for the American Cancer Society.
Law School Public Interest Programs
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Contact Information
Karen ComstockAssistant Dean for Public Service
kvc2@cornell.edu
607-255-3597
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
Third-year students may concentrate in a particular field of law. To encourage such focus, the school grants certificates to students who complete the requirements of one of four concentrations. Two of these concentrations are public interest in nature: Advocacy and Public Law. Each concentration program requires the completion, before graduation, of 14 credit hours, including a writing course in the designated area.
Public Interest Centers
Office of Public Service - Charged with implementing programs and policies that promote the law school's public service programs.Cornell Legal Information Institute - http://www.law.cornell.edu The Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute (LII) is known internationally as a leading "law-not-com" provider of public legal information. It offers all opinions of the United States Supreme Court handed down since 1992, together with over 600 earlier decisions selected for their historic importance, over a decade of opinions of the New York Court of Appeals, and the full United States Code. LII also publishes important secondary sources: libraries in two important areas (legal ethics and social security) and a series of topical pages that serve as concise explanatory guides and Internet resource listings for roughly 100 areas of law. The Institute is a non-profit activity of Cornell Law School supported by grants, the consulting work of its co-directors, and gifts. No subscription fee limits access to LII services.
Public Interest Clinics
Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic Capital Punishment Clinic: Post-Conviction Litigation
Capital Trial Clinic I and II
Criminal Defense Trial Clinic
Full-Term Externship
Government Benefits Clinic 1 or 3
Government Benefits Clinic/Neighborhood Legal Services Externship 1 or 3
International War Crimes Research Clinic
Prosecution Trial Clinic
Public Interest Clinic 1
Public Interest Clinic 2
Public Interest Clinic 3
Women and the Law Clinic 1 or 3
Externships/Internships
Full-Term Externship: The Full-Term Externship course allows students to earn 12 credit hours as externs working full time a minimum of 65 days at an approved non-profit or governmental placement site off campus (practically anywhere in the United States)during the fall semester of their third year. Judicial Externship: Students work with a trial court judge. Work involves courtroom observation, conferences with the judge, research and writing memoranda, and drafting decisions. The emphasis is on learning about judges, judicial decision-making process, and trials. There are weekly class meetings with readings and discussions of topics related to the externship experience. While the primary focus is the students' work at the placement, each student will also do class presentations, weekly journal entries, provide written work samples, and meet individually with the faculty member
Law Guardian Externship: Students learn about the representation of children in abuse and neglect cases, juvenile delinquency proceedings, and PINS (Persons in Need of Supervision) cases through their placement at the Tompkins County Law Guardian office. Duties may include interviewing, investigation, drafting memoranda and motions, and assisting in trial preparation. There will be several meetings with the instructor during the semester for discussion of issues arising from and related to the representation of children. Bi-weekly journals are also required.
Legislative Externship: The students work with Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton. Work involves drafting legislation, tracking legislation for constituents, legal research and writing, responding to constituent requests that particularly require legal research or an explanation of law. The emphasis is on learning about legislative process, drafting of legislation, the reasons for statutory ambiguity, and various learning skills. There are several informal meetings with the faculty supervisor during the semester with readings and group discussions related to the externship experience.
Neighborhood Legal Services Externship: Cases involve the representation of clients of a legal services office, the Ithaca office of Neighborhood Legal Services (NLS). Along with case handling, this externship includes a classroom component, provided by Clinical Skills 1, 2 or 1, 3. The classes are devoted to the development of lawyering skills and issues related to professional responsibility and the role of an attorney. In addition, each student will meet periodically with the faculty supervisor for review of the placement experience.
Classes with a Public Service Component
Street Law. Three credit hours. Professor Winnie F. Taylor, (607) 255-1545
Course description, Spring 2002: This seminar would allow law students to lead weekly discussions at the Auburn Correctional Facility on contemporary legal topics. Although all students enrolled in the seminar will be expected to attend the weekly meeting, two students will be responsible for presenting a legal or policy issue at each meeting and then opening up the floor to questions and comments from the prisoners in attendance. Prison administrators will determine who will attend the legal seminar. The objective of this seminar is to facilitate the exchange of ideas and the discussion of current legal issues among law students and members of the Auburn prison population. It will give our students an additional opportunity to take law and legal education beyond the traditional classroom setting. The list below is a sampling of topics that hopefully will spark the kind of spirited intellectual debate this seminar envisions:
- Reparations for African Americans: legal and Policy Issues
- Racial Profiling
- Family Law and the Rights of Fathers
- Term Limits on Elected Officials
- Pornography as Discrimination Against Women
- The Relevance of Race, Ethnicity, and Sex to Judicial Appointments
- Therapeutic Jurisprudence and Shaming Penalties
- Fourth Amendment and Other Limits on Policing Schools for Drugs and Guns
Public Interest Journals
Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy: Volume 14 Number 1, Fall 2004
Volume 14 Number 2, Summer 2005
Volume 14 Number 3, Summer 2005
Cornell Law Review:
Volume 90 Number 1, November 2004
Volume 90 Number 2, January 2005
Volume 90 Number 3, March 2005
Cornell International Law Journal:
Volume 37 Issue 1
Volume 37 Issue 3
Volume 38 Issue 1
Public Interest Career Assistance
Karen Comstock, Assistant Dean for Public Service, is housed in the law school Career Office. She provides individual and group counseling to students on all aspects of the public interest and government job search, and sponsors informational programs and alumni speakers on a wide variety of topics. Typical programs on the following topics are presented each year: advice on conducting a public interest or government job search, interviewing for public interest and government jobs, applying for post-graduate fellowships and other funding sources, and applying for summer public interest grants and other funding sources. Alumni speakers sponsored by the Career Office provide insight and advice regarding their law practice areas, including public defense, prosecution, civil rights work, international human rights, civil legal services, federal and state government work, and public policy work. Each year prominent alumni are featured as part of our Public Interest Speaker Series. Cornell Law School students interview with public service employers both on campus and at national public interest career fairs and conferences, including the National Association for Public Interest Law Career Fair and Conference in October in Washington, D.C. and the Public Interest Public Service Legal Career Symposium in February in New York City. The Career Office library contains a myriad of resources for students seeking public sector work. The Career Office subscribes to a national public interest legal job search web site, pslawnet.org, and purchases specialty public interest job search guides for interested students. Finally, the Career Office publishes information on Cornell-specific resources for students, including information about alumni public interest career mentors.
Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP)
Cornell's Public Interest Low Income Protection Plan provides generous grants to graduates who work in public interest and government jobs. These grants are used to assist with student loan payments.
Post-Graduate Fellowships/Awards
Law School Funded:
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
The Sarah Betsy Fuller Social Justice Fund, created in the memory of a former law school professor and social justice activist, provides post-graduate loan repayment assistance grants to alumni doing social justice work.
Term Time Fellowships/Scholarships
Law School Funded:
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Summer Fellowships
Law School Funded:
Each summer 50-60 summer public interest grants are awarded to 1Ls and 2Ls. The grants are funded by a combination of student fundraising through our law student Public Interest Law Union, work-study grants and faculty and alumni contributions. The full-time grant for summer 2005 is anticipated to be $4,000 for 1Ls and $5,000 for 2Ls. The Assistant Dean for Public Service assists students with securing funding from a number of state and national public interest fellowship programs each year, including the New Jersey Public Interest Summer Legal Intern Program, Law Student Union Summer/AFL-CIO, Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI), and the Revson Public Interest Fellowship Program and the Peggy Browning Fund.
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Included in the "student raised funds" category is money raised from the PIF Cabaret and the Give-A-Day in the Public Interest events. Much of the money raised in the "Gifts from individuals, Firms or Corporations" comes in through our phone-a-thon and mail-a-thon, which are staffed by student volunteers, with support from our Development Office.
Fund By Gift Description:
A total of 67 summer Public Interest Fellowship (PIF) grants were awarded. Twenty grants of $5,000 went to 2Ls, and 47 grants of $4,000 whent to 1Ls. Every student who devoted at least 10 hours to fundraising activities received a grant if they took a qualifying unpaid summer job. Qualifying employers are nonprofit organizations, government agencies. Public interest law firms are considered on a case by case basis. Judicial internships are not included.
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
Fred Grey, Esq. - "Why Do You Want To Be A Lawyer?" - Fred Gray is a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement. Among other things, he was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s first civil rights attorney, represented Rosa Parks during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, was instrumental in integrating the Alabama school system and represented persons harmed by the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Mr. Gray spoke to the first year contracts class, and presented a talk to the Cornell University Community. Janet Reno, Cornell University '60 - Former U.S. Attorney and Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 University Professor Ms. Reno shared her "Perspectives on Public Service" with a rapt group of Cornell Law students.
Eliminating Sexual Exploitation in UN Peacekeeping Operations - Featured UN consultants Anna Shotton and Anthony Miller, who assisted the Jordanian Ambassador to the United Nations, Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein, in the preparation of this report.
Berger International Legal Studies Program - Five of the Berger Program's Lectures focused on public interest topics: 1) "Demanding Accountability: Using International Law in the Fight for Women's Human Rights" 2) "The Supreme Court, Guantanamo Bay and Justice Fix-It" 3) "The 9/11 Commission Report: Required Reading for Every American law Student" 4) "Freedom of Speech: The Law of Defamation and the Right to Privacy" 5) "Trying Heads of State: Accountability and the International Justice Movement, Has There Been Any 'Movement'?"
The Cyrus Mehri Public Interest Lecture Series - The Cyrus Mehri Public Interest Lecture Series features an annual major address to the law school community by a leading public interest law practitioner.
Student Public Interest Groups
American Constitution Society Black Law Students Association
Christian Legal Society
Jewish Legal Society
Cornell Law Students for Human Rights
Environmental Law Society
Federalist Society
Jewish Law Students Association
Latino American Law Students Association
Asian Pacific American Law Students Association
National Lawyers Guild
Native American Law Students Association
Public Interest Law Union
Society of Law and the Arts
Students for Marriage Equality
