New York University School of Law
New York University
New York University School of Law
245 Sullivan Street
New York, NY 10012
www.law.nyu.edu/
Law School Pro Bono Programs
Contact Information
Deborah EllisAssistant Dean for Public Interest Law
212.998.6686
deb.ellis@nyu.edu
Category Type
Formal Voluntary Pro Bono Program Characterized by Administrative Support for Student Group Projects
Description of Program
NYU students have many opportunities to get involved in public service in student pro bono groups, clinics, summer internships, and term-time internships. NYU guarantees funding for summer internships for all 1L and 2L students. The Public Interest Law Center (PILC) has five full-time staff and is responsible for all public interest activity at the law school, including pro bono promotion and facilitation.
Location of Program
Public Interest Law Center (PILC) and numerous student groups.
Staffing/Management/Oversight
Five full-time employees of the Public Interest Law Center and student interns.
Funding
Student pro bono group projects are funded by law schools grants to student groups and, in some cases, outside funding as well. Faculty pro bono is supported through usual administrative and secretarial support and funds on a case by case basis.
Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education Projects
Below are selected student groups, for a full listing, please see www.law.nyu.edu/studentorgs/sba/organizations.htmlAmerican Civil Liberties Union of NYU Law (ACLU of NYU Law) – The ACLU moves beyond simply educating students on issues regarding civil liberties and respect for the Bill of Rights. Through relationships with faculty and the NYCLU, ACLU of NYU Law affords students the opportunity to conduct legal research to help ongoing cases or academic work, and thus get a more “hands-on” experience. The ACLU also works to encourage law students to pursue career opportunities in the field by inviting alumni and NYCLU representatives to the law school to network and answer questions. Lastly, the ACLU’s potential impact and reach is greatly enhanced through partnerships with NYU’s undergraduate ACLU club and the NYCLU.
Battered Women's Project –- The Battered Women's Project (BWP) works in various ways to help women who are the victims of domestic violence. The Battered Women's Project is run by Sanctuary for Families, a New York organization that assists battered women. There are two BWP projects at New York University School of Law. Through the Courtroom Advocates Program (CAP), law students assist women at Family Court in getting orders of protection from their batterers. For example, student advocates help the women draft their complaints, answer any questions, and assist the women when they appear before the judge. In the Uncontested Divorce Project, students are trained to assist women in obtaining a divorce from their batterer. Prior to participating in these programs, law students participate in a full day of training run by Sanctuary for Families. BWP also brings in speakers throughout the year and sponsors events for Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Education Law and Policy Society – The NYU Education Law and Policy Society is committed to strengthening education, with particular emphasis on public education reform in the United States. Ed Law strives to prepare leaders, generate discourse, engage the broader legal community, and create opportunities for students to effect change toward ensuring a quality education for all youth.
Health Law Society (HLS) – The Health Law Society is dedicated to raising the visibility of health law issues at New York University School of Law. The Society pursues this goal by bringing academics and practitioners to NYU School of Law to discuss these issues with students, either through formal symposia or more informal events. Past guests to the law school have spoken about bio-medical ethics, medical technology, food and drug law, mass tort litigation, patent law, HMOs, insurance regulation, ERISA, disability rights issues, elder care, legal issues in AIDS research and treatment, the body as property, and comparative health systems.
The High School Law Institute (HSLI) – The High School Law Institute (HSLI), operated by a small board of NYU Law students, offers courses in Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, and Mock Trial to 10th and 11th grade students from public high schools throughout New York City. The program also offers workshops on applying to college, college life, and financial aid, as well as a speaker series which brings outstanding NYC legal practitioners to discuss their careers with our students. The year culminates in a mock trial competition and graduation ceremony in April.
Law Students Against the Death Penalty – Law Students Against the Death Penalty (LSDAP) was formed in response to the passage of New York State's death penalty law in September 1995. Our goal is to fight the death penalty both in New York and around the country. Members perform legal research and review trial transcripts for organizations such as the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center, the Georgia Resource Center, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
The Law Student Drug Policy Forum – The Law Student Drug Policy Forum (LSDPF), formed in 2001, is committed to education and research regarding current and alternative drug policies. LSDPF does not espouse a particular agenda. Its members approach drug policy with a variety of perspectives and interests, including advocacy of legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes, improvement of access to drug treatment, syringe exchange and other public health-oriented harm reduction initiatives, campaigns to educate the public about race-based disparities in arrest and incarceration rates for drug-related offenses, full legalization of all illicit drugs, and support for additional funding for current drug policy. The activities of LSDPF this year have focused on education within the New York University School of Law community, creation of internship and volunteer opportunities for students, and collaboration with local drug policy organizations and student organizations in local political activities.
Law Students for Human Rights (LSHR) – LSHR is a highly active student organization that focuses on global and domestic human rights. LSHR’s mission is to: 1) promote global human rights by drawing on the unique resources of the NYU School of Law community; 2) establish a forum for education, advocacy and direct service related to human rights; 3) build a community for future practitioners of human rights law; and 4) engage in the study of human rights law and develop the skills required to advance strategic human rights objectives.
NYU Mediation Organization – The NYU Mediation Organization is dedicated to spreading and implementing mediation as an effective tool of conflict resolution, both within New York University School of Law and the broader legal and general community. It serves to not only encourage mediation amongst faculty, students, and staff, but to provide NYU law students an opportunity to mediate in real life contexts. The NYU Mediation Organization is designed to offer students a hands on experience by mediating real disputes arising between real parties, while at the same time relieving the heavy load on overburdened courthouses.
Each semester, students are trained in mediation, including the nature of mediation, mediation techniques, developing listening skills, working with co-mediators, and establishing rapport with parties to a dispute. Several students mediate disputes in Small Claims Court every weekday. Working in teams of two, the students practice and apply the dispute resolution techniques learned in training. The teams encounter a variety of cases that include landlord-tenant disputes, auto accidents, work contracts, and unpaid bills.
Prisoner’s Rights Education Project (PREP) – The Prisoners' Rights and Education Project (PREP) is a student organization devoted to teaching inmates in New York state prisons legal research skills. Each semester we conduct a seven week course on site at prison classrooms and libraries.
Research, Education, & Advocacy to Combat Homelessness (REACH) – REACH offers law students the opportunity to go to local soup kitchens and advocate for the New Yorkers most in need of respect and assistance. Members provide advice and advocacy on a wide range of issues including housing, public benefits, and health-related matters and represent clients at fair hearings when necessary. We also publish a comprehensive advocacy manual on social and legal services in New York City that we keep on hand at clinics for quick reference. Finally, REACH seeks to educate the law school community by organizing speakers and panels on issues relevant to poverty law.
The Unemployment Action Center (UAC) – The Unemployment Action Center (UAC) offers excellent litigation experience for law students and provides a significant community service. UAC advocates (mostly first- and second-year law students) provide free legal representation for claimants regarding unemployment benefits. In adversarial hearings before administration law judges at the Department of Labor, advocates conduct direct examinations, cross examinations, and make closing arguments on behalf of their clients. Hence, students can gain legal experience from defending real clients who need representation. Furthermore, students involved in leadership on UAC's Board of Directors learn about the realities of running a non-profit corporation and the challenges facing public interest organizations. Many advocates consider their work with the UAC to be one of the most rewarding aspects of their law school experience.
Started as a clinical program at NYU School of Law in 1981, the UAC has since blossomed into one of the leading providers of legal services for unemployment hearings in New York City. In 1985, the UAC incorporated as a completely student-run non-profit corporation. The organization now includes chapters and students from Columbia, Cardozo, Hofstra, New York Law, Fordham, and New York University Law Schools.
Youth and Criminal Justice Society (YCJS) – The Youth and Criminal Justice Society focuses on the increasing impact of the criminal justice system on the lives of young people. YCJS hosts lunch speakers and performs service projects in the area of youth and criminal justice. YCJS focuses on the juvenile justice system, drug laws that target youth, indigent defense, lack of counsel for juveniles, the school to prison pipeline, the impact of incarceration of parents, particularly women, on families, and the increasing punishment and decreasing rehabilitation of juveniles.
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
There is not a formal faculty pro bono policy, but faculty are noted for engaged in a diverse range of pro bono work, from environmental land use to death penalty representation in Alabama to employment rights. For a complete listing of our faculty’s bios, please see www.law.nyu.edu/faculty/profiles/index.html.
Awards/Recognition
The Eric Dean Bender Prize – Awarded annually "for a third-year student who has demonstrated a working commitment to a public service-oriented cause or project outside of and separate from Law School commitments." The Hy Frankel Award in Law and Social Welfare – Awarded annually “for demonstrated commitment to practice in a public interest setting.”
The Black, Latino, Asian-Pacific American Law Alumni Association (BLAPA) Public Service Graduation Prize – Awarded annually “to a member of APALSA, BALSA, LALSA, MELSA, MULSA, or SALSA, for dedication to Public Service and commitment to a career in Public Interest Law.”
Community Service
Community service is encouraged and promoted throughout the academic year by mass e-mails to all law students. The Office of Student Affairs researches, finds, and promotes various projects and offers at least one each month from September through April of the academic year. Various University-wide projects are also advertised via e-mail and fliers throughout the year. Institutionally, the school holds food, clothing, and toy drives at various times of the year. Also, one month a year the school hosts Campus Harvest throughout the Law School community and collects unpackaged and canned goods for City Harvest. For a complete list of community service opportunities, see www.law.nyu.edu/depts/studentaffairs/service/index.html.
Law School Public Interest Programs
Back to top
Contact Information
Public Interest Law Center212.998.6686
pilc.info@nyu.edu
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship Program
This prestigious public interest program awards full-tuition scholarships to 20 students each year, based on commitment to public service, academic merit, and leadership qualities. Scholars also participate in special orientation, extracurricular, and internship opportunities. Filomen M. D’Agostino Scholarship Fund This program provides three full-tuition scholarships each year to students of outstanding academic merit who demonstrate a strong commitment to issues of women’s or children’s rights and wish to pursue public service careers devoted to those issues.
Arthur Garfield Hays Fellowship in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties The fellowship program recognizes outstanding third year students committed to civil liberties and offers them unique opportunities to participate in internships with civil liberties and other human rights organizations and to work on research or special projects.
Global Public Service Law Project This is a groundbreaking program of curricular and extracurricular initiatives designed to create a world-wide network of public service lawyers committed to democracy, human rights, access to justice, the rule of law and social change.
Public Interest Centers
Public Interest Law Center (PILC)
In 1992, NYU School of Law founded the Public Interest Law Center (PILC) as the focal point for public service activities at the Law School. Now a national model for the promotion of public service, the Center has become a critical component of public interest education for students. The Center’s attorney-counselors offer expert individual guidance on summer and term-time internships, fellowship opportunities, and the post-graduate job search. PILC staff also assists students in navigating the many pro bono opportunities available, so that even first-year students can use their legal education to help others. PILC hosts many educational events throughout the year, such as the Leaders in Public Interest Series, to expand student awareness of public interest law and expose students to the numerous opportunities available to them during and after law school. PILC administers several programs, including the:
- Root-Tilden-Kern and Filomen M. D’Agostino Scholarship Programs
- Public Interest Legal Career Fair, attended by students from 21 law schools and 200 employers
- Public Interest Summer Funding Program, providing funding for approximately 300 students each summer for internships
- PILC Student Advisors Program
- Public Interest Alumni Network
- Charles H. Revson LSPIN Fellowship Program
For further information on other Centers and Institutes see www.law.nyu.edu/pcic/.
Public Interest Clinics
NYU Law's extensive clinical programs function as public interest law firms, supervised by clinical faculty and in some cases, lawyers in government or private organizations.
- Brennan Center Public Policy Advocacy Clinic
- Children's Rights Clinic
- Civil Legal Services Clinic
- Civil Rights Clinic
- Comparative Criminal Justice Clinic
- Criminal and Community Defense Clinic
- Employment and Housing Discrimination Clinic
- Environmental Law Clinic
- Equal Justice and Capital Defender Clinic
- Family Defense Clinic
- Federal Defender Clinic
- Government Civil Litigation Clinic – Eastern District of New York
- Government Civil Litigation Clinic – Southern District of New York
- Immigrants Rights Clinic
- International Environmental Law Clinic
- International Human Rights Clinic
- Juvenile Defender Clinic
- Mediation Clinic
- Medical-Legal Advocacy Clinic
- Prosecution Clinic
- Public Policy Advocacy Clinic
- Supreme Court Litigation Clinic
Externships/Internships
Because of its extensive clinics, NYU does not offer academic credit for externships. However, many students take advantage of New York City’s plethora of opportunities and work at public interest organizations during term-time, either as volunteers or for wages.
Classes with a Public Service Component
n addition to our extensive clinics, see www.law.nyu.edu/clinics/, many NYU Law courses focus on public interest issues, allowing students to concentrate on the study of the various facets of public interest law. While courses vary from year to year, please see www.law.nyu.edu/depts/publicinterest/curriculum/sampling.html for a sampling of courses offered in the past few years that would be relevant to students concerned with public interest law.
Public Interest Journals
Environmental Law Journal www.law.nyu.edu/journals/envtllaw/Journal of International Law and Politics www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/
Journal of Legislation and Public Policy www.law.nyu.edu/journals/legislation/
Law Review www.law.nyu.edu/journals/lawreview/
Review of Law and Social Change www.law.nyu.edu/pubs/socialchange/
Public Interest Career Assistance
Public Interest Law Center212.998.6686
pilc.info@nyu.edu
Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP)
NYU Law established one of the first and most generous Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP) in the country to assist students who pursue low-paying law-related careers, including academia. The program may pay the full annual debt service for JD graduates for up to ten years following graduation. For further information, please visit www.law.nyu.edu/depts/financialaid/lrap/index.html.
Post-Graduate Fellowships/Awards
Law School Funded:
Arthur Helton Global Human Rights Fellowship, New York, NY – one award
Brennan Center for Justice, Katz Fellowship, New York, NY – one award every other year
Equal Justice Initiative Fellowship, Montgomery, AL – two awards
Kirkland & Ellis Fellowship, New York, NY – one award
NYU School of Law Human Rights Watch Fellowship, New York, NY – one award
Robert L. Bernstein Fellowship at Human Rights in China, New York, NY – one award
Sincheimer Children’s Rights Fellowship at Partnership for Children’s Rights, New York, NY – one award
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Kirkland and Ellis New York City Public Service Fellowship: one at $40,000
Term Time Fellowships/Scholarships
Law School Funded:
InMotion - Each semester InMotion, which provides free legal services to low-income women throughout New York City, primarily in the areas of matrimonial, family and immigration law, hires an NYU Law Student to serve as the New York Women’ s Bar Association Foundation (NYWBAF) Fellow. The position requires 10-20 hours per week and is paid $1,800 for the semester.
Graduate Student Funded:
Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) Student Grants –10 awards at $1000 each
Other Funding Sources:
Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship
Filomen M. D’Agostino Scholarship
Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program
BLAPA Public Service Scholarship
Brechner Fellowship at the Anti-Defamation League
Brodsky Legal Internship at the Anti-Defamation League
Sidley Austin Public Interest Summer Fellowship for NYU School of Law Students
Summer Fellowships
Law School Funded:
Since 2003, through the Public Interest Summer Program, NYU has provided funding for all first-year and second-year students who work in public interest and government positions; approximately 300 students participate in this program each summer. Within this Program are two specialized opportunities. The first is the Center for Environmental and Land Use Law, which supports students interested in environmental law through summer internships, mentoring by the Schools’ environmental and land use faculty, and exposure to leading practitioners in the field. The second, the International Law and Human Rights Student Fellows Program, places students in about a dozen high-profile international organizations, including the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Tanzania; the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in Switzerland and Thailand; and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in Cambodia.
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood Public Interest Internship – one paid by the law firm at New York firm market rates.
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
Leaders in Public Interest Series, see www.law.nyu.edu/depts/publicinterest/events.html
PILC Student Advisors Lunch SeriesNumerous public interest lunches and career panels throughout the year
Numerous public interest lectures and symposia such as the Bell Lecture on Race in American Society, the Korematsu Lecture on Asian Americans and the Law, Labor and Employment Law Workshops
Student Public Interest Groups
In addition to the Student-Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education Projects described in detail above, the following student groups are active in public interest issues. Please see www.law.nyu.edu/studentorgs/sba/organizations.html for a complete list of student groups.
- American Constitution Society
- Coalition for Legal Recruitment
- Cuba Legal Studies Group
- Dean’s Cup
- Environmental Law Society
- Federalist Society
- International Law Society
- Law Students for Reproductive Justice
- National Lawyers Guild
- OUTLaw
- Practice
- Project on Negotiation and Dispute Resolution
- Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF)
- Public Service Auction
- Student Animal Legal Defense Fund
- Student Bar Association
Last updated: 1/27/2008
