Public Interest
The Big Picture
The First. The Biggest. The Best. Long considered the leader in training lawyers for public interest work, the Law School has pioneered programs that are now pro forma in the nation’s other top law schools. Today, NYU offers the most comprehensive public service infrastructure of any law school in the nation, including the Public Interest Law Center, a national model for the promotion of public service. Beginning with one-on-one sessions for 1Ls, PILC staff attorneys like Rachel Peckerman ’04 and Sara Rakita ’98 and director Deborah Ellis '82 are active career counselors during a student’s time at school––and after.
The Law School's commitment to producing lawyers with a real service ethos extends beyond curriculum, training opportunities and career counseling. NYU has been at the forefront of creating and funding programs to address the difficult economic reality facing prospective public interest lawyers. Since 2003, through Public Interest Summer Funding Grants, the Law School has guaranteed funding for all first- and second-year J.D. candidates who work in public interest and government positions; almost 300 students participate in the program each summer. Through the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP), NYU Law encourages students to pursue careers in public service. Graduates who choose work in public service or with nonprofit organizations following graduation will, provided their income is below a designated level, have their debt burden paid in full or part by NYU.
Public interest training is also supported by an array of public interest scholarship programs: the Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship Program, the Filomen M. D’Agostino Scholarship Program, the Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program, the Black, Latino, Asian Pacific American (BLAPA) Law Alumni Association Public Service Scholarship, the Reynolds Fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship, and the Bickel & Brewer Latino Institute for Human Rights Scholarship.
Stories From Washington Square35th annual Public Interest Legal Career Fair draws record numbers
Leaders in Public Interest Series panel compares roles of public defender and prosecutor
Five NYU Law students join Justice Department through Attorney General's Honors Program
New York State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries '97 tackles criminal justice reform in Guarini Lecture (VIDEO)
Professor Margaret Satterthwaite '99 and Veerle Opgenhaffen publish findings on gender-based violence in Haiti
In the Huffington Post, Dean Richard Revesz and Michael Livermore ’06 discuss President Obama’s program for regulatory review
In the Press
"Judge Suggests U.S. Misled Court on Immigration Policy"
Wall Street Journal (Subscription Required)
Expert:
Nancy Morawetz '81
"Activists fight to fulfill their DREAM"
Philadelphia Inquirer
Featured:
David Bennion '04
"Messin’ with Texas"
Boston Review
Author:
Samuel Issacharoff
"Hakeem Jeffries gives the prison-gerrymander presentation at his old law school"
Capital New York
Featured:
Hakeem Jeffries '97
"Is That All There Is? The Occupy Movement"
Huffington Post
Author:
Benjamin West '08
"House Dems urge secretaries of state to protect voting rights"
Washington Post
Featured:
Brennan Center for Justice
Learn more about Public Interest Law at NYU:
Faculty
Curriculum
Videos
Contact Information
Public Interest Law Center
Deb Ellis
Assistant Dean
Furman Hall
245 Sullivan Street, Room 430
New York, New York 10012-1301
Telephone: (212) 998-6686
Email: Pilc.info@nyu.edu