Our externship courses integrate classroom work with real-world experience in non-profit or government offices. Students learn important lawyering skills while working closely with attorneys in those offices, critically observe and discuss the work of lawyers in public service, and build valuable professional relationships and important networks in the legal community
Civil Rights and Legal Services
- Appellate Advocates SORA Externship
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In the Appellate Advocates SORA Externship, student attorneys will investigate, write, and litigate a modification petition in Supreme Court. Each student attorney will be assigned their own client, a New Yorker living with the stigma of being classified as a high or moderate risk of recidivism on the Internet sex offender registry, despite years at liberty without any re-offense. This externship gives student attorneys the opportunity to make a life-altering impact in the lives of rehabilitated individuals while developing strong legal writing, client representation, and oral argument skills.
- Civil Federal Legal Services Externship
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In the Civil Federal Legal Services Externship, students work with civil attorneys in the Southern District of New York to litigate on behalf of working-class New Yorkers. Students may also have the opportunity to defend a deposition, argue a motion in court, represent a litigant in settlement negotiations in an Americans with Disabilities Act case or intellectual property case; or represent a litigant at an initial case conference.
- Eviction Defense and Tenant Protection Externship - The Legal Aid Society
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A significant challenge for low-income New Yorkers is to find and retain safe and decent housing. The Eviction Defense and Tenant Protection Externship - The Legal Aid Society introduces law students to the complexity and rewards of working on behalf of low-income tenants in New York City, and gives them the opportunity to develop litigation and client skills in this uniquely challenging context while also having a real impact on the lives of disenfranchised New Yorkers.
- LGBTQ Rights Externship
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The LGBTQ Rights Externship combines fieldwork at a local organization with a weekly seminar at NYU Law to help students strengthen knowledge and skills fundamental to legal advocacy advancing the rights of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, queer, questioning, intersex, and/or gender-nonconforming, as well as other people who face discrimination, violence, or other oppression based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
- NDS Police Accountability Externship
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In the NDS Police Accountability Externship, students work with Neighborhood Defender Service (NDS) attorneys and their clients to pursue individual claims of police misconduct. In addition to direct representation, students will gain hands-on experience in community-centered lawyering by joining NDS in engaging with community groups in conversations around police violence and police accountability.
- Pro Bono Scholars Program Law and Power Externship
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To what extent—and how—can law be used to build durable power for poor and oppressed people? What kinds of legal strategies, approaches to law and organizing, and organizational forms best facilitate this project? The Pro Bono Scholars Program Law and Power Externship sparks discussion and reflection on these and other questions among students with an interest in using law to build a more just and democratic social order. Students work with attorneys in different local non-profits, such as the Make the Road NY, Make the Road NJ, TakeRoot Justice, and others.
Government Lawyering
- Federal Judicial Practice Externship
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The Federal Judicial Practice Externship gives students the chance to work in the chambers of district court and appellate judges in the Eastern District of New York, Southern District of New York, or Second Circuit. While in chambers, students complete extensive research and writing projects such as bench memoranda on a broad range of cases, including immigration, criminal law, habeas corpus, and complex commercial disputes.
- Government Anti-Corruption Externship
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In the Government Anti-Corruption Externship, students help anti-corruption authorities identify and combat corruption in federal, state, and local government, both in the US and internationally. Supervised by attorneys in the field, students may work on investigations, criminal cases, regulation of elections, or civil cases, among a variety of other areas in the public integrity field.
- Government Civil Litigation Externship - EDNY
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In the Government Civil Litigation Externship - EDNY students get firsthand experience with civil litigation in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY). Supervised by Civil Division Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs), students attend court appearances, observing depositions, settlement negotiations, witness interviews, as well as arbitrations, trials and appeals. Some students every semester even have the opportunity to argue motions in court.
- Government Civil Litigation Externship - SDNY
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In the Government Civil Litigation Externship - SDNY, students work with Civil Division Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) in the Civil Division of the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). Students will have the chance to do traditional legal research, as well as legal drafting, participating in pre-trial discovery proceedings and trial preparations. Students are able to attend depositions, court proceedings, settlement negotiations, trials, and appellate arguments.
- Local Prosecution Externship
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The District Attorney’s Offices in both Manhattan and Brooklyn are national leaders in the prosecution of state crimes, including homicide, fraud, cyber crime, public corruption, domestic violence, and sex crimes. In the Local Prosecution Externship, under the supervision of an Assistant District Attorney in one of these offices, students assist in the investigation and prosecution of cases and are exposed to the stages of a criminal prosecution, with particular emphasis on the evaluation, preparation, and use of witnesses.
- New York City Law Department Externship: Representing New York City
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The New York City Law Department, under the supervision of the NYC Corporation Counsel, has the legal responsibility of representing the largest and most complex city in the United States. In the New York City Law Department Externship: Representing New York City, students work in one of the Law Department’s divisions, or in an agency counsel’s office, where they perform research and writing under the supervision of assistant corporation counsels or other municipal counsel who serve as site supervisors. Each student also prepares a final project proposing a law or policy reform to present to a municipal decision-maker at the end of the semester.
- New York State OAG - Antitrust Enforcement Externship
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State attorneys general have increasingly taken on the mantle of antitrust enforcement. New York has been at the forefront of this effort, and the Attorney General’s Antitrust Bureau has used its broad enforcement powers in a wide variety of areas, including challenging monopolization schemes, cartels, mergers, and other arrangements that threaten to raise prices for consumers. In the New York State OAG - Antitrust Enforcement Externship, through fieldwork in this bureau, students learn and experience antitrust enforcement from the perspective of state government, and develop skills in legal research, writing, investigative techniques, and litigation.
- New York State OAG - Economic Justice Division Law Enforcement Externship
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In the New York State OAG - Economic Justice Division Law Enforcement Externship, students are placed in one of the New York State Attorney General’s Economic Justice Division’s five bureaus: Antitrust, Consumer Frauds & Protection, Internet & Technology, Taxpayer Protection and Investor Protection. Students get hands-on experience in public interest investigation and litigation, and learn about the law enforcement work of each bureau.
- New York State OAG Social Justice Externship
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The New York State Office of the Attorney General’s Social Division uses its broad enforcement powers in a wide variety of areas, including criminal justice reform, curbing climate change, challenging the school-to-prison pipeline, protecting vulnerable workers from exploitation, and ending fraudulent and discriminatory business practices, among others. In the New York State OAG Social Justice Externship, students are placed in one of the Social Justice Division’s five bureaus: Civil Rights, Environmental Protection, Labor, Charities, and Health Care.
- Prosecution Externship - EDNY
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In the Prosecution Externship - EDNY, students work with Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) on every stage of a case, from investigation to prosecution to appeals. In addition to conducting legal research and writing, students will get the chance, under supervision of an AUSA, to personally argue legal matters in court.
- Prosecution Externship - SDNY
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In the Prosecution Externship - SDNY, students each work closely with two Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). Student work may include assisting in interviews of federal agents, attending proffers of defendants hoping to cooperate with the government, and drafting research memoranda, motions, briefs, plea agreements and other pleadings, as well as assisting AUSAs who are preparing for trial.
- State Legislative Externship
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In the State Legislative Externship, each student is placed with a New York state legislator in either the Senate or the Assembly. By working with a legislator to draft bills, students learn how to craft legislative text to achieve a desired policy result and gain experience collaborating with issue area experts and other legislators to produce viable bills that can be introduced and ultimately enacted.
Tech and Innovation
- Guarini Global Law & Tech Externship – Legal Practice in Digital Society
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The Guarini Global Law & Tech Externship – Legal Practice in Digital Society is designed for students whose interests intersect the fields of law, technology and transnational legal practice, whether in pursuit of private practice, public interest careers, or non-traditional career paths. Students have the opportunity to do fieldwork projects in partnership with UN agencies and other non-profit organizations or foundations, such as the World Bank, Data2X, YipitData, and Access Now.
- Innovation Externship
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In the Innovation Externship, students explore the practice of law interfacing with intellectual property (IP), information privacy, technology, and innovation. Students can do their fieldwork in a setting such as a university entrepreneurship center, non-governmental IP policy organization, judicial internship, or government agency. (Not offered 2024-25)