One-Semester Clinics
To apply for all clinics, please use the Clinic Application and Matching System (CAMS).
New York University School of Law offers the following semester-long clinics. Please select from the links at the left to learn more about each clinic.
Administrative and Regulatory State Clinic
The Administrative and Regulatory State Clinic gives students the opportunity to participate in regulatory proceedings before federal administrative agencies. Working with non-governmental organizations that focus on improving environmental, public health, and consumer protections, students will prepare petitions, draft public comments for informal rulemakings under the Administrative Procedure Act, and participate in administrative law litigation. Taught by Dean Richard L. Revesz and Adjunct Professor Michael A. Livermore. (Offered Fall 2011 and Spring 2012)
Business Law Transactions Clinic
Students in the Business Law Transactions Clinic will provide legal services to senior leaders of operating nonprofit organizations with budgets in the $300,000 – $2 million range, with some perhaps even larger, on matters relating to nonprofit organizations’ business needs, including contracts and corporate governance work. The students’ work will include planning transactions and drafting contracts, memoranda of understanding, leases, promissory notes, employment agreements and other operating agreements; advising executives and boards on governance and disclosure practices; reviewing and preparing bylaws, conflict-of-interest, investment, social media and other board policies and materials, and employee manuals, committee charters; and developing analytical, planning, editorial and counseling skills in the context of client projects and reality-grounded class work; planning transactions; drafting contracts and other operating agreements; and preparing work plan and other project documents. We have a weekly two-hour seminar, which will focus on the business lawyer’s multiple roles in supporting the clinic’s field work. Taught by Adjunct Professors Stephanie Abramson and Sean Delany. (Offered Fall 2011 and Spring 2012)
Children's Rights Clinic
This course will examine the legal and ethical issues, and the unique skills involved, in representing adolescent clients, with a particular focus on LGBTQ youth. Students will do their fieldwork in one of 4 different organizations that specialize in representing youth in civil matters of various sorts: Advocates for Children, The Door, The Juvenile Rights Practice of the Legal Aid Society and the Peter Cicchino Youth Project of the Urban Justice Center. Taught by Adjunct Professor Jacqueline Deane. (Offered Fall 2011 and Spring 2012)
Community Development and Economic Justice Clinic
The focus of this clinic is the provision of legal services to grass-roots organizations that engage in a variety of community development, economic justice and social justice efforts. Students will perform fieldwork with attorneys from the Community Development Project (CDP) of the Urban Justice Center, and provide legal services to CDP’s clients throughout New York City. Taught by Professor Paula Galowitz and an attorney from the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center. (Offered Spring 2012)
Comparative Criminal Justice Clinic - Focus on Domestic Violence
This clinic offers students the opportunity (1) to compare and contrast different nations use of criminal prosecution to combat domestic violence, (2) to develop a critical analysis of the advantages and limitations of different criminal justice strategies, and (3) to work directly with clients, both complainants and defendants, who are affected directly by arrest and prosecution decisions. Taught by Professors Holly Maguigan and Shamita Das Dasgupta. (Offered Spring 2012)
Criminal Appellate Defender Clinic
This clinic, which is operated in conjunction with the Office of the Appellate Defender, represents criminal defendants in appeals of their felony convictions to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, and in collateral challenges to those convictions in New York County Supreme Court and Bronx County Supreme Court. Taught by Adjunct Professors Eunice Lee and Risa Gerson in the Fall and Rosemary Herbert and Risa Gerson in the Spring. (Offered Fall 2011 and Spring 2012)
Environmental Law Clinic
Students work out of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national, non-profit legal and scientific organization, assisting attorneys in bringing public interest environmental litigation. The students also join in a weekly seminar at which current environmental policy issues, environmental litigation and legal advocacy strategies are discussed. Taught by Adjunct Professors Eric A. Goldstein and Nancy S. Marks. (Offered Fall 2011 and Spring 2012)
Equal Justice and Capital Defender Clinic
This clinic, taught by Professors Bryan Stevenson, Anthony Amsterdam and Randy Susskind, provides representation to death row prisoners in Alabama postconviction proceedings, juveniles sentenced to life imprisonment without parole and assists in the development and implementation of impact litigation through the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Students take the clinic for 14 credits and spend a substantial portion of the semester in Alabama conducting research, case investigation, developing mitigation, interviewing clients, witnesses, jurors and family members, and preparing legal pleadings which are filed in state and federal court. (Offered Spring 2012)
Global Justice Clinic
The Global Justice Clinic explores how human rights law can be brought to bear on situations of global injustice. Working on cases and projects that involve cross-border human rights violations, the deleterious impacts of extraterritorial activities by state and non-state actors, and emerging problems that require close collaboration between actors at the local and international levels, students engage in human rights advocacy in domestic and international settings. Fieldwork consists of projects undertaken for or in collaboration with individual clients, human rights organizations in the United States and abroad, and intergovernmental human rights experts and bodies (including the United Nations). Fieldwork focuses on issues related to global injustice such as: economic and social rights; human rights, national security, and counter-terrorism; and the human rights of marginalized groups. These projects give students an opportunity to assist in formulating policy, research, and legal responses to cross-border human rights problems. Taught by Professor Meg Satterthwaite. (Offered Fall 2011)
Government Civil Litigation Clinic - Eastern District of New York
Students will work closely with Civil Division Assistant United States Attorneys in the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. The U.S. Attorney's Office (EDNY) is committed to providing meaningful opportunities to students to gain experience with and exposure to federal civil litigation by and on behalf of the United States and its agencies in a broad range of affirmative and defensive cases seeking monetary and/or injunctive relief. (Offered Fall 2011 and Spring 2012)
Government Civil Litigation Clinic - Southern District of New York
Students are placed in the Civil Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where they work closely with Assistant United States Attorneys representing the federal government on a wide range of defensive and affirmative civil litigation matters, including civil rights, employment discrimination, fraud, environmental, tax/bankruptcy, and tort cases. Taught by Adjunct Professor Andrew Schilling from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. (Offered Fall 2011 and Spring 2012)
Immigrant Defense Clinic
Students will work at the Legal Aid Society's Immigration Unit, which handles a wide range of types of cases in which non-citizens contest deportability, apply for asylum, or seek other forms of relief from deportation. Taught by Adjunct Professors Yvonne Floyd-Mayers and Jojo H. Annobil. (Offered Spring 2012)
International Environmental Law Clinic
Students research and draft laws and regulations, legal and policy positions, and analysis on international and comparative environmental law issues. Clients include public interest environmental groups in the US and abroad, UN and other international organizations, and developing country governments. Taught by Professor Richard Stewart. (Offered Fall 2011)
LGBT Rights Clinic
Students will be given fieldwork placements in local non-profit organizations which represent LGBT individuals. The non-profits hosting students this semester are: Immigration Equality; the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund and Housing Conservation Coordinators. Substantive case work may involve: sexual orientation or gender identity-based asylum claims; discrimination claims; transgender marriage recognition claims; or housing succession claims. Additionally, all students will participate in at least two legal clinics held at the LGBT Community Center by The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Law Association of Greater New York (LeGaL) of New York. A seminar focusing on the unique legal issues faced by LGBT individuals completes the students’ work. Taught by adjunct professor Victoria Neilson. (Offered Fall 2011 and Spring 2012)
Mediation Clinic
First instituted in Fall 2004, the Mediation Clinic is designed to foster mediation skills while orienting students to major issues in the intersection between law and informal dispute resolution. Fieldwork mediation study takes place primarily at the Mediation Center affiliated with the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings ("OATH") and with the NYU Residential Life Program. After students participate in an intensive mediation training, they co-mediate employment disputes referred by City agencies and NYU residence-related disputes. For 2011, plans are underway for students also to work in Newark and Northern New Jersey with the New Jersey State Foreclosure Mediation Program, administered by the State of New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate Office of Dispute Settlement. Students contrast facilitative mediation with evaluative mediation of the court-imposed settlement process. Taught by Professor Sarah Burns and Adjunct Professor and OATH Administrative Law Judge Ray Kramer. (Offered Fall 2011)
Mediation Clinic - Advanced: Dispute System Design
The advanced course is designed primarily to train students in dispute system design and provide experience working with a variety of organizations using mediation or other dispute system services in the New York City region. It is only open to students who have completed the Fall Mediation clinic course in 2010 or 2011, or who have completed the Mediation simulation course, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Negotiation or had similar experiential training approved by the faculty. Taught by Professors Sarah Burns and Ray Kramer. (Offered Spring 2012)
Medical-Legal Advocacy Clinic
This Clinic employs a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to provide legal advocacy in a medical setting for clients referred by medical professionals. The clinic’s fieldwork will be based at LegalHealth, a project that partners with medical professionals to provide free legal services in medical facilities for low-income people with serious health issues and trains health care professionals on the legal issues affecting their patients. Taught by Professors Paula Galowitz and Debra J. Wolf. (Offered Fall 2011)
New York Civil Liberties Clinic
Students in the New York Civil Liberties Clinic spend a semester handling litigation with the New York Civil Liberties Union, including cases involving racial and economic justice, free speech, religious freedom, immigrants’ rights, women’s rights, and the rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people. The cases are all on the docket of Professor Corey Stoughton at the NCYLU who, together with Professor Claudia Angelos of the full-time NYU faculty, supervises all the students’ work. Clinic students are responsible for their cases and clients and for the tasks that the litigation calls for, including making intake decisions, handling clients, case planning and strategy, taking depositions, drafting pleadings, and preparing and arguing motions. The clinic has dedicated workspace at the NYCLU and the students’ work is an important component of the NYCLU’s legal program. A seminar completes the students’ work in the clinic by taking a simulated civil rights case from initial client interview through settlement. (Offered Fall 2011 and Spring 2012)
Prosecution Clinic - Eastern District of New York
This clinic works out of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, prosecuting defendants in felony cases. Taught by Adjunct Professors Roger Burlingame and Marshall L. Miller. (Offered Fall 2011 and Spring 2012)
Prosecution Clinic - Southern District of New York
Students are placed in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. They work with Assistant United States Attorneys representing the federal government in a wide range of criminal prosecutions, including white collar fraud, international and domestic narcotics trafficking, terrorism, organized crime, and public corruption cases. Taught by Adjunct Professor William Harrington from the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. (Offered Fall 2011 and Spring 2012)
Racial Justice Clinic
Students in the Racial Justice Clinic spend a semester working under the supervision of Prof. Claudia Angelos and Prof. Vanita Gupta on cases brought by the Racial Justice Program of the American Civil Liberties Union, which specializes in racial justice issues nationwide. The program’s cases, including affirmative action, criminal justice, education, school to prison pipeline, juvenile justice, health care, and indigent defense, are designed to have significant and wide-reaching effects on communities of color. Each clinic student participates fully in the team that is handling one of these cases and may engage in work ranging from initial investigation of a problem through the drafting of pleadings, participation in discovery, hearing preparation and negotiation. A seminar completes the students’ work in the clinic by taking a simulated racial justice case from initial client interview through settlement. (Not offered 2011-12.)
Tax Clinic
Students in this clinic will work in conjunction with the tax department at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP to represent low-income taxpayers in cases before the U.S. Tax Court and in various administrative proceedings before the Internal Revenue Service. The fieldwork will be supplemented with weekly classroom discussions of the students' cases and address the procedural and strategic aspects of federal income tax controversy and litigation practice. Taught by Adjunct Professor Mark Allison. (Offered Fall 2011 and Spring 2012)