Clinics Offered:  
BARBARA C. SALKEN CRIMINAL JUSTICE CLINIC
LAW 831A/831B
6 credit hours (4 clinical, 2 academic) each semester
Two semesters required LAW 831A/831B

The Criminal Justice Clinic has two components: actual representation of clients in Criminal Court and an intensive seminar in criminal practice. 

Student attorneys represent indigent clients charge with misdemeanor offenses in the Bronx County Criminal Court, from arraignment through sentence. Student attorney work includes: client interviews and counseling, bail applications, fact investigation, discovery, legal writing, hearings on motions, plea bargaining, trial and sentencing advocacy.

The seminar component of the course begins intensively to ensure that all students master the rudiments of New York State criminal procedure and practice in advance of the first arraignment sessions. Thereafter, the two weekly seminars consist of a class session focusing on substantive legal and lawyering skills, including videotaped simulations; and "rounds" or office meeting session in which interns present for group discussion specific issues raised by their pending cases.

Permission of the professor, based upon application and interview, is required. Criminal Procedure Investigation, Trial Advocacy, and Evidence are required but may be taken simultaneously or waived at the discretion of the professor. Preference will be given to third-and fourth-year students.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE CLINIC: POST CONVICTION PROJECT    LAW 831A/B

4 credit hours (2clinical, 2academic) Spring semester

The CJC Post-Conviction Project provides an opportunity for second, third, and fourth-year students to represent clients in post-conviction matters, under supervision.

The CJC receives over 100 letters every year from prisoners declaring their innocence and requesting assistance in filing motions to win release.  In addition, outside groups (such as the Cardozo Innocence Project, the Centurion Ministries and various Public Defender offices) refer cases to the CJC. 

Post Conviction Project students review the inmate letters and referrals.  They decide which cases need further factual and legal development, and undertake that development.  Students engage in fact investigation-by tracking down paperwork, finding prior counsel, conducting prison interviews of our clients, and by locating and interviewing witnesses.  Legal and factual investigation is geared towards filing §440 motions based on newly discovered evidence.

New York Criminal Procedure Law §440.10 provides that at any time after the entry of a judgment, a defendant may make a motion in the court of conviction to vacate a judgment based upon newly discovered evidence.  Section (g) of §440 addresses new evidence discovered since the entry of a judgment which could not have been provided by the defendant at trial even with due diligence and which creates a probability that had such evidence been received at trial, the verdict would have been more favorable to the defendant.

In July 2002, the PCP (co-counseling with the Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School and the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Doss) convinced the Nassau County District Attorney to join in our motion to vacate the 17-year-old convictions for rape and homicide of John Kogut, John Restivo and Dennis Halstead.  John Kogut's case was tried to an acquittal in December 2005. John Restivo and Dennis Halstead's cases were dismissed.

PCP students will work in teams to handle a caseload of post-conviction cases and meet in seminar once a week.

Permission of the professor, based upon application and interview, is required,  Criminal Procedure Investigation is required but may be taken simultaneously or waived at the discretion of the professor.

 
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EQUAL JUSTICE AMERICA DISABILITY RIGHTS/
HEALTH LAW CLINIC
LAW 839A/839B
4 credits (2 clinical, 2 academic) fall semester *
Two semesters required**
http://www.equaljusticeamerica.org/

*Especially suitable for part-time day and evening division students 

**Students who will graduate in January 2006 may enroll for one semester only

Admitted under a Student Practice Order, student attorneys advise and represent clients in a variety of transactional matters, civil cases and administrative proceedings.

Student attorneys handle all stages of the litigation process, from initial client interviews, case assessment and counseling sessions, and drafting pleadings, through discovery, fact investigation, and settlement negotiations, to hearings and trials.  In transactional matters, student attorneys engage in client interviews and counseling, prepare draft and final documents, and supervise the execution of legal instruments.

The Clinic caseload covers a broad range, with the common theme that each case involves significant issues of health law and requires the utilization of health law practice skills.  Examples include challenging denials of access to health care, Social Security disability benefits, Medicaid and Medicare. Student attorneys also represent clients in the preparation of a range of legal documents,  including wills, health care proxies, "living wills," powers of attorney, supplemental needs trusts, and other specialized legal instruments.  Student attorneys assist families seeking guardianship of mentally impaired and developmentally disabled children, spouses, and parents, and planning for the future of family members with disabilities. Student attorneys develop sophisticated interviewing, counseling and drafting skills and the ability to deal with legal problems often encountered by the elderly and disabled and their families.

The Clinic seminar includes preparation for utilizing statutory schemes and regulatory systems central to health law practice, as well as negotiation, administrative hearing simulations and case rounds.  A principal goal of the Clinic is to equip student attorneys to work effectively with scientific and medical experts and evidence, including learning to read medical charts, research the medical literature, and understand the similar and differing perspectives and communication styles of health care professionals.

Case assignments will accommodate the schedules of evening and part-time students.  Some off-campus meetings with clients may be necessary. 

Permission of the professor, based upon application and interview, is required.  Preference is given to students seeking a Health Law Certificate.

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IMMIGRATION JUSTICE CLINIC
LAW 833A/833B
6 credits/semester (4 clinical, 2 academic), or
4 credits/semester (2 clinical, 2 academic)
May be taken for one or two semesters


Four to six students (depending on their credit elections) will participate as student attorneys handling their own cases. The program will have two separate seminar components: seminar I, for students taking the course for only one semester; and seminar II, for students who continue for a second semester.

The cases to be handled will be the immigration law problems of indigent people living, working, or detained in Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess, Putnam, and Ulster Counties. Consultation will be provided and representation may be offered to immigrants seeking regularization of their legal status through family ties, employment, or pursuant to the Violence Against Women Act and the Anti-Trafficking Act. This area has a complete dearth of alternative sources of immigration law representation and assistance, except for the Empire Justice Center, which is a  principal source of this program's cases. Other cases will be derived from the legal clinics (held once a month) at Neighbors Link, a Mt. Kisco community organization that provides a variety of assistance (hiring hall, English lessons, etc.) for undocumented day laborers.

Student attorneys engage in initial intake fact-gathering interviews with potential clients, and preliminary diagnosis of the potential client’s immigration issues and options. Then they develop alternative theories of the case and corresponding fact investigation/discovery plans for each legal remedy to be pursued. They may research and draft motions and memoranda of law on substantive and evidentiary legal issues. They analyze the need for expert assistance or opinion evidence about, e.g., asylum claim. Identification and monitoring of a client's ongoing legal and non-legal needs that may affect the progress  and outcome of the case is another responsibility that the student attorney assumes.

Student attorneys whose cases proceed to hearing, trial, or final submission of petition will engage in the organization and presentation of documentary and testimonial evidence. Videotaped and critiqued simulation will be used extensively in preparation for these proceedings. Appeals  to and argument in the Second Circuit may follow.

With respect to each task, student attorneys will utilize the planning-doing-reflecting model of experiential education, comparing the projected outcome of their decisions with what they had anticipated and re-evaluating those decisions in that light. The reflective stage will include analysis of the impact of the law and legal systems, and lawyers and adjudicators in their various roles, on the larger social issues and phenomena that are the context of immigration law.

Seminar syllabi  include background reading, written and in-class exercises, and full-scale simulations, as well as planning and reflection on task performance in actual cases, and focus primarily on effective learning from supervised lawyering and collaborative lawyering; basic and advanced client interviewing and counseling; basic and advanced witness interviewing and witness preparation; oral argument; and persuasive presentation of written evidence.

Permission of the professor, based upon application and interview, is required. Immigration Law and/or Asylum and Refugee Law are strongly recommended, as is Interviewing, Counseling and Negotiating. Preference is given to third- and fourth-year students.

Clients  will be referred from local legal services offices such as Legal Services of the Hudson Valley and Rockland Legal Aid, but also from leading providers of services to various immigrant communities, such as the: Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (www.aaldef.org); American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (www.adc.org); Caribbean Women’s Health Association of Brooklyn (www.cwha.org); Central American Resource Center (www.icomm.ca/carecen); National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (www.nakasec.org ); New York Association for New Americans (www.nyana.org); The Door Center for Youth (www.door.org); New York Asian Women’s Center (www.nyawc.org); Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (www.castla.org); Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (www.hias.org); Human Rights First (formerly, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) (www.humanrightsfirst.org); Farmworker Legal Services of New York (www.flsny.org); West Side SRO Law Project of Goddard Riverside Community Center (www.goddard.org/programs/srolaw.htm); National Coalition for Haitian Rights (www.nchr.org); Lesbian and Gay Law Association Foundation of Greater New York (www.le-gal.org); Somali Family Care Network (www.somalifamily.org); American Friends Service Committee (www.afsc.org/immigrants_rights); American Civil Liberties Union Immigrant Rights Project (www.aclu.org/immigrantsrights); Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force (www.lgirtf.org); SAKHI for Southeast Asian Women (www.sakhi.com); New York Legal Assistance Group Immigration Protection Unit (www.nylag.org/services/immigration_protection_unit); National Immigration Forum (www.immigrationforum.org); National Lawyers Guild Immigration Project (www.nationalimmigrationproject.org); Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children (www.womenscommission.org); Hostos Women and Immigrants’ Rights Centerin ; Greater Upstate New York Law Project (www.gulpny.org); and the Workplace Project (Centro de Derechos Laborales) (see  www.peggybrowningfund.org).

Appearances in the Immigration Court occur at 26 Federal Plaza, near the Brooklyn Bridge and Pace New York (about 1 hour by car from the Law School). Class schedules should be arranged accordingly.  Limited reimbursement for travel expenses is available.

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SECURITIES ARBITRATION CLINIC
LAW 826A/826B
3-5 credit hours (1-3 clinical*,2 academic) Fall semester
2-4 credit hours (1-3 clinical*, 1academic) Spring semester
Two Semesters required

Professors Jill Gross and Elizabeth Carroll

*More than 1 clinical credit available with permission of the instructor.

Under faculty supervision, student attorneys handle mediations and arbitrations before either NASD Dispute Resolution  on behalf of small investors of modest means who have arbitrable disputes with  their securities brokers. Students will work on critical lawyering skills including client interviewing and counseling, fact investigation, claim evaluation, participating in discovery, legal research, preparation of legal memoranda, and possibly working with experts who serve as financial consultants to SAC, conducting an arbitration or mediation, or negotiating a settlement. Student attorney teams meet regularly and frequently with each other and with the clinical faculty throughout the year. Students may also participate in investor education programs, draft comment letters on SEC or NASD rule proposals, and publish scholarly position papers as part of the investor justice component of the clinic.

The Clinic meets once a week as a seminar to study the substantive law of broker-dealer regulation, arbitration theory and practice, and lawyering skills. Students also will participate in several simulations during the seminar. Private practitioners, Securities and Exchange Commission attorneys, and staff from the Self-Regulatory Organizations may assist in the teaching of the seminar. We will also explore public policy considerations for small investors.

 Permission of the professor, based upon application and interview, is required. While there are no prerequisites, it is recommended that students take Business Associations I (Corporations) before enrolling. In addition, it is helpful if students take Trial Advocacy either before or concurrently with the Clinic. Preference is given to third and fourth year students.

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