CUNY School of Law


The City University of New York School of Law is an American law school with its campus located in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York City. Founded in 1983 as part of the City University of New York, CUNY School of Law was established as a public interest law school with a curriculum focused on integrating clinical teaching methods within traditional legal studies.
According to CUNY School of Law's disclosures required for accreditation by the American Bar Association, 70% of the Class of 2016 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment within nine months after graduation.

History

In 1981 CUNY hired Charles Halpern to be the founding dean of a planned law school. Halpern is regarded within the legal community as the "father of public interest law" with a professional career as a Georgetown law professor and co-founder of the Center for Law and Social Policy, an organization based in Washington D.C. that advocates for policies that aim to improve the lives of low-income people.
In spring 1982, Halpern hired Howard Lesnick as a distinguished professor of law. Lesnick believed that CUNY law students needed to understand that the law only has significance in relation to the underlying human problems that it addresses.

Campus

Originally the CUNY School of Law at Queens College located in Flushing, Queens, it moved to 2 Court Square in Long Island City at the end of May 2012. CUNY purchased a six-floor condominium interest in the 14-story environmentally green building. Citigroup will retain ownership of the remainder of the building. The move gave the school nearly 70,000 additional square feet of space. The building is within walking distance of seven subway lines, the Long Island Railroad, and eight bus lines. It is only a few blocks away from the Long Island City Courthouse. The move enabled CUNY School of Law to develop a new part-time program, which started in 2015. The building at 2 Court Square is LEED Gold certified, which means that its construction had a reduced environmental impact and its design increases occupants' health and well-being.

Academic profile

Curriculum and clinical programs

The Law School curriculum combines traditional substantive law courses with lawyering skills throughout the three years of legal education. The first year curriculum consists of seven required substantive courses, Legal Research, and a four-credit Lawyering Seminar in each semester where students work on legal writing and other lawyering skills through simulations and other role-playing devices. Each CUNY third-year student is required to participate in a clinic or concentration for one or two semesters.
Under the umbrella of Main Street Legal Services, Inc., several clinics provide direct service, in-house, supervised live-client representation. The two concentrations are highly supervised external placements. In 2016 the Law School renamed its concentrations to "practice clinics".
In addition to numerous pro bono opportunities available through student organizations and the Career Planning Office, the Law School supports a number of justice initiatives that engage students, graduates and faculty in serving immigrants, citizen and non-citizen workers and assisting and empowering historically underserved communities, through the Community Legal Resource Network, the Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality, the Center for Urban Environmental Reform, the Center for Diversity in the Legal Profession, the CUNY Law Immigrant Initiatives, and the Economic Justice Project. The Contemplative Lawyering Program offers yoga and meditation. The Haywood Burns Chair in Civil Rights brings prominent visiting civil rights figures to the Law School in memory of its second dean, a national civil rights scholar and activist.
Twenty-five years later, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching praised CUNY for being one of the best law schools in the country in preparing students for practice through instruction in legal doctrine, critical theory, lawyering skills, and professional ethics.
In 2011, preLaw magazine ranked CUNY Law the #1 Public Interest Law School in the Nation. Yale Law School came in second place.
U.S. News & World Report, the provider of the "tiered" list of law schools in the country, in 2018 ranked CUNY #125 of 144 American Bar Association approved law schools, but recognized CUNY's exceptional clinical training program by ranking it #3 in the country.
The school has also been recognized by National Jurist/PreLaw Magazine as one of the top 10 public interest law schools. and by the Princeton Review for having the best professors, one of the most diverse law faculties in the nation, the most welcoming campus in the nation for older students, and the most liberal student body.

Student life

Diversity

Among CUNY Law's 2012 entering class, approximately 49 percent are students of color. Tenured or tenure-track faculty are 37 percent of color.
CUNY School of Law in 2008 established the Center for Diversity in the Legal Profession. The main purpose of the Center is to be a clearinghouse for data on the participation of people of color in the law, as well as to conduct original research.
CUNY Law established the Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality, which focuses on issues impacting the Latino community in the United States, with the goal of developing progressive strategies for legal reform. The Center seeks to educate lawyers, law students, scholars and the general public on the status of Latinos and Latinas, as well as to advocate for expanded civil rights in the areas that affect the growing Latino population.

Notable people

Mary Lu Bilek is the Dean of CUNY School of Law.

Past Deans

According to CUNY School of Law's official 2015 ABA-required disclosures, 59.4% of the Class of 2015 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. CUNY School of Law's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 22.5%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2015 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job nine months after graduation.

Costs

The cost of tuition per semester at CUNY School of Law for the 2016-2017 academic year was $7,331.45 for New York state residents and $11,991.45 for non-residents. The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $169,950.