Child Advocacy Clinic

Professor Theo Liebmann, Attorney-in-Charge
Maximum Enrollment: 8 Students

Child Advocacy Clinic students learn the facets of client advocacy through the challenging experience of representing children in abuse and neglect cases, and special immigrant juvenile matters. Students advocate in New York City and Nassau Family Courts on behalf of children in cases where the allegations range from physical and sexual abuse to educational neglect, abandonment and inadequate supervision. In court Clinic students advocate vigorously for their clients in all aspects of the practice, including picking up cases at arraignment, advocating at hearings and trials, engaging in motion practice and formulating dispositional plans. Outside of court students maintain regular contact with their clients, investigate the factual allegations of neglect or abuse involved on their court cases, formulate realistic and compassionate plans for clients and their families, and work closely with mental health professionals, caseworkers, teachers and foster parents to ensure their clients’ needs are being met.

Community & Economic Development Clinic

Professor Serge Martinez, Attorney-in-Charge
Maximum Enrollment: 6 Students

Students in the Community and Economic Development Clinic provide transactional (non-litigation) assistance to nonprofits, community-based organizations and micro-enterprises in low-income communities in and around Nassau County,with a preference for clients that contribute to social and economic justice. Clients include newly-forming organizations requiring start-up assistance and more mature entities that need help in connection with themore complex issues arising from organizational success and growth. The Clinic’s work includes: counseling concerning choice-of-entity decisions, incorporation, application for recognition of tax-exempt status, drafting/review of contracts, zoning matters, negotiations, support for community organizing, legal research, community education and other needs of our clients. Students also examine the special ethical issues that are present in group and entity representation.

Criminal Justice Clinic

Professor K. Babe Howell, Attorney-in-Charge
Maximum Enrollment: 8 Students

Students in the Criminal Justice Clinic represent indigent clients charged with misdemeanors in Nassau County District Court and Queens County Criminal Court. Clinic interns provide the entire range of legal representation, from initial interview to sentencing. Court room advocacy includes arraignments, bail arguments, bench conferences, evidentiary hearings, oral arguments on motions, bench and jury trials, plea dispositions and sentencings. Lawyering skills practiced outside the court room include interviewing, counseling, fact and crime scene investigation, negotiation with assistant district attorneys, and researching and drafting pleadings,motions and other memoranda. Students may also represent clients in related proceedings including parole revocation, school suspension, and Department of Motor Vehicle hearings where these hearings arise from the facts of the criminal case. In order to perform their court responsibilities, students must keep Tuesday and Thursday mornings (9 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) free from all other obligations.

Housing Rights Clinic

Professor Stefan H. Krieger, Attorney-in-Charge
Maximum Enrollment: 6 Students

The Housing Rights Clinic could more accurately be called the "Litigation Skills Clinic." In this Clinic,we use housing cases as vehicles for introducing students to the different skills required for representing clients in any type of litigation. This past year, students represented a client in a trial for alleged damages to her apartment; prepared a case, including the deposition a witness, for a trial in a wrongful eviction action; drafted a complaint and preliminary injunction motion in a class action in Nassau Supreme Court challenging rents charged under the rent stabilization laws; wrote an appellate brief in the Second Department; and engaged in extensive negotiations to reach a settlement of a federal housing discrimination case against a Long Island developer. These cases give students the opportunity to learn methods for working with clients, brainstorming different legal theories, crafting persuasive stories, developing creative case strategies, and preparing effective advocacy in the court room and with adversaries. Students leave this clinic with the skills - and confidence - to handle any case they face in practice.

Mediation Clinic

Professor Robert Thaler, Attorney-in-Charge
Maximum Enrollment: 8 Students

Students in the Mediation Clinic will serve as mediators in actual cases involving small claims cases and family court matters, including custody/visitation and PINS cases. Students complete an intensive mediation training program with a NYS Court Certified Mediation Trainer. Student mediators help parties involved in a conflict to negotiate and make decisions about the conflict's outcome.The mediations take place either at the Clinic offices or on-site at a referring court or agency. Under the Clinical Instructor's supervision, students will: screen and develop cases; interview parties to a dispute and advise them about the mediation process;mediate cases in two-student teams; and, draft settlement agreements. The mission of the Mediation Clinic is not to train students to be professional mediators, rather, the mission is to teach them fundamental lawyering skills such as interviewing, counseling, negotiation, and effective problem solving, all of which are essential to every attorney's work.

Political Asylum Clinic

Professor Lauris Wren, Attorney-in-Charge
Maximum Enrollment: 8 Students

In the Political Asylum Clinic, students represent political asylum applicants in immigration proceedings before Asylum Officers, Immigration Judges, and the Board of Immigration Appeals. Our clients fled their countries because of torture or other persecution, based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. If they are granted political asylum, our clients will be able to remain in the United States, to bring their immediate family here, and one year after winning asylum, to apply for permanent residence. Our clients’ lives literally depend on the outcome of the asylum case. Students have represented clients from such countries as Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Trinidad,Albania, Chad, Peru,Venezuela, Chile, Peru, Jamaica,Tibet, India and Nepal.

Securities Arbitration Clinic

Professor Curtis Pew, Attorney-in-Charge
Maximum Enrollment: 8 Students

Student can sign up for a semester-long experience (6 credits). Students will be introduced to the fundamental principles for securities arbitration primarily initiated by or against investors of modest means before either the New York Stock Exchange or the National Association of Securities Dealers now combined into FINRA. Students will also be instructed with respect to the principles of securities regulations relevant to typical investor claims against broker/dealers. Students (in teams of two) will be assigned to cases and will serve as advocates for the clients. Such assignments will include case intake, case development, research of legal issues, preparation of arbitration filings, and representation of the client before the arbitration panel hearing each claim. The clinic is a unique opportunity to have a hands-on arbitration experience. Business Organization or Securities Regulations will be a co/pre-requisite. A one-page Statement of interest will be required in addition to the usual clinic submissions for consideration for enrollment. Business Organization course is a pre/co-requisite for this Clinic.