It is no accident that the University's full name is "Columbia University in the City of New York." The pulse of the city is interwoven in a Columbia education, and Columbia occupies a central and influential position in the life of New York. Indeed, New York City is Columbia's laboratory.
Columbia law students benefit in innumerable ways from their immersion in the vibrancy of one of the world's most important cities. New York is the world's center of law practice. The sophistication and expertise of its practitioners not only add resources to the Law School, but also make available a wide variety of career choices to those who remain in the city and become part of a career-expanding background for those graduates choosing to live and work elsewhere. New York is also the world capital of publishing, international finance, culture, the arts, and communications. Yet as an urban center, it is representative of the many problems, hopes, challenges, and opportunities facing individuals and societies around the world.
As such, New York provides a vast living laboratory for students' personal and professional growth. Living and studying in New York, students find their intellectual assumptions and cultural preferences examined and challenged as never before.
Columbia law students do not learn in a vacuum. They see legal theories tested and validated in the halls of the United Nations, in the offices of human rights organizations, in the conference rooms of leading corporations. The world's most accomplished litigators, corporate lawyers, judges, legal scholars, human rights advocates, and international political figures are part of the fabric and daily life of the city, and many are familiar figures at Columbia Law School as adjunct teachers, visiting scholars, and lecturers.With their many strengths and abilities, Columbia law students contribute to the life of New York City as much as they draw from it. The Law School actively encourages students to delve into the surrounding metropolis and contribute their talents to the city through internships, clinics, and pro bono work and community service. The School maintains an extensive network of support systems for these activities.
Beyond the study and practice of law, New York City offers unparalleled opportunities for personal growth, enrichment, and just plain fun. This is a city of mind-boggling scope and variety, where 80 languages are spoken and where an Italian deli, an Ethiopian restaurant, and a Chinese noodle shop share the same block. It is a city with hundreds of museums, art galleries, and theaters. Music lovers can choose from formal venues such as Lincoln Center to clubs in Greenwich Village to improvisational jazz in Central Park. For sports enthusiasts, whether athletes or fans, the city provides an exciting array of opportunities for exercise, competition, and enjoyment. And much of what the city offers is available to students at reduced or no cost and is but a brief bus or subway ride away.
New York City attracts a certain type of person—one who is curious, adventurous, and open to new challenges and experiences. And Columbia Law School abounds with this type of individual—students and teachers who are independent, energetic, open-minded, eager to be nourished by the variety of life in the world's greatest city.
