The externship will begin with a review of interview skills, the dynamics of domestic violence, and the relevant areas of family and criminal law. Students will hone their interview skills, trial preparation and litigation strategies, and participate in the Center's staff meetings. Each student will be assigned to work with one of the Center's staff attorneys on a custody/visitation, neglect/abuse, or family offense proceeding, assisting in developing a theory of the case, conducting discovery, drafting motions, interviewing potential witnesses, and trial preparation.

L6656 EXTERNSHIP: COMMUNITY DEFENSE (2 pts)
R. Jones, L. Noisette
*Limitation: 2L and 3L JDs only.
The Community Defense Externship offers students the opportunity to learn about the practice of indigent criminal defense in a community-based setting. The externship is for 4 credits and consists of a weekly seminar and a placement at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem (NDS). Leonard E. Noisette, Esq., NDS Executive Director, and Rick Jones, Esq., NDS Deputy Director, will teach the course.

The seminar will rapidly review aspects of criminal law and procedure related to the initiation of a criminal case and its movement through the court system, and will discuss practical and ethical considerations related to client interviewing and the forming of the attorney-client relationship. Subsequent seminar sessions will focus on various aspects of lawyering on behalf of clients in the criminal justice system. Topics to be discussed include discovery and motion practice, investigations, developing a theory of the case, suppression hearings, disposition advocacy and trial preparation.

The Practicum Component/ Fieldwork Placement: Each student will be expected to work at least 10 hours per week for 14 weeks (one semester) at the NDS office at 317 Lenox Avenue [near 125th Street stops on the IRT (2&3) and Lexington Avenue (4&5) subway stops]. The practicum/fieldwork component of the course will begin in the first week of class. Students will be assigned to work with Mr. Jones, who as Chief of Litigation at NDS is primarily responsible for NDS homicide and complex litigation practice. There will be weekly team meetings at NDS offices, approximately 2 hours in length, at a time to be determined. Students should expect to assist with all aspects of pretrial preparation of cases, as well as in any matter that proceeds to trial. Students should also expect to perform substantial research and writing as part of the work with Mr. Jones. Students will each be assigned primary responsibility for one substantial piece of written work in connection with their work on the cases.

L8003 EXTERNSHIP: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (2-3 pts)
B. Schatz
This course will explore the theory and practice of community development, in particular, the role of community-based institutions in improving low-income communities and the role of the lawyers who serve them. The course should be of particular interest to students interested in getting hands-on experience with transactional practice and in understanding the methods lawyers use and the strategic and philosophical choices and challenges they face in seeking to improve communities. The course will consist of four components: a weekly seminar, a fieldwork placement at which students will work for 10 - 15 hours per week (10 hours for two fieldwork credits, 15 hours for three fieldwork credits); short written assignments on a weekly or bi-weekly basis designed to help students reflect on their fieldwork experiences and a final project.

The seminar is designed to accomplish several different goals: (1) give students a theoretical and historical context for the work they will be doing and observing; (2) teach students some of the skills and substantive law that will help them to function effectively at their fieldwork placements (e.g., the corporate and tax law that applies to community institutions and the skills involved in communicating with clients); (3) address issues arising from experiences at the field placements (a part of most classes will be reserved for this purpose).

Fieldwork placements: In Spring '07, students were placed at the following organizations:

Lawyers Alliance for New York.
Neighborhood Economic Development Assistance Project
Economic Development Division - Law Department of the City of New York
Urban Justice Center
Legal Aid Society -- Community Development Unit
New York City Center for Charter School Excellence

The placements in Spring '08 will probably include these organizations and perhaps some others, e.g., Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation and West Harlem Environmental Action. These organizations are quite varied: providers of legal services to community organizations, community organizations themselves (some focusing on service delivery, others on policy and advocacy) and the economic development division of the New York City Law Department. Individually, the placements should provide students with wonderful opportunities for community development practice and collectively, they should provide an excellent sense of the breadth of the field. Information about the organizations is available on their websites. Students will be matched with placements based on their preferences and, in some cases, interviews with the placement.

Short written assignments. On a weekly or biweekly basis, students will prepare short reflections on the work they are doing in the placement. The point of the reflections is to help students "process" their experiences by relating them both to the weekly readings and to their own professional goals and development.

Final project. Through the final projects, students will explore more fully some aspect of their fieldwork and will make a presentation to the class designed to help all of the students in the class to learn from the experiences of others.

L6658 EXTERNSHIP: FAIR HOUSING (4 pts)
F. Freiberg, D. Houk
*2 of the 4 credits count as classroom hours for purposes of the residency requirement.
The Fair Housing Externship is a 4 credit course that offers students the opportunity to learn about fair housing law and policy while applying legal theory and civil litigation strategies to claims brought by individuals and organizations alleging housing discrimination in rental, sales, and mortgage lending on the basis of race, national origin, disability, family status, gender, age, sexual orientation, and other bases prohibited by federal, state, and/or local fair housing laws.

The Fair Housing Externship consists of a placement at the Fair Housing Justice Center of HELP USA (FHJC) located downtown at 5 Hanover Square and participation in a weekly seminar. The course will be taught by Diane L. Houk, Esq., FHJC Executive Director, and Fred Freiberg, FHJC Field Services Director.

Students will work in teams of two with a total of no more than 8 students per semester. Each team will be assigned a specific docket of housing discrimination cases pending before administrative agencies, federal or state court, or in the pre-litigation investigative phase. Each student will be expected to work 12-15 hours per week for 14 weeks. Students should expect to do substantial research and writing, as well as to investigate allegations of discrimination and to assist FHJC's Legal Director and FHJC cooperating attorneys representing complainants before administrative agencies and plaintiffs in federal and state court.

The seminar will examine legal and public policy issues related to housing discrimination and residential segregation. The seminar will explore the origin, nature, scope, and impact of contemporary housing discrimination and offer a critical analysis of the operative public and private fair housing enforcement schemes. A review of case law and housing policy articles, student presentations, guest speakers, and a field trip will facilitate class discussions about theories of liability, litigation strategy, remedies, and housing policy. Topics will include race and national origin discrimination, gender discrimination and sexual harassment, disability rights and accessibility, land use and zoning, and fair lending.

L6664 EXTERNSHIP: FEDERAL APPELLATE COURT (3 pts)
S. Sotomayor, I. Strauss
*This class is limited to candidates for the J.D. degree who have attended Columbia Law School for at least one academic year.
Judge Sotomayor of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and Ilene Strauss (Director of Judicial Programming and Academic Counseling) will co-supervise the Federal Appellate Court Externship. The class combines intensive work in the chambers of a Second Circuit Judge with about eight class sessions. Work with the Judge will involve legal research, analysis and writing on the cases to which (s)he is assigned. It is possible, but not promised, that externs will work on an opinion. The class sessions are taught in a variety of styles. Several, largely lectures, address fundamental topics of appellate review and federal jurisdictions. Other classes involve a distinguished group of guest speakers who discuss various aspects of appellate practice. In other sessions, students discuss their externship experiences. There also is a moot court exercise in which students argue before Second Circuit Judges.

Applications for this externship will be distributed via e:mail in October 2007. Students will be selected for interviews by representatives of the participating judges, based upon these applications.To be accepted for this class, you must be invited to interview with representatives of the participating judges and be selected by one of them for work in their chambers. You cannot volunteer to work in a Second Circuit Judge's chambers and then apply for the course. You may not take a clinic or another externship and this course simultaneously.

This class is not graded. Credits is received upon satisfactory classroom performance and the judge's statement that the work was acceptable. Enrolled students who want to receive a minor writing credit for this course, must complete Registration Services' minor writing credit form. The credit will be awarded upon receipt of the judge's statement that 25 pages of statisfactory writing was done.

L6661 EXTERNSHIP: FEDERAL COURT CLERK (2 pts)
M. Cantor, P. Radvany
Students clerk with a judge or magistrate of a U.S. District Court, attend classroom discussions of issues relevant to the clerkship, read selected articles about the judicial and clerkship experience, and record their reflections in writing. Students are expected to spend about 15 hours per week working for the judge or magistrate, which includes at least one day (or two half days) per week in chambers. Participation in the program is contingent upon the availability of positions and approval of your application by a judge or magistrate. Registration is limited to 24 students. Students are graded on a pass/fail basis.

L6604 EXTERNSHIP: IMMIGRATION LAW (4 pts)
O. Cassin, M.  Novarro
*One Semester; 4 Credits; 2 of the 4 credits count as classroom hours for purposes of the residency requirement.
*8-10 students will be admitted each semester.
*A 20-page paper is required - minor writing credit available.
*Foreign language skills, immigration and criminal law experience/coursework preferred.
*Students must submit a resume and a short statement of interest by April 24, 2006.
*Interviews may be conducted.
*Students will enroll in the externship for one semester; there may be an opportunity to continue working with clients in subsequent semesters.
Since the drastic changes in the immigration laws in 1996, non-citizens are facing a completely overhauled and complicated system of deportation. The Immigration Defense Externship is designed to introduce students to U.S. immigration laws and policies through a combination of lecture, discussion, simulation and representation of immigrants facing deportation from the United States.

Students in the externship will be placed with an attorney from The Legal Aid Society's Immigration Law Unit in one of the Unit's projects, providing direct representation and counseling to immigrants facing deportation. Students will also participate in a weekly seminar.

In the fieldwork placements, students will be expected to devote at least 12 hours per week for 14 weeks. Students will interview clients, participate in trial preparation and litigation strategy meetings, and assist the attorney in all aspects of client representation, including researching complex legal issues and drafting memoranda of law. Students will conduct initial client interviews either in the Unit's Project in Washington Heights or at the Immigration Court. Students will observe hearings in Immigration Court and may have the opportunity to represent a client before the Court. There may also be an opportunity to represent clients detained by the immigration authorities.

The weekly seminars will complement the students' fieldwork with a practice-oriented examination of the interaction between immigration law and criminal law. The seminars will also include trial preparation and strategy development, including developing a theory of the case. In addition, the seminars will explore the government's policies in this area and its impact on the immigrant communities through class discussion and presentations by guest speakers from the media, the court, the government and other advocates. In the seminars, students will also have the opportunity to discuss their fieldwork, including ethical challenges arising from client interviewing and representation.

The course is graded on the fieldwork, participation and attendance in the seminar, and a 20-page paper. Minor writing credit is available.

Enrollment is limited and by permission only. Open to 3Ls (preferred) and 2Ls. Foreign language skills, especially Spanish, preferred. Exposure to immigration and criminal law preferred.

L6669 EXTERNSHIP: NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL PUBLIC ADVOCACY (4 pts)
D. Cohn, G. Johnson
The New York Attorney General Public Advocacy Externship offers Columbia Law School ("CLS") students the opportunity to do cutting-edge public advocacy on behalf of the people of the State of New York, and to address the complex legal and ethical challenges of doing such work. Examples of recent Attorney General enforcement efforts have included the mutual fund and insurance investigations; Clean Air Act and global warming suits; challenges to pharmaceutical pricing; labor law compliance; actions against spyware and other improper Internet practices; and radio "payola" suits.

The Public Advocacy Externship consists of a placement in the Attorney General's Office and participation in a weekly seminar. The course will be taught by Debra Cohn, Deputy Attorney General, who has taught as an adjunct at CLS since 1997, and Gordon J. Johnson, Deputy Bureau Chief of the Environmental Bureau. Grading will be pass/fail.

Each student will be assigned to one of the following bureaus in the Attorney General's Office: Antitrust, Charities, Civil Rights, Consumer Frauds and Protection, Environmental Protection, Health Care, Internet, Investment Protection, Labor, Public Integrity, and Telecommunications and Energy. Each student will be expected to work 12-15 hours/week for 14 weeks * one semester * at the Attorney General's primary New York City office at 120 Broadway. To the extent practical, each student will work on at least one project in depth which may be an investigation, litigation or initiative. Students should expect to do substantial research and writing as well as to participate in investigative and litigation strategy meetings.

A weekly two-hour seminar will meet at CLS on Thursdays from 5 to 6:50 PM. We will consider issues relevant to public advocacy by government attorneys such as parens patriae standing; federal-state interaction; parallel criminal and civil proceedings; Attorney General regulatory power; sovereign immunity; ethical issues attendant to government representation, as well as strategies for public advocacy including litigation, legislation, and advocacy. These issues typically will be raised in the context of a particular substantive initiative or litigation. We have invited guest lectures on relevant subject matter areas such Antitrust, Consumer Frauds, Health Care, and Securities. Class participation is welcome and expected. While students will be encouraged to discuss issues arising in their placements throughout the semester, each will be responsible for making a formal presentation of approximately 20-30 minutes toward the end of the semester on the substantive, procedural, ethical and strategic issues raised in their placement.

L8002 EXTERNSHIP: PRO BONO PRACTICE AND DESIGN (4 pts)
E. Chapnick
Students in the Externship on Pro Bono Practice and Design will have the opportunity to engage in critical reflection about the role of pro bono service by corporate lawyers on the legal profession and on broader societal issues such as access to equal justice and social transformation, in the United States and other countries. Pro bono service increasingly is regarded as an important component of the provision of civil legal services to underserved populations in the U.S. and of the professional responsibility of U.S. corporate law firm lawyers. Lawyers and bar associations in a few cities in Australia, Asia, Europe, Latin America and South Africa have begun to explore how to adapt the U.S. model of pro bono service to their legal, social and political cultures.

Closer examination discloses that there are several constituencies whose goals must be satisfied for a pro bono project to succeed and that these competing needs often create substantial tensions. To be successful, pro bono practice and design must mediate these interests and tensions. Pro bono service also should be evaluated against alternatives such as an increase in government funding for fulltime legal services lawyers and the expansion of the legal services that non-lawyers are authorized to perform.

Through a weekly seminar and a field placement, the Externship on Pro Bono Practice and Design will encourage students to identify and learn deeply about the constituencies, their goals, and the resulting strengths and tensions. Students also will focus on specific innovative and sustainable pro bono practices, as well as alternatives to pro bono and think about their own post-graduate roles. This inquiry will culminate in the development of a concept paper to be based upon the readings, the seminar and the field placement experiences.

The seminar will analyze the history, ethics, guidelines, practicalities and critiques of pro bono practice by private law firms and corporate law departments. It also will explore alternatives to pro bono service. The readings and discussions sometimes will be enriched by reflective inquiry of practitioners from the various constituencies, who are experienced in the design and implementation of pro bono programs. The last two classes will be workshops in which the students will constructively critique the concept papers presented by their classmates.

Field research will be performed by participant observation at an NGO, in the metropolitan New York City area, that provides high quality civil legal services and has a pro bono program for corporate lawyers. Students will be required to work for 10-12 hours per week, of which at least seven will be performed at the NGO. Depending on the NGO and the student???s assignments, the other hours may be performed elsewhere. Each student will be placed at an NGO of interest to her/him, which commits to giving the student assignments that will teach about the design and implementation of its pro bono program, as well as allowing the student to perform pro bono service on behalf of its clients. Working at the placement will not satisfy the mandatory pro bono requirement for J.D. candidates.

Each student will write a concept paper of about 20 pages for either (1) a pro bono project designed to initiate or increase pro bono service that the author would execute at the law firm or NGO, at which he or she expects to work after graduation, including a discussion of how the proposal addresses the competing interests and tensions identified in the course; or (2) an alternative means to expand legal services for currently underrepresented persons or issues, including a discussion of why it is preferable to the initiation or expansion of pro bono.

Students will be evaluated based on their concept papers and seminar participation. The Instructor will consult with the supervisors at the field placement regarding the student's performance. However, the two clinical credits will be graded credit/no credit.

The LL.M Pro Bono Fellows are required to take the course. It also is open to J.D. candidates and LL.M students. Enrollment will be limited to ten students, including the Pro Bono Fellows. Admission to the course is by permission of the instructor.

For more information about the course, including how to apply, see the externship page on the Social Justice Initiatives Web site.

L9002 EXTERNSHIP: UNITED NATIONS (4 pts)
R. Lee
This externship provides students with an opportunity to learn more about public international law, and the processes of institutional law-making at the world organization through participatory activities in the major United Nations bodies. The course consists of two parts: externship and weekly seminar, and will be conducted and supervised by Professor Roy S. Lee. Students will be graded on the basis of their performance of assignments, participation in seminar discussion, and report writing and presentation.

Selected externs will be placed in the UN Secretariat, Missions, or other UN agencies. Substantive assignments will include research, preparation of issue papers and summary of reports or meetings on various topics that may be assigned by the host unit. Each student is expected to focus on one or two particular topic and to work 12-15 hours/week for 14 weeks at the respective host unit.

Externs will also be required to participate in a two-hour weekly seminar at CLS on current legal and institutional issues at the UN. Experts may be invited to speak on specific topics at the seminar. Students are expected to make presentations and take an active part in the discussion. There will be required reading materials for each seminar session. Each student will also be required to make short oral progress reports about their work, make a final presentation and submit at the end of the term a 20-page report on: (i) issues raised in the weekly seminar and reading materials, and (ii) experiential learning from externship assignments.

The externship is available to upper level JD students and LL.M. and Ph.D. candidates. Interested students should submit a one-page resume, a cover letter indicating how the externship would fit into their academic and career plans and areas of interest. Prospective externs will be interviewed.

L6662 LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE COMMUNITY (3 pts)
J. O'Neal
*This course is limited to 5 students by permission only; closed to LL.M.s.
This course is a combination seminar/clinic. During the months of January and February, enrolled students will attend a three-hour weekly seminar to learn educational techniques and pedagogical strategies and to study substantive community and legal issues: child abuse, child neglect, P.I.N.S., & domestic violence. Each student will develop lesson plans on the aforementioned topics and, thereafter, provide instruction to social studies classes in the schools of Harlem during the months of March and April. Each student will teach a total of eight times, i.e., four lessons to two classes.