Explore social change and community-based lawyering externships:
Nika Cohen, George Kendall, and Carine Williams, Lecturers-in-Law, 4 credits (2 for the seminar; 2 for placement work)
Available in: Fall 2026
Course Description
This externship will focus upon the real world advocacy of federal constitutional rights in capital and life imprisonment cases and the legal doctrines that are most significant in this critical work. Students will be assigned to work within a unique public service practice group - the Squire Patton Boggs Public Service Initiative (PSI) - where they will work on behalf of indigent clients challenging death sentences or life imprisonment. Students may also have the opportunity to assist with litigation and advocacy related to broader criminal justice reform efforts. Students’ work will vary depending on case needs but typically involves one or more of the following: providing legal, policy, record-based and sometimes media/social media research; conducting fact investigation; or assisting with trial/hearing prep. The class will ordinarily meet at Squire's midtown offices on Friday from 1:00pm-2:50pm. Occasionally, the class may meet at Columbia Law School (for example when a guest speaker's presentation would be of interest to a large portion of the law school community).
The Seminar
The weekly seminar will utilize court decisions, PSI case materials, legislative activity, journalism, legal news, and research materials to explore how the enforcement of constitutional rights is effectuated or thwarted in courtrooms and legislatures around the country. The focus will be on understanding the constitutional rights implicated in capital and serious criminal prosecutions and understanding how post-conviction doctrines facilitate or fail to facilitate their enforcement. The seminar will also seek to develop the skills of students through in-class exercises that engage students in the advocacy required of practicing attorneys and policymakers in this field. The semester ends with final “mini-class” taught by every student on a relevant topic, with guidance from their field supervisor.
Placement Work
Our litigation practice focuses primarily on capital and life imprisonment cases in the Southeast. Placement work will be devoted to indigent PSI clients, or to counsel of record or amici supporting indigent petitioners before the Supreme Court. Students will be assigned to an attorney's case team in groups of two or three. Client visits or some case work may involve travel, but travel is not required of any student.
Important Information
The course will be limited to 8-9 students and will be open to JD and LL.M candidates. It is recommended that students take Evidence, Criminal Procedure and/or Federal Courts prior to, or concurrently with, this course.
Natalie Jean-Baptiste, Ramona Morel (Fall); Kevin Lam, Tashi Lhewa (Spring), Lecturers-in-Law (2 for the seminar; 2 for placement work)
Available in: Fall 2026 & Spring 2027
Course Description
Students in the Economic Justice and Empowerment Externship will help economically disadvantaged New Yorkers with consumer debt, federal and state income tax disputes, and small business needs.
Students will work with experienced practitioners with The Legal Aid Society through the Harlem Office to offer legal services that empower and provide financial stability to clients. The experience will enhance the law students’ abilities as future lawyers and increase their understanding of the economic challenges faced by lower income New Yorkers and their families, while allowing space for students to reflect on the systems—societal, economic, legal, etc.—that impact clients’ daily lives. Students will gain hands-on experience in lawyering while simultaneously helping some of the most disadvantaged civil litigants obtain critical legal assistance in State courts, U.S. Tax Court, in administrative forums, and through transactional practice.
Seminar
In class, students will consider the various systems—societal, economic, legal, etc.—that impact our clients’ daily lives, will be expected to reflect on the systems and increases their understanding of the economic challenges faced by low-income New Yorkers and their families, and will critique and debate developing policies in class and consider economic justice can be attained by all. At their placements, students will gain hands-on lawyering experience helping some of the most disadvantaged civil litigants obtain critical legal assistance in State courts, U.S. Tax Court, in administrative forums, and through transactional practice.
Placement Work
Students will work ten+ hours a week on cases at various stages alongside experienced practitioners. They will have the opportunity to draft pleadings and participate in motion practice. Students will accompany attorneys to court and, if appropriate, negotiate settlements and/or make arguments for cases before the New York City Civil Court. In addition to individual cases, students will have the option to partake in legislative or regulatory advocacy through legal research focused on expanding economic justice.
Important Information
The course will be open to JD and LL.M candidates. There are no prerequisites for the course.
Jackeline Solivan and Matthew Tropp (2 for the seminar; 2 for placement work)
Available: Fall 2026
Course Description
Students in the Housing Justice Externship will explore the Right to Counsel model used in summary proceedings in NYC Housing Courts. In 2017, New York City enacted the first legislation in the country establishing a Universal Access to Counsel program (UAC) also known as the Right to Counsel (RTC) for all income-eligible tenants facing eviction. During an unprecedented pandemic, New York City amended the legislation to fully implement the Right to Counsel in Housing Court eviction proceedings and termination hearings at The New York City Housing Authority more than a year earlier than the original effective date. The original five-year phase-in was cut short and the right to a free attorney in Housing Court was fully realized beginning in June 2021.
The focus of the seminar will be to delve into the RTC model in New York City while using a critical racial lens to examine the systemic racism and inherent bias of the court system especially in its high-volume courts and how the system can be improved to provide low-income New Yorkers better access to justice. We will also explore the historical significance of RTC, its implementation and compare and contrast it with other jurisdictions.
The Seminar
The seminar will explore RTC as well as learn substantive areas of New York City housing law and litigation skills. The seminar classes will include discussions about housing policy and substantive laws, will include group and individual practical exercises, and discussions of students’ experiences from their placements. In addition to discussion of placement work experiences and interactive classroom exercises, students will engage with guest speakers from throughout The Legal Aid Society, the Housing Court, and the housing advocacy and policy community. The guests will lend their expertise on particular subjects.
Placement Work
Each student will be assigned to a placement within the Bronx Neighborhood Office at The Legal Aid Society. This will be a clinical, hands-on experience with the primary practical goal learning how to represent low-income tenants in summary proceedings in Bronx Housing Court. Students in the externship will work on real cases and learn about the different types of summary proceedings in Housing Court as well as how to issue spot and litigate appropriate defenses. They will also learn about the vast array of rental subsidies and rent arrears grants that can be accessed to preserve affordable housing in NYC. Students will be expected to dedicate an average of 10 hours each week to their placement work.
Important Information
The course will be open to JD and LL.M candidates.
Nell Hirschmann-Levy and Adán Soltren, Lectures-in-Law, 4 credits (2 for seminar; 2 for placement work)
Available: Spring 2027
Course Description
Housing Justice: Power in Numbers Through Group Representation and Movement Lawyering, explores how we as housing lawyers approach legal representation both in and outside of court to further advance the goals and interests of tenants throughout New York City, with a particular focus on affirmative group representation. This course, taught by supervising attorneys from the Civil Practice of The Legal Aid Society, engages students to learn about and understand the history of the housing justice movement, the role of lawyers within it, ethical and practical considerations of group representation, and to reimagine and challenge the boundaries that lawyers are often confined by to achieve their clients’ goals.
The externship is comprised of two components: a weekly seminar and an externship at The Legal Aid Society. During the weekly seminar we will explore housing justice work in New York City and learn substantive areas of New York City Housing law, litigation and advocacy skills, with a focus on affirmative group representation.
Seminar
The seminar will explore lawyering from a client-centered perspective, collaborating with various community stakeholders, supporting tenant power, practicing conflict resolution, building community power through organizing, education and Know Your Rights programming. Students will learn lawyering skills, including oral advocacy, legal writing and drafting, legal research, negotiation, client communication, and case theory and planning. Students will engage in statutory and regulatory legal analysis, including close reading of city, state and federal law, and their application to facts. Included will be exposure to judicial, legislative and/or administrative processes.
The class will allow students to develop analytical skills to recognize and understand how privilege, power and identity appear in, and impact, professional practice, and potentially influence outcomes. This also includes using a critical lens to examine systemic racism and bias in the judicial system. Throughout the course we will analyze the historical development of housing law, the housing justice movement, and the political, social and legal challenges to tenant rights and their ability to live safely with dignity.
Placement Work
Under the supervision of experienced group advocacy attorneys, students will work directly with individual clients and client groups. Students will conduct initial interviews, gather documents and information, prepare pleadings and responsive papers and address any issues that may arise. Students will work on case assignments (representing tenant groups/associations), engage in community organizing, and non-litigation advocacy. Students will have the opportunity to develop leadership skills and public speaking skills. Students may also have the opportunity to represent clients in adversary proceedings, including discovery and trial as well as settlement negotiations with landlords and building owners. Students will be expected to dedicate an average of ten hours each week to their placement. The placement hours will be hybrid.
Important Information
The course will be open to JD and LLM candidates. There are no prerequisites for the course.
Andrew Friedman and Kumar Rao, Lecturers-in-Law, 4 credits (2 for the seminar; 2 for placement work)
Available: Fall 2026 and Spring 2027
This externship seminar will expose students to the varied roles that lawyers are playing in supporting community organizing, issue campaigning, and social movements, including policy innovation and experimentation in states and cities across the country. We will examine in depth the current tumultuous political and social moment, the corresponding health, climate, carceral, and economic crises, and its intersections with questions of law, power and social change.
Course content and placement work will focus on the role of law in
supporting community and movement-conceived campaign and policy initiatives at the city, state and federal levels – from analyzing constraints on local authority, drafting legislation, engaging in community organizing and mobilization, to advising on political fights. Special attention will be paid to the importance of community organizing and social movements in advocating for progressive reforms and the unique role lawyers can play in supporting mobilizing for social change and building strategic broad-based coalitions to win reforms and transformation. This class will have a framework of exploring power at all levels of government and how lawyers, organizers, movements, and elected officials, can use a range of strategic tools to make change.
The externship will comprise (a) a weekly, 2-hour seminar, focused on core legal issues and academic literature bearing on social movements, state and local policymaking, law and organizing, and effective policy advocacy and (b) 10 hours per week of placement in ongoing policy and research initiatives at a range of grassroots and progressive policy and advocacy organizations, including The Action Lab, Make the Road NY, FWD.US, the Green New Deal Network, and the Center for Popular Democracy.
The Seminar
The weekly seminars will be focused on core legal issues and academic literature bearing on state and local policymaking, law and organizing, and effective policy advocacy
Placement Work
Students are expected to do 11 hours per week of placement work to support ongoing policy initiatives with the Action Lab, the Center for Working Families or the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD).
Elizabeth Fischer and Will Kendall, Lecturers-in-Law 4 credits (2 for the seminar; 2 for placement work)
Available in: Fall 2026 - Spring 2027 (Yearlong)
Course Description
The NDS Community Defense Externship is an 8-credit course offering students the opportunity to learn about and experience the practice of client-centered indigent criminal defense in an innovative, holistic, and community-based setting. The course consists of a weekly seminar and a placement at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem (NDS). Alice Fontier, NDS Managing Director, and Danielle Jackson Deputy Managing Attorney of the Criminal Defense Practice, teach the course. Students will be evaluated and graded based upon class preparation and participation, and active participation in their placement.
The Seminar
The weekly seminars will provide an in-depth examination of indigent defense generally, and holistic representation as practiced at NDS, specifically. The Seminar will consist of two parts. The Fall semester will consist of lectures and presentations on the areas of law in which NDS provides holistic representation – this includes parental representation in Family Court; eviction defense in Housing Court; Immigration; Juvenile Defense; Enmeshed Civil Penalties; and policy and legislative advocacy; in addition to a thorough examination of criminal practice and procedures in New York State. In the Spring Semester, students will work through a criminal case problem from arraignment through trial and disposition. This portion of the seminar will be primarily experiential, students will be taught about a particular aspect of criminal practice, and then will be expected to demonstrate those skills the following week. For example, students will learn about the bail process and then make bail arguments; motion writing will be accompanied by drafting and arguing a suppression writing; and students will learn and practice basic trial skills.
Placement Work
The placement component will be at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem (NDS). Each student will be expected to work at least 10 hours per week at the NDS office at 317 Lenox Avenue or in the field. Students will be responsible for all aspects of at least one misdemeanor case, beginning with the client interview and arraignment at New York County Criminal Court. Placement work may include, but is not limited to, attendance in court, visiting clients in their homes and/or visiting clients in jails.
Students will also be matched one-to- one with NDS Staff Attorneys and will spend the year assisting their attorneys in all aspects of their cases, including writing and researching motions, investigations, social service and mitigation work, plea bargaining, and preparing for pre-trial hearings, trials, and sentencing.
Important Information
The course will be limited to 10 students and will be open to JD and LL.M candidates. There are no prerequisites for this course, but preference will be given to students who have taken Evidence and Criminal Procedure. Students who wish to take a Trial Practice course are encouraged to take Advanced Trial Practice after this externship. Students should plan to avoid permanent scheduling commitments on Fridays, as to ensure adequate time for fieldwork. Occasional Friday commitments are permissible.