Explore social change and community-based lawyering externships:
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).