Family and Immigration Defense Externships

Katherine Buckel and Mia Unger, Lecturers-in- Law, 4 credits (2 for the seminar; 3 for field placement and Minor Writing Credit upon consultation which must be registered separately with Registration Services)
Available in: Fall 2024 

Course Description
The Immigration Defense Externship provides students with the unique opportunity to work on removal cases pending before the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an agency which includes the New York Immigration Court and the Board of Immigration Appeals. Students will participate in case strategy and prepare cases for trial.  Taught by practicing attorneys of The Legal Aid Society, the Immigration Defense Externship is designed to introduce students to U.S. immigration laws and policies through a combination of lecture, discussion, simulation, and hands-on representation of immigrants facing deportation from the United States. A primary focus of the Externship is the interaction between federal immigration laws and federal and state criminal laws.

The Seminar
The weekly seminars will complement the students' fieldwork with a practice-oriented examination of the interaction between immigration law and criminal law. The seminars cover substantive topics in immigration law, such as challenges to removability and relief from removal. We explore the government's policies and their impact on immigrant communities through class discussions and presentations by guest speakers from the Immigration Court, criminal defense attorneys, and attorneys from Legal Aid's Federal Practice. The seminars also have a skills component, which includes discussion of client interviewing and trial preparation, as well as a mock client interview and a mock immigration hearing. In the seminars, students will have the opportunity to discuss their fieldwork, including ethical challenges and case strategy. The course is graded based on attendance and participation in the seminar, three short reflection papers, and participation in a mock interview and mock hearing. Minor writing credit is available upon consultation.

Field Placement
In the field placements, students will be expected to devote at least 15 hours per week. Students will undertake various tasks, which may include interviewing clients and/or witnesses, participating in trial preparation and litigation strategy meetings, researching complex legal issues, drafting affidavits and memoranda of law, and developing direct and cross examination questions. Where possible, students will observe hearings in Immigration Court. Through a comprehensive client-centered approach, students will work with an attorney, and at times with social workers and/or paralegals, to assess, research, and prepare each client's case.

Important Information
Enrollment is limited. Open to 2Ls, 3Ls, and LLM students. Skills in languages other than English, especially Spanish, preferred. Exposure to immigration and criminal law preferred.

Cristina Romero, Lecturer-in-Law, 5 credits (2 for seminar; 3 for field placement)

Available in: Spring 2025

Course Description
Since the 2010s immigration youth, and unaccompanied minors in particular, have been targeted as an enforcement priority for deportation from the United States. Despite all the rhetoric, immigrant youth continue to enter the US seeking safety. Connecting children with immigration lawyers not only may prevent children’s deportations, but also provides youth transformative and empowering opportunities. In this externship, students will provide direct representation of immigrant youth clients working alongside immigrant youth lawyers from the Legal Aid Society and Cristina Romero. The practice of immigration law requires constant adaption, vigilance, and trauma informed approaches, which we will continue to build together. Through both the fieldwork and the seminar, students will develop analytical and lawyering skills while representing youth that they can later transfer to any immigration or non-immigration practice. 

The Seminar
In the 2 hour weekly seminar, students will consider the development of immigration law as it relates to youth, forms of immigration relief for vulnerable populations, and the reasons why immigration remains intensely politicized, even with respect to children. Is legislative reform enough? Students will navigate federal law, immigration court, and changing policies as they intersect with state family law and sometimes criminal law. Without the right to court appointed counsel or a best interests of the child standard to guide their cases, are immigrant youth set up to fail? Students will also consider push and pull factors of contemporary migration. Students will also focus on building advocacy skills such as interviewing, legal writing, and oral arguments, mindful of the challenges representing child clients presents both ethically and practically.

Field Placement
Students will work directly with youth clients, both in person and virtually 15 hours per week.  They will prepare immigration applications in addition to anything else youth project immigration attorneys assist their clients with. Students seeking litigation experience may appear in family court, immigration court, and at the asylum office with their clients.

The course will be limited to 8 students and will be open to JD and LL.M candidates. There are no prerequisites for the course.

Justice Rosalyn Richter, Lecturer-in-Law, 4 credits (2 for seminar; 2 for fieldwork)

Course Description
This externship offers students an opportunity to represent and work directly with domestic violence survivors in civil cases under the supervision of Justice Richter and lawyers for Sanctuary for Families, a non-profit organization. The externship will focus on economic issues including child support, spousal support, public benefits, and credit repair. The current economic crisis and the social isolation during the pandemic has created an increase in domestic violence and there is an urgent need for legal assistance. Sanctuary clients are facing many issues trying to obtain unemployment and public assistance benefits and need to challenge denial of benefits in some cases. In addition, there will be a significant volume of child support modification cases because the client or payor partner/spouse is now unemployed. If the law school is operating remotely, students still will be able to participate in these proceedings since both Sanctuary and the courts have remote capacity. The externship also will explore the impact of the court closures during the pandemic on domestic violence survivors’ abilities to obtain justice and students will be working on cutting edge issues arising out of the government closure orders.

The Seminar
In the weekly seminar, students will learn about the cycles of domestic violence, the economic challenges facing survivors and their children, New York Family Court and Supreme Court procedures, and enforcement mechanisms for support orders. Students also will learn client interviewing techniques, as well as how to prepare financial statements and read tax returns. In some cases, students may work on equitable distribution issues and learn how to find hidden assets or income.

Fieldwork
Students will prepare clients for their court appearances, and represent them in Family and Supreme Court under supervision. This will include preparing direct and cross examination, opening and closing statements, and any written memoranda that the court requires. Providing legal services in these economic cases is essential if survivors are to gain economic independence. Recent studies have shown that providing survivors with appropriate benefits and support has the potential to prevent homelessness. Although domestic violence survivors are entitled to court appointed counsel in some cases, they do not receive such counsel in most of these cases. This externship will allow Sanctuary for Families to increase the legal services they provide to survivors and allow students to gain important practical courtroom skills.

Important Information
The course will be limited to 8 students and will be open to JD and LL.M candidates. There are no prerequisites for the course.