Requirements
Eligibility and
Prerequisites
Unless otherwise stated, second- third- and fourth-year students
in good academic standing (having completed thirty credits as a part-time
student or two semesters as a full-time student) are eligible to
practice law under the Student Practice Order and may apply for any of
the programs. Preference will usually be given to students entering
their final year of law school (third-year full-time, fourth-year
part-time, students).
Please read course descriptions carefully and make sure that you
have satisfied any necessary course prerequisites or requested a
waiver on your application.
All participants in JJLS client representation clinics and
externship programs must avoid conflicts of interest based on past or
concurrent employment (or volunteer work) situations. If you have
questions about a potential conflict, please consult Professor
Flint.
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Time Commitment
Please assume that you will need
an average of 5 hours /credit of time per week, in addition to the
two-hour seminar, for Clinic work. Some weeks it will be much less,
and others, much more; the key is to carve out significant blocks of
time during the week that you can devote to clinic work.
While the externship program seminars meet in the late afternoon or
evening, students must be able to work during the day at the
externship sites. All the externships require work at least 12 hours
per week away from the Law School, except for the Family Court
Externship, which requires 8 hours.
One important point: a lawyer's
obligations, like a doctor's, do not disappear on weekends and over
holidays. Students in client representation clinics and externships
must be prepared to continue handling their responsibilities
throughout exam and break periods. The faculty will help
you develop the knack of adroit scheduling, and cooperation with
colleagues can minimize these conflicts, but it still may happen that
a court appearance will cause you to miss a class or that a crucial
meeting with an adversary will occur during a break.
The Barbara C. Salken Criminal Justice Clinic operates in
conjunction with the Bronx County Legal Aid Society, and students in
that program must plan to have at least one full day per week
available to spend in court.
The Equal Justice America Disability Rights/Health
Law Clinic is designed to accommodate both day-division and
evening-division students, for between three and six credits per
semester. The three-credit option involves about 10-12 hours per week
of work in addition to seminar.
The Securities Arbitration Clinic seminar meets
in the evening, and most of the Clinic work and supervision can be
done in the evening, but a hearing or negotiation, usually scheduled long in
advance, may occasionally
occur during the workday. With the
permission of the professors, students may elect up to three clinical
credits, in addition to seminar, for each of the two required
semesters. The one-credit option entails about five hours, the
two-credit option about ten hours, and the three-credit option about
fifteen hours per week of clinical work in addition to seminar.
Scheduling your time for the Immigration Justice
Clinic is generally quite flexible, since appearances in
proceedings are relatively rare. Students can elect to take the course
for one or two semesters.
The Pretrial Civil Litigation Simulation is an
intensive program of simulated civil litigation, involving significant
work (probably four to six hours per week on average) outside
"class" hours. Other simulation and lawyering skills
courses, such as Interviewing, Counseling and Negotiating, do not
require a special application and are recommended for second-year
(full-time) or third-year (part-time) students.
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