Brooklyn is the center for law in action
Our program takes full advantage of our ideal location, extending the campus to every state and federal courthouse and hundreds of government agencies, non-profit organizations, law offices, and businesses and companies throughout New York City. In downtown Brooklyn alone, the Law School is within walking distance of NYC Housing Court, the NYS Supreme Court, the NYC Criminal and Family Courts, the Appellate Division, Second Department, and the U.S. Courthouse for the Eastern District of New York.
Clinic students appear in federal and state court proceedings on both the trial and appellate level, as well as in administrative tribunals. They represent asylum-seekers, mediate disputes in courts, fight for the rights of adults with intellectual disabilities, advise new media start-ups, assist community groups and small businesses, help low-income tenants fight eviction, represent LGBTQ New Yorkers facing discrimination, and advocate for incarcerated victims of domestic violence. They may travel to a law firm to conduct a deposition, to a detention center to interview a client, or to Washington, D.C. to work in a federal agency.
Brooklyn Law School students are recognized by lawyers and judges throughout the metropolitan area and beyond as smart, industrious, capable and very experienced—ready to launch their careers upon graduation.
“In clinics, students have the change to represent real clients facing real legal challenges. Under the supervision of experienced full-time and adjunct faculty members, clinic students represent clients in mediation, federal, state, and administrative litigation, and in transactional matters. Clinic students take what they've learned in the classroom out into the real world, acting as a lawyer for a client for the first time. It's a grave responsibility and an awesome learning opportunity.”
Susan Hazeldean
Associate Dean of Experiential Education
Director, LGBTQ Advocacy Clinic
In-House Clinics
In this program, the student assumes the responsibility of the lawyer, by making decisions, preparing work, and doing the tasks related to representing individual clients, entities, or working on projects. All clinics have two components: the casework and a seminar. In-house clinics take place at the Law School and are taught and supervised by a faculty member.
Hybrid Externships
The Hybrid Externship is a program in which Brooklyn Law School partners with an outside office or agency. It has all of the attributes of a Brooklyn Law School clinic, but it takes place at that office or agency. The instructor is employed at the partnering agency and is also an adjunct faculty member who teaches the seminar.
Externships
Earn credit by performing substantial lawyering work at a law office off campus and attending a companion seminar on campus. Eligible law offices include government agencies, non-profit legal service organizations, judicial chambers, private law firms, and corporate law departments. Students are supervised in their fieldwork by a Mentor Attorney at the host office and are guided in optimizing the educational value of that experience by Seminar Faculty on campus.
High-Credit Clinical Programs
Brooklyn Law students have access to intensive, semester-long programs, where you earn clinical credit while working full-time at approved placements. Our two programs are the Washington D.C. Immersion and New York State Pro Bono Scholars. Each offer the opportunity to gain experience in an immersive professional setting.
Clinical Faculty
Our full-time clinical faculty are scholar-practitioners with a wide range of specialties including employment law, immigration law, telecommunications and mortgage finance. They combine teaching and supervision of clinical students with writing and lecturing.
Our adjunct faculty, drawn from the New York legal community, are experienced lawyers and supervisors in a wide range of law offices, agencies and judicial chambers. Although working full-time at their respective jobs, they are dedicated to the education of our students.
Anti-Racism Statement of the Brooklyn Law School Clinical Programs
The Brooklyn Law School Clinical Program's statement in recognition of the ongoing systemic, racial and social injustices embedded in this country and that these injustices arise from structural racism and implicit bias that remain dominant forces shaping our society.
Contact Us
Have questions about our clinical programs? Contact us:
Clinical Education Program Office
250 Joralemon Street (mailing address)
Telephone: (718) 780-7994
Email: clinics@brooklaw.edu