Pace Law School Clinical Education and Skills Programs

CLINICAL EDUCATION AND SKILLS PROGRAMS

White Plains

N e w

Yo r k

www.law.pace.edu

CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION Pace Law School’s clinical education program teaches students the fundamental skills and values lawyers need to practice law.

Clinical courses help develop professional judgment and selfdirected learning and provide real-world experience that eases the transition from student to lawyer.

As Director of our Legal Skills program and former clinical law student myself, I am proud to introduce you to the clinical education program at Pace Law School. We offer a wide array of clinics, externships, specialty practice courses, and simulations that teach law students the fundamental skills and values they will need for a successful career. In addition, Pace Law faculty integrate skills training into the doctrinal classroom.

Pace Law students develop lawyering skills right away through our five-credit, twosemester, First Year Legal Skills Program. Our students continue to sharpen those skills through upper-level experiential learning opportunities, which include representing real clients in real cases while still in school and participating in national moot court and other advocacy competitions. We now offer an innovative Semester-in-Practice, enabling law students to devote their final semester of law school entirely to skills training.

Our program—rich in supervising faculty, number of offerings and dedication to social justice values—graduates reflective, practice-ready practitioners. Contact me for more information about the Pace Law School skills curriculum.

Jill I. Gross Director of Legal Skills (914) 422-4061

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jgross@law.pace.edu

CLIENT REPRESENTATION CLINICS Pace Law School’s clinical education program teaches students the fundamental skills and values lawyers need to practice law. Clinical courses help develop professional judgment and self-directed learning and provide lawyering experiences that ease the transition from student to lawyer.

BARBARA C. SALKEN CRIMINAL JUSTICE CLINIC

Students represent indigent clients charged with misdemeanor offenses in the Bronx County Criminal Court, from arraignment through sentence.

ENVIRONMENTAL LITIGATION CLINIC

Students represent public interest environmental groups bringing citizen-enforcement actions in state and federal courts on a variety of environmental and land use issues.

EQUAL JUSTICE AMERICA DISABILITY RIGHTS CLINIC

Students advise and represent clients in transactional matters, civil cases and administrative proceedings, all involving significant issues of health, disability or elder law, including challenging denials of access to health care, Social Security disability benefits, Medicaid and Medicare.

IMMIGRATION JUSTICE CLINIC

Students advise and represent immigrants seeking regularization of their legal status or defense to loss of status and removal from the United States.

NEIGHBORHOOD JUSTICE CLINIC

Students represent individuals and grassroots organizations in both litigation and non-litigation matters related to workers’ rights and other issues affecting low-income communities in Westchester County.

PACE INVESTOR RIGHTS CLINIC

Students represent investors of modest means in mediations and arbitrations before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

EXTERNSHIPS Pace Law School student externs work under the supervision of experienced lawyers in a variety of legal settings including government agencies, legal services offices, nonprofit legal organizations, corporations, prosecutors’ offices, judicial chambers, and law firms practicing international law. Externs also participate in weekly seminars that focus on the substantive law and practice issues.

CORPORATE LAW EXTERNSHIP

Students assist attorneys in the legal department of a corporation in the New York metropolitan area and learn about the inner workings of a general counsel’s office.

ENVIRONMENTAL DIPLOMACY PRACTICUM

Students assist Missions to the United Nations by representing them at meetings and prepare research papers on environmental issues.

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW EXTERNSHIP

“As a legal intern, I have learned the practical aspects of litigation but perhaps, more importantly, I have learned the power of advocacy. It has been an inspiration to me to see how litigation can be employed not only to enforce the law, but to enact positive change for economically disadvantaged communities.”

– Marie F. Figueiredo Class of 2015 Student Intern Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic

Students work in federal, state, and local environmental law enforcement agencies assisting attorneys who prosecute environmental law violations.

FAMILY COURT EXTERNSHIP

Students represent domestic violence victims at ex parte hearings on petitions for orders of protection in either White Plains or Yonkers Family Courts.

FEDERAL JUDICIAL HONORS PROGRAM

In the first semester, selected students eager to pursue federal clerkships after graduation work with faculty mentors and prepare a writing assignment. In the second semester, students work in the chambers of a federal judge.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE EXTERNSHIP

Students work in law firms or corporations specializing in international trade law on diverse aspects of the firm’s transnational practice.

LEGAL SERVICES/HEALTH LAW/PUBLIC INTEREST EXTERNSHIP

Students work at a public interest organization, the legal department of a not-for-profit health care provider, or a government agency.

MEDIATION PRACTICUM

Students are trained as mediators so they can facilitate the resolution of neighborhood disputes through a local mediation program.

PROSECUTION EXTERNSHIP – HONORS PROGRAM

High-achieving students prepare and prosecute criminal cases under the supervision of assistant district attorneys in the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office.

STATE JUDICIAL EXTERNSHIP

Students work in individual judges’ chambers, primarily in the New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey court systems.

FULL-TIME FACULTY [listed in alphabetical order]

Karl Coplan

Jill Gross

David Dorfman

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Daniel E. Estrin

Vanessa Merton

Margaret M. Flint

Jason Parkin

Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director, Environmental Litigation Clinic

Assistant Professor of Law and Director, Barbara C. Salken Criminal Justice Clinic

Adjunct Professor of Law and Supervising Attorney, Environmental Litigation Clinic

Professor of Law, Executive Director, John Jay Legal Services, and Director, Equal Justice America Disability Rights Clinic

Professor of Law, Director of Legal Skills, and Director, Investor Rights Clinic

Professor of Law and Co-Director, Environmental Litigation Clinic

Professor of Law and Director, Immigration Justice Clinic

Assistant Professor of Law and Director, Neighborhood Justice Clinic

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Professor Merton excels in teaching her students how to be effective attorneys by encouraging a caring rapport between student attorney and client, and placing a substantial emphasis on cross-cultural understanding. She both advocates and requires a client-centered approach to immigration law, stressing intricacies of the law and its potentially severe consequences to the lives of the clients and their families.

– Pouyan Daryan Class of 2013, Student Intern, Immigration Justice Clinic

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The Honors Prosecution Externship allowed me to step into the role of a prosecutor and participate in the life of a criminal case. I drafted accusatory instruments, conducted a hearing, participated in a DWI trial, and interviewed witnesses. I highly recommend the opportunity to any student interested in pursuing a career in criminal law.

– Taylor Piscionere Class of 2013, now an ADA with the Queens District Attorney’s Office

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WWW.LAW.PACE.EDU/LAWYERINGSKILLS

Programs and Initiatives

Simulation Courses

• Newly-designed First Year Legal Skills Program • Upper Level Skills Requirement • Semester in Practice • Pace Community Law Practice • Skills Workshops • Regular participant in moot court, trial advocacy, and client-centered national competitions • Pro Bono Justice Program of Public Interest Law Center • Integration of skills education across the curriculum

Concepts and techniques of practice skills taught through experiential learning methods.

Pace is committed to a sustainable campus. See our sustainability policy at www.law.pace.edu/sustainability This paper is manufactured using carbon neutral and Green-e certified offsets. Printed with soy based inks.

• Advanced Appellate Advocacy • Advanced Real Property • Commercial Real Estate Transactions • Drafting Legal Documents • Environmental Commercial Transactions • Environmental Skills • Federal Criminal Pretrial Litigation • Interviewing, Counseling, and Negotiating • Law Practice Management • Negotiations • Pretrial Civil Litigation • Survey of Dispute Resolution Processes • Trial Advocacy/Advanced Trial Advocacy

Pace Law School • 78 North Broadway, White Plains, NY 10603 • 914-422-4205