ACADEMIC CENTERS

Through the Law School’s 12 academic centers, you’ll engage with leading practitioners and scholars who are addressing real-world legal issues.

Center for Bankruptcy Studies

The Center for Bankruptcy Studies encompasses specialized courses, a clinic, internships, externships, and more. The Center’s student-run journal, the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review, is the leading scholarly journal on bankruptcy law. The Center also hosts the prestigious Duberstein Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition and helps to coordinate the Law School’s unrivaled LL.M. in Bankruptcy program. Interested in clerking for a judge? St. John’s Law has a bankruptcy career specialist who excels in federal clerkship placements.

Through curricular offerings, study abroad programs, and experiential learning opportunities, St. John’s Center for International and Comparative Law (CICL) helps you prepare for today’s global practice. CICL hosts academic symposia, and upper-level students can apply to become CICL fellows who work closely with professors on research projects and on their own scholarly work. CICL also oversees the publication of the New York International Law Review, a student-edited publication of the New York State Bar Association’s International Law Section.

Center for Race and Law

Established in 2022, the Center for Race and Law provides opportunities for students, academics, practitioners, and community members to examine race and law. The Center promotes critical examinations of race and idea exchange through lectures, symposia, dialogue, and scholarship.

Center for Labor and Employment Law

The Center for Labor and Employment Law (CLEL) offers a dynamic forum for exploring the practice and theory of labor and employment law and oversees a curriculum that includes courses and fieldwork. Through CLEL, you’ll engage with labor and employment professionals at conferences, symposia, workshops, and other programs. With the generous support of CLEL alumni and friends, you’ll also have a range of opportunities to gain practical skills, work experience, and professional connections. A Distinguished History. A Visionary Future.

Our Center for Law and Religion (CLR) fosters the study of law and religion from domestic, international, and comparative perspectives. CLR hosts conferences, colloquiums, workshops, and other programs. Guests and speakers have included Pope Francis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, and the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, as well as prominent academics, judges, and journalists. In addition to coordinating the Law School’s law and religion curriculum, CLR produces the Law and Religion Forum blog and the Legal Spirits podcast with help from its students fellows.

The Center for Trial and Appellate Advocacy supports the Law School’s commitment to producing the next generation of outstanding courtroom lawyers. It’s home to students, faculty, alumni, and friends interested in all forms of advocacy: civil and criminal; trial and appellate; and federal, state, and global. You can take advantage of the Center’s innovative curriculum, participate in its nationally-ranked trial and appellate advocacy programs, and network with its faculty and alumni.

Whatever practice area you’re interested in, the Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution will help you build the problem-solving, advocacy, and dispute resolution skills you need to be an effective lawyer today. The Carey Center is home to the student-led Dispute Resolution Society and offers a full suite of courses, conferences, and co-curricular activities. Along with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Carey Center organizes and hosts the annual Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon competition. Together, these offerings make the Law School a leader in the growing field of alternative dispute resolution.

Through the Intellectual Property Law Center’s (IPLC) programs and initiatives, you’ll connect with, and learn from, leading authorities in the field. Courses cover patent, trademark, copyright, trade secrecy, privacy, and more key topics. The IPLC and its affiliated student groups—the Intellectual Property Law Society and the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Society— host symposia, conferences, and roundtable discussions throughout the year. As a participant in the biennial Intellectual Property Law Colloquium, you’ll engage deeply with cutting-edge legal scholarship. The IPLC can also help you secure externships, internships, and employment in a wide variety of IP, entertainment, fashion, and related areas.

The Mattone Family Institute for Real Estate Law prepares aspiring real estate attorneys for practice through exceptional academic programs, unique career development opportunities, and special events. You’ll broaden your knowledge of real estate issues while gaining practical experience and expanding your professional networks. The Mattone Institute coordinates the Law School’s innovative real estate law curriculum, which includes advanced courses taught by leading practitioners. It also sponsors a Real Estate Law Fellowship Program, which gives upper-level St. John’s Law students a unique opportunity to pursue a unified course of study in real estate law with an annual stipend. If you’re looking to use your legal education to help underserved and marginalized individuals and communities, the Law School’s Public Interest Center (PIC) is here for you. Along with its student group, the Public Interest Law Student Association, PIC organizes service and training days as well as the annual Public Interest Auction, which raises funds for Summer Public Interest Fellowships, spring break service trips, and other public interest initiatives at St. John’s Law. PIC’s Pro Bono Scholars Program allows students to devote their last semester of study to pro bono service and take the bar exam early, in February. PIC can also help you secure externships, internships, and employment in the public interest.

For over two decades, the Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights has been a force at St. John’s Law, conducting legal studies, research, and outreach on matters affecting the rights of underrepresented people. Students on its Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development address pressing social and political issues. And its affiliated student group, the Coalition for Social Justice, facilitates discussions and explorations of racial and social justice. To further its mission, each year the Center offers its Ron Brown Scholarship to a select group of incoming students who have overcome economic, social, or educational disadvantage.

Writing Center

The Law School’s Writing Center will help you develop your research and writing skills and excel in law student writing competitions on a range of topics—from administrative law to religious freedom, from labor law to women’s rights, and from intellectual property to gun control. Some competitions offer generous cash prizes and others publish the winning papers. No matter what the prize, winning a writing competition is a great way to hone your writing skills, explore a new area of law, and enhance your resume.