Fact Sheet
| President and Dean: | Richard A. Matasar
B.A. 1974, University of Pennsylvania Appointed: July 2000 |
| Founded: | 1891 |
| ABA Accreditation: | 1954 |
| Enrollment: | The total number of students enrolled in all divisions, all classes is approximately 1,500 |
| Current Faculty: | Full-Time, 82; Adjunct, 182 |
| Degree Programs: | J.D. (Full-Time Day and Part-Time
Evening Divisions) |
| Distance Learning: | Online Program in Mental Disability Law |
| Research Facilities: | The Mendik Law Library with extensive special collections, and computer research and training laboratories |
| Publications: | Student-edited journal: New York Law School Law Review Publications of the Centers: |
Centers: |
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Special Programs: | |
| Moots: | The Moot Court Association administers two annual moot court competitions: |
| Other Annual Events: | Public Interest Coalition Auction Symposia Sponsored by the Law Review Speaker Series Sponsored by the Centers Art Exhibits Law in TriBeCa (lecture series) CityLaw Breakfasts Otto Walter Lecture on International Law C.V. Starr Lecture Series in International Law |
| Major Law Firms with New York Law School Alumni as Founders and Name Partners: | Abbey Spanier Rodd & Abrams Chadbourne & Parke Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Sunderland & Kiendl Greenbaum, Wolff & Ernst Guggenheimer & Untermeyer Kaye Scholer Kelley, Drye, Warren, Clark, Carr & Ellis LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae Marvin, Hooker & Roosevelt Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison Proskauer Rose Whitman Breed Abbott & Morgan |
| A Center of Legal Education for More than a Century | New York
Law School, one of the oldest independent law schools in the United
States, has been an innovator in legal education since its founding in
1891. Throughout its history, the Law School has attracted students with a
wide range of backgrounds. Its graduates have founded many prominent law
firms; served with distinction on federal, state, and local benches; and
been leaders of the bar, business, and government. The Law School's
continued vitality springs from the dedication of its outstanding faculty
and staff, from the talent and energy of its students, and from the strong
support of its alumni. New York Law School was established by faculty, students, and alumni of the Columbia College School of Law who were protesting that administration's attempts to dictate the teaching methods used by professors. They were led by Theodore Dwight, Founder and Dean of the Columbia School of Law and a major figure in American legal education. The School's first lecturer on Constitutional Law was Woodrow Wilson. |
| An Outstanding Faculty | From the former Dean of Yale Law School to the President of
the American Civil Liberties Union, the faculty of New York Law School is
truly outstanding. Surveys of student opinion repeatedly credit the
faculty for being stimulating and caring teachers who set and satisfy high
academic standards. These professors combine excellent preparation in
academic law with significant prior experience—as practitioners in
major law firms, corporations and labor unions, and as government
officials, prosecutors, public defenders, and consumer advocates. The New York Law School faculty excels not only in teaching but in legal scholarship. Faculty-sponsored symposia and conferences at the Law School attract participants from around the world and from the highest echelons of the legal profession and public office. |
| Alumni Are Distinguished Jurists, Founding Partners of Major Firms, and Corporate Leaders | For more than 100 years, New York
Law School graduates have enriched their communities—as jurists,
public servants, government and corporate leaders, private practitioners,
and creative artists. Among its most illustrious graduates are: United
States Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan; Senator Robert F.
Wagner (NY); Chester Carlson, inventor of the xerography photocopying
process; Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Wallace Stevens; and Pulitzer
Prize-winning playwright Elmer Rice. In addition to the many partners of prominent law firms and the more than 150 currently sitting judges who are graduates, its alumni include:
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| Located in the Heart of the Legal and Financial Capital of the World | Located in Manhattan's dynamic TriBeCa district, and within
walking distance of the city's Civic Center and Wall Street, New York Law
School is strategically situated in the heart of New York's largest
concentration of government agencies, courts, law firms, banks, corporate
headquarters, and securities exchanges. Drawing upon its location, the Law
School offers extensive externship programs through which students gain
insight, experience, and post-graduate employment opportunities.
Museums, art galleries, off-Broadway theaters, fine dining, and exciting entertainment are also within a short distance of the School. For the broader community, the Law School presents many lectures and symposia, art exhibits, films, and other cultural events with links to the legal profession. |
| A Legal
Education for the 21st Century | Under the leadership of Dean Richard A. Matasar
(appointed July 2000), the faculty of New York Law School has launched an
innovative curriculum integrating strategic and ethical issues into the
traditional academic study of law. This approach provides students with a
head start in building productive, rewarding, and responsible professional
lives. While the course of study leading to the Juris Doctor degree is
designed to prepare students to become practicing lawyers, the program is
also ideal preparation for anyone whose work in other professions, in
business, or in public service involves understanding law and lawyers.
New York Law School offers more than 200 courses, including innovative workshops that combine advanced study in more than a dozen fields of law with supervised externships, providing students with real-life experience and professional contacts. Under the direct supervision of full-time faculty (often working closely with practicing lawyers) upperclass students prepare through extensive simulated practice sessions before meeting clients, interviewing witnesses, or appearing in court. The School's centers, clinics, and other experiential learning programs take on the issues that affect the lives of Americans today. New intiatives will draw on the School's traditions and strengths in the areas of civil liberties and human rights, immigration law, gay and lesbian law, and litigation. The School's outreach programs links members of the New York Law School community as volunteers and resources to assist individuals and institutions throughout the Metropolitan area. |
| Lawyering Skills Center | The
Lawyering Skills Center was established in 1991 to bring under one heading
all of the New York Law School clinical and skills courses: clinics where
students represent or work with actual clients under the direct
supervision of full-time faculty or attorneys; externships where students
are placed in the offices of practicing attorneys or in judicial chambers;
and simulation courses where students interact with actors or others in a
variety of lawyering situations. Clinics
Externship Programs Simulation Courses |
| A Diverse Student Body | New York Law School reflects the cosmopolitan nature of its
urban setting. Today's student body of 1500 represents more than 340
undergraduate schools and several foreign institutions. The composition of
the student body is 51 percent women, and 32 percent self-identify as
members of minority groups (entering class, 2008). Students include recent college graduates, as well as many students, especially in the Evening Division, who already have established careers and are either preparing to return to those occupations in a new role or are seeking to establish a new profession. Students participate in more than 30 national and local organizations. They also edit the School's scholarly journal, New York Law School Law Review, and regularly place as finalists in major national and international moot court competitions. |
| A Vital Urban Campus | New York Law School is located in the heart of
Manhattan’s TriBeCa district—home of the city’s legal,
government, and corporate headquarters, as well as a thriving cultural
scene. The School's urban campus features modern classrooms, the
exquisitely furbished Ernst C. Stiefel Reading Room, the Samuel J. and
Ethel LeFrak Moot Court Room, the Harry H. Wellington Conference Center,
and the skylit Shepard and Ruth K. Broad Student Center and Art Gallery.
Located at 185 West Broadway, the Mendik Law Library offers students, faculty, and alumni the latest research and study facilities and houses over 500,000 volumes of books, microforms, and audio/visual materials. The library provides study space for more than 600 users; the assistance of 23 full-time staff members, including 15 professional law librarians, eight of whom hold the J.D. degree; state-of-the-art computer research facilities; and extensive special collections on international trade law, communications law, environmental law, labor law, and human rights. Our campus is evolving to meet the changing needs of our students. In August 2006, New York Law School broke ground on a $190 million expansion and renovation program that has since transformed its TriBeCa campus into a cohesive architectural complex nearly double its former size. The centerpiece of the expansion is a new glass-enclosed, 235,000-square-foot, nine-level building—five stories above ground and four below—which integrates with the School’s existing three buildings. The new facility, which opened in 2009, will allow New York Law School to enhance student support, expand the faculty, and deepen its extraordinary program. |
