THE CLINICAL YEAR (24 credits)

Professor Stephen Ellmann

This course places students in three full-time placements, each lasting 9 weeks, over the course of the academic year. There will be three groups of students in the rotation; each group will begin in a different setting and over the course of the year each group will also work in the other two settings. Each placement will be preceded by an intensive, 1-credit preparation week, in which students will complete approximately 14 hours of class plus additional out-of-class study and activity. The next 9 weeks will be spent at the placement, where students will work full-time and also take part in a seminar taught by the adjunct faculty member who is the supervisor for that placement. Placements will be in settings chosen to offer students a range of practice experience, in litigation and non-litigation matters and in different areas of substantive law. For example, a potential rotation sequence could be: (1) a NYC government law office, in civil o r administrative litigation; (2) an indigent criminal defense provider; and (3) an immigration law pro bono project, for non-litigation work. The aim of the course is to enable students to learn from the experience of complete immersion in the workplace, accompanied by the guidance of NYLS faculty, both in the intensive preparation weeks and in the regular placement seminars.

Prerequisites: None, but open only to 3L's. Admission only after interview and in light of students' likely capacity to take the course without harm to their bar exam prospects.