Office of Clinical and Experiential Learning (OCEL)

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Building on the first-year Legal Practice course, the law school offers a rich array of classes and programs that can broaden your ability to perform core lawyering tasks. These opportunities include clinics; externships and workshops; project-based learning courses; simulation courses; upper-class writing electives; and competition teams.
 

We’ve been expanding these programs – most dramatically, with the opening of thirteen new clinics in 2013-14. As Dean Anthony Crowell wrote to the NYLS student body in the spring of 2013:

"Now more than ever, gaining meaningful practical experience while in law school is critical to ensuring you can be as well-prepared as possible to enter and compete in the job market, no matter what your goal."

At the heart of all of these programs is the opportunity to learn by doing. You may work directly on cases or transactions or advocacy campaigns (actual or simulated). You may become an extern for an outside lawyer or judge. You may practice interviewing clients or cross-examining witnesses, among other skills, in classroom simulations. You may build your research and writing skills by writing the sorts of documents, from contracts to briefs, for which you may be responsible in actual practice later on. You may join one of our competition teams, whether traditional moot court (focused on appellate advocacy) or newer teams focused on such skills as interviewing, negotiation and trial advocacy.

These classes and activities offer training in skills. They also offer training in legal reasoning and analysis, which you will have the chance to practice and refine in the context of each legal problem you address – often the problems of a real or simulated client. Lawyers employ their skills on actual problems and controversies, and for you as law students the experience of performing as lawyers – whether you are counseling a client, for example, or making a presentation to a public interest law organization – can be a powerful way to learn what lawyers know.

In addition, many of these programs give you direct experience in different areas of practice, where you will encounter the legal professionals working in those areas. All of them may be of real assistance in your job search.

 
It’s worth adding that your work in many of these classes may help you to satisfy the New York Court of Appeals’ new requirement of 50 hours of pro bono legal work as a prerequisite for admission to the New York bar. You should, of course, check with the professor teaching any course you’re interested in to learn more about whether work in that particular course is likely to help you meet this requirement.
 

We invite you to look at these programs in detail, on the following pages:

• Clinics
• Externships
• Workshops
• Project-Based Learning Courses 
• Simulation Courses
• Upper-Level Writing Electives
• The New York Law School Moot Court Association
• The New York LawSchool Dispute Resolution Team
• The New York Law School Trial Competition Team
• Courts as Classrooms

STUDENT APPLICATIONS

• Apply for Clinics and Other Experiential Learning Courses
• Information on Clinic Courses
• Special Note for Evening Students

VideosOCEL Info Sessions

• Criminal Law
• Government, Public Policy and Human Rights
• Family Law
• Business and Commercial Law
• Public Policy Advocacy and Persuasion and Writing
• Simulations, Externships and Competition Teams

Clinic Information

• Clinic Student Testimonials
• Administrative Enforcement Clinic
• Post-Conviction Innocence Project
• Suspension Representation Clinic
• Transactional Law Clinic

Newsletters

• May 2013 Issue
• Archive

Contact Information
Office of Clinical and Experiential Learning
185 West Broadway
New York, NY 10013-2960

Stephen Ellmann
Director of the Office of Clinical and Experiential Learning
T: 212.431.2392
F: 212.966.2053
E: stephen.ellmann@nyls.edu
Office: S930, 40 Worth Street

Susan D'Ambra
Associate Director of the Office of Clinical and Experiential Learning
T: 212.431.2388
F: 212.966.2053
E: susan.dambra@nyls.edu
Office: S920, 40 Worth Street

Kaaha Bulhan
Administrative Assistant
T: 212.431.2179
F: 212.966.2053
E: kaaha.bulhan@nyls.edu
Office: 9th Floor Reception, 40 Worth Street

Pamela Heyward
Faculty Assistant
T: 212.431.2312
F: 212.966.2053
E: pamela.heyward@nyls.edu
Office: S936, 40 Worth Street

Clinics

Frank Bress
Director of Clinical Program
T: 212.431.2389
F: 212.324.7912
E: frank.bress@nyls.edu
Office: S909, 40 Worth Street

Michelle T. Weller
Administrator of Clinical Program
T: 212.431.2313
F: 212.324.7912
E: michelle.weller@nyls.edu
Office: S939, 40 Worth Street

Simulation Courses
Shardé Goodloe
Administrator of Simulation Courses
T: 212.431.2181
F: 212.966.2053
E: sharde.goodloe@nyls.edu
Office: 9th Floor Reception, 40 Worth Street

Contact Information for the Externship Program:

The Office of Professional Development
5th Floor of the E Building

Mariana Hogan
Associate Dean for Professional Development and Professor of Law
T: 212-431-2347
E: Mariana.Hogan@nyls.edu

The Judicial Externship Program
Cynthia Weissman
Associate Director
T: 212-431-2377
E: cynthia.weissman@nyls.edu

Wanda James
Coordinator for Career Planning and Public Interest Programming
T: 212-431-2192
E: wanda.james@nyls.edu

The Law Office Externship Program 
Mariana Hogan
Associate Dean for Professional Development and Professor of Law
T: 212-431-2347
E: mariana.hogan@nyls.edu

Karen Assad
Assistant to the Associate Dean for Professional Development
T: 212-431-2347
E: karen.assad@nyls.edu