Academic and Bar Success

New York Law School provides all students with a continuum of academic and bar support from their admission to law school through their admission to the bar.

Academic and Bar Success

New York Law School provides all students with a continuum of academic and bar support from their admission to law school through their admission to the bar.

Upcoming Academic and Bar Success Events

The School also helps students develop positive attitudes towards learning and identify, develop, and use the critical thinking skills necessary for the successful study of law, and practice of law, consistent with NYLS’s Student Learning Outcomes.

NYLS’s strategies for Academic and Bar Success incorporate collaborating with professors across the curriculum, individual coaching and feedback for students, first-year and upper-level skills courses, skills development workshops, and newsletters, as well as other guidance and support materials.

Academic Success Initiatives

All admitted students are invited to participate in the School’s Summer Advantage Institute and the First-Year Academic Success Program. There is no charge or academic credit earned for participating in these programs. The School also offers facilitated study group sessions and mock final exams.

Summer Advantage Institute

The Summer Advantage Institute (SAI) is a five-week program designed to introduce students to basic legal reasoning skills and professional standards of practice through interactive virtual workshops. Workshops are taught by a combination of NYLS faculty and staff who are eager to meet our newest community members and guide them in their transition to law school.

First-Year Academic Success Program

In the Day Division, the First-Year Academic Success Program (ASP) is a voluntary program that matches participants with a Teaching Fellow, a high-achieving, upper-level student who’s been selected especially for that role. Each Teaching Fellow leads their small cohort of first-year students through hour-long weekly skills sessions throughout the fall semester.

In the Evening Division, first-year students have the opportunity to work with Teaching Fellows who serve as teaching assistants for the Foundations for the Study of Law course in the fall. The Teaching Fellows also facilitate academic success workshops for first-year Evening Division students in the spring.

Teaching Fellows not only teach the skills that first-year students need to succeed, but also serve as mentors, helping first-year students adjust to and manage the demands of law school. By giving first-year students the opportunity to work together in small groups with guidance from an upper-level student mentor, First-Year ASP helps students learn collaboratively and build a network of support with their peers and Teaching Fellow.

Bar Success Initiatives

To best prepare students for admission to the bar, NYLS lays out a road map for the multi-step process of fulfilling state bar licensing requirements. NYLS also offers individualized counseling for bar exam preparation and a range of other bar support programs. The School’s upper-level skills courses build upon the foundation in legal analysis that students receive in their first year of law school, providing emphasis on bar-exam writing and test-taking skills.

Bar success programs include a bar exam information session, a bar exam kick-off, a bar study mentoring program, bar exam skills workshops, and simulated exams.

Our Team

Shane Dizon, Associate Dean for Academic and Bar Success

Megan E.K. Montcalm, Assistant Dean for Academic Success

Ilyse Wofse, Assistant Dean for Bar Success

Amy Wallace, Interim Associate Director for Academic Success

Anna Belle Hoots, Associate Director of Bar Success

Monica Kipiniak, Bar Programs Coordinator 

Danielle Whitaker, Programming Coordinator

Office of Academic and Bar Success Initiatives  •  T 212.431.2100  ext. 4757  •  success@nyls.edu

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