For Students

All New York Law School students are welcome to affiliate with the Wilf Impact Center for Public Interest Law and explore the relationship between social justice and law.

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Affiliates collaborate with the accomplished practitioners and scholars who serve as Wilf Impact Center faculty to address issues of criminal justice, voting rights and political participation, racial justice, social entrepreneurship, anti-discrimination law, civil liberties, economic justice, education law, environmental law, family law, immigration law, international human rights law, labor and employment law, and mental disability law. Students practice the theory taught in the Center’s curriculum through its clinics, externships, project-based learning courses, and capstone projects.

Apply to Join

All NYLS students are welcome to apply to join the Center as affiliates. Affiliates must meet curricular and extracurricular requirements, found on the Academics section of the NYLS Portal. Students may not join or transfer to the Center during their final semester of law school.

Apply to join the Center.

Related Courses

These courses are affiliated with the Center and likely to be of interest to affiliated students.

Civil Rights and Disability Justice Clinic

In this year-long clinic, students will engage in impact litigation and other forms of legal and strategic policy advocacy to advance the cause of social justice.

Criminal Procedure: Adjudication

This course covers the substantive and procedural laws surrounding the criminal adjudication process, including the right to counsel, preliminary appearance and hearings, pre-conviction release, and more.

Criminal Procedure: Investigation

This upper-level Core Curriculum course deals with the laws, regulations and policies governing investigations of criminal matters.

Elder Law Clinic: Planning for Aging, Illness, and Special Needs

In this clinic, students will assist clients with estate planning, adult guardianships, and/or needs-based public benefits, and work in partnership with community members to provide education and develop advocacy related to the issues of aging, illness, and special needs.

Entrepreneurship for Social Change

This course considers how lawyers can use non-litigation approaches to effect change through organizing, community development, and generally through the creation of new institutions.

Family Law Clinic

In this clinic, students will interview clients, draft documents, conduct legal research, and engage in community outreach, as they experience Family Court practice and learn more about the Family Court Act and a range of family law matters.

Law, Public Policy, and Social Change

This course covers legal history and how lawyers are involved in social change.

Policing the Police

This course examines the theories and practical realities of police regulation, exploring assumptions about the police function, policy implications for criminal law, the balance between police power and constitutional protections, and more.

Post-Conviction Innocence Clinic

The Post-Conviction Innocence Clinic provides an opportunity for upper-level students to represent clients in post-conviction matters under the direct supervision of a faculty member.

Professional Responsibility: Criminal Practice

This course provides an introduction to professional and ethical issues that concern lawyers working in a criminal practice setting.

Race, Bias, and Advocacy

This course examines how issues of race and race bias manifest themselves in the practice of law.

Trial Advocacy

This course provides focused study and practical training in the overall skill of conducting a jury trial.

Wilf Impact Center Capstone

Wilf Impact Center affiliates will participate in a year-long written research project with practical application with practicing attorneys and Wilf Impact Center faculty.

Wilf Impact Center Colloquium

This course examines how lawyers use law to effectuate social change. This upper-level, graded seminar course is required for all students affiliated with the Wilf Impact Center for Public Interest Law.

Wilf Impact Center for Public Interest Law • T 212.431.2314 • E wilfimpactcenter@nyls.edu