CUNY School of Law

"It only serves to further empower those who are already in power, and it helps them expand their budgets to spy on, over-police and over-prosecute people of color." Professor Ramzi Kassem of CUNY CLEAR on NPR's Code Switch re: calling last week's mob terrorists http://ow.ly/kPns50D9zc6

Attention CUNY Law Alums! Our annual (virtual) Speed Mock Interview day is on! Consider giving back by doing virtual mock interviews with current law students on Thurs, 1/28 at 5pm. It's a great way to meet current students, help strengthen our alumni network, and generate a little buzz about your job and work.... Email [email protected] to volunteer or get more info!

"CUNY Law has more students from politically marginalized backgrounds than other law schools. For them to more fully participate in drawing the blueprints to create a just society, we need more graduates across the spectrum of legal jobs, especially in positions of power. We need more of them clerking and eventually on the bench, as well as in policy, impact litigation, and legislative positions. We need them serving movements from outside the nonprofit industrial complex. B...ut without more exposure to these kinds of practice, students will lack experience to access these positions, and to engage with more experimental or radical approaches to using the law as a tool for social change. I would offer more opportunities for experiential learning and would allow students to take clinic earlier in their law school careers. Students need fewer simulations and more varied practice experience. Professor Julia Hernandez shares her thoughts on disrupting the legal education system, diversifying the legal profession, and building intergenerational joy in this month's #FacultyFeature. http://ow.ly/hcaH50D7xHX

1L Reachelle Ramirez, CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice ’19 and Pre- Law Institute member, reflects on applying to law school, getting into all 15 schools, choosing CUNY Law, and then on what it was like to finish her first semester during the pandemic in this month's #StudentSpotlight. http://ow.ly/2gL550D5L2h #FamilyLaw #CurlyLawtina

Today 1/12 12:30pm On this edition of #AskAdmissionsAnything, Exec Director of Admissions Gayla Jacobson will discuss changes to the scholarship application process & awarding criteria made to create a more equitable & anti-racist scholarship policy. https://www.instagram.com/cunylaw/

Facing the prospect of remote clinic and remote client representation, the Immigrant and Non-Citizen Rights Clinic evening cohort took the opportunity to expand their reach to represent asylum-seekers stranded in Mexico under the Trump Administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, [MPP] otherwise known as the Remain in Mexico Program. The Remain in Mexico program led to the creation of large refugee populations across the U.S.-Mexico border, forcing asylum seekers to li...ve in squalid, life-threatening conditions while they indefinitely await their asylum hearings in the U.S. Only 5 out of every 100 individuals in this program gets access to an attorney and navigating a complex and ever-changing immigration process without counsel is overwhelming and often insurmountable. With these odds in mind, INRC attorneys and students set out to use their remote learning and representation capabilities to represent those beyond our southern border. Working with the El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, INRC co-director Professor Nermeen Arastu and one of her law student teams, comprised of Stephanie Encarnacion, Andrea Parejo, Melissa Rodney, and Nick Sakover, were able to secure a rare victory. Their client was released from the MPP program, and then released from ICE custody in Texas and reunited with her eleven-year-old daughter after a nearly one-year separation. Read their full story http://ow.ly/709e50D3WXj

Building hours update Until 10/23 entry hours with an appointment are 9-11am Mon - Fri and the building closes at 8pm Starting 10/26 after midterms, entry hours with an appointment are Wed/Thurs/Fri from 9-11am and the building closes at 8pm ... (Hours will be updated for the Dec reading period)

Professor Babe Howell | The Intercept "The potential damage caused by labeling someone a possible gang member, whether in a formal database or not, is very real. Labeling someone as gang-affiliated leads to two systems of justice that are separate and unequal, because if someone is accused of being a gang member on the street they will be policed with heightened levels of tension, often resulting in excessive force. ... In the criminal justice system they’ll be denied bail, speedy trial rights, typical due process rights, because they’re seen as more of a threat. Gang allegations carry this level of prejudicial bad character evidence that would not normally be admissible. http://ow.ly/AMSF50C0lt7 #Dataminr #ConfirmationBias

"It is tempting to see a shift from a 5-4 to a 6-3 conservative majority on the Court as an existential threat to environmental protection, but in truth, many of the court’s legal impediments to meaningful environmental action have been building for decades. Environmentalists’ worries about 48 year-old nominee Barrett are indeed justified; yet her arrival on the nation’s highest bench will likely only reinforce the Court’s growing inclination to treat environmental matters a...s merely administrative and procedural, without regard for the science and substance of what is at stake." - Professor Sarah Lamdan co-authors this piece in the Augusta Free Press detailing concerns around a reconfigured court’s impact on our #EnvironmentalLaws. http://ow.ly/XTeU50BZXRj

Prof Ramzi Kassem of CUNY CLEAR discusses his experience arguing #SCOTUS case Tanzin v. Tanvir remotely on the Bloomberg Law #CasesAndControversies #podcast, including technological issues, breakfast choices, and attire. http://ow.ly/nB5950BZ3Xs #TanzinVTanvir

"We should hone in and build up in-person clinics in a way that best measures the minimum standards of competency for licensing. For example, the supervising professor would evaluate how students communicate with clients and negotiate with adversaries skills that the bar exam is meant to test for." - Dean Mary Lu Bilek suggests law schools adopt a clinical training model similar to medical schools in Business Insider http://ow.ly/RPNv50BWmcZ... #DiplomaPrivilege #Barocalypse See more

"The violence done to families scrutinized, surveilled and ripped apart by state agents is no less traumatic because it happens in our backyards, or because it happens in the name of protecting the children who are taken away. This is an open secret among family defenders like me, attorneys who represent parents in maltreatment proceedings." - Professor Tarek Ismails' op-ed in the New York Daily News details the enduring impact of Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement in the lives of children and their families http://ow.ly/mU3J50BUm4A

"I’m wearing a mask for my students, my faculty, my staff, my alums, my friends, anyone who might be my friend, and for every single one of you who makes up our great city." - Dean Mary Lu Bilek #MaskUpCUNY #COVID19

WNYC, Gothamist and the CUNY School of Law will host a virtual forum for Manhattan District Attorney candidates to discuss and debate their visions for racial justice. Across the country, DA races have become one of the main battlegrounds for criminal justice reform. And the 2021 race in New York City will likely have national reverberations. Candidates will debate a range of topics, including gun violence, police accountability and gang policing. George Joseph, a reporter for WNYC’s Race and Justice Unit, will moderate.

We're live! Tune in to tonight's WNYC & Gothamist forum co-moderated by Professor Babe Howell, where we can ask the 2021 Manhattan District Attorney candidates to discuss and debate their vision for racial justice in NYC. Share your questions and calls for change with #ManhattanDA

Tonight, help NYC redefine its vision for racial justice in the live forum discussion and debate for Manhattan District Attorney candidates. Join co-moderators Professor Babe Howell and WNYC reporter Geroge Joseph via Facebook Live stream and submit your questions via Twitter with #ManhattanDA. We plan to crosspost the live stream right here on our page, but don't forget to set your reminder below!

Today (Thurs 9/17) at 12:30pm Join us for this month's #CareerConversations #IGLive with host Therese McNulty, Associate Director of Career Planning, and featuring this month's special guest, alum Samantha N. Thomas '09. ... https://www.instagram.com/cunylaw/ #InstagramLive #WhyCUNYLaw See more

My driving ambition is for scholarship that remains rooted in and true to the lived experience and transformative vision of the clients, communities, and movements that have worked with me. Unmoored from the accountability that accompanies a principled praxis, legal scholarship all too often serves and perpetuates prevailing power structures. Prof and CUNY CLEAR Founder Ramzi Kassem is selected as a 2020 Freedom Scholar via Marguerite Casey Foundation & The Group Health Fou...ndation. Press release http://ow.ly/Kv5W50Bt1ot

Happening now! Join the watch party with CUNY Law, CLEAR, and the Center for Constitutional Rights for a virtual panel discussion in advance of Professor Kassem’s October 6, 2020, Supreme Court arguments in Tanzin v. Tanvir, a case brought by American Muslims who were placed or kept on the No-Fly List by the FBI for refusing to spy on their own communities

"As faculty, we have a legal obligation to protect student privacy. As educators, we are compelled to foster student exploration and experimentation through a pedagogy of mutual respect and trust, and that includes a responsibility to assure the appropriate and ethical use of learning data." Yasmin Sokkar Harker co-authored this piece on privacy and students’ learning data, with a nod to Professor Sarah Lamdan's work on connections between legal research providers and law en...forcement agencies. http://ow.ly/4p7T50Bozp5