2 Court Square
Long Island City, NY 11101
Phone: 718.340.4210; Fax: 718.340.4435
E-mail: admissions@mail.law.cuny.edu; Website: www.law.cuny.edu
Following its motto of "Law in the Service of Human Needs," the mission of the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law is to train excellent public interest lawyers through a curriculum that integrates doctrine, legal theory, clinical education, and professional responsibility.
In 2012 CUNY Law will move from its current location in Flushing, Queens, to 2 Court Square in Long Island City. This central location will allow for an easier commute from all five boroughs and from around the region. Moreover, the move will enable the school to realize its long-held ambition to establish a part-time program, an innovation that would help make the law school accessible to a more diverse range of students. With its greater centrality, its mission will be enhanced by the closer proximity to the public interest community and to its clients.
CUNY Law's unique and integrated curriculum has made it a national leader in progressive legal education heralded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The curriculum engages students in a thoughtful combination of rigorous coursework in traditional substantive areas and a lawyering program that teaches the skills recognized by the American Bar Association as necessary for competent practice (problem solving, legal analysis and reasoning, legal research, factual investigation, and communication—including legal writing and oral argument, counseling, negotiation, litigation and alternative dispute resolution procedures, organization and management of legal work, and recognition and resolution of ethical dilemmas). All first-year students take a required two-semester Lawyering Seminar where they focus on the fundamental skills of legal analysis and legal writing and engage in simulations requiring a wide range of lawyering tasks. They draft documents, interview and counsel clients, engage in negotiations, and make arguments before trial and appellate courts. Faculty guidance, supervision, and feedback permeate the process. In the second year, each student elects a four-credit Lawyering Seminar focused on developing more advanced lawyering skills in a subject matter area of choice, including trial practice, mediation, labor, and appellate advocacy. Fifteen CUNY law students were offered Revson Fellowships in the summer of 2011. Excellent and comprehensive academic support is provided by the Irene Diamond Professional Skills Center.
The diversity of New York City is reflected in our dynamic student body and faculty. Women constitute 63 percent of the student body; minorities, 41 percent. Faculty percentages are similar: 65 percent are women and 42 percent are people of color. The concern for diversity is also threaded through the curriculum, for example, a required course for all first-year students is Liberty, Equality, and Due Process, which examines issues of racial and gender equality and sexual orientation in the context of legal and historical analysis.
Clinical Programs include Community Economic Development, Criminal Defense, Elder Law, Equality, Health Law, Immigrant and Refugee Rights, International Women's Human Rights, and Mediation. Following Lawyering Seminars in the first two years, all students have opportunities to participate in 12 to 16 credit clinical courses in their third year. Students engage in individual representation of clients and work on projects in collaboration with community groups, organizers, and international organizations to address issues of social justice. Recent work includes legal victories in low-wage labor campaigns, amicus briefs to international tribunals, community education projects throughout New York, and interdisciplinary representation of clients who have suffered trauma from torture and domestic abuse.
Despite the relatively small size of the law school, numerous student organizations thrive on campus. Students also have a major role in the law school's governance, recognizing and preparing them for their future as professionals and community leaders. One exemplary student program is the Mississippi Project; since 1992, this program has sent a delegation of law students to Mississippi over midyear break to work with lawyers in civil rights organizations across the state. CUNY students work and learn together in an exceptionally collaborative, noncompetitive atmosphere and interact on a first-name basis with the faculty. The student experience is further enriched by New York City's cultural offerings and by the exceptional resources of the third-largest university system in the country, City University of New York.
Most of this diverse faculty have themselves been public interest practitioners, with experience in a wide area of issues, including employment discrimination, immigration, racial justice, environmental law, women's rights, labor, and international law. They have worked in China, Haiti, South Africa, Mongolia, Costa Rica, the Middle East, Russia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Central America, the Philippines, and many other countries. Their prestigious awards include Fulbright, Ford, MacArthur, Revson, Rockefeller, and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships. Their scholarship reflects their interest in, among other areas, international human rights and access to justice for underserved communities.
CUNY law graduates are employed in the full range of public interest jobs—legal services and public defender organizations, government agencies, international human rights organizations, not-for-profits, and the judiciary. Approximately 80–90 percent of alumni/ae secure positions within nine months of graduation. Historically, 55–65 percent of graduates enter the public interest/public service profession each year, while 25–30 percent are employed at private firms from large to small and solo community-based practices. CUNY law graduates are consistently awarded judicial clerkships and prestigious public interest postgraduate fellowships that include the Equal Justice Works, Skadden, Echoing Green, Yale Public Interest Initiative grants, and the Georgetown University Law Center fellowships, as well as the Fulbright. Although the vast majority are employed in the mid-Atlantic states, CUNY graduates can be found throughout the United States and abroad where they are engaged in international human rights work.
CUNY Law School offers its students an on-site Early Childhood Program, the first and still one of the few on-site child care centers in legal education in the nation. The Children's Center provides reasonably priced, high-quality, nurturing care for children, with a quality program of education and recreational activities in a caring, multicultural environment. At our new location at 2 Court Square in Long Island City, in addition to a beautiful new classroom, the children will have an alternate indoor space located on the ground floor of the law school known as "The Beacon." This space is sunny and has floor to ceiling windows. A regularly reserved time will be scheduled exclusively for toddlers. In addition, the children will be able to either walk or ride in our buggy to nearby John F. Murray Park. Enrollment spaces are limited and the age range of children may vary from 3 months up to 3 years.
The law school offers a number of unique programs and initiatives that enrich the experience of students and provide continuing support for graduates. The Community Legal Resource Network (CLRN) of alumni provides resources and supports graduates working in solo or small-firm practices in underserved communities. The LaunchPad for Justice, through a special practice order in conjunction with the New York State Courts, provides an opportunity for recent grads to argue in court on behalf of individuals facing housing legal issues, while waiting for admission to the NY State Bar. CLRN also established the Incubator for Justice in Manhattan. The Incubator houses and trains eight CUNY grads at a time, over an 18-month period, in basic business issues such as billing, record-keeping, technology, bookkeeping, and taxes while, at the same time, facilitating Incubator participants' involvement in larger justice initiatives and in subject-based training in immigration law, labor and employment, and other topics that will arise continually as these attorneys build their practices. CUNY Law's nationally ranked clinical program provides students with direct legal representation to underserved communities. Finally, the law school is part of a rich university, the City University of New York, and law students may take some interdisciplinary graduate courses with the approval of the Academic Dean.
The law school's student profile includes many individuals returning to school after careers, and many who possess advanced degrees. The average age of the student body is 27; some students enter directly from undergraduate school while others are older, making the law school a comfortable environment.
CUNY offers an excellent legal education at substantially less than half the cost of most private law schools.
This grid includes only applicants who earned 120–180 LSAT scores under standard administrations.
| GPA | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LSAT Score |
3.75+ Apps |
3.75+ Adm |
3.50– 3.74 Apps |
3.50– 3.74 Adm |
3.25– 3.49 Apps |
3.25– 3.49 Adm |
3.00– 3.24 Apps |
3.00– 3.24 Adm |
2.75– 2.99 Apps |
2.75– 2.99 Adm |
2.50– 2.74 Apps |
2.50– 2.74 Adm |
2.25– 2.49 Apps |
2.25– 2.49 Adm |
2.00– 2.24 Apps |
2.00– 2.24 Adm |
Below 2.00 Apps |
Below 2.00 Adm |
No GPA Apps |
No GPA Adm |
Total Apps |
Total Adm |
| LSAT score 175–180 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| LSAT score 170–174 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 8 |
| LSAT score 165–169 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 14 | 14 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 47 | 38 |
| LSAT score 160–164 | 22 | 19 | 25 | 22 | 26 | 22 | 25 | 18 | 14 | 8 | 16 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 141 | 99 |
| LSAT score 155–159 | 38 | 32 | 55 | 49 | 82 | 64 | 66 | 41 | 53 | 30 | 25 | 8 | 18 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 351 | 233 |
| LSAT score 150–154 | 47 | 26 | 102 | 38 | 120 | 59 | 132 | 35 | 88 | 15 | 46 | 5 | 21 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 19 | 3 | 582 | 183 |
| LSAT score 145–149 | 24 | 0 | 61 | 0 | 93 | 0 | 96 | 0 | 58 | 0 | 52 | 0 | 27 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 441 | 0 |
| LSAT score 140–144 | 14 | 0 | 42 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 50 | 0 | 39 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 227 | 0 |
| LSAT score 135–139 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 86 | 0 |
| LSAT score 130–134 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 26 | 0 |
| LSAT score 125–129 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| LSAT score 120–124 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Total | 156 | 86 | 303 | 115 | 378 | 160 | 397 | 102 | 280 | 56 | 189 | 19 | 112 | 6 | 25 | 1 | 15 | 1 | 65 | 15 | 1920 | 561 |
Apps = Number of Applicants
Adm = Number Admitted
Reflects 99% of the total applicant pool; highest LSAT data reported.