Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University

Introduction

Cardozo Law offers students a stimulating intellectual educational experience, rooted in the values of ethics, public service, and scholarship. Known for providing high intellectual standards and pioneering hands-on experiences, Cardozo Law also provides students with a deep understanding of how law relates to other expressions of the human spirit, including philosophy, economics, politics, history, art, and literature. Cardozo offers superb programs in intellectual property law, criminal law, alternative dispute resolution, international and human rights law, public interest law, and legal theory. A highly energetic and supportive faculty engages students from 43 countries and all regions of the United States. Extensive clinical and externship opportunities draw on the resources available in New York City, and programs, centers, and clinics, such as the Innocence Project and the Heyman Center for Corporate Governance, are well known for innovation and leadership. Unique hands-on clinical opportunities are offered, including the Holocaust Claims Restitution Clinic, the Indie Film Clinic, and the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic. These clinics train students in connecting theory with practical application of the law. Field clinics designed to help students become practice-ready are offered in partnership with legal institutions in the metropolitan area, including the New York Attorney General's office, city government departments, and nonprofits in fields such as consumer rights, health law, and art law. A Cardozo legal education emphasizes the pursuit of intellectual excellence while providing a wealth of lawyering opportunities.

Faculty

Professors at Cardozo are accessible and engaged in all aspects of students' professional development. They are committed to making the classroom experience vital and engaging, as well as pursuing serious scholarship, with more than half holding advanced degrees, such as PhDs, in addition to their law degrees. Cultivating an atmosphere of intellectual dialogue and curiosity, faculty members work closely with students on conferences that attract world-class guest speakers in all legal specialties. Cardozo Law professors have extensive connections within the New York City legal community and elsewhere. Many who teach here are prolific writers. They are frequently cited among academics worldwide and write publications that serve as required reading in law schools throughout the nation. Cardozo's clinical faculty is known for its innovative leadership. From the renowned Innocence Project to the pioneering Indie Film Clinic, our faculty members help students to develop hands-on skills in courtrooms, negotiations, transactional law experience, public policy advocacy, and mediation practice. Cardozo faculty members see it as their job to prepare students to be ready to practice law as leaders in a new age, and to hold fast to the core values of justice, equality, and ethics.

A Campus in New York City

Cardozo is located in a vibrant neighborhood in Greenwich Village, just blocks from Union Square. It is easily accessible to all points in New York City, including the courts, Wall Street, Midtown, and the art and music centers on the East and West Sides of Manhattan. The law school's state-of-the-art facility includes a moot courtroom, additional library space, a center for student life, student and faculty offices, and fully wired classrooms and seminar rooms.

The Cardozo residence hall is located on a residential, tree-lined street just one block south of the main building. Studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments—all of which are air-conditioned, fully furnished, and equipped with kitchens—are available for incoming students.

Students/Student Activities

The student body at Cardozo is a diverse and impressive group. A typical entering class includes graduates from more than 145 colleges, and from 32 states and 12 foreign countries. Roughly 26 percent of the class are members of minority groups and 48 percent have been out of college between one and five years. Approximately 10 percent hold advanced degrees.

More than half of the second- and third-year students participate on one of six student-edited journals or in the Moot Court Honor Society. Scholarly journals include the Cardozo Law Review, Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal, Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law, Cardozo Journal of Law and Gender, Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Cardozo Public Law, Policy, and Ethics Journal.

Career Services

Cardozo students benefit from a large network of working alumni and a career services office staffed by six professional counselors, all of whom have JD degrees. Students are offered individual assistance with interviewing techniques, résumé writing, and job-search strategies, as well as workshops and opportunities for learning about a variety of legal careers from attorneys in the field.

Ninety-three percent of those reporting from the class of 2010 were employed within several months of graduation. Approximately 48 percent of these graduates went into private practice at average starting salaries ranging from $59,000 to $120,000. Over 30 percent of the class entered the public sector in a broad range of positions, including jobs in judges' chambers, governmental agencies, and public interest organizations.

Clinical Opportunities/Special Programs

Cardozo has a commitment to a particular style of education that seeks to blend theory and practice—to expose students to the abstractions, intellectual and ethical conundrums, and overarching theories of the American legal system, as well as to the concrete skills and values they need to be first-rate attorneys. A wealth of clinical programs combines professional work experience with academic supervision, yielding students uniquely qualified to apply what they have studied. Nearly 400 students each year take advantage of one of these opportunities to represent real clients (under the supervision of expert attorneys), gaining invaluable skills while performing important community service representing the poor, the elderly, and the indigent.

In the Innocence Project, students represent prisoners whose innocence may be proved through DNA testing; in the Prosecutor Practicum, students work in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office; the Bet Tzedek Legal Services Clinic provides legal assistance to the elderly and disabled; the Mediation Clinic provides training and certification in alternative dispute resolution; the Human Rights and Genocide Clinic provides students with the opportunity to design and implement creative solutions to improve the lives of victims of human rights abuses throughout the world; Cardozo's simulation-based Intensive Trial Advocacy Program sharpens students' trial skills; and students in the Criminal Defense Clinic represent defendants in Manhattan Criminal Court. Other clinics include the Family Court Clinic, Tax Clinic, Criminal Appeals Clinic, Divorce Mediation Clinic, Housing Rights Clinic, Immigration Justice Clinic, Indie Film Clinic, Labor and Employment Law Clinic, Guardianship Clinic, and Securities Arbitration Clinic.

Externships offer students the opportunity to work in a legal position, thereby developing important skills and gaining significant real-world experience. Through externships and internships, students can obtain credit for substantive legal work under the direct supervision of an attorney or judge at the work site. The Intellectual Property Law Program combines a specialized curriculum with related externships in this burgeoning area of practice; the Alexander Judicial Fellows Program places outstanding third-year students in clerkships with prominent federal judges; the Entertainment Law Experience enables students to complete legal internships during the school year or the summer with entertainment law employers; the Heyman/ACCA In-House Counsel Internship introduces second- and third-year students to the practice of law in a corporate law department; in the Holocaust Claims Restitution Practicum, students pursue claims made by Holocaust survivors and their heirs; the Immigration Law Externship places students in law offices and agencies handling immigration matters; and the Corporation Counsel's Appellate Externship places students in the Appeals Division of the New York City Law Department (Corporation Counsel).

Cardozo's Center for Public Service Law emphasizes the school's commitment to serving the greater public good and helping students find meaningful ways to engage in public service. In the summer of 2011, more than 250 first- and second-year students received summer funding to allow them to work either domestically or abroad in the public sector at legal services providers, public interest organizations, government agencies, district attorneys' offices, the US Attorney's Office, and federal and state judicial chambers. The Public Service Scholars Program provides a community within the Law School that supports and encourages students to develop skills as public interest advocates and leaders. The Postgraduate Public Service Fellowship provides new graduates with funding to work in the public sector prior to entering full-time employment. The Laurie M. Tisch Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) benefits graduates who choose to pursue careers in public interest/public service law by assisting with some of the burden of large educational debts. Intellectual life at Cardozo extends beyond the classroom. The school sponsors numerous conferences, panels, and symposia that provoke dialogue and critical thought on wide-ranging topics in constitutional law, communications law and policy, human rights, corporate governance, and legal ethics.

Curriculum

Cardozo offers a rich curriculum that has been especially recognized for its offerings in intellectual property law (students may receive both the JD and master of laws [LLM] degrees in seven semesters), alternative dispute resolution (students may receive both the JD and master of laws [LLM] degrees in seven semesters), criminal law, corporate law, and international law. Upper-level courses are elective except for a course in professional responsibility, completion of advanced legal research, an upper-level writing requirement, and fulfillment of minimal distribution requirements.

Cardozo offers LLM degrees in dispute resolution and advocacy, intellectual property law, comparative legal thought, and general studies. A joint-degree program between Cardozo and the Wurzweiler School of Social Work allows students to earn both the JD and MSW degrees in four years of study. Students may also pursue a JD/MPH (Master of Public Health) and a JD/MBE (Master of Science in Bioethics) offered with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Admission/Alternative Entry/Financial Aid

Students may enter Cardozo in the fall, in January, or in May. Those entering in January complete six semesters of law school in two-and-a-half years. Those entering in May complete the first-year curriculum in three part-time semesters, while the second and third years are completed on a full-time basis (students will graduate in three years). These alternative entry programs can be particularly appealing to midyear graduates and returning students.

Both need- and merit-based scholarships are available. Approximately 84 percent of the students receive some financial aid. Instructions on applying for aid can be found at www.cardozo.yu.edu/studentfinance.

Applicant Profile

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University

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	Below 2.50 Apps	Below 2.50 Adm	No GPA Apps	No GPA Adm	Total Apps	Total Adm
LSAT score 170–180	96	81	59	47	46	26	17	7	11	2	13	0	6	0	9	4	257	167
LSAT score 165–169	167	151	256	231	179	99	99	18	52	5	28	1	18	1	25	13	824	519
LSAT score 160–164	252	185	372	176	299	58	175	23	58	5	32	0	22	0	36	12	1246	459
LSAT score 155–159	118	47	185	41	197	27	147	18	64	3	38	0	17	0	21	3	787	139
LSAT score 150–154	59	15	103	15	132	8	113	0	65	0	24	0	24	0	7	0	527	38
LSAT score Below 150	33	0	44	0	77	0	100	0	72	0	45	0	44	0	18	0	433	0
Total	725	479	1019	510	930	218	651	66	322	15	180	1	131	1	116	32	4074	1322

Apps = Number of Applicants
Adm = Number Admitted
Reflects 99% of the total applicant pool; highest LSAT data reported.