New York Law School (NYLS) is ever-evolving: Faculty, staff, and students alike are constantly building innovative programs, launching exciting initiatives, and doing the critical work of fostering inclusivity and equity throughout the School. preLaw Magazine’s Winter 2022 issue honored the work of our community in three distinguished areas: 25 Most Innovative Schools, Leaders in Public Policy, and Best Schools for Hispanics.
“We appreciate that preLaw took the time to learn about and recognize the great value of our innovative programs and deep institutional commitments that help to inspire and train the next generation of lawyer leaders,” said Anthony W. Crowell, Dean and President.
One of 25 Most Innovative Schools
In preLaw’s feature of innovative schools, the magazine highlighted new and expanded programs at law schools around the country. The Venable-NYLS Summer Associate Simulation Program put NYLS on the list: For the past two summers, the program has provided 120 NYLS students with academic credits and opportunities to work through real-world legal challenges related to COVID-19. Modeled on the Big Law experience, the program teaches students both legal and leadership skills and is especially tailored to a pandemic-changed world.
Learn more about the Venable-NYLS Summer Associate Simulation Program.
A Leader in Public Policy
NYLS received an “A” grade from preLaw and was especially noted for the work of the Wilf Impact Center for Public Interest Law, which recently launched three institutes: the 21st Century Policing Project, the Criminal Justice Institute, and the Education Law and Policy Institute. These initiatives provide students with hands-on experience as they make major impacts in their communities and advance bold reforms in New York City and beyond.
The 21st Century Policing Project (P21) responds to an urgent need for racial justice and police reform, and NYLS aims to make substantive contributions in this arena across the country. P21 develops strategies to implement police reforms and to improve the relationship between police departments and the diverse communities they serve. The initiative also includes the course Policing the Police.
NYLS’s Criminal Justice Institute brings together sectors of the criminal justice system that are often siloed to find solutions that reduce both crime and incarceration. The Institute offers students a chance to meet and work with practitioners, academics, government officials, and reformers whose work impacts this field, and the Institute builds bridges with individuals, agencies, and institutions that work on criminal justice in New York City.
NYLS’s Education Law and Policy Institute responds to a time of unprecedented learning loss for New York City schoolchildren and the pandemic’s exacerbated systemic exclusion of low-income, Black, Hispanic, and special education students from a quality education. NYLS students advance education equity and access for New York City’s most vulnerable children through direct representation, advocacy, and policy reform, and they collaborate with civil rights organizations to increase access to broadband internet, connect students to special education services, implement trauma-informed approaches to teaching and discipline, end the school-to-prison pipeline, implement restorative justice, desegregate schools, and expand language access.
Named a “Best School for Hispanics”
For their “Best Law Schools for Diversity” lists—broken down by ethnicity—preLaw graded schools based on their percentage of students who identify as a member of each ethnic group, the percentage of professors at each school from ethnic minorities, and each school’s diversity services.
Hispanic students can find community in any number of our student associations, including the Latin American Law Students Association, which welcomes all members of the School community and works with Hispanic law students and legal professionals to create a space for members to feel seen, comfortable, heard, supported, and to have access to all the resources they need to succeed.
NYLS’s efforts toward equity within and beyond our community are imbued in everything we do. Work at the School is led by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which supports students, administration and staff, faculty, and alumni in addressing all aspects of diversity, with a focus on underrepresented communities and military veterans.
Read more about the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’s many programs and initiatives.