The Legacy of the NYLS Pro Evening Division
On Sunday, October 19, 2025, the NYLS Pro Evening Division community came together for the first annual Family Day—a gathering for evening students to enjoy food, games, and companionship with their classmates, families, and friends. The event, spearheaded by Dean for Evening Division Engagement Kirk D. Burkhalter ’04, marked the beginning of a new tradition for NYLS’s evening community. View photos from the first annual Family Day.
Dean Burkhalter, himself a proud graduate of the Law School’s evening program, was appointed to this inaugural position in February of this year, alongside his role as the first Chair of the new Faculty Committee on the Evening Division. Comprising faculty, administrators, and Trustees who are also Evening Division alumni, the Committee is dedicated to strengthening engagement and support for those balancing their legal education with full-time careers and other responsibilities. In his dual roles, Dean Burkhalter leads initiatives to enhance recruitment, programming, and community life for evening students at NYLS.
Family Day represents both a celebration and a reassertion of NYLS’s long-standing commitment to providing legal education to working professionals. That commitment is also rooted in the Law School’s leadership. Dean Anthony W. Crowell, who earned his J.D. as an evening student at American University, has long championed opportunities for students pursuing law at night while managing daytime responsibilities. Under his leadership, the Evening Division was reimagined as “NYLS Pro” in 2022 to address the modern needs of evening students through a more accessible, flexible, and affordable framework. Chair John E. Estes ’95 is a graduate of the Law School’s evening program, and is committed to expanding upon the educational values he credits for his success. He is one of three Board Chairs who were evening graduates, including previous Chairs Bernie Mendik ’58 and Lawrence S. Huntington ’64.
To honor the Evening Division’s legacy, we’re sharing historical highlights originally put together for a 2019 NYLS Magazine feature commemorating the program’s 125th anniversary. The article traces the evolution of the program from its genesis in 1894 through moments of innovation and expansion.
The NYLS Trustees below are alumni of the Evening Division:
John E. Estes ’95 (Board Chair)
Benjamin DeCosta ’75
Dr. Vincent A. Carbonell ’00
Pam Foster ’00
Susan Hinkson ’98, LL.M. ’12
Charles E. Phillips Jr. ’93
Norman Radow ’81
Errol B. Taylor ’87
Hon. Marc J. Whiten ’84
The following excerpt is republished from “The Evening Division Celebrates 125 Years” in Volume 38, Issue 1 of the NYLS Magazine.
NYLS’s Evening Division was founded in 1894—the same year bottled Coca-Cola hit the market, the patent for motion picture films was granted, and Pullman Company workers launched a nationwide strike.
These developments spoke to broader societal changes: technology was accelerating, ideas were being shared further and faster than ever, and the wealth gap was widening. Meanwhile, legal education was growing and becoming formalized.
Three years prior, a group from Columbia Law School had broken away to launch NYLS. The School’s founders, propelled by a spirit of innovation, saw no reason to restrict its programming to the daytime hours. When the “Evening School,” as it was called in advertisements from the time, launched, it became a destination for working professionals, many drawn from New York’s working-class communities, to advance their careers and pursue their dreams.
HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS
1891
NYLS is founded by a breakaway group from Columbia Law School, driven by ideological differences in teaching methods and led by Theodore Dwight.
1894
NYLS, growing rapidly, is among the first law schools to add an “Evening School” to its offerings. Unlike daytime students, who study at 120 Broadway in the Equitable Building, evening students attend class at the Cooper Union Building in the East Village, Astor Place. Ads from the time period list both addresses.
1898
Both campuses relocate. Day students move around the corner to 35 Nassau Street. Evening students attend school at 9 West 18th Street. A New York Tribune newspaper advertisement promotes the “Dwight Method” of instruction and NYLS’s degree offerings at the time: LL.B. (two years) and LL.M. (three years).
1903
More than a decade after NYLS’s founding, evening students join day students at 35 Nassau Street. Going forward, they will study at a combined campus, even as the School subsequently relocates.
1936–37
For evening (and daytime) students, the modern naming convention of the first-year, second-year, and third-year classes is adopted. Prior classes were named “Junior,” “Middle,” and “Senior.”
1937–39
NYLS debuts a three-year afternoon and evening track and a four-year afternoon and evening track, in addition to its three-year daytime track.
1939–40
The School settles into its current structure of a three-year Day Division and a four-year Evening Division.
1969
An issue of Equitas, NYLS’s then-student newspaper, includes an article titled “Law Schools Form Consortium.” The story summarizes efforts by NYLS and three other law schools offering both day and evening courses to increase diversity in the legal profession. The consortium will do so, the article notes, by granting additional scholarships for evening students with dependents.
1990
In a May issue of the New York Law School Reporter, an evening student (Barry Block ’91) shares tips for forging stronger connections with day students. Among them: Evening students should take the occasional daytime course, spend time in the student lounge before 6:00 p.m. classes, and join a student group. In doing so, Block wrote, “day students will discover that evening students are teachers, policemen, doctors, airline pilots, and a myriad of other interesting professionals ...”
1991
The student yearbook includes an essay by Block titled “The Life of an Evening Student.” He recounts, “As evening students, most of us did not have the luxury of studying during the day. We were busy with full-time jobs ... Occasionally, we would find ourselves pitted against a young professor and saying, ‘That’s fine in principle, but it’s not the way it works in the real world.’”
1992
NYLS becomes the first law school to join the Mayor’s Graduate Scholarship Program, through which New York City employees may pursue additional higher education beyond a bachelor’s degree while working full-time. The same year, NYLS launches a special scholarship program for employees of nonprofits.
2012
Dean Anthony W. Crowell, who earned his J.D. as an evening student, is appointed Dean and President of NYLS. He is the first NYLS Dean, and one of only a handful of the 209 law school deans nationally, known to have graduated from an evening law school program.
2015
NYLS announces its Public Service Scholarship Program for members of New York City’s uniformed services and other public servants, many of whom have historically populated the Evening Division.
2019
NYLS is ranked No. 28 among national part-time J.D. programs in the 2020 U.S. News & World Report. The School secures a grant from the AccessLex Institute to explore, design, and implement responses to the particular academic and bar prep challenges evening students face. With a generous lead gift from evening graduate Arthur Metzler ’94, President and CEO of AMA Consulting Engineers, P.C., NYLS establishes the Evening Division Leadership Fund to support evening students’ academic and bar success.