Opportunities for Student Involvement

The Brendan Moore Advocacy Center provides all of Fordham’s “hands on” training in trial advocacy. In courses and trial competitions, law students learn the diverse practical skills involved in trying a lawsuit before a jury through the intense “performance-critique-repeat” process of preparing for—and then conducting—simulated trials. You will find alumni of the Moore Advocacy Center winning trials in courtrooms across the country.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

• Compete in the Summer Closing Argument Competition (June)
• Compete in the Fall Intra-school Trial Competition Tournament (September)
• Be a witness at the Kelly Invitation Competition (November)
• Take Trial and Arbitration Advocacy and compete in the Tendy Competition (April)

Contact: [email protected] or [email protected] 

Launched in 2019, the Center for Judicial Events & Clerkships (CJEC) has a dual mandate: judicial engagement and clerkship support. Its creation represents the law school’s increased commitment to strengthening our relationship with the judiciary. Through innovative partnerships, programs, and events the CJEC seeks to build bridges between our students, faculty, clerks, and judges to provide meaningful opportunities to learn from one another. Equally central to the mission is developing a space to foster community and build engagement among our cohort of alumni clerks, judges and students to promote a clerkship-oriented culture. The CJEC benefits from the involvement of a Judicial Advisory Council, Alumni Clerk Advisory Council, a Student Peer Council and our colleagues on the Faculty Clerkship Committee.

Career Support

The CJEC, working with members of the Faculty Clerkship Committee, provides unparalleled support to students and alumni who choose to pursue post-graduate judicial clerkships at the federal and state levels. Our alumni clerk cohort continues to benefit from enhanced post-clerkship career support.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

Fordham Law students can participate in public lectures, roundtable discussions, and clerkship-focused events organized and sponsored by the CJEC. Our Jurist in Residence, Courts in Residence and View from Chambers events invite members of the judiciary to engage directly with students to educate them on substantive areas of the law, co-teach classes and provide insight into types of courts/judges and their role in the judicial system. The CJEC welcomes inquiries from, and collaboration with, other law school centers and student organizations that are interested in presenting programs on topics relating to the judiciary or welcoming judges to the school. Beginning with the 2020-2021 academic year,the CJEC created a Peer Council composed of 3LD/4LE students who worked closely with the Center to secure their clerkships.

Contact: [email protected] 

The Center on Asian Americans and the Law is a first-of-its-kind institution with three core missions:

1. educating students, lawyers, and the public on issues of importance to the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and general community;
2. establishing a national hub for research and scholarship on legal issues of AAPI concern; and
3. working to advance equity and belonging for AAPI persons and others in the United States

Opportunities for Student Involvement

Case Reenactments—Reenactments of cases that helped shape the history of Asian American civil rights, including, for example, the cases arising from the murder of Vincent Chin in a Detroit suburb in 1982 and the suit brought by the Vietnamese Fishermen against the Ku Klux Klan in Houston in 1981. Students will participate by planning and presenting the event, including taking roles in these dramatic presentations drawn from trial transcripts.

Casebook

The Center is producing an E-casebook, based on materials compiled by Judge Chin and Professor Lee. The process will require assistance from students, including research, cite-checking, indexing, and editing.

Speaker Events

We will have brown bag lunches, panels, and more formal events with speakers. We encourage students to come and join us for these events.

Student Projects

The Center will undertake projects from time to time in the nature of advocacy to correct injustices and to recognize individuals who contributed to the advancement of AAPI rights. Possible projects include a petition to vacate the conviction of Iva Toguri (“Tokyo Rose”) and an effort to obtain the Presidential Medal of Freedom for Mitsuye Endo. We need student volunteers to work on projects such as these.

Contact: [email protected] 

The Fordham Center on European Union Law was established in 1984. The center provides a teaching and resource facility devoted to European Union law, as well as European Union and international antitrust. It was created by the late Professor Roger Goebel.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

The center is interested in cooperating with students on organizing events in the area of European Union (EU) Law and the laws of the member states. It often cooperates with the Fordham International Law Journal and other student groups on events. Students are encouraged to contact the center directors if they are interested in setting up an event that the center could co-sponsor or co-organize.

Contact: Professor Martin Gelter; [email protected] and Professor Mark R. Patterson, [email protected] 

A non-partisan law and policy think tank dedicated to providing thought-leaders, policy makers and the public with the tools to better understand today’s national security issues. The Center on National Security (CNS) fosters debate and dialogue on some of the most complex issues around national security and strives to inform and engage the public on national security policy, the ongoing war on terror and other emerging threats.

The Center's work includes research, public education, public/private workshops, policy recommendations, media outreach and publications. In practice, CNS produces daily, weekly and yearly publications, convenes dozens of public and private events on topics of note each year, hosts major figures from government, media, the private sector and academia, and is cited or reported on in the press frequently, often on a weekly basis. The Center produces two Morning News Services: The TSG Morning Brief and the Stroz Friedberg Cyber Brief both which are accessed by thousands of readers around the world daily.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

The Center brings on numerous Fordham Law students each year who are an integral part of our research team. Students regularly assist in tracking terrorism cases, examining legal documents associated with terrorism prosecutions and extracting pertinent details to help keep our terrorism database current.

Contact: [email protected] 

The Center on Race, Law and Justice works to generate innovative responses to racial inequality and discrimination. It prioritizes law, data, and social science-informed interventions capable of creating concrete change in communities, institutions, and public policy in a number of areas in domestic and global contexts. The Center maximizes real-world impact through cross-disciplinary collaborations, comparative analyses, and systemic interventions that push the boundaries of traditional approaches to race and inequality. Founded in 2016, the Center marks an effort to marshal the tremendous research capacity and expertise at Fordham University on race and urban issues directly relevant to the University’s social justice mission, location in New York City, and status as one of the premier research institutions in the country.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

The Center recently created a student advisory board designed to facilitate its collaborations and engagement with students, and to promote discourse on issues of race, law, and justice at Fordham. The Center seeks students interested in doing research on issues of race and equality. It also welcomes opportunities to support student programming and to collaborate with student organizations. Further, the center looks to partner with students in community-based projects and outreach. Finally, the Center invites students to enroll in courses offered by Center leadership and to attend its numerous programs as a way of expanding understanding and knowledge of issues pertaining to race and structural inequality in the U.S., as well as around the globe.

Contact: [email protected] 

The Fordham Competition Law Institute has presented the annual International Antitrust Law and Policy Conference, which is widely recognized as one of the premier events in the field and examines and analyzes the most important issues in international antitrust and trade policy. The conference brings together rising and influential leaders from around the world, as well as attorneys from private practice, top academics, and members of the judiciary.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

Students are invited to attend the conference free of charge.

Contact: [email protected] 

The Fordham Corporate Law Center brings together scholars, practicing attorneys, policymakers, and students for the discussion and study of business and financial law. Created in 2001 as a think tank for research in business and financial law, the Center convenes public lectures, roundtable discussions, expert panels, and academic symposia on topics of current interest in business and financial law. The Center also serves as a platform to showcase the business law scholarship of Fordham law faculty and research affiliates in a wide variety of financial subspecialties. The Center is a resource for Fordham Law students, connecting them with our distinguished alumni and other business leaders through our Corporate Leaders & Lawyers in the Real World (CLLRW) series.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

Fordham Law students can participate in public lectures, roundtable discussions, and career-focused events organized and sponsored by the Corporate Law Center. The career-focused CLLRW series invites distinguished alumni and other business leaders to engage directly with students to share their career insights and experiences in an informal lunchtime setting. Additional student-focused initiatives include research associateships with business law faculty and internships with the Center. 

Contact: [email protected] 

The world’s first center dedicated to law and the business of fashion — and it’s headquartered at Fordham Law School. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization created with the generous support and advice of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and its president then, Diane von Furstenberg, the Fashion Law Institute offers training for the fashion lawyers and designers of the future, provides legal services for design students and professionals, and shares information and assistance on issues facing the fashion industry. Course offerings include: Fashion Law (survey) (Recommended as a pre-requisite for all other fashion-law-related course); Fashion Law Practicum (by application only); Fashion Law Drafting; Fashion Law and Finance; Fashion Licensing; Fashion Ethics, Sustainability and Development; Fashion Modeling Law; Fashion Retail Law; Cosmetics Regulation; Fashion Law and International Trade; Fashion Law and Justice; Intellectual Property Law and Design; Fashion Law Capstone.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

Volunteer for a Fashion Law Pop-Up Clinic: Partner with experienced attorneys to assist emerging designers and other fashion professionals with their legal questions; Network at law firms and meet colleagues with a wealth of knowledge about the fashion law field. Join the Student Fashion Law Society: Learn about opportunities to volunteer for Fashion Law Institute events and work closely with Fashion Law Institute faculty; Plan and attend Fashion Law Society events.

Contact: [email protected] 

The Feerick Center for Social Justice promotes the rights and addresses the problems facing marginalized and low-income New Yorkers through the creation of strategies to reform policies, educate, and provide assistance to right wrongs. Highly regarded for its efficacy and dedication to combating inequities, the Center works with wide-ranging networks to rally partners in the legal community and beyond to respond to the challenges of those in need of civil legal services and of broader systemic injustices. Fordham Law faculty and students involved at the Center collaborate with nonprofit, legal services, and public sectors (including the courts) to create long-term innovative solutions critical to real change.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

Attend the virtual Social Justice Speaker Series featuring innovative social change-makers.

Research

Engage in research related to the Center’s substantive areas, including immigration, consumer protection and economic justice, educational equity, and gender-based rights.

Service

Get involved with Public Interest Resource Center (PIRC) groups Consumer Law Advocates, Immigration Advocacy Project and the Education Law Collaborative and their work with the Center.

Remote Service Opportunities

1. CLARO Programs, acclaimed limited-scope consumer law clinics for unrepresented New Yorkers in need;
2. providing limited-scope assistance to asylum-seekers and other immigration-related programming;
3. the Veterans Rights Project, conducting know-your-rights presentations to veterans on VA benefits, family law, housing, and consumer law issues.

Non-legal Service Opportunities

Getting involved with the Center’s educational equity work, which focuses on NYC’s complex high school admissions and seat assignment policies.

Fellowships

The Center makes available school-year and summer fellowships to work with the Feerick Center and public interest organizations.

Career Mentorship and Support

The Center’s staff provide mentorship and support to students interested in public interest careers. The Center works with other centers and institutes in helping to organize the Pathways to Practice Series, which connects students to alumni who are public interest practitioners and who share career advice.

Contact: [email protected] 

As the field of information technology continues to grow at breakneck speed, our society increasingly relies on its development and innovations. Law and policy, however, often trail the technological advances. Fordham CLIP, the Center on Law and Information Policy, was founded in 2005 to make significant contributions to the development of law and policy for the information economy and to teach the next generation of leaders.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

Research

Engage in scholarly and policy-focused publishable research in close collaboration with faculty and CLIP staff. Topics include: Intellectual Property, Intermediary Liability, Internet Jurisdiction, Online Harassment, Defamation, Hateful Speech, Privacy.

Law and Information Society Symposia

Explore the challenges posed by information technologies and the changing role of law in our information society. Past symposia have examined key information law and policy issues in the context of societal values across a range of related domestic and international areas including intellectual property, trade, and privacy.

CLIP-ings

Write and publish CLIP-ings, CLIP’s weekly law and information policy e-newsletter highlighting news in five major areas: Internet Governance, Privacy, Information Security and Cyberthreats, Intellectual Property, and Free Expression and Censorship.

Spring Tech Law Career Series

Meet practitioners in a casual setting to discuss a range of careers in technology and information law.

Privacy Educators Program

Teach local middle schoolers about privacy, how it is relevant to their lives, and how the technologies they regularly use impact it. Specific topics include managing an online reputation, understanding emerging technologies, gaming, dealing with social media, and maintaining secure passwords.

Contact: [email protected] 

The Institute on Religion, Law and Lawyer's Work encourages open, positive and constructive dialogue on issues relating to religion and law and provides students, faculty, lawyers, and judges with the opportunity to explore the implications of religion for their lives in the law.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

Join our Student Advisory Board to engage in intensive dialogue with JD and international students of different religious, legal and cultural backgrounds. The Advisory Board has also developed programs for the law school community, including the presentation in multifaith and faith-specific panels. Advisory Board Students have also spoken at national and international programs outside Fordham. Participate in our Faith-Based Mentorship Project that offers students the opportunity to work with lawyer mentors. Study religious topics in law school courses, such as The Islamic, Catholic and Jewish Laws of War, Economic Regulation and the Environment: A Comparative Approach.

Contact: [email protected] 

The Intellectual Property Institute was originally established to build an infrastructure for developing various Intellectual Property (IP) initiatives and projects. Principal among these was the annual Intellectual Property Law and Policy Conference, known as the “Davos of IP.” The Institute promotes a legal realist approach to IP law in order to better understand what the law actually is and does, and to predict where it is going. In doing so, it hopes to foster progress toward identifying and resolving issues of concern to the IP community. A critical mission of the Institute is to develop the next generation of IP law practitioners and to encourage them to think critically about the importance of IP rights.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

The Institute employs a number of current Fordham students as Research Assistants and recent graduates as Fellows. This provides them with the opportunity to work on emerging issues, gain hands-on experience with legal research, legal writing and strategic legal thinking and to connect with IP leaders. Students research and help execute the annual conference, various IP events and the Institute’s monthly podcast. In addition, they meet with the graduate Fellows and Prof. Hansen once a week to discuss key IP issues.

Contact the IP Institute.

The Leitner Center for International Law and Justice provides hands-on education and real-world training to law students, facilitates capacity building and advocacy with activists and grassroots groups around the world, and contributes to critical research among legal scholars in international human rights. An advocacy team housed in a world-class university, the Leitner Center aims to make international human rights protections an everyday reality for marginalized communities around the world. From its base at Fordham Law School in New York City, the Center develops long-term partnerships with local social justice organizations and other stakeholders across the globe. Through its pioneering programs, clinics, and education initiatives, the Leitner Center trains students to become international legal experts and impassioned human rights advocates by placing students at the core of each of its innovative projects.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

Events

Weekly lunchtime Letiner Human Rights Speaker Series and evening film screenings and panel discussions.

Student Funding

Leitner Summer Fellows Internship Program and James E. Tolan Human Rights Fellowship.

Clinics and Experiential Programs

Crowley Program in International Human Rights; Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic; Asia Law and Justice Program; Corporate Social Responsibility Clinic; International Law and Development in Africa Clinic; and Sustainable Development Legal Initiative

Contact: [email protected] 

At the National Center for Access to Justice (NCAJ), we use data and research to promote policies that increase access to justice: the right to be heard and to obtain a fair result under the law. Everyone deserves access to justice, but it is unavailable to millions for the most basic human needs such as keeping a home, holding a family together, protecting income and savings, and securing food, health, safety and basic liberty. Barriers and bad actors put it out of reach in civil and criminal matters for people unaware of their rights, unable to qualify for free legal aid or pay for private counsel, and/or unable to overcome discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, disability, language, and more. We need access to justice because we (or those we care about) may face crises in our lives, but also because fairness matters to all of us, and because the essential stability of our society – the rule of law and reliability of our democracy – depends on justice for all.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

We invite students to join our research and our advocacy. We are expanding NCAJ's Justice Index to benchmark and promote the progress of the 50 states in adopting laws that protect fairness in debt collection proceedings in the state courts. We are also using our findings from Justice Index 2021 to reduce government reliance on court-imposed fines and fees that fall hardest on low-income communities and communities of color. Law students may join in NCAJ's work through independent study; summer, school-year and post-graduate internships; research assistant roles; conferences and special events (including with Fordham student journals and the A2J Initiative at Fordham Law). NCAJ also co-teaches the Access to Justice Seminar, a course that uses access to justice issues as a lens to explore how to drive societal change.

Contact: [email protected] 

The Fordham Neuroscience and Law Center takes an evidence-based and multidisciplinary approach to examining the current and potential uses of neuroscience evidence in the legal system as well as to anticipate how this information will be applied in the next three to five years. Such a goal advances legal scholarship and the responsible incorporation of neuroscience in legal circles by way of educating judges, lawyers, academics (both legal and scientific), and the public. Through its innovative programs and in collaboration with academic partners, the Center aims to be a premier research hub and resource about neuroscience's increasing prevalence in 21st Century courtrooms.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

Summer and year-long research assistance, helping at conferences, participating in the student-run Law and Neuroscience Club.

Contact: [email protected] 

Public Interest Resource Center (PIRC) is the place where Fordham Law students can devote their passions, interests, and skills to pro bono, public service and community service work from their first week in law school. PIRC is the home of the dynamic PIRC Student Groups student-run organizations involved in public interest work. These groups perform meaningful work in the form of direct legal services and representation, educational programming within the law school and in the community, advocacy on behalf of those in need, community legal information, and community service. PIRC-UP! is the weekly email bulletin from PIRC sent to the Fordham Law community. Additionally, PIRC, complementing the services of CPC, assists students in exploring public service career opportunities including summer/semester internships and post-graduation work. We advise students how to meet the 50 hour pro bono requirement for admission to the NYS Bar. PIRC informs students about the range of public interest opportunities available at Fordham. Throughout the school year, PIRC offers a range of programming designed to educate, prepare and inspire students to do public interest work.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

Get involved in one of the PIRC student groups, as a member or a student leader. Attend PIRC programming. Reach out to schedule an individual career counseling session.

Contact: [email protected] 

The Stein Center for Law and Ethics works in collaboration with law students, practitioners, judges and legal scholars to study and improve the legal profession by: honoring exemplary lawyers; inculcating ethics into teaching law; training future lawyers “in the service of others”; incorporating ethical and professional values into academic and mentoring programs; and encouraging scholarly inquiry, scholarship and professional writings on the professional conduct and regulation of lawyers. Above all, the Center fosters an understanding of “ethical legal practice” that goes beyond adherence to the rules set forth in professional codes of conduct. The Stein Center funds and, jointly with the Public Interest Resource Center, oversees the student-driven Stein Scholars Program, an academic and service program.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

The Center welcomes inquiries from, and collaboration with, other law school centers and student organizations that are interested in presenting programs on topics relating to the legal profession, ethical norms and professional values. Additionally, the Center would be happy to work with and assist individual students who are interested in working in these areas. In the past, the Stein Scholars faculty has supervised students on independent study projects, has facilitated students’ membership on bar association ethics committees, and has assisted students in, or drawn on student support for, other projects relating to the legal profession.

Contact: [email protected] 

The Urban Law Center works on the intersection of cities and law. The Center promotes an interdisciplinary understanding of the legal, governance, and regulatory aspects of urban environments through collaborative research, local and global convenings, and knowledge sharing, career pathways and pedagogy in the world of urban law. In particular, the Center’s efforts focus on forces that shape urban inequality and urban innovation, targeting the most pressing issues facing cities and their metropolitan regions. Opportunities for student involvement:

Opportunities for Student Involvement

The Urban Law Center works with Fordham law student research assistants in urban law, in areas such as state preemption, social and economic justice, and international law vis-à-vis cities. Presently, we are seeking paid research assistants, Urban Law Student Fellows, for collaboration with several of our partners including UN-Habitat and the Local Solutions Support Center, and also for general Urban Law Center research support. We also launched a Housing Justice Initiative with Public Interest Resource Center and the A2J Initiative, as well as the Urban Law Bulletin and the Women in Urban Law Leadership Initiative, and are seeking collaboration in these important causes. Currently, we partner with Fordham Law Women, the Fordham Real Estate Society, and the Housing Advocacy Project. Urban law intersects with a range of important societal issues, and we are delighted to collaborate with additional student groups as well.

Contact: [email protected] 

The Voting Rights and Democracy Project is committed to training the next generation of voting rights lawyers and scholars. Its mission is to educate students in the law and practice of voting rights, ballot access, campaign finance, election administration, and democracy protection. The Voting Rights and Democracy Project is non-partisan, and will prepare students to advise clients, litigate, and reform laws and regulations.

Opportunities for Student Involvement

Events

Forums and Public Official Speaker Series, including presentations by leading federal, state, and local public officials to discuss the practicalities of election law, governance, and emerging issues; and panel discussions by Fordham faculty, journalists, and other public figures on relevant "hot topics."

Scholarship and Commentary

Online Journal addressing cutting-edge issues affecting democratic institutions, government, and racial justice.

Contact: Director Jerry H. Goldfeder, [email protected]