CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW is seeking a one-year Clinical Teaching Fellow for the Criminal Defense Clinic. 

Position Summary

The Cardozo School of Law’s Criminal Defense Clinic is interested in hiring an attorney as a one-year Clinical Teaching Fellow to begin on July 1, 2022 and end on June 30, 2023.

Position Responsibilities

The fellow’s core responsibilities would include a combination of the following:

• Substantive casework on misdemeanor criminal cases, preparation for upcoming parole hearings, and strategic litigation
• Primary responsibility for the clinic’s summer docket during term of employment
• Supervision of clinic students on all aspects of misdemeanor practice, litigation and advocacy projects
• Supervision of clinic students in court
• Assistance in teaching and administering the clinic seminar, which includes classes on doctrine, core lawyering skills, ethical obligations, and the history of the criminal legal system as a mechanism of racial subordination
• Administrative work including preparation of student evaluations and preparation/maintenance of materials related to clinic’s institutional knowledge

In addition, the fellow would have support to engage in academic writing, if desired, and to take part in the academic life of the law school. This position is ideal for candidates interested in the substantive areas of criminal law, candidates seeking supervisory experience, and/or candidates interested in exploring careers in clinical teaching.

Experience & Educational Background

J.D required

New York defense experience preferred

Past fellows have generally had at least 5 years of practice experience prior to coming to the clinic

Skills & Competencies

The Criminal Defense Clinic (CDC) is an intensive, year-long, in-house, live-client clinic in which students represent people charged with misdemeanors in Manhattan Criminal Court.  In addition, students are placed with experienced attorneys at the Legal Aid Society (LAS) Criminal Defense Practice (CDP) and work with them on their felony cases. The CDC offers students the opportunity to engage in an intensive study of New York criminal law, criminal procedure, and the ethical issues that define indigent criminal practice, and hone the practical skills that are necessary to become intentional, thoughtful, and strategic practitioners.

The Clinic also requires students to locate and consider issues relating to indigent criminal defense practice in a broader social/political/historical context that takes account of the ways in which the current criminal legal system represents the most recent iteration of American slavery and white supremacy, disproportionately punishing those who live at the intersection or race and economic marginalization.  We examine issues, teach, and train through a race-conscious frame that recognizes in the first instance how the criminal legal system functions to subordinate individuals and communities of color.

The Clinic consists of a number of components: (1) two, two-hour seminar sessions weekly; (2) ongoing primary case responsibility on misdemeanor cases in Manhattan Criminal Court directly though the Clinic and in conjunction with a mentoring attorney in the Manhattan office of the Legal Aid Society Criminal Defense Practice; (3) work on felony cases (including homicides) of mentor attorneys in LAS’ CDP and Homicide Defense Task Force (HDTF)  and (4) preparation of clients for upcoming parole hearings. 

Seminar sessions in the fall (structured around discussion of case law, statutes, historical and journal literature, as well as simulated exercises) prepare students to conduct initial client interviews, argue bail applications, engage in dispositional advocacy and, in every other way, assume primary responsibility for a client charged with misdemeanor crimes. Through individual and collective case conferences students learn to develop a unifying case theory that shapes their factual investigation and legal development of the case. Thus, for example, students are responsible for conducting in-depth fact investigation of their cases, that may include locating and interviewing witnesses, acquiring videotape, documents, reports, and other information by way of subpoena and the discovery process; and drafting any legal motions and memoranda that may be required.

The focus in the spring semester is case and topic driven. The seminar is devoted to a) in-depth examination, through readings and classroom simulations, of the most frequently litigated areas of criminal procedure, focusing on Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendment issues; b) preparing students to litigate the various issues posed by their respective, and their mentoring attorneys’ cases; and c) presentations by visiting faculty on topics of critical import to defense practice.

You can learn more about the clinic under the “Learn About Our Work” link at

https://cardozo.yu.edu/criminal-defense-clinic

Application Instructions

Include a cover letter, resume and list of at least three references (Ideally academic and professional). Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until May 20, 2022.  Please email all materials to Kathryn Miller (Kathryn.miller@yu.edu) and Jonathan Oberman (joberman3@gmail.com).

Salary correlated to NYC Public Defender pay scale and commensurate with years of experience. The position brings with it enrollment in a health plan selected from among a number of alternative plans.