Yale Law School established the Liman Program in 1997 to honor its 1957 graduate, Arthur Liman. The Liman Program funds post-graduate and summer fellowships; teaches classes at Yale Law School; convenes an annual colloquium; and undertakes research projects related to access to justice and the criminal justice system in particular. This work reflects the commitments of Arthur Liman, who graduated from Yale Law School in 1957 and who, before his death in 1997, was a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and served as chief counsel to the New York State Special Commission on Attica Prison; President of the Legal Aid Society of New York and of the Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem; Chair of the Legal Action Center in New York City; and Chair of the New York State Capital Defender’s Office. 

 Since its inception, the Liman Program has grown — from one post-graduate Yale Law School Fellow to now more than 8-12 annually, for a total of 108 Law School graduate Fellows including this year’s group.  In addition, the Liman Program helps to support summer Fellows at Barnard, Brown, Harvard, Princeton, Spelman, Stanford, and Yale. Many Liman Fellows – past and current – work on criminal justice, prisoners’ rights, immigration detention, workers’ rights, civil legal assistance, gender equality, and environmental justice.  In addition, beginning in 2011, the Liman Program has hosted one or more Senior Fellows in Residence, experienced practitioners, who join the Liman Professor and Director in teaching students, and conduct research on access to legal services and criminal justice from detention through incarceration, release, and reentry.  

 At the Law School, the Liman Program faculty co-teach a weekly “workshop” one semester each year.  Examples of recent seminars include Rationing Law: Subsidizing Access to Justice in Democracies; Incarceration; Moving Criminal Justice: Practices of Prohibition, Abolition, Regulation, and Reform; Borders; and Racial Justice and Immigrants’’ Rights: Debates and Dialogues.  Similarly, annual colloquia reflect these concerns. Over the last several years, the colloquia topics have been:  Detention on a Global Scale: Punishment and Beyond; Isolation and Reintegration: Punishment circa 2014; Navigating Boundaries: Immigration and Criminal Law; and Accessing Justice, Rationing Law.  These conferences bring together faculty, students, Fellows, practitioners, lawmakers, government officials such as judges and prison administrators, officials from non-profit organizations and foundation, individuals affected by the problems, academics from related fields to consider the current challenges and useful interventions.  

In addition, the Liman Program’s research work comes under the umbrella of the Liman Projects. The 2015-2016 project is entitled From Prosecution to Prisons.  Students and faculty work together on research and advocacy related to how to reduce the number of people incarcerated, the degrees of isolation imposed on prisoners, and the distances that both women and men (especially in the federal prison system) are from homes and families. In such efforts, we have collaborated with other institutions and organizations, including the Association of State Correctional Administrators, the American Bar Association, and John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

The Liman Director

In collaboration with the Liman Professor, the Liman Director is responsible for overseeing and administering all elements of the Liman Public Interest Program.  Duties include: 

• Managing all elements of the Yale Law School Fellowship program, from recruiting and advising applicants, to working with Fellows and their host organizations throughout the fellowship year.
• Developing curricula for the Liman Workshop and the Liman Project, and co-teaching these courses in collaboration with the Liman Professor and the Senior Liman Fellow in Residence;
• Working with faculty and program administrators at Yale and six other colleges and universities to administer the Liman Summer Fellows program;
• Planning and overseeing the annual Liman Colloquium, and other public interest programs at the Law School;
• Managing the drafting, production, and distribution of the annual Liman Report, along with all other publicity and fundraising activities;
• Helping to write and distribute other books, reports, and collection of materials;
• Supervising the Liman Program Assistant, the Liman Student Directors, and other administrative support staff; and
• Developing and managing the program budget, in conjunction with the Liman Professor.
• Working with colleagues at the Law School doing related work on public interest, fellowships, access to justice, and global human rights.

The successful applicant will be a law school graduate with a distinguished academic record; significant experience in public interest lawyering;  administrative talents; knowledge about the shape and structure of public interest lawyering and the organizations that provide such services; ease and enjoyment in writing essays, demonstrated through publications, research papers, dissertations, briefs, or other materials authored by the applicant; and the ability to work with students, alumni/ae; faculty, staff, and lawyers working outside the University.  Teaching experience is relevant but not required. 

The salary is competitive and based upon experience.  For more information, please contact Johanna Kalb, Liman Director, Johanna.Kalb@yale.edu, (203) 436-3520.  To apply, please provide a resume, lists of references (including at least one academic reference and at least one reference with whom the applicant has worked closely within the last two years); examples of written work (including copies of relevant publications, reports, research papers, essays or briefs); and a law school transcript.