Clinics and Experiential Learning
Experiential learning is an integral part of the NYLS experience. The Office of Clinical and Experiential Learning offers students the opportunity to apply theory to practice. Our courses not only fulfill your experiential learning requirement but also allow you to learn by doing through clinics, simulation courses, externships, and more.
Lawyering From Day One
Starting in their first year, students have the opportunity to participate in counseling, interviewing, and negotiating exercises in their foundational Legal Practice course. During their upper-level years, students may select from a wide array of experiential learning courses to hone their lawyering skills.
Clinics
NYLS’s clinics provide students with opportunities to represent real people and work on actual cases. Rigorous as it is rewarding, the clinical experience instills in students a sense of professionalism, empathy, and know-how. The School’s wide range of clinical offerings exposes students to cutting-edge practice areas, including asylum and immigration, civil rights, family law, housing, criminal prosecution and defense, cyberbullying, elder law, intellectual property, juvenile rights, legislative advocacy, mediation, post-conviction remedies, public policy and regulatory advocacy, transactional law, and more. Each clinic is guided by expert faculty and attorney supervisors.
Simulation Courses
Simulation courses prepare students for working with clients by giving them the opportunity to practice lawyering skills in a controlled environment. Taught by expert faculty, adjuncts currently in practice, and judges, simulations courses are led by individuals who bring their professional experience into the classroom. In a simulation course, students will build their lawyering skills through complex, realistic case scenarios, actor simulations, role-play exercises, and mock trials.
Externships
Through NYLS’s Externship Program, upper-level students earn academic credits while gaining practical experience in a supportive real-world setting. Students can choose to pursue externships that match their interests through NYLS's programs: the Financial Services Law Externship program, the Judicial Externship program, the Law Office Externship program, or the Washington, D.C. Honors Externship program.
Advocacy Program
Through the Harris Keenan & Goldfarb Advocacy Program, NYLS offers students exciting opportunities to develop advocacy, litigation, and negotiation skills by participating in co-curricular competition teams and other experiential learning programs. Students gain invaluable experience negotiating and mediating, conducting trials, and arguing cases on appeal, and they also learn about professionalism and ethics in legal practice.
What’s the Difference?
Clinics vs. Externships vs. Simulation Courses
Clinics
- Legal work supervised by a professor
- Co-requisite seminar where you will learn skills and substantive law relevant to the legal work done in your clinic
Externships
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Legal work supervised by an attorney supervisor
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Co-requisite seminar where you will learn professionalism skills
Simulation courses
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Simulated legal work taught by professors
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Often includes practice of skills with actors, such as negotiating, counseling, and interviewing
Office of Clinical and Experiential Learning • T 212.431.2179 • E ocel@nyls.edu