Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Rotation (6 credits)
Eileen R. Kaufman, Professor of Law
The Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Rotation places students with Nassau/Suffolk Law Services, Inc., a private, not-for-profit law firm that provides free legal assistance in civil matters to low-income individuals. The rotation is an intensive experience, designed to train students in a broad range of practice skills. Each student is given the opportunity to learn such essential lawyering skills as interviewing, fact development, case management, negotiating, counseling, drafting, and representing clients at administrative or judicial proceedings.
Nassau/Suffolk Law Services is well known both for the breadth and quality of its services. Students may be placed in units covering such areas of the law as housing, domestic violence, disability, welfare, consumer, family, or elder law. Because students work twenty (20) hours each week in the rotation, they become an integral part of the office and are given significant responsibility for cases. Under guidelines established by the courts, students can advise clients and appear in judicial proceedings, so the rotation affords an environment in which to strengthen and refine law practice skills.
Students meet once a week for a two-hour faculty-led seminar, which provides the opportunity to discuss substantive and ethical issues arising in their field placements.
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