In the fight against persistent injustice and inequality at home and abroad, our public interest attorneys strongly advocate for equal economic opportunity, criminal justice reform, racial justice, gender equality, immigrant rights, and fair housing. can do.
How can lawyers and the law build more just societies and promote the fundamental rights of individuals around the world?
Columbia Law School expertly trains and develops lawyers who use their skills to create positive change. Since the early days of the U.S. civil rights movement, Columbia Law School faculty and alumni have played a central role in social justice and human rights organizations such as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the United Nations, and Amnesty International. More recently, they have served as the driving force behind concepts such as intersectionality and critical race theory. The Law School will continue to prepare lawyers to use their skills to create positive change in all aspects of society.
Why Colombia?
explore Taught by faculty deeply committed to advancing justice and equality around the world, this is a robust curriculum that provides a solid foundation in civil rights, human rights, and lawyers for change. In advanced seminars, you will learn about topics such as the death penalty, poverty law, critical debate in the field of intersectionality studies, and human rights reparations under domestic and international law.
advocate She works for change while practicing in clinics focused on human rights, immigrant rights, juvenile justice, and mass incarceration. Through an internship with a legal aid organization, you will learn how impactful litigation, representation, and grassroots advocacy can help solve systemic problems in health justice, housing, immigration, and incarceration.
profit Practical experience in public interest positions with the most generous summer funding of any U.S. law school. After graduation, the Loan Repayment Assistance Program and Graduate Fellowships provide Columbia Law graduates with financial support for public interest work.
Become The Max Berger ’71 Public Interest/Public Interest Fellows Program provides access to a supportive community, connections with mentors, professional development and reflective learning opportunities, and professional career and curriculum counseling. For LL.M candidates, the Human Rights Fellowship provides financial support and customized skills and career development.
“Although the clinic is intended to provide pro bono representation, we do so with a very small caseload so that we can spend more time mentoring students in their legal practice. teaches what we call client-centered lawyers, and we believe that students learn as much from their clients as they do from faculty about the social issues that underlie legal issues.”
—Brett Dignam, Emeritus Clinical Professor of Law