Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Motto	צדק צדק תרדף Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof (English: "Justice, justice, shall you seek")
Parent school	Yeshiva University
Established	1976
School type	Private
Dean	Melanie Leslie, Dean and Professor of Law
Location	New York City, New York, United States
Enrollment	1,144 (JD & LLM)
Faculty	85~
Website	www.cardozo.yu.edu
ABA profile	Profile

The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University, located in New York City. The school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo's success as a young school has been remarkable, leading some to characterize Cardozo as a "rising star" among law schools. Among the top 100 law schools, only three schools are younger than Cardozo, which graduated its first class in 1979. Cardozo is currently ranked 75th by U.S. News and World Report ranking of law schools. Its intellectual property program is ranked 6th, and its dispute resolution program is ranked 7th.

While Cardozo is noted for its academic strengths in numerous areas of study, its intellectual property and dispute resolution programs are particularly well-reputed and consistently ranked within the top ten in the country by U.S. News. The school introduced the Cardozo Data Law Initiative in 2013, building on its IP and Information Law strength and created a startup technology clinic building its program in business, technology and law. Also built on the School's IP strength is the FAME Center for fashion, art, media and entertainment law, which was established in 2014. The school is also home to the Innocence Project, run by Cardozo Professor Barry Scheck, which is known for using DNA profiling to help free innocent prisoners. The project is frequently reported on in the national news, and its work has been instrumental in some high-profile cases. Signifying its recognition by long-established law schools, in 1999 Cardozo became a member of the Order of the Coif, an honor society for law scholars. Cardozo has seven faculty members who have clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justices and Cardozo has had two graduates chosen to clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court. Cardozo was only the second U.S. law school to secure an invitation to The European Law Moot Court Competition competition, and the first American law school to be invited twice consecutively. Many of Cardozo's 12,000 alumni reside in the New York metropolitan area, and they have a considerable presence in New York City, although many Cardozo graduates pursue their careers internationally and can be found across the country. In 2013, 88% of the law school's first-time test takers passed the bar exam, placing the law school sixth-best among New York's 15 law schools. According to Cardozo's 2013 ABA-required disclosures, 54.3% of the Class of 2013 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation.

Namesake

Benjamin N. Cardozo

Founded in 1976, the Law School is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo, who was born in 1870 in New York City, was renowned for his integrity, social consciousness, and important opinions. Cardozo studied law at Columbia Law School from 1889–91 and subsequently rose to prominence during 23 years of private practice, becoming known as a lawyer’s lawyer before appointment to the New York State Court of Appeals in 1914. His tenure was marked by a number of original rulings, in tort and contract law in particular. This is partly due to timing; rapid industrialization was forcing courts to look anew at old common law components to adapt to new settings. He became the nation’s best known and most admired state court judge. He added to his reputation through highly acclaimed off-the-bench writings, of which the most important is The Nature of the Judicial Process (1921). Shortly thereafter, Cardozo became a member of the group that founded the American Law Institute, which crafted a Restatement of the Law of Torts, Contracts, and a host of other private law subjects. He wrote three other books that also became standards in the legal world. By asking, and answering, the monumentally simple question, “What is it that I do when I decide a case?”, he helped many see the judicial role with greater clarity. In 1932, President Herbert Hoover appointed Cardozo to succeed Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. on the Supreme Court. In his six years as an Associate Justice, he handed down opinions that stressed the necessity for the law to adapt to the realities and needs of modern life. The New York Times said of Cardozo's appointment that "seldom, if ever, in the history of the Court has an appointment been so universally commended." Democratic Cardozo's appointment by a Republican president has been referred to as one of the few Supreme Court appointments in history not motivated by partisanship or politics, but strictly based on the nominee's contribution to law.

Rankings

Map of Facilities

General rankings

• U.S. News ranked Cardozo 75th out of 194 law schools. By other measures, the law school ranks:
• 28th - Faculty Quality
• 30th - Highest Percentage of Grads Hired by the 250 Largest Firms
• 31st - Princeton Review
• 34th - Student Quality
• 48th - Peer Reputation Ranking

Specialty rankings

• Top 3 - Law and Literature
• 4th - Critical Theories
• 5th - Law & Philosophy
• 7th - Dispute Resolution
• 6th - Intellectual Property
• 10th - LL.M./Masters of Law
• Top-20 Runner-Up - International & Comparative Law

Miscellaneous rankings

• 1st - Most Journal Cites for an Arts & Entertainment Law Journal (2nd in Scholarly Impact and 3rd in Cites by Courts)
• 1st - Per Capita Productivity of Articles in Top Journals, 1993-2012, for Law Schools Outside U.S. News Top 50
• 5th - New York State Bar Pass Rate (2013)
• 15th - Most Prolific Faculty
• 22nd - Most Cited Law Review
• 31st - Most SSRN Downloads

Bar examination passage rates

In 2013, 88% of the law school's first-time test takers passed the bar exam, placing the law school sixth-best among New York's 15 law schools.

Admission

Admission to Cardozo is competitive. For the class entering in the fall of 2012, 1,522 out of 4,073 applicants were offered admission (37.4%), with 374 matriculating. The 25th and 75th LSAT percentiles for the 2012 entering class were 158 and 165, respectively, with a median of 162. The 25th and 75th undergraduate GPA percentiles were 3.30 and 3.67, respectively, with a median of 3.53.

The top undergraduate feeder schools for Cardozo have been New York University, Columbia University/Barnard College, University of Michigan, Brandeis University, Yeshiva University and Rutgers University.

Location and facilities

Located on lower Fifth Avenue at the corner of 12th Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Cardozo's urban campus is in a large building, known as the Brookdale Center. A multimillion-dollar capital improvement plan in 2006 included the acquisition of a residence hall just one block away. The addition of more space at the Brookdale Center also allowed for a larger and significantly enhanced library, new offices and clinic spaces, as well as a new and larger lobby, moot court room, and ground-floor seminar room. In addition, older classrooms were renovated. In fall 2006, the Greenberg Center for Student Life, given in honor of former Dean David Rudenstine, opened and immediately became the most popular place for students to spend time with friends and to study. This addition to Cardozo includes a completely new student lounge and a cafe on the third floor. Also completed were several new seminar rooms, new internal stairways between floors, and new windows installed on every floor.

Brookdale Center

File:TheAlabama.jpg

Alabama

Brookdale Center – 55 Fifth Avenue

Cardozo is located in the 19 story Brookdale Center.

• 1st Floor -- The lobby, which occupies most of the first floor, is frequently used as a space for large events. The Jacob Burns Moot Court room and a classroom are also on the first floor.
• 2nd Floor -- The second floor has classrooms. Recently, the school exhibited the artwork of Sara Lederman '11 throughout the floor.
• 3rd Floor -- On the third floor, students enjoy a large student lounge and a cafeteria that offers kosher food.
• 4th Floor -- The fourth floor has classrooms, faculty offices, and offices for student organizations.
• 5th Floor -- The fifth floor contains faculty offices, the faculty lounge, a seminar room, and the offices of the student law journals.
• 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Floors -- The Dr. Lillian and Dr. Rebecca Chutick Law Library is the center of student and faculty research at Cardozo. Encompassing four floors of Cardozo's building, the library holds more than 535,000 volumes, has over 140 computers, and study space for nearly 500 students. The library entrance is on the seventh floor. Faculty offices also occupy part of the ninth floor.
• 10th Floor -- The tenth floor houses administrative offices for the law school.
• 11th Floor -- The eleventh floor is home to career services, the admissions office, and the clinics.

The Alabama – 15 East 11th Street

The Alabama is Cardozo's nine-story residence hall and is just around the corner from Brookdale Center. The Alabama has over 100 units.

The Innocence Project – 40 Worth St

The Innocence Project moved from the 11th floor of Brookdale Center to a new office space. The move allowed the Innocence Project to hire more staff and significantly increase the number of cases it takes.

Fogelman Library of The New School – 65 Fifth Avenue

The Cooper Union Library – 7 East 7th Street

Both the Fogelman Library and the Cooper Union library serve as Cardozo's secondary libraries when the main library is closed on the Sabbath or on holidays.

Course and degree offerings

Juris Doctor

For J.D. students, Cardozo offers a selection of over 130 courses in addition to the eight courses required during the first year. Students may choose to graduate with a concentration in one, or several, of the following areas:

• Commercial Law
• Constitutional Law and Rights
• Corporate Law
• Criminal Law and Procedure
• Family Law, Policy and Bioethics
• Intellectual Property and Information Law
• International and Comparative Law
• Litigation (General)
• Property and Real Estate
• Public Law and Regulation
• Taxation

Cardozo also offers "pathways" in Jurisprudence and Legal History, which are not formal concentrations. Students may also earn a Certificate in Dispute Resolution.

Master of Laws

For those who already have a law degree, Cardozo offers LL.M. degrees in General Studies, Comparative Legal Thought, Dispute Resolution and Advocacy, and Intellectual Property. LL.M. students can take almost any of the courses offered to J.D. students. The LL.M. program may be entered in the Spring Term or in the Fall Term.

Study abroad

Cardozo students may study abroad through the following programs:

• Amsterdam Law School: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Bucerius Law School: Hamburg, Germany
• Central European University: Budapest, Hungary
• Chinese University of Hong Kong: Hong Kong
• ESADE (Barcelona, Spain)
• Peking University Law School
• Tel Aviv University: Tel Aviv, Israel
• University of Oxford Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy: Oxford, England
• University of Paris X-Nanterre: Paris, France
• University of Roma Tre: Rome, Italy
• University of Sydney: Sydney, Australia
• Independent Study Abroad

Alternative Entry Plan (AEP)

While most Cardozo students begin their legal studies in September, some students are allowed the flexibility to begin in January or May AEP students are able to take classes part-time and during the summer, which gives AEP students the option of graduating in three years or a semester early.

Publications

Students of the Juris Doctor (JD) program are involved in preparing and publishing six law journals and the school newspaper The Cardozo Jurist.

The law journals are:

• Cardozo Law Review, ranked 23rd for general law reviews by the Washington & Lee Rankings of Law Reviews.
• Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal is ranked #1 in the field of "Arts, Sports and Entertainment Law" and #5 among "Intellectual Property" journals overall.
• Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution is ranked 8th in the broad field of "Civil Litigation and Dispute Resolution."
• Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law
• Cardozo Public Law, Policy, and Ethics Journal
• Cardozo Journal of Law and Gender

Clinics

• Access to Justice Clinic
• Alexander Fellows Program
• Bet Tzedek Legal Services Clinic
• Civil Rights Clinic
• Criminal Appeals Clinic
• Criminal Defense Clinic
• Divorce Mediation Clinic
• Family Court Clinic
• Holocaust Claims Restitution Practicum
• Housing Rights Clinic
• Human Rights and Genocide Clinic

• Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic
• Indie Film Clinic
• The Innocence Project
• Intensive Trial Advocacy Program (ITAP)
• Labor and Employment Law Clinic
• Mediation Clinic
• Prosecutor Practicum
• Securities Arbitration Clinic
• Start-Up Clinic
• Tax Clinic
• Youth Justice Clinic

Moot Courts

In 2009, Cardozo School of Law won the international Monroe E. Price Media Law Moot Court Competition held at the University of Oxford.

In 2014, Cardozo School of Law won the Tulane Mardi Gras Sports Law Invitational held at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA.

Notable alumni

• Geoffrey Bowers (1954–87), plaintiff in one of the first AIDS discrimination cases to go to public hearing.
• Madeleine Cosman
• Lawrence A. Cunningham
• John Dalli, Partner at Dalli & Marino, LLP
• Ed Fagan
• Sandra J. Feuerstein, District Court Judge, Eastern District of New York
• John S. Hall
• Gregory Sichenzia
• Rachel Hirschfeld
• Eddie Huang, Taiwanese American restaurateur
• Jeff Marx
• Scott McCoy
• Grace Meng, US Congresswoman
• Jacqueline Newman, partner at Berkman Bottger Newman & Rodd
• Barbara Olson
• Juliette Passer, president & General Counsel at PanaManagement Corporation
• Josh Saviano, now a practicing attorney, Saviano played Kevin Arnold's best friend, Paul Pfeiffer, in the The Wonder Years.
• Laura Sydell
• David Samson, president of the Florida Marlins
• Randi Weingarten (1957-), president of the American Federation of Teachers.
• Ivan Wilzig, techno musician also known as "Sir Ivan"

Notable faculty

• Richard Bierschbach
• Lester Brickman
• Peter Goodrich
• Marci Hamilton
• Michel Rosenfeld

• Alexander A. Reinert
• David Rudenstine
• Barry Scheck
• Stewart Sterk
• Peter Tillers
• Richard Weisberg
• Edward Zelinsky
• J. David Bleich

Former faculty

• John McGinnis - Northwestern University School of Law
• William F. Patry
• Scott J. Shapiro - Yale Law School
• Telford Taylor
• Susan Crawford - Harvard Law School
• Justin Hughes

Employment

According to Cardozo's official 2015 ABA-required disclosures, 67.3% of the Class of 2014 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD-advantage employment ten months after graduation. Cardozo's Law School Transparency under-employment score is 26.5%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2014 that was unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job ten months after graduation.

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Cardozo for the 2013-2014 academic year is $76,521. The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $294,257.

See also

• Law of New York

References

Notes

External links

• Official website