Brooklyn law school shows commitment to public interest

February 11, 2013 By Professor Elizabeth Schneider Brooklyn Law School

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It is always good for law schools to provide support for students to do public interest work. Brooklyn Law School, a national leader in legal education efforts to create and promote public interest programs, has several public interest scholarships, as part of an integrated program of support for public interest in our curriculum. .

Our public interest work at BLS include specialized public interest fellowships such as the Edward V. Sparer Fellowship Program and the International Human Rights Fellowships, many pro bono projects in a range of innovative fields, clinical programs on cutting-edge issues, and courses and innovative curricular projects.

We have a thriving public interest community, and many students choose to come to BLS because of this national public interest reputation and community.

One example of this impressive community work is the new pro bono project on Hurricane Sandy legal assistance together with the Brooklyn Bar Association. Our annual Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Forum will be on “Legal Perspectives on Disaster Preparedness and Pro Bono Assistance after Hurricane Sandy” on Thursday, March 14, from 3:30 to 6 p.m.. It will include many eminent speakers, lawyers, activists, public policy specialists and scholars addressing these pressing issues in New York.

In addition, our next Sparer Fellowship Lunch on Feb. 20 will address “The Future of Immigration Reform: Perspectives from the Field,” with both national and New York speakers.

These are examples of how our students, faculty and Office of Public Service Programs are constantly working to integrate public interest issues into the life of the law school.

Professor Elizabeth Schneider is a professor of law at Brooklyn Law School and the director of the Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship Program at BLS.