Cardozo School of Law - Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Situated in New York City’s Greenwich Village, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law offers students “exceptional practical experience” throughout the city and “a strong sense of community between the students and the faculty.” Students find their experience “extremely fulfilling,” and praise the faculty as being “near top in their field,” “passionate about their own work,” and caring “about student progress.” These “SCOTUS clerks, Ivy League grads [and] White House [counsels]” “know how to take command of the classroom and effectively teach hard material,” so students leave Cardozo having “had an extremely challenging and enlightening experience.” Beyond the classroom professors “know most students by name, participate in many out of classroom activities, and are very responsive to student concerns.”
The administration earns equal praise, but students note that “there has been a lot of turnover recently in the Office of Career Services.” One 3L told us, “Although I was able to find a good job I will start right out of school, I think I am the exception and not the norm.” Another current student who expressed concern about the quality of her job prospects told us, “I know many others who worry about getting a job, and I know that career services is, for lack of a better word, inept.” However, students are also quick to note “that career services HAS been improving” with several new hires including a new dean and two new career counselors “and has begun forays into firm outreach and programs designed to help students find jobs.” For one, Cardozo has launched the Resident Associate Mentors Program (RAMP) through which students work for one year at a fellowship salary at small and medium sized firms in New York. In fact, there is a “culture of prioritizing practical experience” that is “pervasive” at Cardozo. “Between in-house clinics, field clinics and externships,” students “gain a broad range of legal skills and interests,” and, as one says, “almost every single person I know at Cardozo has participated in a clinic or an externship.” Additionally, the Alexander Fellows Program allows students to work “full-time for credit as a junior clerk in the chambers of a federal judge” and attend a weekly seminar “also taught by a federal judge.”Other notable opportunities include externships through the FAME Center in fashion, arts, media, and entertainment, the Carodozo Startup Tech Clinic, and the Indie Film Clinic.
Students say “the library, research resources, professional and academic clinics, and access to networking events are all incredibly impressive.” However, while “the library is beautiful and overlooks Fifth Avenue,” students are quick to complain about its hours of operation and the availability of facilities in general. “In addition to closing prohibitively early on Fridays and remaining closed all day on Saturdays,” one student notes, “the building also doesn’t stay open past midnight Sunday through Thursday.”

The law building at Cardozo is surrounded by “record stores, book stores, concert venues [and] thrift stores,” and it is only a block away from The New School where students “take advantage of some of the graduate level classes . . . for credit.” And the school sits “between Union Square Park and Washington Square Park” with “seventeen subways within very convenient walking distance” that take students to every corner of New York City. There are also “tons of networking opportunities because the school has a wide-range of clubs and activities that provide panel discussions and networking events outside of school.” On campus, Cardozo stays as busy as the city: “There are almost always events in the third floor lounge or in the lobby.” Some students bristle when these events mean “there is no place for students to hang out/do work” because “the lounge is always the best atmosphere for a mix of studying and socializing.” Students say that, “despite the undeniably competitive atmosphere in law school, I had no trouble finding a welcoming group of friends who help me prepare for exams and prepare me with notes whenever I’m absent from class.” And when it comes time for the job search, the supportive “environment fostered by its students” comes in handy. One student described the “very rigorous hiring process” at the city’s District Attorney’s office, where he and “other students going through the same process used each other to help ourselves advance through the multiple rounds of interviews.”