The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City."About YU on the Yeshiva Universi ...
. Located in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court
Justice
Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
Benjamin N. Cardozo
Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (May 24, 1870 – July 9, 1938) was an American lawyer and jurist who served on the New York Court of Appeals from 1914 to 1932 and as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1932 until his deat ...
. Cardozo graduated its first class in 1979. An LL.M. program was established in 1998. Cardozo is nondenominational and has a secular curriculum, in contrast to some of YU's undergraduate programs. Around 320 students begin the J.D. program per year, of whom about 57% are women. In addition, there are about 60-70 LL.M. students each year. Cardozo is ranked 52nd in the nation by '' U.S. News & World Report'' 2023.
Academics
Centers
Cardozo is home to academic centers including the FAME Center for fashion, arts, media & entertainment; the
Innocence Project
Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted, through the use of DNA testing and working to reform the criminal justice system to prevent futu ...
; the Florsheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy; the Data Law Initiative; the Blockchain Project; Cardozo/Google Patent Diversity Project; the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights; and the Heyman Center on Corporate Governance.
Faculty
Cardozo's faculty are notably productive in their scholarship. They were ranked 15th most prolific faculty in 1996, when the School of Law was only twenty years old. Ten years later the faculty had the 31st most SSRN downloads, and it is ranked 33rd in scholarly impact (as of 2021). Highly cited faculty members include Professors Myriam Gilles, Michael Herz, Peter Markowitz, Alexander Reinert, Anthony Sebok,
Stewart Sterk Stewart E. Sterk is the Mack Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University in New York City. He has taught there since 1979.
Professor Sterk served as an advisor in the preparation of the Restatement (Third) of Pr ...
and
Edward Zelinsky
Edward Zelinsky is an American legal scholar and specialist in tax law working as a professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. He has also been a visiting professor at the Yale Law School and has taught at Cornell University, ...
. Cardozo's faculty were also the most productive per capita for articles in top journals from 1993–2012, for law schools outside of U.S. News Top 50.
Clinical teaching
Cardozo is noted for its focus on clinical teaching and practical experience. As part of the fulfillment of the J.D. requirements, students may choose to participate in clinics housed within the school, taking on legal work under faculty supervision. The clinics provide pro bono services to clients across a range of areas of legal practice, including both civil and criminal cases. Many clinics serve individual clients, while other clinics take on class action lawsuits. They include the Tech Startup Clinic; Immigration Justice Clinic; the Innocence Project; Filmmakers Legal Clinic; Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic; the Civil Rights Clinic, Bet Tzedek (focused on representing elderly and disabled people seeking benefits, housing, etc.), and others. Perhaps the best known is the
Innocence Project
Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted, through the use of DNA testing and working to reform the criminal justice system to prevent futu ...
, run by Professor
Barry Scheck
Barry Charles Scheck (born September 19, 1949) is an American lawyer. He received national media attention while serving on O. J. Simpson's defense team, collectively dubbed the " Dream Team", helping to win an acquittal in the highly publicize ...
, which has used DNA profiling to help free dozens of innocent people from prison. The project's work has been instrumental in a number of high-profile cases.
Rankings and achievements
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: Sara J. Klein ’05 (for Justice John Paul Stevens) and Cliff Elgarten ’79 (for Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.). In 1999 Cardozo became a member of the
Order of the Coif
The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of advocates, the serjeants-at-law, whose courtroom attire included a coif—a white lawn or silk skullcap, whi ...
, an honor society for law scholars.
Cardozo was the second U.S. law school to secure an invitation to The European Law Moot Court 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
The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, at , and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The vast metropolitan area ...
, while many pursue their careers internationally and can be found across the country.
''
U.S. News
''U.S. News & World Report'' (USNWR) is an American media company that publishes news, consumer advice, rankings, and analysis. It was launched in 1948 as the merger of domestic-focused weekly newspaper ''U.S. News'' and international-focused ...
'' ranked Cardozo 52nd out of 196 law schools in the country in 2022 (5th of 15 law schools in New York State). Cardozo's LL.M./Master of Laws program was ranked tenth by American Universities Admission Program in 2012. Cardozo ranked high in US News law specialties in Dispute Resolution (4th) and Intellectual Property Law (8th) as of the 2023 rankings. It has also been ranked in the top ten for its Music Law program. Cardozo got A-grades in several areas according to National Jurist's preLaw Magazine in 2018, including Tax Law, International Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Business Law. PreLaw Magazine also ranked Cardozo highly in Government and Public Defender/Prosecutor specializations (11th).
;Bar examination passage rates
In 2017, 85% of the law school's first-time test takers passed the bar exam. 94.81% of 2019 graduates who sat for the bar exam passed within two years of their date of graduation. Cardozo had the fifth highest New York State Bar Pass Rate among New York law schools in 2013. In 2019, 83% of the law school's first-time test takers passed the bar exam, placing the law school seventh-best among New York's 15 law schools.
Academic program
;Juris Doctor
For J.D. students, Cardozo offers a selection of over 240 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:
* Business Law
* Civil Litigation
* Corporate Compliance and Risk Control
* Criminal Justice
* Data Law
* Dispute Resolution
* Family and Children's Law
* Intellectual Property and Information Law
* International and Comparative Law
* Public Law, Regulation and Government Affairs
* Real Estate
* Rights and the State
* Tax Law
;Clinical Education
Cardozo students may earn credits towards the J.D. through clinical education, mainly in-house pro bono work focused on public service and including civil litigation, criminal defense, divorce mediation, and a variety of other legal areas.
* Alexander Fellows Program
* Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic
* Bet Tzedek Civil Litigation Clinic
* Civil Rights Clinic
* Criminal Defense Clinic
* Divorce Mediation Clinic
* Indie Film Clinic
* Innocence Project Clinic
* Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic
* Mediation Clinic
* Prosecutor Practicum
* Securities Arbitration Clinic
* Tech Startup Clinic
;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)
*HEAD - L'ecode des Hautes Etudes Appliquees du Droit: Paris, France
* Peking University Law School
* Sorbonne Law School: Paris, France
* Tel Aviv University: Tel Aviv, Israel
* University of Deusto: Bilbao, Spain
* 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
;May Entry
While most Cardozo students begin their legal studies in August, some students begin in May. May-entry students take their first-year courses over three semesters - summer, fall, and spring, and then attend their fall and spring first-year classes with fall-entry students.
;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.
Post-graduation employment and costs
According to Cardozo's ABA-required disclosures, 81% of the Class of 2021 obtained full-time, long-term, bar passage-required employment within ten months of graduating. Of the Class of 2018, 87% obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD-advantage employment within ten months. The law school ranks 25th in the United States for "Gold Standard" jobs (full-time, long-term jobs requiring bar passage that are not funded by the school). It is 37th in the percentage of graduates hired by the 100 largest firms.
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Cardozo for the 2017–2018 academic year was $86,670. The Law School Transparency estimated non-discounted, debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $323,858.
Location and facilities
Located on lower Fifth Avenue at the corner of 12th Street in New York City's
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
, Cardozo's urban campus is in a 19-story building, known as the Brookdale Center. A multimillion-dollar capital improvement plan took place in 2006. 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. This addition to Cardozo included a new student lounge and a cafe on the third floor. Also completed were several new seminar rooms, internal stairways between floors, and added windows.
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, over 140 computers, and study space for about 500 students.
;Brookdale Center – 55 Fifth Avenue
Cardozo's main campus.
;The
Innocence Project
Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted, through the use of DNA testing and working to reform the criminal justice system to prevent futu ...
– 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
The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
– 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.
Student activities
Law journals
Students in the JD program publish several law journals: ''Cardozo Law Review''; ''Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal''; ''Cardozo International and Comparative Law Review''; ''Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution''; and ''Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice''.
''Cardozo Law Review'' was established in 1979, the first year of the School of Law's existence. The journal was cited 75 times in court cases in 2017-21, making it fourth most-cited among American law journals (after Harvard Law Review, California Law Review and Yale Law Review). Filtered by "Student-Edited". By journal citations, it ranks 29th, according to Washington & Lee Law School's database. Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal was ranked first in journal cites in the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law category in 2006 (second in Scholarly Impact and third in Cites by Courts).
240px, LGBTQ flag at Cardozo School of Law (2022)
Moot courts
Cardozo offers students the opportunity to participate in the Moot Court Honor Society, a competition-based organization at the school. In addition to participating in approximately six competitions each semester, the organization also hosts the Paulsen Intramural Moot Court Competition, the Monroe Price Media Law Competition, the Cardozo/BMI Moot Court Competition, and the Langfan Oratorical Competition.
LGBTQ+ student group
Although Cardozo is under the umbrella of Yeshiva University, which has been involved in legal proceedings after refusing to recognize an undergraduate
Pride
Pride is defined by Merriam-Webster as "reasonable self-esteem" or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". A healthy amount of pride is good, however, pride sometimes is used interchangeably with "conceit" or "arrogance" (among other words) w ...
Alliance group for
LGBTQ+
' is an Acronym, initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term for Sexuality and gende ...
students and allies, Cardozo has long had an active, officially recognized LGBTQ student groups; the Gay and Lesbian Alliance was active on campus by the early 1990s, and presently has a student group, OUTLaw, which has put out statements opposing YU's discrimination against its LGBTQ undergraduates.
Faculty and students at both Cardozo and YU's
Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology
The Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology is a division of Yeshiva University. Along with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, it is located at the Louis E. and Doris Rousso Community Health Center on Yeshiva University’s Jack and Pearl Resni ...
have voiced their disapproval of the University's discrimination and lawsuit. In a letter signed by over 50 members of the Cardozo faculty (which has 56 full-time members), and in statements made by the Dean of the Law School and the Cardozo Board of Overseers, the Law School has publicly affirmed support for LGBTQIA+ rights and called on YU's administration to desist from its appeal and end its discrimination policy.
Frank J. Macchiarola
Frank J. Macchiarola (April 7, 1941 – December 18, 2012), was an American academic. His interests and expertise spanned the legal, academic, executive management and public service areas. From 2008 until his death, Macchiarola was the Chan ...
Melanie Leslie
Melanie B. Leslie (born March 17, 1961) is the 7th Dean of Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Appointed on July 1, 2015, Leslie is the first Cardozo graduate and the first woman to hold the position.
Leslie is the Dr. Samuel Belkin Professor of L ...
(2015-present)
Alumni
* Geoffrey Bowers (1954–87), plaintiff in one of the first AIDS discrimination cases to go to public hearing
* Madeleine Cosman, medieval expert and conservative policy commentator
* Lawrence A. Cunningham, Professor of Law at George Washington University
*
John Dalli
John Dalli (born 5 October 1948) is a Maltese former politician who served as Cabinet Minister in various Maltese governments between 1987 and 2010. He was European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy between 2010 and 2012.
Maltese po ...
, partner at Dalli & Marino, LLP
*
Ed Fagan
Edward Davis (Ed) Fagan (born October 20, 1952) is a former American reparations lawyer who was disbarred for his conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.reparations lawyer
* Sandra J. Feuerstein, District Court Judge, Eastern District of New York
* Sonia Gardner, hedge fund manager and co-founder of
Avenue Capital Group
Avenue Capital Group is an American multinational investment firm focusing on distressed securities and private equity with regional teams focusing on opportunities in the United States, Europe and Asia. The firm operates as both a private equ ...
* John S. Hall, poet, musician and entertainment lawyer
* Eric Herschmann served as a senior advisor to former President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
.
*
Anna Kaplan
Anna Kaplan (née Monahemi) (born August 23, 1965) is an American politician from Great Neck, New York. A Democrat, she was a member of the New York State Senate, representing New York's 7th State Senate district, which runs from the North Shor ...
, New York State Senator for the 7th State Senate district
* Rachel Hirschfeld, animal rights activist and lawyer
*
Eddie Huang
Edwyn Charles Huang (born March 1, 1982) is an American author, chef, restaurateur, food personality, producer, and former attorney. He was a co-owner of BaoHaus, a gua bao restaurant in the East Village of Lower Manhattan. Huang previously ...
,
Taiwanese American
Taiwanese Americans () are Americans who carry full or partial ancestry from Taiwan. This includes American-born citizens who descend from migrants from Taiwan.
As of the 2010 U.S. Census, 49% of Taiwanese Americans lived in the state of Califo ...
Jeff Marx
Jeff Marx (born September 10, 1970) is an American composer and lyricist of musicals. He is best known for creating the Broadway musical ''Avenue Q'' with collaborator Robert Lopez.
Early life
Marx grew up in Hollywood, Florida. He attended ...
, composer and Tony-award winning musical lyricist
* Scott McCoy, former member of the
Utah State Senate
The Utah State Senate is the upper house of the Utah State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. The Utah Senate is composed of 29 elected members representing an equal number of senate districts. Each senate district is ...
*
Grace Meng
Grace Meng (born October 1, 1975) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 6th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, her district is in the New York City borough of ...
Barbara Olson
Barbara Kay Olson (née Bracher; December 27, 1955September 11, 2001) was an American lawyer and conservative television commentator who worked for CNN, Fox News Channel, and several other outlets. She was a passenger on American Airlines Flig ...
, lawyer, conservative television commentator (killed in 9/11)
* Juliette Passer, president & General Counsel at PanaManagement Corporation
* Nathan A. Paul, Chief Business Officer at Lazard Asset Management
* Federico Andino Reynal, defended
Alex Jones
Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American far-right and alt-right radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas, which the Genesis Communications Network broadcas ...
in the
Sandy Hook
Sandy Hook is a barrier spit in Middletown Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States.
The barrier spit, approximately in length and varying from wide, is located at the north end of the Jersey Shore. It encloses the southern ...
The Wonder Years
''The Wonder Years'' is an American coming-of-age comedy/drama television series created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black. It ran on ABC from January 31, 1988, until May 12, 1993. The series premiered immediately after ABC's coverage of Super ...
''.
*
Christopher A. Seeger
Christopher A. Seeger is an American lawyer who specializes in multidistrict mass tort and class action litigation. He received the most multidistrict litigation (MDL) appointments of any lawyer between 2016 and 2019 according to an 2020 ALM stud ...
, mass tort and class action litigator
* Pam Sherman, columnist also known as "The Suburban Outlaw"
* Marc H. Simon, filmmaker and entertainment attorney
* Laura Sydell,
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
journalist on Digital Culture
*
Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten (born December 18, 1957)''Who's Who in America'', 2007. is an American labor leader, attorney, and educator. She is president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and a member of the AFL–CIO. She is the former presiden ...
, President of the
American Federation of Teachers
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders.
About 60 per ...
techno music
Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...
ian also known as "Sir Ivan"
* Aviva Drescher, television personality.
Peter Goodrich Peter Goodrich is a Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. He is the managing editor of ''Law and Literature'' and serves on the editorial board of '' Law and Critique''. He is co-editor of the critical lega ...
Barry Scheck
Barry Charles Scheck (born September 19, 1949) is an American lawyer. He received national media attention while serving on O. J. Simpson's defense team, collectively dubbed the " Dream Team", helping to win an acquittal in the highly publicize ...
Stewart Sterk Stewart E. Sterk is the Mack Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University in New York City. He has taught there since 1979.
Professor Sterk served as an advisor in the preparation of the Restatement (Third) of Pr ...
Edward Zelinsky
Edward Zelinsky is an American legal scholar and specialist in tax law working as a professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. He has also been a visiting professor at the Yale Law School and has taught at Cornell University, ...
;Former faculty
* Michelle Adams —
University of Michigan School of Law
The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law ...
Marci Hamilton
Marci Ann Hamilton (born July 22, 1957) is the chief executive officer and academic director at Child USA, an interdisciplinary think tank to prevent child abuse and neglect. She is also a scholar of constitutional law and a Fox Family Pavilion D ...
Northwestern University School of Law
Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law is the law school of Northwestern University, a private research university. It is located on the university's Chicago campus. Northwestern Law has been ranked among the top 14, or "T14" law s ...
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
*
Telford Taylor
Telford Taylor (February 24, 1908 – May 23, 1998) was an American lawyer and professor. Taylor was known for his role as lead counsel in the prosecution of war criminals after World War II, his opposition to McCarthyism in the 1950s, and his o ...
University of Michigan School of Law
The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law ...
See also
*
Legal education in the United States
Legal education in the United States generally refers to a graduate degree, the completion of which makes a graduate eligible to sit for an examination for a license to practice as a Lawyer. Around 60 percent of those who complete a law degree ty ...
Cardozo School of Law
The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo graduated its first class in 1979. An LL.M. ...
Cardozo School of Law
The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo graduated its first class in 1979. An LL.M. ...
Cardozo School of Law
The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo graduated its first class in 1979. An LL.M. ...