Prof. Cooper Associate Professor of Law Urban Policy & Legislative Advocacy Clinic Faculty Director Feerick Center for Social Justice & Dispute Resolution The clinic's advocacy partners have included
West Harlem Environmental Action
The Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies
Lawyers for Children
Sustainable South Bronx
Center for HIV Law & Policy
Servicemembers Legal Defense Fund ("Don't Ask, Don't Tell")
SOCIAL CHANGE does not come easily. In Fordham's Urban Policy & Legislative Advocacy Clinic, students work outside of the courtroom to develop creative solutions to problems faced by New York City's poor and disenfranchised. Students work with community-based organizations to advocate for change in the legislature, and with city and state officials.
To be effective policy advocates, clinic students:
interview clients and other interested parties
conduct extensive legal and social science research
draft policy papers as well as legislative and regulatory solutions
meet with community leaders and elected officials
Students are not just "policy advocates" - they are lawyers doing policy advocacy. They are creating innovative, systematic solutions to the dilemmas faced by the clients of the organizations with whom the clinic works.
Ultimately, students are creating new paths to social justice. By learning how to be change agents, advocating for creative legal and policy-based solutions in legislative and governmental offices, clinic students learn valuable lessons in lawyering and bring the voices of the excluded to the corridors of power.
