Ex. Criminal Appeals

The Center for Appellate Litigation Criminal Appeals externship offers CLS students the opportunity to brief a criminal appeal on behalf of a client who is among society's most disenfranchised: a sentenced and incarcerated person who has been subjected to systemic and individual injustices during the era of mass incarceration. Each student selected for the externship will assist a client in challenging the system that has taken away their freedom, representing them on an appeal of their felony conviction to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department.

The externship will consist of a seminar component and a field component, both focused on providing students with the tools necessary to successfully brief a criminal appeal. The seminar will meet weekly at CLS for two hours. Early seminar sessions address the fundamentals of appellate advocacy, including the harmless error and preservation doctrines, scope and standards of review, and the ethical responsibilities of appellate counsel. Later sessions address the practical components of appellate advocacy, including issue-spotting, brief writing, and client communication.

The field component will be conducted at the Center for Appellate Litigation (CAL), a public defender office in Manhattan that handles appeals and other post-conviction matters for individuals convicted of felonies and misdemeanors in Manhattan and the Bronx. Students will meet virtually with their assigned instructor at least weekly as they advance their appeal through the review, research, issue-selection, drafting, and editing stages. Each student will be expected to devote at least 10 hours per week to their briefs during the Winter/Spring term. If possible, students will visit their clients either at CAL's office or in prison. Field trips to the watch oral argument at the appellate division may also be scheduled, in preparation for their own arguments in that Court.

Second-and-third year students are welcome to apply. Preference will be given to students who have an interest in zealously advocating for people ensnared by the criminal legal system and using persuasive righting as a means of achieving justice.