Executive Director of the Clarke Center for International Comparative Legal Studies Larry S. Bush, who currently oversees the Cornell Law School’s relationships with twenty partner law schools located on four continents, worked with members of the University of Chile to negotiate the exchange.  Although a handful of Cornell Law students studied aboard in South America over the last ten years, Cornell’s exchange program with the School of Law at University of Chile in Santiago marks the first official partnership in the region.  The University of Chile’s law program is the oldest in the country and all courses are instructed entirely in Spanish. Each year, two students from Cornell can participate in the Chile exchange.

The second of the two partnerships is with University of Oslo in Norway. The formation of this partnership was spearheaded by Laura Underkuffler, the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Cornell Law.  She had previously worked with colleagues from this Scandinavian school and suggested the idea. The Faculty of Law at University of Oslo boasts ten multidisciplinary focus areas and is both the largest and oldest law school in Norway.

To learn more about these and other study abroad opportunities at Cornell Law, visit the school’s website.

Berkeley / Boalt
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

Boston College
Application Period: Mid-September – March 1

Boston University
Binding Early Decision Deadlines: December 1
Application Period: September 15 – March 1

Chicago
Early Decision Deadline: December 1
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

Columbia
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September 1 – February 15

Cornell
Early Action Deadline: November 1
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

Duke
Early Decision Deadline: November 4 (Round I) and January 7 (Round II)
Application Period: September – February 15

Emory
Application Period: September – March 1.

Fordham
Early Decision Deadline: October 15
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

George Washington
Early Decision Deadline: December 15
Application Period: October 1 – March 31

Georgetown
Early Decision Deadline: March 1
Application Period: October 1 – March 1

Harvard
Application Period: September 15 – February 1

Illinois
Early Decision Period: October 31
Application Period: September 15 – March 1

Iowa
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

Michigan
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September 1 – February 15.

Minnesota
Early Action Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September 1 – April 1

New York University
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September – February 15

Northwestern
Early Decision Deadline: December 1
Application Period: September 1 – February 15

Notre Dame
Early Decision Deadline: November 1
Application Period: October 1 – February 15

Stanford
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

UCLA
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September – February 1

University of Pennsylvania
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

USC / Gould
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

U Texas-Austin
Early Decision Deadline: November 1
Application Period: September – February 1

U Virginia
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

University of Washington
Application Period: October 1 – February 15

Vanderbilt
Application Period: September 10 – March 15.

Washington and Lee
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

Washington University in St. Louis
Application Period: late September – March 1 (recommended deadline; applications accepted after this date on space-available basis)

William and Mary
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

Yale
Application Period: September 15 – February 15

The program’s creator, professor Charles Brainerd, said “Cornell has a very, very long tradition in this area. For about three decades [Cornell has had] world leaders in psychology and law research. If you were to ask people around the world where to go for advanced training in this area, they would say, ‘Cornell University.”

The first PhD/JD class is set to enter in Fall 2012 and will spend the first two years completing PhD research, the next two years studying law and then the remaining two focusing on research initiatives. Students interested in the field will complete both degrees in six years as opposed to eight.

The field is rapidly growing and students interested in the areas benefit from a dual degree. For example, those interested in pursuing research in the field of psychology can benefit from legal information, whereas lawyers often profit form a developed understanding of psychological processes. Given the overlap between the fields, the program is well suited to those interested in pursuing both a PhD and a JD.

For the full press release, go here.

The training will help benefit Liberian lawyers and judges in confronting the fast growing crime of human trafficking. States Brundige, their efforts “illustrated the critical importance of cross-border exchanges such as this to the global fight against human trafficking, which is a form of modern-day slavery.” The lead counsel at the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia, Lois Nyenpan, declares that the training will help realize Liberia’s new rape law while a lead country prosecutor envisions sharing his knowledge with police forces to better discover human trafficking cases. According to Holsey, “The Chief Justice of Liberia closed the entire court system for this training, and participants came from all over Liberia.” She believes this illustrates the impact the training will hopefully have.

To learn more about Cornell’s involvement with this program, please click here.

Law students involved in the clinic receive both an academic and practical training in investor advocacy. Along with the opportunity to represent investors, students also will help draft comment letters to regulatory authorities and amicus briefs for pending court cases. They are also responsible for assembling the extensive public outreach programs for community groups about investor fraud as well as the helping develop research on securities laws and investment products. Their coursework involves training on evaluating potential clients and claims, preparing the necessary court materials and negotiating settlements.

To learn more about the Ithaca Journal post, please click here.
To learn more about the SLC, please click here.

Professor Robert Hockett of Cornell and Professors Jacob Hacker and Daniel Markovits of Yale along with a current Yale 2L created the website so that people receiving money from Congress’ newly approved tax cuts can easily donate to charitable organizations including Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army and the Children’s Aid Society.  On the site, visitors can enter their Adjusted Gross Income to calculate approximate tax cuts before making a pledge.

According to the site’s founders, “The goal of the website is to provide a way for ordinary Americans to put their money where their mouth is and help individuals and organizations who will be harmed by the recent vote to extend the tax cuts.”

Operating on a two-year timetable, the Frank H.T. Rhodes Public Interest Law Fellowships will be administered by the school’s dean and will be awarded to graduates working for nonprofit and human rights organizations.  The $5 million funding for the fellowships comes from The Atlantic Philanthropies, a group focused on aiding “disadvantaged and vulnerable people.”  Rhodes was an Atlantic board member after serving as the university’s president for nearly two decades.

“This gift comes at a crucial time,” said Karen Comstack, the law school’s assistant dean for public service, “as the current recession has forced organizations to cut funding for legal services to those who can least afford to lose them.”  Comstack said fellowship recipients will gain experience while delivering legal services to “the poor, the elderly, the homeless and those deprived of their civil rights.”

The announcement follows our blog post Monday, in which Cornell Law was among four programs singled out by National Jurist for its multifaceted support of public interest law.

The programs are all briefly profiled in the article, and also are said to have certain unifying aspects: financial and emotional support from administration, faculty and staff; an office or administrator “solely devoted” to public interest law; a “large and vast array” of projects; some sort of social network for students exploring public interest law; and “orientation programs, welcome receptions and recognition awards.”

“If you present opportunities, students are very interested in public service.  It’s a case of, ‘If you build it, they will come,’” said Maura Kelly, BU School of Law’s assistant dean for career development and public service, to the Jurist.

In selecting the four law schools, the magazine used data from the non-profit organization, Equal Justice Works, while also indicating the extent to which broad-based support for public interest law is on the rise among law schools.  For example, the number of loan repayment assistance programs has nearly doubled since 2002, and the percent of employed law graduates who take public interest positions has risen from 3 percent in 2000 to 5.4 percent in 2008.

Now, according to the school’s Cornell Daily Sun, the application increase is even more impressive than previously reported, as candidates to the law school have increased by 52 percent ahead of the Feb. 1 application deadline.

Richard Geiger, the school’s dean of admissions who indicated to the Times that he was “thrown off” by the upsurge, reiterated his sentiment to the university’s paper on Tuesday.  “The increase is probably the result of a number of things working together,” he said.  “What I can’t explain is why it’s 50 percent and not 20 percent.”

With the record number of candidates to choose from, Geiger indicated that his office will review decisions with more scrutiny and will be able to admit a more selective, diverse class.  The school also plans to maintain its enrollment cap, despite the additional applicants.  Cornell Law enrolls just about 200 students per class, making it one of the smaller schools among its peer group.

Cornell Law School, known for placing emphasis on international law and global perspectives, encourages its students to spend one or summer abroad – longer, in the case of those individuals pursuing dual degrees. In this way, Cornell students have the chance to approach legal systems and legal subjects from a non-U.S. perspective. Students also gain insights to new cultures and are able to learn from faculty members perhaps holding different opinions than professors at Cornell.

Students at Cornell can apply to study abroad during their fourth, fifth or sixth semesters. There are 15 programs in which students can enroll, although there is also an option for students to design a “term away” at a school not currently partnered with Cornell. Students who apply can choose between programs located in such places as Germany, Hungary, South Africa, China, Australia and Israel.

Students unable to dedicate a semester to traveling abroad are offered the opportunity to study at an international location during summer vacation. The Paris Summer Institute, for example, is a five-week program which focuses on international and comparative law. Students come from all over the world each year to study at the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.

The University of Mississippi Law School offers its students similar study abroad opportunities. Students in good standing at the school are allowed to count 12 credits from a semester abroad, or six credits from a summer abroad, towards their JD degree. The university has a partnership with nine schools, eight in Europe and one in Uruguay, to which students may travel during their second or third year. Like Cornell, however, Mississippi allows its student to craft their own self-initiated study abroad experience if the school they hope to attend is not one of the schools with whom the university is currently partnered.

Although Cornell and University of Mississippi both provide their students with a range of impressive and valuable study abroad opportunities, many law schools now encourage students to gain international insights through a trip to a foreign country, whether for a semester abroad, a summer program or an internship. These opportunities, Cornell and Mississippi claim, offer students the chance to familiarize themselves with international laws and procedures and become more aware of the discrepancies between the U.S. government and the law enacted in other nations.