Public
Service

Public Service at Fordham Law

Fordham Law prepares its students to confront the challenges of our times. They become leaders who create real change through principled, ethical lawyering; through active citizenship; and through dedication to justice in New York City and beyond our borders, and, often, at our borders. There are many opportunities to do this critical work. Through the Feerick Center, one of our many centers and institutes, students can take on a real and complex immigration case for credit and learn the intangible human challenges of lawyering in clinics. Students can also volunteer with student-run public service organizations. For example, through the Suspension Restoration project, students represent low-income high schoolers in school suspension hearings at the New York City Department of Education. Students also assist survivors of domestic violence (with the Domestic Violence Action Center) and educate incarcerated individuals on legal issues at the Brooklyn Detention Center through Advocates for the Incarcerated. At the Unemployment Action Center, Fordham Law students advocate for low-income citizens who have been denied unemployment benefits.

There are also opportunities for students to volunteer for a week at a time, as one group did in Dilley, Texas, advising detained mothers with children at a federal detention facility. “It was amazing, tiring, and exhausting, but I’ll never forget the work I did there,” says Andrea Rodriguez ’18, who is now vice president, associate counsel at Build America Mutual.

Students in the Immigration Advocacy Project (IAP), during their service trip to Dilley, Texas. They provided legal assistance to women and children refugees in family detention.