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Clinic Director's Note for Spring 2023

headshot of Beth Lyon

 

 

 

 

 

Beth Lyon, Clinical Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Experiential Education, Clinical Program Director, and Director of the Farmworker Legal Assistance Clinic

 

 

This spring brought exciting news for the Clinical Program. A groundbreaking gift from alumna Franci J. Blassberg ’75, J.D. ’77, and Joseph L. Rice III will expand the Entrepreneurship Law Clinic (ELC) by funding two new faculty hires. Beginning in the 2024–25 academic year, one new supervisor will join ELC Director and Clinical Professor Celia Bigoness in Ithaca, and the other will be based in New York City working with JD students studying at Cornell Tech. Not only does the gift triple ELC’s capacity to admit students and serve the community, but it allows us to add the first-ever clinical offering to our Cornell Tech-based curriculum. Further, with the new clinic space on the Roosevelt Island campus, significantly more of our students will have the opportunity to learn in a “downstate” practice environment. We’re also excited to join the vibrant clinical legal education community in the city.

Meanwhile, this winter and spring students and faculty got back on the road in earnest for in-person fact investigation, client counseling, litigation, and community presentations. In-person work is a particularly important change for this year’s cohort of students, who experienced all of their law school training during the pandemic.

As students return from a Spring Break filled with client work and the school year begins to wind down, we’re celebrating milestones. One of the newest courses, the Tenants Advocacy Practicum, just hit a mark of $100,000 saved for clients in a single year, and the Appellate Asylum and Convention against Torture Clinic is looking back on twenty years of service and 200 students who have served more than 100 clients. You can read about these and many other developments in this issue of our clinical newsletter.

And, as always, please do stop in and see us if you find yourself here “high above Cayuga’s waters.”

Walk gently,

Beth

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