Jump to:

• 1L Immigration Law & Advocacy Clinic
• Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic
• Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Clinic
• Estate Planning Practicum
• Externships and Pro Bono Scholars Program
• Farmworker Legal Assistance Clinic
• First Amendment Clinic
• Labor Law Clinic
• Tenants Advocacy Practicum
• Transnational Disputes Clinic
• Veterans Law Practicum

1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic

Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer, Clinical Professor of Law, Director of the 1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic

Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer

In fall 2024, the Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic has eight advanced students working on cases for DACA recipients, asylum seekers, and immigrants held in detention. The clinic is part of a new initiative at Cornell Law School called Path2Papers. This timely project helps DACA recipients pursue work visas and other pathways to legal permanent residency, including through use of new processes explained in our op-ed here. Our legal team includes many experts who work with our law students on this cutting-edge work.

We continue to work on behalf of clients detained in Louisiana and Batavia, NY. In August, the clinic filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties together with the Southeast Dignity Not Detention Coalition and RFK Human Rights. This complaint details the language access issues immigrants face in detention that prevent them from receiving information about their cases and from accessing legal and medical services.

Students in the Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic recently traveled to visit clients in the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, NY, where they worked alongside attorneys from Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.

This semester, we visited the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, NY, and Basile Detention Center in Louisiana, together with coalition partners. These trips provide critical legal information to people held in immigration detention.

Students are also working on several ongoing asylum cases at the trial level for Ithaca-area clients. They are conducting interviews, engaging in legal research and writing, and developing the evidentiary record for their clients.

Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic

Estelle McKee, Clinical Professor of Law

Estelle McKee

The Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic recently won a remand from the Board of Immigration Appeals for a Haitian client seeking protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). The last time this client was returned to Haiti, he was briefly detained and then kidnapped, and he survived solely due to payments by his mother and grandmother, both of whom have since died. Students Sara Allen ‘24 and Garry Blum ‘25 successfully argued that the immigration judge erred by failing to properly consider this experience, plus the violence in Haitian prisons and the recent collapse of the Haitian government.

The clinic also won a remand for a Salvadoran client on a CAT claim that went to mediation in the Ninth Circuit, based on a vacatur of the client’s criminal convictions. The clinic’s former pro bono scholar, Sahil Patel ‘24, took the lead in mediation. The criminal vacatur was due to the efforts of former student Christine Brittain ‘23, who obtained the criminal records and located a criminal attorney to challenge the convictions.

The clinic and the Legal Aid Society of New York won a habeas appeal for their client, G.M., challenging a federal statute that mandated the civil detention of noncitizens during their removal proceedings. The Second Circuit, in a decision consolidating G.M.’s appeal with the appeal of Carol Williams Black, concluded that the detention of both noncitizens without a bond hearing was unduly prolonged and thereby unconstitutional. See Black v. Decker, 103 F.4th 133 (2d Cir. 2024).

Lastly, the clinic, with Prisoners’ Legal Services in New York, won asylum for a Salvadoran LGBTQI client who suffered corrective rape in El Salvador and was detained for approximately two years in the United States. The clinic first began assisting this client in 2020 with her appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, then to the Second Circuit, back to the Board, and eventually to Immigration Court. On April 5, the immigration judge granted the client asylum, withholding, and relief under CAT. The client, who lives in Ithaca, has become an advocate for detainees in her own right. With Professor Jane Juffer (Department of English, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program), the client’s letters in detention were published in a book, and her art, created while she was in detention, has been displayed in the Johnson Museum.

Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Clinic

Gautam Hans, Clinical Professor of Law

Gautam Hans

In this inaugural semester of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Clinic, students have taken on litigation and advocacy projects relating to free speech and free exercise topics. Students are drafting the opening brief in a Ninth Circuit immigration case; researching policy proposals for EveryLibrary, a nonprofit research and advocacy group supporting libraries and librarians; and collaborating with Jane M.G. Foster Professor of Law Nelson Tebbe on an amicus brief in the Tenth Circuit.

Deborah Morales ’25, Nathanael Lo ’25, and Ifrah Qadir ’25 discuss an amicus brief recently filed in the Tenth Circuit. on behalf of Professor Nelson Tebbe and Professor Lawrence Sager (UT-Austin).

Estate Planning Practicum

Jill Miller, Adjunct Professor of Law
Kathryn Grant Madigan, Adjunct Professor of Law

Jill Miller

Kate Madigan

Law Day in NYC

This past spring, students and faculty in the Estate Planning Practicum travelled to NYC overnight and gathered at the New York County Surrogate’s Court in lower Manhattan the following morning. The students, with professors Miller and Madigan, met briefly with Surrogate Hilary Gingold and observed a busy calendar call.

The Estate Planning Practicum visited the New York County Surrogates Court in lower Manhattan in the spring.

The group then met with the public administrator, Dahlia Damas, who gave a tour of her office, explaining how she and her staff administer the estates of NY County residents who die without a will with no one eligible or willing to act.

Thereafter, our group was invited to observe a settlement conference with Surrogate Gingold, which was fascinating. A trust administration matter resulted in conflict between the trustee and the beneficiaries, four family members. We had to leave prior to the conclusion, but later learned that the surrogate had been successful in helping the lawyers and family members agree to a settlement which favored the family and resulted in a monetary surcharge against the trustee.

We then “ubered” to midtown for a luncheon sponsored by our hosts, Fiduciary Trust, where we were regaled by conversations with members of the trust team, all of them lawyers. None of them began their careers as a trust officer. Each recounted multiple legal positions (in private practice and other practice settings) prior to joining Fiduciary Trust.

The next leg of the journey was to Sotheby’s Auction House where the students observed a live auction and then met with a colleague of Professor Miller’s, who spoke about her path as a lawyer prior to joining Sotheby’s. A “family style” dinner was held at Tony’s Di Napoli, where we were joined by four Elder Law and Trust & Estate lawyers and two judges who each shared their unique pathways in the law.

Law Day 2024 was chock full of exciting, eye-opening and engaging experiences the students will long remember.

Community Workshops

In groups of four, the students planned, marketed, and presented a community workshop on four topics in Elder Law, Trusts & Estates. Two were held on campus and one at Longview Senior Living Community, all to appreciative audiences.

Wine Tasting and Dinner

The students enjoyed a lively wine-tasting at The Cellar d’Or Wine, Cider & Spirits on the State Street Mall, followed by dinner at The Strand Café. It is an annual tradition, held before the last class of the semester.

Externships and Pro Bono Scholars Program

Dena Robin Bauman, Director of Externships and Pro Bono Scholars Program and Lecturer of Law

Dena Robin Bauman

In early September, Cornell welcomed Dena Robin Bauman Law ’91 as the director of externships and Pro Bono Scholars Program, and lecturer of law. She says, “Externships are a vibrant part of legal experiential education, and I’m excited to move this program forward and to work with the entire law school community.”

This fall, 22 students are externing in a wide variety of placements including judicial, legal service and government organizations. Students earn academic credit while working under the supervision and mentoring from experienced attorneys. Students will meet in group discussions with Professor Bauman to discuss their placements and observations about legal practice. Assignments for Professor Bauman emphasize self-awareness, self-direction, and self-assessment. Students will write a learning plan for the semester and reflective journals. This educational component helps the students reflect on what they are learning about themselves, the legal profession, and their place in the profession.

Expanding alumni engagement with the externship program is one of Professor Bauman’s priorities. She is pleased that AmiCietta Clarke ’03, is supervising a student intern this semester at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. At Treasury, Ms. Clarke is the senior counsel and co-lead counsel for international development.

In the spring, Professor Bauman will continue to teach the externship class, as well as the Pro Bono Scholars Program, which is a capstone class for students in their last semester of law school. The program allows students to take the February NYS bar exam and, in the spring, immerse themselves in direct service work to indigent clients. Twenty-two students will be part of that spring cohort.

Biography for Dena Robin Bauman

Most recently, Bauman was the externship director at the UC Davis School of Law. There, more than 100 students earned academic credit every year in field placements that included judicial, governmental, and public sector organizations, as well as a corporate counsel program she implemented.

Bauman began her legal career in Rochester, NY, as a civil legal services attorney. She then became a managing attorney at another NYS legal services organization before relocating to Washington, DC, to become a supervising attorney with DC Law Students at Court. She joined the UC Davis School of Law as the career services director in 2003 and then began to teach the externship class in 2006.

Currently, she co-chairs the CLEA Externship Committee and is on the planning committee for the fall 2024 externship conference. In 2015, she coauthored the externship chapter for the publication Building on Best Practices.

Bauman grew up in White Plains, NY, and earned her BA cum laude from Bryn Mawr College in 1983 and an MA from the University of Chicago in 1986. She is excited to be back in upstate New York and eager to explore the Finger Lakes region.

Farmworker Legal Assistance Clinic

Beth Lyon, Associate Dean for Experiential Education, Clinical Professor of Law, and Clinical Program Director
Tasha Gottschalk-Fielding, IJC Legal Fellow

Beth Lyon

Tasha Gottschalk-Fielding

The Farmworker Legal Assistance Clinic’s primary docket is representing child and youth farmworkers in deportation proceedings and in state courts. Recently we appeared in Cayuga and Lewis County courts, receiving orders placing our clients on a path to permanent immigration status. One young client has received permission to work and a social security card, allowing her to better care for her five-year-old child, whose deportation proceedings were also terminated through the negotiating efforts of farmworker clinic summer students. The fall students continue to work with clients impacted by the family separation policy, labor trafficking, and the H-2A temporary foreign worker program.

The Cornell Center for Health Equity funded the farmworker clinic’s yearlong partnering project with the National Center for Farmworker Health, directed by clinic student Sasha Brigante ’24. The partnership was very active, with numerous virtual meetings, a poster presentation, an in-person workshop at the law school in April 2024 convening numerous child farmworker health researchers and advocates, and a joint in-person panel at the International Society for Agricultural Safety and Health Annual Conference. The fall clinic students are developing a proposed work plan based on the insights generated from these interactions.

Farmworker Clinic Legal Fellow Reina Fostyk completed her two-year fellowship launching the Mohawk Valley Region Access to Justice Project (a project of the clinic and the First Baptist and First Presbyterian Churches of Cooperstown) and joined the Michigan State University law faculty. Immigrant Justice Corps (IJC) Justice Fellow Tasha Gottschalk-Fielding ’23 collaborated with three other organizations (Hiscock Legal Aid, Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY, and NYS Office for New Americans) to hold a CLE training entitled “Introduction to Special Immigrant Juvenile Visa Advocacy.”

First Amendment Clinic

Mark Jackson, Director of the First Amendment Clinic and Adjunct Professor of Law
Heather Murray, Associate Director and Local Journalism Project Managing Attorney
Michael Grygiel, Adjunct Professor of Law
Michael Linhorst, Local Journalism Attorney (not pictured)
Daniela del Rosario Wertheimer, Stanton Fellow (not pictured)

Mark Jackson

Heather Murray

Michael Grygiel

The clinic has had an active docket in recent months, including arguing in court four times between June and September. During that same timeframe, the clinic filed three lawsuits, an amicus brief, two motions to quash, motions for leave to appeal and to intervene and unseal, and a motion to compel in addition to providing prelitigation advocacy, pre-publication review and transactional advice to clients.

Evan Deakin ’25, Celina Rivernider ’26, and Alexander Venditti ’25 are pictured outside the Northern District of New York following a recent successful discovery hearing.

Clinic alum Matt Hornung ’24 successfully argued against a motion to stay discovery in June in a First Amendment retaliation case in the Northern District of New York. And, in that same case, clinic student Evan Deakin ’25 argued a discovery motion to compel in September. Local Journalism Attorney Michael Linhorst argued twice in a New York trial court to quash a subpoena to depose a journalist and unmask his sources that is now on appeal.

The clinic filed three suits seeking access to records on behalf of news outlets and a freelancer. The first is a novel suit seeking an injunction directing the New York City Department of Transportation to end its practice of imposing uniform, half-year-long delays that prevent the public from finding out, in a timely way, what its government is up to. The second seeks access to footage of the arrest of the Addison County State’s Attorney for allegedly driving under the influence to the scene of an ongoing Vermont State Police investigation. The clinic filed an opposition to the Department of Public Safety’s motion to dismiss in this case in September. The third seeks access to records concerning autopsies of individuals who died near the U.S.–Mexico border. For years, our client Michelle García has sought to uncover accurate information behind the deaths of unidentified migrants, including a more precise number of deaths and the causes behind them.

In July, the clinic filed a motion for leave to appeal an Appellate Division, Fourth Department decision that declined to award our metal core music scene clients attorney’s fees for their defense against a defamation suit. The suit sought to punish them for warning others about a colleague’s alleged sexual misconduct. In August, the clinic filed an amicus brief in the Second Circuit in a student speech case. In September, the clinic filed a motion to intervene and unseal wrongful death settlement records with co-counsel the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Daniela del Rosario Wertheimer joined the Cornell First Amendment Clinic this August as its Stanton Fellow. She is a member of the DC Bar and has research interests and practice experience in the First and Fourth Amendments, government transparency, and civil liberties and civil rights. Prior to joining Cornell, Daniela was the Jack Nelson-Dow Jones Fellow at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. In that role, she focused primarily on federal, and state open records and open meetings matters through litigation, advocacy, and amicus efforts. Daniela graduated from the University of California–Berkeley School of Law, where she was awarded the Kraw Law Group Scholarship for her work on labor and employment issues and academic achievement. She was also an articles editor at the California Law Review, a research assistant, and a student in the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic. Before law school, Daniela worked at the ACLU, where she fostered her nascent interest in First Amendment issues. Daniela was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow at Swarthmore College, from which she graduated in 2017 with a degree in sociology and anthropology.

Labor Law Clinic

Angela Cornell, Clinical Professor of Law

Angela Cornell

The Labor Law Clinic is hopping again this semester with organizing, collective bargaining, unfair labor practice cases, and an arbitration involving a terminated worker. On the employment front, we have a sexual harassment charge and potential claims under the Family and Medical Leave Act that also involve a terminated worker. On the international front, we have at least one shadow report related to treaty compliance with fundamental labor rights under the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights on behalf of an international client. We are fortunate to have a wonderful cohort of students engaged in the material and committed to strenuously representing their clients’ interests and fundamental rights.

From last semester, students were able to negotiate a great settlement on behalf of our client with a disability discrimination case—on the eve of the hearing before the Division of Human Rights administrative law judge. We prevailed with unfair labor practices charges before the NLRB involving a worker terminated for protected concerted activity reaching a settlement for both back and front pay, and we prevailed in our Geico case that involved union organizing with the NLRB issuing a complaint in our favor. We continue to have some pending union related organizing unfair labor practices charges.

We were happy to support the effort of a community organization on ways to improve the police collective bargaining agreement in order to have greater transparency and accountability in instances of civil rights violations. Students have done excellent work with a wide variety of legal issues, clients and administrative processes and procedures.

Tenants Advocacy Practicum

William Niebel, Tenants Advocacy Managing Attorney and Adjunct Professor of Law
Kathryn Krause Wozer, Tenants Advocacy Staff Attorney (not pictured)

William Niebel

Now in its fifth year, the Tenants Advocacy Practicum is excited to share significant developments from the past few months. Established in the fall of 2020, the practicum continues to thrive as it fortifies its commitment to housing justice.

The practicum secured a major victory in the first case it brought under the recently enacted Tenant Dignity and Safe Housing Act. After conducting a full trial in the case, student-attorneys Andrew Pei ’25 and Ellie Yang ’24 obtained a court order requiring the landlord to promptly repair or replace the tenants’ furnace, and a money judgment of $5,844, including $2,000 in punitive damages. The case garnered attention and was featured in a news article here.

This summer, Professor Niebel and Attorney Kathryn Krause Wozer launched Cornell’s Rochester Eviction Defense Project in partnership with JustCause and Legal Assistance of Western New York (LawNY), where student interns—Jeffrey Cheng ’26, Kir Readnower ’26, Maxwell Barnhardt ’26, Maureen Balcerzak ’26, Michael Spivey ’26, Shireen Afzal ’26, and Mannan Ahmed ’25 —traveled tirelessly to Rochester to defend more than 50 tenants against eviction. The students are continuing this phenomenal work as externs.

To account for increasing organizational expansion, the leadership team has renamed their efforts as the Tenants Advocacy Program. This is in acknowledgement of the many initiatives beyond just the practicum, including the hotline, the internship/externship providing eviction defense in Rochester Housing Court, court-monitoring in Tompkins County, undergraduate volunteer opportunities, and more. A new website is in development for the program, and a new email address has been launched: tenantsadvocacy@cornell.edu. Funding was recently secured for a full-time coordinator position; interviews for the position are now in progress.

Tech initiatives continue this fall, including improvement of the practicum’s innovative chatbot Teny, as well as continued internal testing of a generative AI tenants’ rights tool in collaboration with Josef, a legal automation startup. These initiatives aim to enhance tenants’ access to efficient legal support. Driston Galvao ’23 joined the team as a Pro Bono Legal Fellow in March 2024, and will be involved until at least March 2025. Driston plays a vital role in tenant-focused legal research and advocacy efforts for the project. This fall, he will be managing the practicum’s collaboration with Josef. Driston was previously a student-attorney in the practicum and is deeply committed to advancing tenants’ rights.

Professor Niebel is now the managing attorney for the program, following Director Michaela Azemi’s departure. He is currently writing a new treatise on New York landlord-tenant law for LexisNexis, forthcoming in 2025.

Transnational Disputes Clinic

Ian Kysel, Associate Clinical Professor of Law

Ian Kysel

Students in the Transnational Disputes Clinic continue to have an active docket of matters in international investment law and refugee rights cases. Last semester, several students helped prepare for a motion to dismiss hearing in a clinic case in federal district court. Students Ammar Inayatali ’24, Maria Giovanna Jumper ’24, and Ifrah Qadir ’25 traveled to Washington, DC, to hear oral argument in the United States Supreme Court’s consideration of Department of State v. Muñoz, in which they filed an amicus brief on behalf of two dozen law professors, including Jack G. Clarke Professor of Law Mitchell Lasser, and the law school’s Migrant Rights Initiative. This semester, students are preparing to file an amicus brief before an investor-state arbitral tribunal and an amicus brief before the Supreme Court of Mexico on a refugee rights matter.

Veterans Law Practicum

James Hardwick, Supervising Attorney and Adjunct Professor of Law
Danielle Bernard, Adjunct Professor of Law (not pictured)

James Hardwick

The Veterans Law Practicum (VLP) opened 67 cases for 58 veterans in our first year serving veterans from upstate New York and across the US, including advice, brief service, and full-scope representation in a range of civil and administrative matters. The VLP also received for a second year a VA grant to work with veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Based on our exemplary work, our grant funding was doubled, and we are currently seeking to hire a graduate fellow and part-time administrator.

Over the summer, three students interned with the VLP: Jared Feltman ’25, Michael Ahn ’26, and Aziz Ali ’26. Collectively, they worked on five federal appeals (four of which were successfully remanded) and one discharge upgrade application for a soldier discharged with Other Than Honorable status based on combat-related PTSD.

Our students continue to represent veterans on appeal in federal court for service-connected disability compensation claims. Clinic students Elizabeth Mao ’25, Nya Hedman ’25, Jacob Gustafson ’25, Connor MacDonough ’25, Gaige McMillian ’26, and Eric Bohrer ‘26 have reviewed thousands of pages of military and medical records and are currently drafting settlement conference statements. Clinic students Tyler Dixon ’25, Dylan Ceballos ’25, Jade Ovadia ’25, Leah Peretsky ’26, Kayla Espinoza ’26, Sofia Cuevas Dorador ’26, and Aziz Ali 26 are currently preparing applications for discharge upgrades related to behavioral and mental health, including three women veterans who suffer from PTSD as a result of military sexual trauma. Clinic students have interviewed clients, family members, and fellow veterans and performed extensive research into these very fact-intensive cases involving highly technical legal arguments.

From right: Aziz Ali ’26, client Ana Chan, and Rodgers, Chan’s beloved Great Dane.

Students also continue to address unmet civil legal needs of veterans in central New York who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Jacques Bettig ’25 has performed research and advised clients on consumer protection and child custody matters. The VLP also recently settled a case in which an at-risk veteran’s service dog was wrongfully seized and abused by a local dog control officer. After a euthanasia order was handed down in the spring by Bath Town Court, the VLP appealed the matter to Steuben County Court. Based on extensive research and appellate briefing by alumnus Isaac Belenkiy ’24, the case was recently settled, and the service dog, Rodgers, was released back into the care of the veteran.