Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University, located in New York City. The school, founded in 1976, is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Among the top 100 law schools, only three schools are younger than Cardozo, which graduated its first class in 1979. Cardozo is currently ranked 52nd by "U.S. News and World Report" ranking of law schools and 22nd in part-time law schools. Its intellectual property program was ranked 12th in the nation, and its dispute resolution program was ranked 6th. The  Cardozo faculty is ranked No. 32 in the nation for scholarly impact. The school's other notable programs include the FAME Center for fashion, arts, media & entertainment; the Data Law Initiative; the Blockchain Project; Cardozo/Google Patent Diversity Project; the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights; and the Heyman Center on Corporate Governance. Students can choose to participate in clinics such as the Tech Startup Clinic, Immigration Justice Clinic, Innocence Project Clinic, Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic, and the Civil Rights Clinic. The school also created the Innocence Project, run by Cardozo Professor Barry  Scheck, which has used DNA profiling to help free innocent prisoners. The project's work has been instrumental in some high-profile cases. In 1999 Cardozo became a member of the Order of the Coif, an honor society for law scholars. Cardozo has seven faculty members who have clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justices, and Cardozo has had two graduates chosen to clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court. Cardozo was the second U.S. law school to secure an invitation to The European Law Moot Court Competition, and the first American law school to be invited twice consecutively. Many of Cardozo 's 12,000 alumni reside in the New York metropolitan area, while many pursue their careers internationally and can be found across the country. In 2019, 83% of the law school's first-time test takers passed the bar exam, placing the law school seventh-best among New York's 15 law schools. According to Cardozo's 2017 ABA-required disclosures, 80.14% of the Class of 2017 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. Rankings. In 2017, 85% of the law school's first-time test takers passed the bar exam. 94.81% of 2019 graduates who  sat for the bar exam passed within two years of their date of graduation. Location and facilities. Located on lower Fifth Avenue at the corner of 12th Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Cardozo's urban campus is in a large building, known as the Brookdale Center. A multimillion-dollar capital improvement plan took place in 2006. The addition of more space at the Brookdale Center also allowed for a larger and significantly enhanced library, new offices and clinic spaces, as well as a new and larger lobby, moot court room, and ground-floor seminar room. In addition , older classrooms were renovated. In fall 2006, the Greenberg Center for Student Life, given in honor of former Dean David Rudenstine, opened. This addition to Cardozo included a new student lounge and a cafe on the third floor. Also completed were several new seminar rooms, internal stairways between floors, and windows on every floor. Cardozo is located in the 19 story Brookdale Center. The Innocence Project moved from the 11th floor of Brookdale Center to a new office space. The move allowed the Innocence Project to hire more staff and significantly increase the number of cases it takes. Both the  Fogelman Library and the Cooper Union library serve as Cardozo's secondary libraries when the main library is closed on the Sabbath or on holidays. For J.D. students, Cardozo offers a selection of over 240 courses in addition to the eight courses required during the first year. Students may choose to graduate with a concentration in one, or several, of the following areas: For those who already have a law degree, Cardozo offers LL.M. degrees in General Studies, Comparative Legal Thought, Dispute Resolution and Advocacy, and Intellectual Property. LL.M. students can take almost any of the courses offered to J.D.  students. The LL.M. program may be entered in the Spring Term or in the Fall Term. Course and degree offerings. Cardozo students may study abroad through the following programs: While most Cardozo students begin their legal studies in August, some students are allowed the flexibility to begin in May. May-entry students take their first-year courses over three semesters - summer, fall, and spring - and still graduate from Cardozo in three years. They attend their fall and spring first-year classes with fall-entry students. Publications. Students of the Juris Doctor (JD) program publish several law journals, including: Clinics. Moot  courts. Cardozo offers students the opportunity to participate in the Moot Court Honor Society, a competition-based organization at the school. In addition to participating in approximately six competitions each semester, the organization also hosts the Paulsen Intramural Moot Court Competition, the Monroe Price Media Law Competition, the Cardozo/BMI Moot Court Competition, and the Langfan Oratorical Competition. Employment. According to Cardozo's official 2017 ABA-required disclosures, 87% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD-advantage employment ten months after graduation. Costs. The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition , fees, and living expenses) at Cardozo for the 2017-2018 academic year was $86,670. The Law School Transparency estimated non-discounted, debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $323,858. 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