Disability Rights Clinic Successfully Petitions NYS Human Rights Division for Student Attorney Representation
In the course of litigating an employment discrimination case under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Disability Rights Clinic (DRC), which provides second-year and third-year law students with hands-on experience in the practice of law, learned that the New York State Division of Human Rights (NYS DHR) did not allow student attorneys to appear before the DHR's Administrative Law Judges (ALJ). The Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court issues an annual order allowing the DRC's student attorneys to practice law under the supervision of the faculty director of a law school clinic like the DRC. Pursuant to this order, the DRC's student attorneys represent clients in judicial and administrative proceedings, and the NYS DHR's position disallowing the DRC's student attorneys from appearing before its ALJs made no sense. The DRC lobbied the NYS DHR to change its position, and it was ultimately successful in obtaining this relief. Now DRC student attorneys can appear before the NYS DHR's ALJs on behalf of people with disabilities.
