The New York State Bar Association, in conjunction with the New York State Unified Court System Office of Court Administration, announced a new pro bono clerkship program that provides lawyers seeking employment with the opportunity to clerk for judges in courts throughout the state, including the Appellate Divisions. The program, developed and spearheaded by the Committee on Lawyers in Transition, will help lawyers develop new skills until they can find permanent employment, while providing vital assistance to a court system burdened with ever-increasing dockets.
Participants work directly in chambers, with the judge and court staff. Attorneys will have the chance to assist in the research and writing of memoranda and decisions. They will interact with court staff, as well as with attorneys and litigants, and participate in court proceedings. Opportunities are available in both trial-level courts and appellate courts. This program is not open to attorneys currently employed in the practice of law, or to furloughed attorneys who plan to return to their law firm.
Types of cases include:
•Appellate
•Commercial
•Criminal
•Family
•Housing
•General Civil
•Matrimonial
•Trusts and Estates
•Torts
Attorneys requesting to work in a judge’s chambers should fill out the application to serve as a Chambers Volunteer Attorney. For questions, email: volunteerattorneys@nycourts.gov, call 212.428.5588, or Fax Chambers Volunteer Attorneys at: 212.428.2190.
For more information, go to http://www.nycourts.gov/attorneys/volunteer/
Read the press release - NYSBA Press Release 09/09/09
For more information about the Committee on Lawyers in Transition, go to www.nysba.org/LawyersinTransition.