With the economy pushing poor and middle-income families into crisis, the presiding justices of the Appellate Division, First and Second departments, have signed precedent-setting practice orders allowing law graduates awaiting admission to the bar to assist tenants facing eviction.
The orders authorize “a brand new collaboration” between law schools and the courts that is “the first of its kind in the nation,” Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman said Friday in introducing a six-month pilot project that will have 11 City University of New York School of Law graduates working in Manhattan and Brooklyn Housing Court under the supervision of court staff.
