Thank you
for your interest in the graduate law programs
at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. We
hope that this description will give you
a better sense of the academic programs
the law school offers, the Cardozo faculty,
the kind of students the school attracts,
and the wonderful New York City neighborhood
in which Cardozo is located.
 Cardozo
School of Law is an exciting, challenging,
and vibrant community attracting students
from around the world. Our faculty members
are leaders in their respective fields.
They are as committed to their teaching
as their scholarship, leading to a classroom
experience that combines effective pedagogy
with cutting edge legal issues. Cardozo
offers two types of graduate programs: The
General LL.M. and the LL.M. in Intellectual
Property (IP).
The IP Program is ideal for students who
would like to specialize in intellectual
property issues in their professional careers.
The General Program is best for foreign
and domestic students who want to develop
a specialization in some other field of
law, or for foreign-trained attorneys who
would like to be exposed to a broad-based
introduction to US law and legal methodologies.
Both programs provide courses that introduce
foreign-trained students to legal research
and writing and the basics of US law and
legal systems. In recognition of the differing
needs of graduate students, Cardozo allows
its LL.M. students to enroll on a part-time
or a full-time basis, and to begin their
studies in either the fall or spring semester.
Cardozo Law School is committed to helping
each LL.M. student develop a program of
study that meets his or her professional
and academic objectives, and provides a
great deal of individualized attention to
each student. In addition, we offer more
informal programs that foster a general
atmosphere of collegiality and shared learning
that we hope will lead to a lifetime of
personal friendships and professional contacts.
 General
LL.M. Program
Cardozo's General LL.M. Program is distinctive
for its flexibility. Students design their
own curriculum in keeping with their specific
goals and interests. The Director of Graduate
and International Programs works closely
with each student to develop a program of
study that makes sense for that particular
student.
Students enrolled in the General LL.M.
Program take most of their courses with
students from the overall law school population,
making it possible to share ideas with a
wide range of students from the US and around
the world.
Intellectual Property Law LL.M. Program
Cardozo has one of the strongest intellectual
property programs in the United States. The
intellectual property faculty boasts a prestigious
and dedicated group of professors known worldwide
for their expertise and scholarship. This
core group is supplemented by a group of accomplished
First Amendment scholars, and adjunct professors
whose practice places them on the front lines
of cutting-edge issues in the IP field.
The
intellectual property curriculum includes
basic and advanced offerings in each of
the three major IP areas: copyright, trademark,
and patent. Students take the basic course
in at least two of these areas, supplemented
by other, more advanced courses in the IP
and related areas such as entertainment,
media, and communications law
All
students complete a paper either in connection
with their IP-related course work or through
independent research, under the supervision
of a member of the faculty.
A
limited number of externships in the area
of intellectual property are available to
qualified LL.M. students. This program allows
students to be placed in part-time, non-paying
positions at law firms, corporations, or
not-for-profit organizations working on
copyright, patent, or trademark issues.
In
addition to extensive classroom offerings,
the Law School publishes the most widely
circulated journal in the field, the Cardozo
Arts and Entertainment Law Journal (AELJ);
has two separate active student Organizations
-- the Intellectual Property Society and
the Entertainment Law Society; and hosts
the annual Cardozo/BMI Entertainment and
Communications Law Moot Court Competition.
Several times a year, the AELJ or the student
organizations present lectures, panels,
or all-day symposia. These offerings, in
conjunction with Cardozo's location in the
country's publishing, art, and entertainment
capital, draw a student body with tremendous
interest and often extensive legal or non-legal
experience in the area.
The International Community at Cardozo
Law School
Cardozo's graduate community is a tightly
knit one, in which incoming students interact
with other LL.M. students. An LL.M. newsletter
is published on a regular basis, keeping current
students, prospective students, and alumni
informed of ongoing activities.
The LLM students also get together on an informal
basis for events of interest to them. This
includes the weekly "LLM Roundtable"
as well as events featuring the food, music,
and culture of a particular country or region
represented in the graduate class. Cardozo's
graduate students also write for The Cardozo
Insider, the student newspaper. In addition,
graduate students participate in the LLM
Law Society and have their own representative
to the Student Bar Association.
Cardozo
is located in the vibrant and culturally
diverse New York City neighborhood of Greenwich
Village, which makes for a comfortable and
welcoming neighborhood for its students.
The fact that New York City is also the
home to many multi-national corporations,
prestigious law firms, excellent academic
institutions and libraries, and some of
the world's best restaurants, night life,
theater and art, means that Cardozo students
have the world's greatest city at their
fingertips. |
