For Students Interested in Pursuing Criminal Prosecution Work
Courses
NYU offers students many different opportunities to pursue an interest in criminal justice. Courses that are essential for those who wish to become prosecutors include evidence, criminal procedure, and trial advocacy. Indeed, many local prosecutor offices would like students to take evidence and criminal procedure in their 2L year so that they can appear in court under certain practice orders during their 2L internships. Depending on your substantive areas of interest, you may also choose to take classes in human rights, antitrust, white collar crime, international law and tax. A complete listing of courses related to criminal law and administration may be found here.
Prosecution-Related Clinics
For students who are especially interested in prosecution work, we suggest students consider the below clinics and any other clinic that allows students to in the criminal justice system including the criminal defense clinics:
Government Anti-Corruption Externship
In the Government Anti-Corruption Externship, students help anti-corruption authorities identify and combat corruption in federal, state, and local government, both in the US and internationally. Supervised by attorneys in the field, students may work on investigations, criminal cases, regulation of elections, or civil cases, among a variety of other areas in the public integrity field.
Local Prosecution Externship
In the Local Prosecution Externship, students are assigned to an Assistant District Attorney (ADA) in the Manhattan or Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. The student will assist the assigned ADAin the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases. Each student will be exposed to the stages of a criminal prosecution, with particular emphasis on the evaluation, preparation and use of witnesses at both the investigative and prosecutorial stages.
Criminal Division Externships in the USAOS for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York
The Law School also offers clinics every semester with the Criminal Divisions of the USAOs for the Southern District of New York and Eastern District of New York, but because those offices do not hire 3Ls and typically look for at least 3 years of experience and, often for even more experience, we recommend these clinics to to 2Ls who are likely not going to a local prosecutor’s office immediately following graduation or to 3Ls who might wish to pursue work in federal prosecutor offices later in their careers.