Peter L. Zimroth Center on the Administration of Criminal Law: Student Fellowships 2024-2025
The Center’s mission is to promote good government practices in criminal matters at all levels of government. In recent years, the Center has focused on (i) the exercise of prosecutorial power and discretion, and (ii) researching and advocating for expanding resentencing mechanisms at the federal, state, and local levels, including federal and state clemency and discretionary resentencing processes. The Center pursues this mission through a mix of academic and public policy research. The academic and public policy components include producing reports and white papers on reforming the criminal legal system as well as hosting symposia and conferences to address significant topics in criminal law and procedure and enhance the public dialogue on criminal legal matters.
Student Fellowships
The Center seeks to hire five law students for the 2024-2025 academic year. Student Fellows are paid a stipend for their work with the Center and will be involved in all aspects of the Center, which could include: conducting research into various criminal legal topics to be included in white papers and policy reports; contributing to the Center’s sharing of expertise and research with research partners and other advocacy organizations; assisting with the Center’s annual conference, which includes prominent academic scholars and practitioners; and assisting with the annual Kenneth P. Thompson Lecture on Race and Criminal Justice Reform, which is co-hosted with the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law. Fellows may also be involved in the Center’s long-term planning and the initiation of future, multi-year research projects.
As an example, Student Fellows have assisted with the following:
- Planning and organizing symposia focused on (i) prosecutorial misconduct and wrongful convictions that occurred in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office; and (ii) restorative justice programming in state and federal court, in conjunction with the federal judiciary;
- Participating in joint research with The Center for Just Journalism, a non-profit organization that promotes journalistic practices that enhance public safety and combats media inaccuracies and biases, including conducting research and drafting issue briefs on media reporting on (i) carjackings and (ii) staffing shortages at jails and correctional facilities;
- Participating in joint research with Zimroth Research Scholar Oded Oren, founder of Scrutinize, an organization dedicated to using data to hold state judicial actors accountable in the criminal legal system;
- Conducting research in conjunction with gun violence prevention groups and criminologists to file public comments with the United States Sentencing Commission regarding proposed amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines; and
- Conducting research on New York’s bail reform laws to contribute to a policy paper about New York City judges and their detention rates at arraignment.
Endowed Fellowships: The Stillman and Newman Fellows
In the 2024-25 academic year, the Center seeks to hire two law students to serve as the Charles Stillman Fellow and Gus Newman Fellow, respectively. The Stillman and Newman Student Fellows are selected based on their commitment to a career in public defense and/or criminal defense work; they engage in all the same work as the Center’s Student Fellows but do so with the generous support of Charles Stillman and the family of Gus Newman.
Application Instructions
Interested students should email Courtney M. Oliva (courtney.oliva@nyu.edu) the following by April 1, 2024, with the following:
- A cover letter and resume explaining why you would like to become a Student Fellow of the Center and your interest in criminal law and criminal legal system reform;
- An unofficial law school transcript; and
- A list of two references who can speak to your qualifications.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. Interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis and selections will be made by early May 2024.
NYU School of Law seeks to recruit and retain a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or protected veteran status. To learn more about the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law, visit https://www.law.nyu.edu/centers/adminofcriminallaw.