This week, the Center for Law and Social Justice at Brooklyn's Medgar Evers College has announced that it will be the recipient of almost $535,000 in funding.
The $534,981 award for the community-based legal organization was secured by New York Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke. The funding is a part of an appropriations package that the House of Representatives had passed, with a total of $17.8 million awarded to multiple institutions throughout Brooklyn.
The funding will go towards CLSJ's launch of a brand new program called the Esmeralda Simmons Pre-Law Program.
The center says that the objective of the pre-law program will be to offer legal services, along with providing mentorship and guidance to students at the Brooklyn college that want to pursue a legal profession.
To accomplish this, CLSJ's pre-law program will work with juniors attending Medgar Evers College. Over the course of a year, the program will teach students about various subjects related to the practice of law. It will also offer numerous training and hands-on experience for students, along with preparing them for law school.
CLSJ says that students in the program will get the chance to participate in workshops, conferences, various speaker series, and other experiences to gain useful academic experience related to law
“CLSJ is honored to receive this incredible award for the Esmeralda Simmons Pre-Law Program,” says Lurie Daniel Favors, Esq, Executive Director, Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College.
“It allows us to pay tribute to the legacy of our pioneering founding director and civil rights attorney Esmeralda Simmons by nurturing our community’s next generation of legal scholars and advocates. This program will set the gold standard for preparing students from our communities for the rigors of law school and the legal profession while employing a racial justice legal framework so that they can work to advance equity and justice in New York and our nation.”
