"Tenants Advocacy Fellowship - Cornell Law School"

Tenants Advocacy Fellowship - Cornell Law School

Founded in 1887, Cornell Law School is a top-tier law school. We offer a 3-year JD program for about 200 students per class, a one-year LLM program for about 90 students from countries throughout the world, and a doctoral (JSD) program for about 2-3 new students per year. Cornell Law School has 41 tenured and tenure-track faculty, including 20 with chaired faculty positions; and 15 clinical professors in the legal research and writing program and in clinics at the local, national, and international level. Our faculty is consistently ranked among the top in the country for scholarly productivity and influence, and has pre-eminence in many areas, including quantitative and qualitative empirical legal studies, international and comparative law, and robust doctrinal scholarship in core fields. Our school is committed to being recognized as the leader among law schools at combining inspiring theoretical, doctrinal, and experiential teaching with cutting-edge scholarship in a supportive, intellectually rich community, so that our graduates can achieve excellence in all facets of the legal profession.

The Tenants Advocacy Fellowship was established in 2021 and is currently funded by a subcontract with Legal Assistance of Western New York. The Fellowship provides funding for a recent graduate of an ABA-accredited law school who shows exceptional commitment to the field of public interest law and, if applicable, a dedication to housing justice. The Fellowship is designed to provide an opportunity for one law graduate or admitted attorney to gain substantive experience in housing and racial justice through direct legal services that will improve the lives of low-income tenants facing eviction, homelessness, or displacement.

The Tenants Advocacy Fellow will:

• Work independently to accept cases and focus on developing an expanded reach for the Tenants Advocacy Program's Hotline, across Allegany, Chemung, Monroe, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga, and Tompkins counties, with a special focus on tenants at or below the poverty line, and tenants unable to be served by Legal Assistance of Western New York (including people in the U.S. without status).
• Conduct affirmative outreach to service providers across these counties, in partnership with the Program Director and Supervising Attorney, to build the Hotline and expand the scope of
• Provide expanded representation to clients, including negotiation, drafting letters, and representation in eviction court.
• Supervise pro bono students working with the Hotline and work closely with the Program Director and Supervising Attorney to expand the number of cases the Hotline accepts. Work closely with pro bono student volunteers on their cases.
• As appropriate, work with students from the Tenants Advocacy Practicum on active matters, helping these students become familiar with legal issues related to housing justice in upstate New York and to otherwise aid in their professional development.

The Fellow will work collaboratively with the Program Director, Supervising Attorney, and the Tenants Advocacy Practicum students, although they will not have any formal teaching responsibilities. This position is ideal for a candidate who is eager to use their prior litigation and housing advocacy backgrounds to help prevent eviction and displacement in the upstate New York. It calls for someone entrepreneurial who is willing to help shape a new model for the delivery of the Practicum and the Hotline's important services.

This grant-funded appointment is for a one-year term and is benefits eligible. The selected candidate may choose to work a hybrid schedule, with part of the work taking place remotely (pending university approval if working outside New York State) and part of the work taking place in person. The selected candidate must be available and willing to travel to any and all required court appearances.

Please note that the New York Convenience of employer guidelines require New York State individual tax reporting and withholdings for this position. Additional individual state income tax filings may also be required if working outside New York State.

Minimum Qualifications

Applicants may be attorneys or recent graduates from an ABA accredited law school. The applicant must either be a licensed attorney or plan to sit for the July 2026 New York State bar exam.

Preferred Qualifications

Preference will be given to applicants with demonstrated or stated commitment to public-interest law generally, and specifically to tenants' rights and housing justice; professional, volunteer and/or subject matter expertise in substantive housing law in New York State; and experience supervising or mentoring students.

To Apply

1) Application Cover Sheet: This page must include the following:
i. Your full name
ii. Your law school
iii. Your year of graduation from law school
iv. Your current mailing address
v. Your phone number
vi. Your email address
vii. Your Date of NYS Bar Admission (if applicable)

2) CV

3) Statement of Interest: Please submit a statement of interest for this one-year fellowship. The statement should include the following:
i. A description of the applicant's specific commitment to public service and how the applicant came to focus on the area of Veterans benefits and/or housing justice; the applicant's past experiences and work activity in the public interest broadly construed; the applicant's aspirations for future public interest work (with a focus on serving Veterans as appropriate) and the ways in which the Fellowship will help to achieve those goals.

4) Writing Sample: Please submit a writing sample of no more than 10 pages. The applicant should submit a writing sample that indicates a comfort with legal writing and analysis, as opposed to a journal article that would potentially be more focused on sociological, theoretical, economic, etc.

5) Two recommendation letters from people familiar with your work.

To ensure maximum consideration, please submit all application materials by February 28, 2026. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with priority given to early applicants.

The expected starting salary for this fellowship is $73,000.

Pay Range:
$62,232.00 - $88,745.00