Cardozo offers a robust criminal law program with classes in Criminal Law, Evidence and Criminal Procedure, as well as the Criminal Defense Clinic, Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice and one of the most comprehensive boot camp programs for trial lawyers--the Intensive Trial Advocacy Program. In addition, the Benedict Morelli Trial team provides students with the opportunity to compete nationally in mock trials and recently hosted the National Trial Competition, one of the largest competitions in the country.
The Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law
The Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo law seeks justice for the unjustly incarcerated. The Freedom Clinic is part of the Perlmutter Center, training students to engage in a broad range of cases including wrongful conviction, resentencing, and clemency petitions, as well as policy issues concerning wrongful convictions, sentencing reform and restorative justice. The Center focuses on the proper use of scientific evidence, and how the misuse of “junk science” contributes to wrongful convictions. In addition the Center seeks justice for those individuals incarcerated with excessive sentences through parole work and clemency requests.
The Criminal Defense Clinic
Students in the Criminal Defense Clinic are selected to engage in field work in Manhattan Criminal Court, representing people charged with misdemeanors from the case's inception through final disposition. A companion seminar offers intensive instruction in criminal law, criminal procedure and evidence. In 2025 the clinic will become the Death Penalty and Criminal Defense Clinic, adding work that seeks justice for individuals facing the death penalty by providing them with high-quality representation.
All 15 Class of 2024 students from Cardozo's Criminal Defense Clinic have accepted full-time positions as public defenders.
The Intensive Trial Advocacy Program (ITAP)
The Intensive Trial Advocacy Program (ITAP) is a cornerstone of Cardozo's practical skills curriculum. In this two-week immersion course held each January, students learn cutting-edge strategies for courtroom litigation under the instruction of leading jurists and lawyers from across the country.
In a "master class" approach to learning, students practice direct and cross-examinations, interview and prepare witnesses, select juries, deal with evidentiary issues and prepare for and present bench and jury trials. The course ends with students conducting a full jury trial.
At every step, students are critiqued by judges and lawyers, including individual reviews of student performances on video. The course is taught in small groups to give students direct feedback on their performance from judges and to allow each student to develop confidence in the various roles of being a trial lawyer.
Prosecutor Practicum
The Prosecutor Practicum is a full-time internship at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, where students spend a semester as student assistant district attorneys. They participate with new ADAs in an orientation program that provides practical training in criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence, and professional responsibility. The practicum is directed by Kavita Bovell, Assistant District Attorney in New York County and Adjunct Professor of law.
Criminal Law Clinics and Field Clinics
- Prosecutor Practicum (Full-time in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office)
- Criminal Appeals Field Clinic
- Criminal Defense Clinic
- Federal Criminal Prosecution Field Clinic—Southern District of New York
- State Criminal Prosecution Field Clinic—Queens County District Attorney
- Perlmutter Forensic Science Freedom Field Clinic
Meet our Criminal Law Faculty
Professor Kyron Huigens
Before joining the Cardozo faculty, Professor Huigens practiced in the Seattle-Tacoma area for 12 years, including five as a prosecutor and three as a criminal defense attorney. His primary scholarly interest is the theory of punishment. He has published articles and essays in Harvard Law Review, California Law Review and Georgetown Law Journal, among others.
Professor Kate Levine
Professor Levine earned her B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard College and her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School. She clerked for the Honorable Robert P. Patterson, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Levine was an Appellate Public Defender at Appellate Advocates. Prior to that, she was an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
Professor Kathryn Miller
Kathryn Miller is an Associate Professor of Law and the Co-Director of the Criminal Defense Clinic. Her scholarship focuses on how criminal investigation, criminal adjudication and post-conviction law implicate the constitutional rights of criminal defendants. She explores how procedural rules designed to further the interests of criminal defendants often disadvantage them and undermine fairness in the system as a whole.
Professor Jonathan Oberman
Professor Oberman is a Clinical Professor of Law and the Co-Director of the Criminal Defense Clinic. Over his twenty years at Cardozo, Oberman has taught Criminal Procedure, Criminal Law, Wrongful Convictions, and Ethics of Criminal Advocacy. In addition he teaches the Defense Clinic Seminar and directs the Criminal Defense Clinic, supervises students in the Criminal Appeals Clinic, and in the past litigated cases with the Innocence Project.
Professor Alexander Reinert
Professor Reinert joined the faculty of Cardozo in 2007, after working as an associate at Koob & Magoolaghan for six years, where he focused on the rights of people confined in prisons and jails, employment discrimination, and disability rights. Reinert teaches and conducts research in the areas of constitutional law, civil procedure, and criminal law. His articles have appeared in the Indiana Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, Stanford Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the University of Virginia Law Review, and William and Mary Law Review, among other journals. Reinert argued before the Supreme Court in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, and has appeared on behalf of parties and amicus curiae in many significant civil rights cases
Professor Jessica Roth
Professor Roth is the co-director of the Jacob Burns Center for Ethics in the Practice of Law. Previously she was a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York for seven years. As a prosecutor, she focused on violent crime and securities fraud and conducted numerous jury trials. Her teaching and research interests are in criminal law and evidence. Her scholarship has appeared in the UCLA Law Review, Washington University Law Review, and American Criminal Law Review, among other publications.
Faculty, Intensive Trial Advocacy Program
Adjunct Professor Gary J. Galperin,
Faculty, Intensive Trial Advocacy Program
Professor Gary Galperin is an Assistant District Attorney in New York County where he has investigated and prosecuted thousands of cases ranging from petty offenses to homicides and enterprise corruption. He has served in several supervisory and executive positions, and currently is Senior Investigative Counsel in the Rackets Bureau, focusing mainly on crimes of terrorism and organized crime. He has consulted and published in the field of forensic psychiatry and psychology.
Professor Emmanuel Hiram Arnaud
Emmanuel Hiram Arnaud is an Assistant Professor of Law. He was previously a Visiting Assistant Professor at Cornell Law School, where he taught Criminal Law and a class called Race, the Constitution and American Empire. His research focuses on the application of federal criminal law and procedure in the territories of the United States, issues of criminal procedure, and race and the law. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Cornell Law Review, Fordham Law Review, and Columbia Law Review Forum, among others.
Professor Kavita Bovell
Kavita Bovell is an Assistant District Attorney in New York County where she has investigated and prosecuted thousands of cases ranging from petty thefts to violent offenses and homicides. She currently serves as the Deputy Bureau Chief of a Trial Bureau and in her more than 20 years at the District Attorney’s Office, she has held several other supervisory positions including as the Attorney in Charge of the Summer Law Student Intern Program, the Coordinator of the Child Advocacy Center and Criminal Court Supervisor. Professor Bovell has also previously served on the Legal Hiring Board. She currently runs the Prosecutor Practicum and Seminar at Cardozo.