Access to Justice Program
The Law School has adopted an aspirational goal for students of 60 hours of pro bono work during their three years of law school (20 hours per year). The school has adopted the ABA definition of pro bono, which includes law-related services without compensation of either financial or academic credit. New York requires that students complete 50 hours of pro bono before being admitted, and New York’s definition of pro bono is somewhat narrower, excluding, for instance Voluntary Tax Preparation (VITA).
The Access to Justice Program (AJP) promotes a pro bono culture at the Law School by providing administrative support to pro bono organizations, forging ongoing relationships with community partners, and connecting students with opportunities relevant to their interests. We conduct trainings to provide students with the foundational skills required by pro bono work. We manage a forum for students to report and track their pro bono hours. We assist pro bono organizations in involving students and publicizing their activities. We recognize students for their outstanding pro bono achievements and create aspirational goals for students to meet for graduation recognition. Finally, we invest in new opportunities and events to diversify the Law School's pro bono offerings, to enrich pro bono representation in the intellectual life of the school, and to broaden the impact of students' pro bono work. The current graduating class of 2025 and next year's graduating class of 2026 must report their cumulative pro bono hours, from the date you started at Maurer to April 1, 2025. Hours must be submitted before April 1, 2025, at 11:59PM ET.
Hours reported by the class of 2025 will be recognized at the graduation party on May 10th. The member of the class of 2026 with the most hours will be eligible to receive a Kaplan bar prep course. Although students will be self-reporting their cumulative hours onto the Qualtrics, the AJP Fellows will be using TickSpot to audit the amounts.