Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Some words about Street Law, NY
In the month of July 2023, myself and three other students travelled to New York City on the Street Law programme. After arriving at JFK airport, we managed to haul our suitcases through the streets and navigate our way to the apartment via the subway. Our apartment was situated in Harlem just north of Central Park- an area rich with culture and an easy commute to both the Bronx and the tourist hot spots. The views of the city were breath-taking, and we spent the first few days settling in and exploring.
We then attended training at New York Law School with other NYLS university students and prepared to deliver lessons to high school aged children in the Bronx. These lessons were centred around important legal topics, such as book banning, voter ID rights, gun laws and the rule of law. We taught the lessons 9am-12pm Monday – Thursday and were free to explore the city once we had finished.
I found it incredibly rewarding to teach these lessons in the Bronx, as we were equipping young people with fundamental legal knowledge that will help them throughout their lives. Some of the students even said that they would like to become lawyers in the future, and this was touching to hear! I found the trip to be very inspiring and it made me excited about my own legal career and the difference that I could make to the lives of others.
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to live in New York for a month. I gained so many skills from the Street Law programme, made some great friends and loved giving students in the Bronx important legal literacy. These things together made it the trip of a lifetime.
Kitty Lambert
LLM Legal Practice (LPC)
Some fun things / free time highlights included:
- Trip to Staten Island and to see Statue of Liberty
- Trip to Coney Island
- Supreme Court visit
- UN building visit
- 9/11 memorial visit
- Summit One Vanderbilt building
- Shopping in Times Square
- Central Park (ate a lot of bagels!)
- Walk over Brooklyn Bridge
- Yankees v NY Mets baseball game
I'm thrilled we were able to incorporate a law student exchange into this year's Street Law, Inc. summer program. New York Law School students have been teaching the Summer Law Program at The Charter High School for Law and Social Justice in the Bronx, New York for eight years. Law students facilitate interactive lessons examining criminal law, the constitution, and juvenile justice. NYLS law student Suzanna Neal was thrilled to travel to Leeds in March to work with the Leeds Beckett Street Law program and meet some candidates for the exchange. This summer we were joined by four incredibly dedicated law students from Leeds Beckett. The students were an amazing addition to the program exposing the high school students to different ideas and perspectives. It was a very successful exchange and I hope to be able to incorporate the program again this year.
Bernard Armoo, LBU alumni, and the team from Leeds Law School
The Street Law Programme, NYC
As part of the street law programme, we were given the amazing opportunity to travel to New York and deliver sessions for soon to be high school students. The sessions involved the students thinking critically about the role the law plays in their daily lives and engaging in debates about the morality of certain laws. The students (as well as I) learnt about the US constitution with the support and teaching of New York law students. The school students made new friends and grew in confidence as the weeks progressed, culminating in a mock trial on the final day for which every single student contributed.
The New York Law school were extremely helpful and supportive throughout, and we had fantastic daily support from Suzanna Neal. (They were also able to give us some excellent food recommendations!)
Alongside teaching, the trip gave us the opportunity to visit the offices of Schulte Roth & Zabel and to meet and have workshops with former Leeds Beckett student and NY partner, Bernard Armoo. We also visited the United Nations Headquarters and went on tours of the museum of natural history, New York public library, and many more places.
As well as the educational trips we saw all of the amazing sights of New York and even attended a classic American baseball game.
Alex Hornby
LLB (Hons) Law
I accompanied our students to New York for the first week before their Street Law programme commenced. I attended a day of training at New York school with the students where they were partnered with American students in developing lesson plans for delivery on the Street Law programme. Our students made an excellent impression and were a credit to Leeds Beckett University. We also undertook a few law related tours – a visit to the 9/11 museum, a tour of the United Nations Headquarters and a Harlem Civil Rights tour.
They quickly adjusted and embraced New York life. Even within the first week it was noticeable how the students’ independence, self-reliance and confidence grew. Whilst they were very appreciative of the opportunity presented to them in undertaking this programme in New York, there was a noticeable change in their mindsets – greater appreciation of their own qualities and abilities and a widening of their horizons in terms of the possibilities available to them in terms of their future careers – helped by meeting a former Leeds Beckett student who was now a partner in a New York city firm!
