Founded in 1983, CUNY School of Law is the premier public interest law school in the country. In keeping with its motto “Law in the Service of Human Needs,” CUNY Law trains lawyers to serve the underprivileged and disempowered, and to make a difference in their communities. Consistently ranked among the top 10 law schools in the country in clinical training, CUNY Law has also been ranked the #1 public interest law school in the nation by PreLaw magazine. CUNY Law’s pioneering method of integrating a lawyering curriculum with traditional doctrinal study has become a model for other law schools. Its basic premise is that theory cannot be separated from practice, abstract knowledge of doctrine from practical skill, and understanding professional responsibility from professional experience. For its approach to legal education, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching cited CUNY Law as one of the few law schools to prepare students for practice through instruction in theory, skills, and ethics. CUNY Law, which is also known for its access mission and its substantive efforts to diversify the legal profession, has unusually diverse faculty and student bodies. CUNY sends a greater percentage of its students into public interest and public service law practice than any other law school in the country.