Taking a closer look at New York Law School’s Center for New York City and State Law

New York Law School has launched The Center for New York City and State Law,  billed as a “one-of-its-kind civic engagement hub” that focuses on the complex intergovernmental dynamics between the state and city government. 

Previously named The Center for New York City Law, the new center will be expanding programming and continue to educate and spark conversations around government policies.  Founded in 1994 by Professor Ross Sandler, the center’s goal was to host government-related continuing legal education and award ceremonies for those in public service and events. 

New York Nonprofit Media spoke to New York Law School Dean Anthony Anthony W. Crowell and Executive Editor Ben Max about the center’s changes, new goals and hopes for making an impact.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Tell me about the new Center for New York City and State Law and its goals.

Crowell: The Center for New York City and State Law was initially founded as the Center for New York City Law in 1994, so it has 30 years of history. In the spirit of being a civic hub, we have had many programs that feature key officials and thought leaders in the civic sphere, but we've also been a leader in developing publications that give key perspectives on the inner workings of municipal government and how the city's land use processes and development overall in the city take shape and ensuring that there's an effective mechanism for the public to see administrative decisions by city agencies that affect how the rules and regulations of the city are interpreted and ultimately applied to any number of activities that are part of the regulated environment.

One of the things that I think has been critically important is serving as an objective and thoughtful resource to provide the public with government-related information and key perspectives and insights on the work of government that affects everyday New Yorkers, and also how government itself will operate in the future, and how different sectors will be effective or need to respond to changes in government policy. And so we have seen over time that, and we understood since our inception, that New York City is a creature of state government. We are a municipal, corporate instrumentality of the state. We operate under a Home Rule authority that is provided by the state constitution. And so much of how New York City operates on a day-to-day basis is influenced by what the state permits, and also by influences that are affecting how state policies influence affects city operations. Congestion pricing is a perfect example. And so we think it's really critical for us to not only have those key discussions about municipal operations, but also be more in-depth about how the state operations function, how state policy-making works, and how the policies and operations of state government will influence the outcomes at the municipal level. 

Max: Very sort of concretely and practically, we're talking about a few things that we will either be enhancing or starting anew, and that includes some of the ways that we provide thoughtful written material to the public and to the most interested in civic affairs, and try to draw new people into being interested in those affairs. That includes reporting, analysis and commentary on key issues facing New York City and New York State. We also will continue to offer many events at the law school. Still, we're growing that roster of offerings, both in terms of putting on more events for the civic minded public.

Also, as we expand some of this content focus, we'll be making sure that some of the events we offer fit those themes even more closely so that we can have a more in-depth dialogue as a civic hub about how state policy making, law and government influence what happens in New York City in such an important way, and how the two levels of government can act. We will be doing extensive work on elections and redistricting issues. There's a lot of analysis and opportunity for us to help the public understand the various processes, certainly when it comes to the state budget and the city budget, understanding how each of them works, and how there's an interplay between the two, and understanding broadly the governance structures and what governance and state government looks like. We have a set of opportunities before us that put together a very large group of experts on New York City and state government who are able to do this analysis, and translate very complex processes and systems for not only lawyers but everyday New Yorkers to understand, appreciate and to make key decisions as voters and to make key decisions as public citizens in terms of how we go forward as one city and one state,

What do you hope the impact will be on the student population and the constituency because of these changes?

Crowell: We want the students involved in the work of the center. We want their voices heard through the work of the center and what's expressed in our written analyses, in the panels we hold, and in the reports that we will issue, and we also want to ensure that we're providing students an opportunity to take their interest in government and being civic participants and help them build leadership abilities and skills. We want to ensure that all of our students, regardless of what their ultimate practice area will be, develop as not only lawyers but as leaders, we think that the Center for New York City and State Law provides an extraordinary platform and lens through which to develop leadership skills for the students and also to propel them into careers where their knowledge and leadership that developed here can be used. In regards to our students, we want to build the next generation of public servants, the next generation of civic leaders. That's an essential obligation and point for us undertaking this work, and we certainly want to provide that for our alumni and also the public sector attorneys who rely on us for key information and programming to support their professional development.

So professional development is an essential part of it, and also giving resources to professionals so they can use those resources and how they carry out their duties in government or the private sector or in the nonprofit sector as it advances public goals.

Max: What we're doing here is about sort of a continuum of conversations and efforts at both education that's not just for the students but for the general public, but also about being constructive, about helping to both improve understanding of what happens in government and public policy and law, and also helping to improve what happens in New York state and city public affairs, and so being a place that's a hub for a lot of dialogue about what is happening, what could happen, what should happen, and really helping people sort of get under the hood of how government and public policy and law is made in New York, and talking about solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing our state and our city is a lot of what we already do and will continue to do, both through written publication and through events and other forms.

One of the things that I brought to the law school is the podcast I've been hosting for a long time, and we have in depth public policy conversations on that show. It’s a sort of a continuum of programs and conversations, but so much of it with an eye on both educating people and also being a constructive voice around helping to improve government. Whether it's Dean Crowell or so many other people at the law school, there's an incredible amount of expertise and experience from the government that is at New York Law School, and so we're activating a lot of that in our center as well, through a whole number of people who are bringing their expertise to these conversations.

How will you maintain the accessibility of the center?

Crowell: We view New York Law School as an institution, as New York City's Community Center, and particularly the community center for those in in downtown, in this in the civic center area. And so with that as a community center, we reach far beyond just our student population, but we are benefited by inviting outsiders in to work with our faculty and students to make a very rich community and a rich set of dialogue.

Max: The events that the Center holds, for the most part, if you come to one of our public events, there are more people who are not directly sort of part of the New York Law School community who attend many of these events than there are people who are current students or faculty or staff at the law school who come to those events. But we're already doing that, and we're going to do more of that through offering a diverse array of events. For example, we host and have for a very long time, Professor Ross Sandler's city law breakfast. And those draw 100 to 200 people each breakfast that we hold with guest speakers, most of those people are coming from the broader public and the civic minded public, through our mailing lists and through having attended events over the decades, and then we have other types of programs where people are coming from all over the city to attend. We're going to continue to do it by diversifying some of the types of events we hold by making sure that we're bringing in a wide variety of guest speakers to participate in the events and continuing to partner with others as well.

Do you feel the dynamics between city and state have shifted since the founding of the center, and how do you hope the center will capture the changing dynamics of government?

Crowell: The political dynamics of both the city and the state have shifted dramatically over these three decades, and I think that those dynamics are ever-changing. It's a much different style of governing than we’ve seen historically, and that necessarily will shape how laws are used to effectuate change and how different elected officials and commissioners will use law to shape policy decisions that have on the ground impacts. It's extraordinarily critical that we appreciate the interplay between state and local law, and that change at the local level, by the way, can be forged by state legislative change, and also to understand what autonomy the city has to make its own changes within its boundaries. All that is important, and I think citizens need evermore to understand how lawmaking, particularly in a state like New York, takes place in a number of different ways, and where you feel at ground level and on your sidewalks and in your neighborhood can be a product of a state legislative decision or a state agency decision, as much as it can be by the city council or a local agency. So there are a lot of different interplays that I think people can better understand, particularly as political dynamics in the city and state change.

Max: There's a big history of push and pull between the state and the city, and New York City is such an important engine of prosperity and growth in New York State, but the dynamics of the way the law and power works in New York, where you have state government with just a great deal of say over what happens in New York City, and a sort of constant tug of war about which level of government might have control over certain areas of policy making. But you could really go down the list of issues and what's decided at the state level, versus where often city lawmakers or the mayor of New York City wants more power over what happens in New York City. So that's always a push and pull, and there's different areas of focus at different times, depending on who's in office or what crises are apparent. As we've seen various challenges over the years, we've seen more and more discussion over how the two roles of government interact and where some of the policy making power resides.

What else would you like to uplift about the center?

Crowell: The center is a living thing. What I mean by that is it will be nimble, and it will respond to the dynamic changes that are afoot in government at all levels, local, state, and, of course, federally, how it impacts the city and in society, and we want to make sure that the important role that we play allows people to have information that's really critical about how things are changing. We will adapt and offer those critical perspectives in real time as things do shift, so we will have our core commitments in our programs, but also a commitment to the public that they can turn to us for reliable information and perspective as any number of circumstances on the ground may change, because politics is always changing, laws are changing, the need for reform and progress are ever present in a place like New York.