CUNY Law School at Queens College Opened in 1983, The City University of New York School of Law at Queens College is the only law school which, from inception, has defined its mission as training law students for public service. "Law in the Service of Human Needs" is the Law School's motto and accordingly, its goal is to teach students to be lawyers who will use their skills to serve the public interest. The School has received national recognition for its innovative curriculum, the diversity of its student body and faculty, and for its clinical program, which has been ranked among the top ten in the country for the last six years. The School's program allows its students to fulfill their aspirations for a legal career that will express their commitment to justice, fairness and equality. The curriculum reflects an expansive view of law and lawyers in contemporary society and includes a core of required courses that concentrate on clinical education, professional responsibility, legal theory, and integrating students' doctrinal study with the analysis of legal doctrine. This curriculum combines skills training with a continuous inquiry into professional roles and responsibilities, and it blends a firm grounding in the workings of the adversary system with a critical awareness of the system's limitations and of alternatives, such as mediation. Students admitted to the School are recognized for their cultural, ethnic and economic diversity, their strong academic ability, and their possession of the less tangible qualities that make outstanding lawyers: judgement, initiative, empathy, and the ability to work collaboratively as well as independently. Of the Law School's 1995 graduates, 45 percent went to work as public interest lawyers, in stark contrast to the two percent of the nation's 1995 law graduates who work in public interest jobs. Moreover, many CUNY Law students come from communities currently underserved by the legal profession and upon graduation, many return to practice law with or within those communities.