Questions About Externships?
The following is a list of frequently asked questions about law externships that addresses placement opportunities, eligibility criteria, credit requirements, and application procedures for students.
The following is a list of frequently asked questions about law externships that addresses placement opportunities, eligibility criteria, credit requirements, and application procedures for students.
An externship is a course in which a student works in a legal placement outside the law school for academic credit. An internship may be a paid or unpaid position with a legal employer in which there is no academic credit awarded to the student.
The law school recognizes its obligation to train its graduates to be fully prepared to practice law. Externships provide students with the practice needed to represent clients with confidence after graduation. Externships provide an opportunity to develop lawyering skills through participation in activities such as legal research and writing, courtroom observation, client interviewing and counseling, factual investigation, development and implementation of case theory and strategy, negotiation, mediation, litigation skills, and other forms of advocacy.
Each semester, the School of Law posts a list of participating externship sites on the clinical programs webpage and Symplicity. Additionally, Externship Information Sessions, held once a semester, provide students with an overview of the externship program, a list of participating sites, and guidelines for the application and enrollment process.
A student must successfully complete 28 hours of law studies before participating in the Externship Program.
Selecting an externship site is an important process. If you have questions about what externship placements would best fit your career and academic goals, please feel free to contact the Career Services Office, Externship Director Laila Atta, Experiential Learning Director Lauren Carasik, or Clinic Programs Administrator Marie Fletcher. There are also student placement surveys available on Symplicity.
Students apply for externships through Symplicity, the Law School’s online recruitment system. Application materials are forwarded to Externship Site Supervisors after the deadline date. Externship sites will contact students they wish to interview directly. After reviewing application materials and holding interviews, externship sites extend offers directly to students.
Although we ask externship sites to make externship selections before students leave campus for vacation, some placements may not always be able to meet our deadlines due to pressing business or personnel changes. Please be patient, but let the Clinical Programs Administrator know if you are still waiting to hear. We will be glad to follow up with the offices to check on the status of your application.
Upon acceptance of an offer of an externship, candidates must immediately withdraw from previously scheduled interviews with all other externship sites. Once you have accepted a placement offer, you are obligated to honor that commitment. You may not rescind an acceptance in the absence of exceptional circumstances. Candidates should consider the acceptance of an offer a binding obligation. Students must also notify the Clinical Programs Administrator as soon as they have accepted a placement and indicate if they are taking the faculty-supervised externship or the externship with concurrent seminar.
Under both options, students are required to work 12 hours per week during the semester. The seminar option includes a seminar class, and the faculty-supervised option includes regular meetings with your faculty advisor. Because students are awarded academic credit for their work, externships are intended to provide more than just a typical work experience. The ABA has promulgated standards applicable to externships. Standard 305 specifically requires that “A field placement program shall include: . . . (7) opportunities for student reflection on their field placement experience, through a seminar, regularly scheduled tutorials, or other means of guided reflection.” To satisfy that requirement, students taking the faculty-supervised externship are required to meet with their faculty supervisor at least every other week, complete a conflicts form and a learning agenda, and submit weekly journals and timesheets. Students taking the seminar option are awarded additional credit for their participation in a seminar designed to enrich the externship experience. The class is structured to provide an opportunity for students to reflect on their experiences, especially in the areas of professionalism and ethics, practice lawyering skills, and gain additional insight and exposure to the broader legal system in their area of practice. Course requirements include individual meetings with the seminar professor, completing a conflicts form and a learning agenda, submitting weekly journals and time sheets, posting comments to a forum in response to guest speakers and assigned readings, and submitting a research and writing assignment. The externship seminar is only offered during the fall and spring semesters.
First, notify the Clinical Programs Administrator of your placement.
To enroll for the Externship Seminar, complete the Externship Seminar enrollment form found on the Registrar Forms webpage.
To enroll for a Faculty Supervised Externship, secure a faculty advisor, and complete the Faculty Supervised Externship Enrollment form found on the Registrar Forms webpage.
The Externship Director supervises students in Faculty Supervised Externships.
Externship students consistently comment that their externship placement was the most valuable experience obtained in law school. Here are a few quotes:
“You cannot learn from a textbook what the externship will teach you.”
“This was easily one of the most rewarding experiences that I had in law school, and I highly recommend it to anyone, no matter what type of law they want to practice.”
"I loved this experience. It was great to be able to get out of the classroom and have real-life experience in a field of law that I was interested in and now see a future in."
“I can’t say enough about my externship. It was by far the best experience I had in law school.”
No, externships are elective and not required for graduation. However, externship credits count toward the six experiential learning credits required for graduation.
Externships are graded Pass/Fail.
The grade for the seminar externship is based upon:
The grade for the faculty supervised externship is based upon:
During the fall and spring semesters students are required to work 12 hours a week starting with the first week of classes for a total of 156 hours for the semester.
Once you know your class schedule, you may arrange your work schedule directly with the placement. We recommend that you consult with your supervising attorney as to the days/times that it is most advantageous to work. (e.g., when trials, hearings, meetings, conferences, etc. are likely to take place.) It is ideal if you have one or two days each week with no classes or at least a period of 4 or 5 hours free a couple of days each week.
Because externship employers rely on commitments made by students, once a student affirmatively accepts an externship, the student is committed to participate in that externship. Students may not withdraw except under extraordinary circumstances that must be approved by the Externship Director.
Due to the time commitment required by both clinics and externships, students may not take a clinic and externship in the same semester.
During law school, students may take three externships. Subsequent placements must be substantially different from each other. Due to the time commitment required at the externship placement, students may not participate in more than one externship a semester.
No, the law school prohibits students from receiving compensation and academic credit for an externship field placement.
No, this is not permitted. The time commitment required at the externship placement coupled with schoolwork makes this simply impossible.
Students may secure their own judicial, public interest, or private sector externship placement. However, students seeking approval to add a new externship site must obtain preliminary approval prior to submitting formal site approval paperwork. Students seeking approval for a student-secured externship must provide information that demonstrates a good reason why they cannot obtain a similar experience at one of the approved sites, including expanding geographic, practice, or substantive areas. Sufficient lead time (a minimum of 3 weeks prior to the start of the semester) must be given to complete the site approval process once preliminary approval is granted. The site approval process will include a consultation with the proposed supervisor, an assessment of the substance of the proposed work, and a written agreement with the supervisor regarding the expectations and requirements for on-site supervision and mentoring.
Some externship placements provide an opportunity for students to represent clients in court. Under certain circumstances, Rule 3:03 of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court allows students in their last year and their next-to-last year (or if a part-time student, if you have completed 56 credits) to represent certain clients in Massachusetts courts without compensation, under the supervision of a qualified member of the Massachusetts Bar, subject to other conditions set out more fully in Rule 3:03. Students must be approved again in their third year even if they have had 3:03 certification during their second year of law school. Students eligible to practice under Rule 3:03 should contact the Clinical Programs Administrator to complete the certification paperwork.
Students may extern with the same supervisor or at the same site at which the student has been placed as an extern or clinic student, had an employment relationship, or has worked as a volunteer, only if the placement will provide a qualitatively different or broader learning experience than the student has had as a volunteer, employee, or extern. Students wishing to enroll in such a placement must submit a written confirmation from the attorney supervisor describing the prior work and how the new responsibilities will be qualitatively different. This information should be sent to the Clinical Programs Administrator to coordinate approval at least two weeks prior to the start of the semester.
Externs may not be supervised by a family member or a close friend. Students who wish to extern in an office where a family member or close friend works must obtain the permission of the Externship Director.
Externs cannot hold legal employment while participating in a judicial externship. An extern can hold a non-legal job, but cannot work for a law firm or do any paid or unpaid work that in any way involves the law.