Externship Programs

LEGAL EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Prof. Vivien C. Gross

Chicago-Kent’s Legal Externship Program is a 4-credit hour, non-graded program which is open to second and third year students and enables a student to receive academic credit, not pay, for working 16 hours a week in an approved legal placement under the supervision of a designated attorney. The program is unique in that students gain practical experience and develop their legal skills in either civil or criminal law while at the same time making themselves more marketable to prospective employers.

Legal Externship consists primarily of a fieldwork experience under a supervising lawyer approved by the law school, supplemented by individual and group meetings throughout the semester.

3Ls are eligible for a 711 license, which enables them under certain circumstances to appear in court.

Students must meet with Prof. Vivien Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu) to apply. Externships are available for Fall, Spring and Summer semesters.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY LAW EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Prof. Dan Tarlock

The Environmental and Energy Law Externship Program provides students in the Environmental Law Certificate Program with the opportunity to extern for one-credit graded on a pass/low pass/ fail basis at environmental governmental agencies and public interest groups, including the United States Environmental Protection Agency Regional Office, the Illinois Attorney General's Office (Environmental Office), the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the City of Chicago Law Department (Environmental Unit), the City of Chicago Housing Authority (Environmental Unit), the Illinois Pollution Control Board, Citizens for a Better Environment, the Chicago Legal Clinic, and the Lake Michigan Federation.

Students may enroll in their second or third year of law school and put in a minimum of eight hours per week during the fourteen week semester..  Students gain a variety of experiences at these placements: research and writing of memoranda and briefs, and preparation for and attendance at negotiation sessions, court hearings, and client meetings.

JUDICIAL EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Prof. Vivien C. Gross

The Judicial Externship Program is a 4-credit hour program open to second and third-year law students with a minimum 3.2 cumulative grade point average. This prestigious program enables students to serve as judicial externs with participating federal judges in district, appellate and bankruptcy court. Externs work directly with the judge and the judge's law clerks researching, writing memoranda of law, drafting opinions, and generally observing and participating in the day-to-day operation of the court. Students put in a minimum of sixteen hours per week during the fourteen week semester. Externs are selected by the individual judge(s) through an application procedure conducted by the law school. Judicial Externships are offered fall, winter and summer semesters.

LABOR/EMPLOYMENT LAW EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Prof. Martin H. Malin

The Labor/Employment Law Externship Program is offered through the Labor/Employment Law Certificate Program.  The externship is available to students enrolled in the Labor/Employment Law Certificate Program during their last year of law school and is used to satisfy the experiential learning requirement of that certificate program.

The educational objective of the externship is to provide the student externs with a well-supervised lawyering experience in labor or employment law by enabling each of them to extern with a law school approved placement.  Student externs are placed with a law firm, corporation, union, or governmental agency.

Externs spend approximately  fifteen-hours per week during the fourteen week semester at their designated placements and attend periodic meetings with the faculty supervisor.  Students in the program enroll in a three-credit field-work course graded on a pass/low pass/fail basis and a one- credit graded classroom course.

RULE OF LAW EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Dean Henry H. Perritt, Jr.

The Rule of Law Externship Program is a new and experimental externship program which began in the spring 1998 semester.  It seeks to develop externship in emerging democracies such as Bosnia, Poland, Macedonia.

In the spring 1998 semester two students externed, one in Bosnia   and one in Macedonia.  Two students also externed in the summer 1998 semester, both in Poland.  In Bosnia the student assisted the state constitutional court to understand its legal relationships with other constitutional courts and the two supreme courts located in the two sub- divisions of the country.

In Macedonia the student worked with the American Bar Association's Central and East European law Initiative on topics related to Macedonia's new commercial code.  One of the students who externed in the summer in Poland did research on electronic commerce at the Institute for Intellectual Property at the Jagiellion University and the other assisted the American Bar Association's Central and Eastern European law Initiative and the Polish Judges Association in their study of criminal law in Poland.

Students spend some time prior to the externship familiarizing themselves with the relevant law of the country in which they will extern and they then spend two or three weeks in the country in which the externship placement is situated performing their assigned tasks.

Students receive two or three externship credits depending on whether they spend two or three weeks on their externship, graded on a pass/low pass/fail basis.  After they return to Chicago-Kent they write a scholarly paper on a topic related to their externship for which they receive two graded credits.