Externships for Academic Credit

Michigan's externship program is designed to provide individual students with advanced training and research opportunities in areas of particular interest to them that go beyond what is traditionally offered in a classroom setting. Michigan Law has special externships based in Geneva, Switzerland, and in South Africa, which expand and enrich the Law School's extensive curriculum in international and foreign law, and make it possible for students to engage in legal work with agencies grappling with the most challenging international problems and legal issues of the day. For detailed information on all of the externships offered by Michigan Law, visit our externships page.

Geneva Externship Program

The United Nations Building in Geneva

Michigan Law offers semester-long externship opportunities in Geneva during the winter term each year with leading intergovernmental and nongovernmental (NGO) institutions. Students are immersed in the work of these international institutions and closely supervised by their legal staffs. They have an opportunity to explore how international legal regimes intersect with such diverse fields as trade, human rights, intellectual property, environment, telecommunications and health. Externs participate in a contemporaneous seminar intended to provide them substantive context for their externships by focusing on the roles and practices of international organizations and NGOs and the place of law in their work.  The Geneva externship is managed by the Center for International and Comparative Law. Interested students should contact Virginia Gordan, Assistant Dean for International Affairs, at vgordan@umich.edu.

The following externship opportunities are available in Geneva:

• Center for International Environmental Law
• Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation
• Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria
• International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development
• International Commission of Jurists
• International Organization for Migration-Office of Legal Affairs
• International Organization for Migration- International Migration Law Unit 
• International Service for Human Rights
• Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Human Rights and Economic and Social Issues Unit
• Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Human Rights Treaties Division (Section I)
• Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Rule of Law and Democracy Section
• Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Women's Human Rights and Gender Unit 
• South Centre
• U.N. Conference on Trade and Development: Division on Investment and Enterprise
• U.N. Conference on Trade and Development: Division of International Trade in Goods and Services and Commodities
• U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights: Human Rights Liaison Unit
• U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees: Regional Bureau for Africa
• U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva
• World Health Organization
• World Intellectual Property Organization

You may see here the most recent application process, which includes more detailed descriptions of the Geneva externships. They are subject to change over time. Also, you may refer to the Student Guide to Geneva Externship Placements for impressions by former Geneva externs of their externship opportunities.

SOUTH AFRICA EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Theary Seng, '00, talks about the South Africa externship

Students participating in the Law School's semester-long South Africa Externship Program, which marked its 15th anniversary in 2010, have been placed in both governmental and nongovernmental organizations, including the Legal Resources Centre in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg, in law clinics headquartered at various law schools in South Africa, and in human rights organizations. The South Africa externship takes place during the winter academic term and is managed by the Office of Student Affairs.

The following are cities in South Africa where students have completed past externships: 

• Cape Town
• Durban
• Grahamstown
• Johannesburg
• Pretoria

To apply for the South Africa externship or other externships offered by Michigan Law, visit our externships page.