Externship Application Process
After the student has identified an externship placement and secured a faculty sponsor, he or she must submit two copies of the externship application package to the Office of Student Affairs (307 Hutchins Hall) for approval by the Curricular, Co-curricular, and Pedagogic Issues Committee. In considering the application, the Committee may take into account multiple factors, including the Law School's experience with the agency, the student's academic record, the demonstrated quality of the agency's educational and supervisory commitment, and the final recommendation of Professor Carr. The application package consists of five parts: the student's written proposal, a statement of commitment from the faculty sponsor to supervise the research paper, the host organization statement, the attorney supervisor's resume, and the student's resume.
The student should enumerate the specific educational objectives he or she hopes to achieve through the proposed externship and the manner in which this will occur. The student should describe the proposed program in detail, including a description of the work he or she will perform during the externship and the manner in which training and supervision will be provided. The burden remains on the student to persuade the Law School that the externship reflects educational objectives, and will enable the student to fulfill educational objectives that cannot be achieved within Law School classes or in the ordinary course of professional opportunities available to the student. The proposal should include the way in which the externship builds on work the student has done or will contribute to work the student plans to do in school, and it should describe the required research project as set forth above. The more detailed the description of the research project and its relationship to the external studies program opportunity, the better. If it is too early for the student to have a firm topic for the research project, the student should indicate in the proposal the range of subjects under consideration and describe the relationship between the work to be done at the externship and the possible research projects. The student must submit a copy of his or her resume with the proposal.
The faculty sponsor must provide written confirmation of his or her commitment to supervise and grade the student's research paper at the end of the externship.
The host organization must provide a written statement describing with specificity the nature of the work to be undertaken by the student, the manner in which supervision and training will be provided to the student, the names and resumes of the attorney supervisors, and the nature of the organization's educational commitment to the student.
Once an externship proposal has been approved by the Committee, Professor Carr will vet the proposed site by discussing the program with the supervising attorney at the host organization and confirming the commitments described above.
The deadline for submitting externship proposals is set by Dean Gregory's office each semester. In no event will the deadline fall later than six weeks before the end of fall term classes for a winter externship, and six weeks before the end of the winter term classes for a summer or fall term externship. It is the student's responsibility to make sure that all parts of the externship proposal have been received by the deadline.