Recent Externship Placements at Cooley

*New Externship Opportunities are Added Each Term

Business Regulation Externships

Students experience various aspects of business and transactional law in a state or federal public agency that deals with commercial regulation. Placements generally handle securities regulation, licensing, and other commerical oversight functions.

Placements:

• Michigan Corporation and Securities Bureau
• Michigan Tax Tribunal
• Michigan Employment Relations Commission

Corporate Counsel Externships

Students experience various aspects of business and transactional law, working with corporate counsel handling matters arising from general business operations.  Issues are likely to include contracts, taxation, insurance, and employment law.

Placements:

• CMS Energy Corporation
• General Motors
• PICOM Insurance Company

Criminal Defense Externships

The Ciminal Defense Externships are among the most popular at Cooley Law School  Criminal defense externs receive an insider's view of the American criminal justice system, working directly with clients in many cases.  These externships provide students with the opportunity to interview clients, negotiate settlements, manage cases, appear in court, conduct legal research, and deal with complex legal and ethical issues.

Placements:

• Cook County, Illinois, Public Defender's Office
• Chemung County, New York, Public Defender's Office
• Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Public
• State of Michigan Appellate Defender's Office
• Washtenaw County (MI) Public Defender's Office
• Kent County (MI) Public Defender's Office
• Capital Litigation (Death Penalty), State of Illinois Public Defender's Office

The Death Penalty Externship is offered in various locations, placing students in public defender's offices and with private attorneys handling death penalty cases throught the country.  Students learn all stages of death penalty post-trial work.  The placement involves legal research, fact investigation, witness interviews, and brief writing.  The students who complete this program will be among the few attorneys in the country trained to do this highly specalized legal work.

Prosecutor Externships

As with the public defender externships, the prosecutor externships provide students with an insider's view of the criminal justice system.  Students conduct interviews, negotiate settlements, manage cases, problem solve, research, and receive extensive trail practice.

Placements:

• Bronx, New York, District Attorney's Office
• State Attorney's Office, Connecticut
• Mercer County, New Jersey, Prosecutor's Office
• Lake County, Indiana, Prosecuting Attorney's Office
• Broward County, Florida, State Attorney's Office
• Prosecuting Attorneys' Association of Michigan
• Ingham County (MI) Prosecutor's Office
• Eaton County (MI) Prosecutor's Office
• Jackson County (MI) Prosecutor's Office

Disability Law Externship

Students are introduced to the legal, social, political, and economic factors affecting persons with mental and physical disabilities.  Practical experience includes case intake, client interviews and counseling, case investigation and management, and legal research, analysis and writing.

Placements:

• Michigan Protection and Advocacy Services

Environmental Externships

Students are exposed to current issues in environmental law at public and private agencies as well as private firms that focus on issues pertaining to the environment and natural resources.

Placements:

• Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
• Michigan United Conservation Clubs
• Office of the Great Lakes
• Michigan Attorney General, Natural Resources Division

Family Violence Externships

Students provide assistance to domestic violence victims in civil and criminal cases through domestic violence shelters in Ingham, Clinton, Ionia, and Shiawassee Counties (MI).

Placements:

• 64A District Court (MI)
• Casey & Boog PC, Lansing, Michigan
• Law Office of Pat Eagan, Lansing, Michigan

General Civil Practice Externships

Students gain an overall understanding of the day-to-day functions of a law office, with current casework in consumer and real estate matters, landlord/tenant negotiations, nursing home regulations, and criminal felony cases.

Placements:

• UAW/GM Legal Services
• Spence, Moriarty & Schuster, Jackson, Wyoming
• Ingram, Anderson & Hofmeyer PC, Lansing, Michigan
• Farhat, Story & Kraus, East Lansing, Michigan
• Hendricks & Wiersma, P.L.C., Grand Rapids, Michigan

Immigration Law Externships

Externs work with attorneys who represent persons seeking asylum or citizenship and those threatened with deportation.  Externs assist in representation of clients seeking to obtain immigrant and nonimmigrant status in the United States.

Placements:

• Archdiocese of Detroit
• Law Offices of Behzad Ghassemi, Lansing, Michigan

Indian Law Externships

Through Cooley's Indian Law Center, students can gain substantive knowledge of the complex and emerging area of tribal law.  Students who have successfully completed the Indian Law elective may apply this knowledge through working closely with the Chippewa tribal court.  Externs are exposed to the various aspects of the Tribal law while learning the legal skills of interviewing, negotiating settlements, case management, research, and writing, among others.

Placements:

• Mt. Pleasant Chippewa Tribal Judge
• Mt. Pleasant Chippewa Tribal Prosecutor

Judicial Externships

Cooley students assist trial and appellate judges in state and federal courts. Students in judicial externships are exposed to the day-to-day functions of the court. In all judicial externships, students provide assistance in matters assigned by judges and other court staff. Work may include legal research, drafting, writing and/or reviewing prhearing bench memoranda and opinions, assisting with prehearing conferences between parties, and observing and assisting with court proceedings. Judges may also assign policy research and correspondence.

Placements:

• U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
• Michigan Supreme Court
• U.S. District Court, Western District of Michigan
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of New Jersey
• Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Common Pleas Court
• Emmett County (MI) Circuit/Probat Courts
• Ingham County (MI) Circuit/District Courts
• Kent County (MI) Circuit Court
• Van Buren County (MI) Circuit Court
• Washtenaw County (MI) Circuit Court
• Wexford County (MI) Circuit Court

Legal Services Externships

In these placements students receive comprehensive legal skills training through live-client experience. A strong sense of professional responsibility and community service is fostered as externs work directly with persons in need of help. Many externs in these placements feel a great deal of personal satisfaction in addition to the professional development they receive.

Placements:

• Legal Aid of Central Michigan
• Wayne County Neighborhood Legal Services
• Michigan Migrant Legal Assistance/Farmworker Legal Services
• Sixy Plus, Inc., Elderlaw Clinic
• Toledo (OH) Legal Aid Society

Legislative Process Externships

Students gain training in the legal skills of research and analysis, negotiation, writing, and ethics. Students work with the Governor's staff on a variety of legal issues referred by the Governor of Michigan. Responsibilities include researching legislative issues, existing statutes, court decisions, other states' laws, and federal legislation and regulation; drafting legal memoranda; and responding to inquires from the executive department.

Placements:

• Governor's (MI) Legal Counsel

Additional Placements in States other than Michigan

Most placements outside of Michigan are student-initiated externships. The Office of Planning and Programs at Cooley Law School provides students with full information on seeking approval for externships other than those established by the law school.

Placements:

• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, D.C.
• Beasley, Casey & Erbstein, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Thornton, Early & Naumes, Boston, Massachusetts
• Fulton County, Georgia, County Attorney's Office
• Goth & Coughlin, Chicago, Illinois
• Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office
• Kinsey, Troxel, Johnson & Walborsky, Pensacola, Florida
• Rutherford Institute, Charlottesville, Virginia
• Luna County District Attorney, New Mexico
• Myers & Geiselman, Fort Wayne, Indiana

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This Page was last updated on: 06/23/2004