Externship Requirements

1. Faculty Supervision Requirements and Responsibilities
All externs will participate in a contemporaneous classroom component conducted by a full-time member of the faculty. In addition, the faculty supervisor will be responsible for evaluating extern journals and grading students. Faculty supervisors will be responsible for supervising a maximum of 30 externs divided into classroom sections of no more than 15 students.

2. Classroom Components
During the first week of each term, all externs will meet for one two-hour orientation for an introduction to externship work and an overview of course requirements. During the remainder of the term, externs will meet periodically with their faculty supervisor, at times to be arranged by the faculty supervisor. All externs will receive a minimum of 20 hours of instruction throughout the term conducted in one of the following ways, or an equivalent, to assure the greatest educational potential for the externship:

A. One-on-one meeting or meetings with supervisors to explore the skills used and to analyze the externs' performance.

B. Classroom discussions with other externs in similar placements, conducted in a seminar format.

3. Field Work
Externs will be placed with an externship field supervisor who will oversee the externs completion of lawyering tasks. Externs must schedule a minimum of four hours of work per week per credit. Additional time may be necessary.   Externs should practice and observe the skills and values set forth by the ABA as critical to good lawyering.   For more inforamtion, please see the ABA web site for selected excerpts from the MacCrate Report

http://www.abanet.org/legaled/publications/onlinepubs/maccrate.html .

4. Journals
All externs must complete journals with entries for each day worked. Each week, the journal entries should analyze one or more lawyering skills and values the extern has observed or practiced. A faculty supervisor will review the journals to provide feedback to the extern. The goal is to enhance the externs' ability to analyze what they are observing and practicing and to develop a system of self-critique that students can use throughout their legal careers.

5. Time Logs

Externs are required to complete time logs and turn them into the Office of Planning, Programs and Assessment, where a master log will be kept. Externs work should consist primarily of engaging in and observing lawyering tasks. See list of skills and values for appropriate functions in the front of the student handbook.

Procedures

The following procedures will be used to assure the educational soundness of the program and the externs' compliance with course requirements.

1. On-site Inspections
The Faculty Supervisor, or his or her designee, will personally visit each field placement office at least once in the initial term of operation and a minimum of once each year thereafter. This visit is to encourage communication between the field supervisors and the faculty supervisor, as well as to assess the work environment.

2. Communication with Field Supervisor
The faculty supervisor will communicate with the field supervisor, using whatever methods of communication are most efficient and effective.

3. Evaluation
The faculty supervisor will grade all clinic work on a pass-fail basis. An extern must complete all components of the program before receiving a pass grade. Each extern shall also receive a written evaluation of his or her performance from the field supervisor.

4. Compensation
No extern may receive compensation for participation in a program that grants law school credit.

5. Extern Eligibility
Students are not eligible to participate in the program until they have successfully completed all designated prerequisite courses. No student on academic probation may participate in an externship.

6. Field Supervisor Qualifications
Field supervisors are selected by the Associate Dean of Planning, Programs, and Assessment in consultation with the faculty. In general, field supervisors are licensed attorneys who have a minimum of three years of practice experience. Exceptions may be granted only where the field supervisor has substantial related experience. The Office of Planning, Programs, and Assessment provide written orientation materials to each field supervisor.

7. Course Approval
Each separate externship course must be submitted to the Curriculum Committee for review and approval. Approval will be granted to courses that comply with the guidelines.

8. Termination
The school will make all reasonable efforts to resolve problems regarding a placement in an expeditious manner including, but rarely, reassignment of an extern. In the event the placement is deemed to be unsatisfactory by the field supervisor or the school, the placement may be terminated before the end of a term on two weeks notice. If a placement is terminated and the extern has performed satisfactorily in the opinion of the faculty supervisor, the student shall be awarded a grade of W. If the extern has failed to perform satisfactorily and withdraws before the end of the term, the extern will receive a grade of WX.

9. Insurance
The field placement office is responsible for maintaining adequate professional liability insurance coverage or its equivalent for all participating externs.

10. Review
At the completion of one year, and every three years thereafter, the Associate Dean of Planning, Programs and Assessment shall conduct a written evaluation of each program to ensure that it complies with these requirements and to suggest methods of improving the program.