Navigating Law Office Internships: A Comprehensive Guide for Law Students

Law school presents a unique opportunity for students to delve into the legal profession. Summer months, in particular, offer a prime chance to gain practical experience through legal internships, clerkships, and clinics. These experiences allow students to build credentials, make valuable connections, and refine skills under the guidance of experienced legal professionals. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of law office internships, clerkships, and legal clinics, outlining requirements, benefits, and tips for success.

Understanding Legal Internships

A legal internship provides a real-world environment for law students to work closely with experienced legal professionals and develop lawyering skills. These opportunities exist in various settings, including attorney's offices, the judicial system, and government legal organizations. Internships are often unpaid, but many programs allow students to earn school credit. It’s essential to check with your school’s Career Center to learn more about the specifics of their internship programs.

Maximizing Your Internship Experience

To make the most of a legal internship, consider the following:

Be Open-Minded: Explore different practice areas to discover or reaffirm your career goals. Exposure to unfamiliar areas of law can be surprisingly beneficial.
Consider the Location: Interning in your target city, state, or country can help you build a local network and bolster your resume for future job opportunities in the region.
Begin Networking: Make professional connections, especially in smaller markets where associate positions are more competitive. These connections can become references or future employers.
Know Your Limits: Assess your financial constraints when considering an unpaid internship to ensure you have the best opportunity for success.

Summer Clerkships: A Prestigious Path

A clerkship, especially a summer clerkship, involves working alongside practicing attorneys or judges, handling research-heavy tasks, drafting opinions, or providing case briefs. Clerkships are considered prestigious and can often act as steppingstones to full-time roles in prominent firms or courts. Summer clerkship opportunities are limited and competitive, generally paid positions for 2Ls and 3Ls without a J.D.

Types of Clerkships

Clerkships are available in various settings:

Read also: Internships at the USPTO

Large Law Firms: Many large law firms hire 2L students as “summer clerks” or “summer associates.”
Small and Mid-Size Firms: Clerkship opportunities also exist in smaller firms.
State + Federal Clerkships: State court and federal judicial clerkships offer valuable insight into the workings of trial and appellate courts, appealing to those aiming to practice litigation or appellate law.

Clerkships tend to be research and writing intensive, offering a different experience from most internships, which are generally less formal and more focused on administrative tasks and client interaction.

Legal Clinics: Practical Experience on Campus

Legal clinics offer an alternative for students with limited time to intern or clerk. They allow you to work on real cases, under the academic supervision of a faculty member or practicing attorney, while staying on campus during the semester. Participating in a clinic is a great way to explore a practice area with little risk, especially if you already have an interest in an area of law.

Is a Legal Clinic Right for You?

Consider the following factors:

Time Constraints: Law school clinics require a significant time commitment, as you have a real client relying on your work and services.
Semester Credits: Most clinics carry a higher number of credit hours than the average law school course. Ensure you do not exceed the allowable credit hours at your school.
Future Employment Goals: Find a clinic that complements your interest or future aspirations. Enrolling in a particular clinic may help you get hands-on “practice-ready” skills to stand out to potential employers.

Through clinics, students get direct casework experience drafting motions, assisting in negotiations, or even arguing before a judge - skills that make you more competitive in the post-graduation job market.

Key Requirements and Opportunities

Several organizations and government agencies offer law office internships and externships. Here's a look at some specific opportunities and their requirements:

Read also: Internships at the CBO

The Copyright Office Law Clerk Program

The Copyright Office sponsors legal internships for talented law students with an interest in copyright law and policy through the Copyright Office Law Clerk Program (Law Clerk Program). Law Clerks gain valuable experience and insight working with Office attorneys on copyright-related issues that arise within the Office, before Congress, and in the courts. Law Clerks are instrumental in helping to prepare Copyright Office reports for Congress and may assist with the Office’s international work. Although Law Clerks are not paid, they often arrange to receive academic credit through their law school for their work at the Copyright Office.

Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAGC)

The Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAGC) offers summer internships and school-year externships to law students wishing to gain valuable legal experience, the opportunity for academic credit, and greater insight into life as a Navy judge advocate.

Eligibility Requirements:

To be eligible for an internship or externship position with the JAGC, you must:

Be a United States citizen of good moral character;
Be younger than 42 years of age at time of application; and
Be a law student enrolled in an American Bar Association (ABA)-accredited school with at least one year completed by the time you start the internship/externship.

Factors Affecting Eligibility: Foreign nationals are not eligible. and another country may apply. Dual citizenship may impact the security screening, which is required prior to starting the internship/externship.

Summer Internships:

Full-time positions are available each summer and only during the summer period.
Start: First Monday of June (accommodations may be made upon request).
Length: 8 to 10 weeks.
Location: Internships are in-person.

Semester Externships:

Full or part-time positions are available during the fall or spring semester.
Start: Flexible.
Length: Limited to a single semester.
Location: Semester Externships are in-person, although situational, infrequent authorization for remote work may be issued at the discretion of the assigned office.

Internship/Externship Locations:

Though the Navy has worldwide locations, internship/externship opportunities are currently limited to bases in the United States. Recent available locations include: San Diego, CA; Groton, CT; Navy Yard, D.C.; Washington/Arlington, VA; Norfolk, VA; Jacksonville, Mayport, and Pensacola, FL; Pearl Harbor, HI; Great Lakes, IL; New Orleans, LA; Newport, RI; Fort Worth, TX; and Bremerton, WA.

Areas of Practice:

Interns/externs are expected to be engaged in meaningful, mission contributing legal work during their internship/externship. Those duties will generally expose an intern/extern to one or more of the core practice areas:

Military justice (criminal prosecution or defense; appellate; judiciary);
Legal assistance (providing general legal advice to Sailors and their families);
Command advice/services (advising military commanders and their staffs).

Application Requirements:

Intern and extern applications will generally require the following:

Cover Letter
Resume: no longer than one (1) page
Transcripts: both undergraduate and current law school transcripts
Photo: full length photo, in professional attire, taken in the last six (6) months
Prior Military Servicemembers: DD214 and last five (5) performance evaluation reports
Letter(s) of recommendation: a minimum of three (3) and no more than five (5), addressed to the “Intern/Extern Selection Board”
OF 306 (Declaration for Federal Employment)

Department of the Interior (DOI)

The Department of the Interior (DOI), with nearly 200 practicing attorneys in the headquarters office and more than 300 attorneys nationwide, offers legal internships/externships. The Office is continually looking for talented, dedicated law students with an interest in gaining practical experience advising agencies on the legal aspects of their mission as well as participating in complex civil litigation before administrative tribunals or assisting the Justice Department in litigating matters before federal courts.

Responsibilities:

Our legal interns/externs are called upon to conduct legal research on a variety of environmental and administrative law issues, as well as issues involving Indian law. Students typically draft legal memoranda, briefs and motions, and assist with discovery in active federal cases. Students may participate in conference calls and strategy sessions with other agency counsel, including Justice Department lawyers and agency officials. There may be additional opportunities to attend hearings and meetings in the Washington, D.C. area.

Qualifications:

Applicants must be students. The following students are eligible: undergraduate students who are enrolled at least half-time; public policy graduate students; first-year (second semester), second- and third-year law students; and law school graduates who are enrolled in graduate law programs (e.g., L.L.M. programs) at least half-time. All students must be in good academic standing and will be required to provide official documentation from their school.

UC Davis School of Law (King Hall) Externship Program

UC Davis Law students in the Externship Program expand on their legal education outside “the four walls” of the school by earning academic credit for field placements in a government, judicial, public interest, or corporate counsel law office. Field supervisors provide close supervision as students hone their competencies in legal research and writing, client communication, and other essential lawyering and professional skills.

Externship Programs:

Currently, King Hall offers these classes:

Corporate Counsel (Law 423) (2 to 6 units)
Judicial (Law 425) (2 to 6 or 12 units)
State and Federal Tax (Law 430) (2 to 6 units)
Capital Law Scholars (Law 446) (2 to 6 or 12 units)
Environmental (Law 450) (2 to 6 units)
Labor and Employment (Law 455) (2 to 6 units)
Public Interest (Law 460) (2 to 6 units)
Intellectual Property (Law 465) (2 to 6 units)
Criminal Justice (Law 470) (2 to 6 or 12 units)
UCDC Law Program (10 unit externship + 3 unit seminar)

General Tips for Success

Regardless of the path you choose, remember to stay organized, be professional, and seek feedback (it’s invaluable for growth!). While many employers conduct on-campus interviews to fill their internship positions, the best way to find these opportunities is through your own research, networking, and direct contact.

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