JD Externships at VLGS

Vermont Law and Graduate School offers eligible 4th, 5th, and 6th semester students the opportunity to work in the field for JD credit. Externship courses for JD credit are offered only in the Fall and Spring semesters. Eligibility is limited to students with a 2.40 or higher cumulative GPA in the semester before the externship semester. Students must also meet all applicable deadlines for the Program, and follow Externship faculty instructions, in order to remain eligible to enroll in an externship course.

All students interested in completing an externship in their 4th, 5th, or 6th semesters must complete the JD Externship Program Application before they will be considered for an externship.

Yes, you may apply and request that you be allowed to complete multiple externships. However, preference in our enrollment process is given to those who will be completing one externship. If you express a preference for multiple externships you may be assigned a semester, and placed on the waitlist for the other semester.

Yes. Submitting an application does not mean you are committing to enroll in an externship course. All students who think an externship may be in their plans, however, should apply by the deadline.

Traditional-track students interested in completing a 4th-semester externship must apply by no later than September 15 of their 2L year. Traditional-track students interested in completing a 5th- or 6th-semester externship must apply by no later than November 1 of their 2L year. Accelerated JD students interested in completing a 4th-, 5th-, or 6th-semester externship must apply by no later than November 1 of their first (for Fall-Start AJDs) or second (for Summer-Start AJDs) semester.

If you miss the deadline to enroll in an externship, you will be placed on a numbered waitlist for your preferred semester.

In order to balance enrollment for the Fall and Spring semesters in any academic year, and ensure that the majority of the 3L student body is not off-campus in one semester, the Externship Program employs a lottery to evenly distribute students between the two semesters.

Once we receive applications in early November, students are assigned a lottery number and distributed evenly between the two semesters to balance enrollment. Students who are not placed in their preferred semester are placed on a numbered waitlist for their preferred semester in order of their lottery number. We will post lottery results by December 1.

Our placement process is designed to maintain flexibility for each student to pursue a desired externship, to be fair to all members of the student body who may have similar interests for their externships, and to ensure that each externship meets VLGS and ABA standards for an award of JD Credit.

Our program has the pleasure of serving more than two-thirds of the student body each year. In order to ensure that the externship placement process proceeds in a timely, orderly, and uniform manner that is fair to all interested students, we do not allow students to set up their own externship. Instead, we require that you work with the JD Externship Program to set up your externship.

Externship faculty must confirm that your externship for JD credit meets VLGS and ABA requirements and that the expected quality of the experience is sufficient to award credit. The approval process is conducted by externship faculty. It may involve a request for written information, and it always involves a phone conversation with the attorney, judge, or JD professional with whom the student wishes to work for credit.

In contrast to law schools with lots of local externship options, the VLGS process is actually very early. It is common for externship faculty to contact externship sites in close proximity to law schools in metropolitan areas to push for early consideration of VLGS students because of that timing. In most other externship sites, the application process does not begin until the VLGS process begins for any given semester. Most lawyers, judges, and other JD professionals are not considering externs earlier than our process, and many don’t have a clear sense of whether they have sufficient work to keep a student busy until they are much closer in time to the preferred semester.

Note: If you are considering an externship site that appears to have an early deadline, please let JD Externship faculty know. We can easily contact the location to determine if you should apply before our process begins. Most often, internships posted with “rolling” deadlines do not indicate an application process that is earlier than our enrollment process.

That varies, considerably. The process is highly individualized for each student, and it depends on a number of factors. For example, in some well-established externships sites, only faculty contact or communication is welcome or is likely to produce a response from busy lawyers or judges. For externships sites that are regularly utilized by other law schools local to the work site, students may not receive much in the way of a welcome mat when inquiring on their own about the possibility of an externship. On the other hand, when the possible externship site is new to VLGS, the student may have contacts that bring the option to the table for consideration and approval. VLGS externship faculty can play any role necessary to bring an idea to the table for consideration, but only externship faculty can approve an externship for JD credit.

See above. And, it depends. If no other students in the externship pool for the semester of interest overlap, then students may (with approval from externship faculty) proceed to work on externship ideas on their own if they so choose. However, students must keep externship faculty up to date on what ideas are being considered, and externship faculty member approval must always precede any effort to secure a placement.

The approach is not mandatory. However, externship faculty have found a much higher success rate in securing externships for or in collaboration with students if the attorney/judge/JD professional knows from externship faculty that the student is focused squarely on working with that particular professional for the semester. Legal professionals are extremely busy. Externship applications are not a priority for many work sites of interest to students. If the professionals know their investment of time reviewing materials from a student, interviewing the student, and discussing a possible externship with faculty will likely produce a “yes” from the student if a position is offered, it substantially increases the likelihood of an offer, and it significantly increases the likelihood of quicker consideration of the student applicant.

It’s possible in some externship sites that other VLGS students will want to apply to the site(s) you prefer. In other externship sites, it is a certainty that VLGS students will compete with a few (or perhaps many) students from other law schools. For still other externship sites, you may be the only applicant for a position.

This is the single most difficult question to answer due to the extreme flexibility the JD Externship Program offers VLGS students. Timing is highly variable. For some sites, timing is predictable. In others, it is impossible to know when attorneys/judges/JD professionals will make decisions about your externship. Faculty can be successful in pushing for early decisions, but not always.

The goal is to confirm an externship for every student before an on-campus “Meet and Greet” orientation session that occurs in the semester before your externship. The goal is not always met. These on-campus sessions are conducted in late April for Fall semester externships and in late November for Spring semester externships.

See above. Some externship sites act quickly due to competition with other sites in their geographic area. Others act very late for just the same reasons, oddly enough. Still others sites are not regularly of interest to academic year externs, and may act quickly or very slowly. It is important to remember that we are engaging the public when attempting to secure an externship, and our program flexibility makes that effort highly individualized and very different from other law schools that have a fixed set of pre-approved options.

Externship faculty will continue to work with you to confirm an externship if you are rejected from preferred sites.

Yes, but this outcome has been extremely rare over the history of the JD Externship Program at VLGS.

There is significant faculty involvement in an externship for JD credit at Vermont Law and Graduate School, from the placement process through the end of the work experience. We hope (and past comments from students suggest) the experience will be one of the best you have in law school. VLGS works to offer you a high quality, professional work experience with the benefit of individual faculty support in order to maximize the value of the experience as you enter the professional world. We expect you to achieve great things in an externship, far more than just another entry for your resume.

The Semester in Practice (SiP) is a full-time externship course. The Judicial Externship is, essentially an SiP, except students work full-time in judicial chambers. The Part-Time JD Externship course includes all externships requiring less than a full-time work commitment, including those in judicial, private, and public settings.

12 “experiential credits” for the work on-site (practicum) are awarded on a pass/fail basis, plus two “classroom credits” for the companion academic component. 14 credits total are awarded for all full-time externships.

Four, five, six, seven, or eight “experiential credits” are awarded on a pass/fail basis. Each credit represents at least three hours of work each week over the course of the 15-week semester, including both on-site work and course work.

While part-time externships of four or five credits count toward the requirement they do not satisfy the 6-credit requirement on their own. Part-time externships of six, seven, or eight credits do satisfy the VLGS experiential credit requirement for graduation. Full-time externships are worth 12 experiential credits; completion of a full-time externship satisfies the VLGS experiential credit requirement.

Engaging professionals and the issues they address within the office setting, as matters arise and then inevitably change, is the essence of the exposure we seek for our students earning credit towards their law degree. Telecommuting, although emerging in the profession, offers a different quality of experience. Virtual externships or hybrid externships are carefully considered if the employer can offer a meaningful experience that overcomes the remote qualities of telecommuting. Working remotely will be considered on an exceptional case-by-case situation and not the norm.

See the Externship Work Commitment Policy for more detailed information available here.

Full-time: The classroom component is a two-credit academic course, and you should expect to spend time in “class” and on assignments consistent with the time you would spend in any other academic course for JD credit.

Part-time: The classroom component is imbedded within the credits you receive for the externship as a whole. A reasonable estimate for time spent per week on coursework is an hour, on average.

Coursework: You will be expected to participate in an online orientation the week before your externship begins. You will draft a learning plan for your academic goals for your externship and meet with your on-site supervisor to engage in a self-evaluation process several times during the semester. You will also meet with your faculty supervisor, alone or in groups, several times during the semester, keep a weekly journal reflecting on your experiences, and keep weekly timesheets tracking your on-site hours and billable work.

The better question is probably where can you not go? (See below). Our program history suggests that little is off limits as a possible site for an externship, provided the site, prospective experience, and attorney/judge/professional supervisor meets the approval requirements of the Program.

You may not extern under the supervision of an unlicensed lawyer when working in a legal practice setting. In a policy setting, you may only work under the supervision of someone holding a JD, whether actively licensed to practice or not.

You may not extern under the supervision of a lawyer, judge, or JD professional with less than five years of experience in the area of law or policy in which he or she practices.

You may not extern for JD credit at a site where you have previously worked for credit, as a volunteer or for pay, unless approved by the Director of JD Externships under the restrictions set out in the VLGS Academic Regulations.

International externship students must work under the supervision of a lawyer or JD equivalent (if policy work is the focus) licensed in the jurisdiction where the representation or advocacy takes place.

Foreign Students: The US Government currently prohibits most federal agencies and other offices from accepting foreign students as externs, even for academic credit. There are some exceptions, including federal courts.

Yes. It is accessible to any eligible student who has submitted all paperwork required to begin the placement process for an externship course. In addition, a weekly newsletter of opportunities, The EON, will alert you to new sites seeking externs.

Past supervising lawyers and judges were concerned that our database could create a portal for unsolicited applications for summer and post-graduate jobs. We addressed those concerns by limiting the information in the database. The externship faculty member with whom you work on a placement has all of the contact information for locations listed in the database.

You may enroll in more than one externship course while a student at VLGS, but not in the same semester. You may also enroll in one or more part-time externships in combination with ONE full-time externship while a student at VLGS. You may not enroll in two full-time externships, however. Keep the “classroom” credit requirement for graduation in mind as you plan externship enrollment. Most of your externship credits do not count toward that requirement.

Yes, but not without the approval of both the Director of JD Externships and the director of the clinic of interest, as well as your supervising attorney or judge. In Vermont, it is unlikely that both will consent due to the potential for conflicts of interest. The attorney or judge at the potential externship site may not, even if the Director of JD Externships and the director of the clinic do.

Until August 6, 2016, the ABA prohibited students earning JD credit from receiving any form of “compensation” for the work done in an externship. That prohibition has now been repealed. Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Academic Regulations still prohibit externs from receiving “compensation.” But, the Committee on Standards has granted “case-by-case” approval authority to the Director of JD Externships to allow for compensation. We don’t expect many externship organizations to be willing or able to pay student externs, but some have been approved in the last couple of academic years.

Yes. Historically, only a small percentage of externship sponsoring organizations have offered reimbursement of expenses, although government offices typically provide a transit pass.

Yes. These are academic courses taken while you are enrolled as a full-time, student “in-residence” (even though off-campus) at VLGS.

Budgeting for an externship is critical, and any adjustment to your budget for an externship semester must run through Financial Aid before you can be confirmed in an externship through the Registrar’s Office.

No.

Yes. Most federal government positions (including courts) require some form of security clearance or background check. State government offices, particularly prosecutor’s offices, also employ some form of clearance or check.

You can expect anything from fingerprinting to character and fitness questions, disclosure of past arrest or traffic citations, credit check, or possible drug screening. It varies by organization.

We move on to the next idea for an externship.

It varies, but most organizations move quickly on security clearance and background check processes for all the same reasons that are important to you in planning your semester.

Attendance is mandatory because it is part of the academic course work, and the information you are offered at orientation is important. Medical or other emergencies such as family illness are valid excuses for not attending orientation. The Program inquires early and often about potential conflicts with orientation and externship course work, vacations, and other commitments you may have, so you are advised to keep us up to date about potential or actual conflicts with our scheduling process. We cannot accommodate all conflicts, but if you don’t inform us of your potential or actual conflict, we cannot excuse an absence based on that conflict.

Yes. That restriction is enforced.

The on-campus PreOrientation session is the only portion of orientation held on campus JD Externship students. It will be scheduled with plenty of advance notice, late in the semester preceding your externship semester, in April for Fall semester externships and in November for Spring semester externships. The balance of orientation for JD externships is conducted online in the week prior to the externship start date. You are required to attend and participate in both portions of the orientation. Attendance is mandatory unless you have a direct class conflict. If you do have a class conflict, you must let our placement professor know immediately.