Externships & Clinics Part 1

Top Questions About Externships – Part 1

We love questions, and as an admissions team we get a lot of them. The questions we hear are as individual as the students we hear from — and they are an amazing springboard to great conversations. These are just a few of the most frequent questions we hear about externships.

Externships are one of the three types of experiential courses that assure practical experience opportunities at Quinnipiac Law. Every Quinnipiac Law student is guaranteed a meaningful practical experience in our externship program, our legal clinics, or through experiential courses. We believe practical experiences are a cornerstone of your legal education here, and we go to great lengths to make sure you have those opportunities.

For more about externships at Quinnipiac Law, visit the website here.

What exactly is an externship?

During an externship you will gain real experience representing real clients, under the supervision of practicing attorneys, judges, or mediators. Along with legal clinics and simulation courses, it is one of the three primary ways to gain legal experience while in law school.

An externship is a field placement course, meaning you will be placed in a professional off-campus setting doing the kind of legal work that you prefer, under attorney supervision. Each externship is typically one semester in length, and you will earn course credits. You may be able to do more than one externship during your Quinnipiac Law career if you choose, depending on your schedule. Your second externship can either be a continuation of your first externship, or an entirely different kind of externship.

It might be helpful to note that during externships and in our legal clinics, which are like a law firm the law school runs providing free legal services to the community, you will work on real cases with real clients. During simulation courses, on the other hand, you will gain exposure and practice skills in litigation, transactional, or consensual dispute resolution arenas in mock situations. All three opportunities combine to form a robust approach to practical learning. (We will be covering legal clinics and simulation courses in upcoming emails.)

When can I get started on an externship?

You will have a distinct advantage as a Quinnipiac Law student. The state of Connecticut’s generous “student practice rule” allows supervised law students to represent clients after their first two semesters. Quinnipiac Law students can jump into externships beginning in the summer after their first year – gaining practical experience ahead of students in states that do not have the same guidelines.

Do I have to find my own externship?

Absolutely not! You will have the expert guidance and support of our externship faculty in finding a tailored placement based on your goals and interests. We have spent years building relationships with the supervising attorneys who work with our students.

What if you have an idea for an externship that is not on the list? By all means bring it to us! Our faculty are excited to partner with students to facilitate their externship ideas. Each year, we have some students at placements that host a Quinnipiac Law student just about every semester, and other students at brand new placements that have never hosted our students!

If you would like to get the conversation going, email us at law@qu.edu.

Continue to Externships Part 2

Externships & Clinics Part 1

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