Summer Clinical Externship

Program Description

The Summer Clinical Externship Program is designed to help law students maximize their professional development and legal skills development through a structured curricular externship experience over the summer. The program will be a combined group of public interest, prosecution, government, and/or corporate counsel externships. 

Note: For a specialized program where the seminar content will be specifically tailored to a single practice area, like the Corporate Counsel, Judicial, Prosecution, Government, Public Interest (direct service to low-income clients), or Environmental and Land Use Externship Programs, students should apply to participate during the fall or spring semesters. 

Placements

Externship placements include internships with legal service offices, public defender's offices, certain non-profit agencies engaged in public interest legal work, prosecutor's offices, government agencies, and corporate counsel offices. Internships at private law firms are not allowed as externship placements. Placements may be local or remote. All placements must be vetted and approved by the Assistant Dean for Experiential Learning before a student can officially be accepted into the summer program. 

Eligibility & Credits

  • Eligibility: The Summer Clinical Externship Program is open to 2Ls ONLY and students graduating in December following the summer program.
  • Credits: Students selected to participate in the summer externship program can choose to receive a total of 6–8 credits through a combination of ungraded fieldwork credits and 2 graded seminar credits.

To connect with our program director, explore the Faculty Directory.

Close Course Type Descriptions

Course Types

We have classified RWU Law classes under the following headers. One of the following course types will be attached to each course which will allow students to narrow down their search while looking for classes.

Core Course

Students in the first and second year are required to take classes covering the following aspects of the law—contracts, torts, property, criminal law, civil procedure, and constitutional law, evidence, and professional responsibility.  Along with these aspects, the core curriculum will develop legal reasoning skills.

Elective

After finishing the core curriculum the remaining coursework toward the degree is completed through upper level elective courses.  Students can choose courses that peak their interests or courses that go along with the track they are following.

Seminar

Seminars are classes where teachers and small groups of students focus on a specific topic and the students complete a substantial research paper.

Clinics/Externships

Inhouse Clinics and Clinical Externships legal education is law school training in which students participate in client representation under the supervision of a practicing attorney or law professor.  RWU Law's Clinical Programs offer unique and effective learning opportunities and the opportunity for practical experience while still in law school.