Clinical Law Programs
Judicial Externship
The Judicial Extern Program provides law students with a candid first hand experience in the judicial decision-making process. This is accomplished by placing students in a judge's office for a specified number of hours each week to work directly with the judge in daily decision-making tasks.
Judges with whom students are placed are encouraged to maximize the educational experience by granting students access to events in the courtroom and in the judge's chambers. The judge should take time to explain his or her decision to the student and answer any questions. All facets of the judicial decision-making process should be open to discussion, including a candid critique of the quality of the presentations made by lawyers appearing before the judge.
The judge should make an effort to introduce the student to other aspects of the daily working life of a judge which may influence the decision-making process, e.g., the judge's relationship to the clerk's office and other courthouse employees, the judge's administrative responsibilities for docket control, the judge's participation in judge's meetings, and the making and enforcement of courthouse policies and procedures.
Judges are encouraged to assign the law student specific hands-on-tasks which aid the student in becoming involved in the judicial decision-making process. These tasks may include such activities as summarizing case files, legal research, and document drafting.
Judges should keep in mind that the quality of the educational experience for the law student is enhanced by both the depth and breadth of the tasks assigned. Judges are discouraged from overburdening the law student with research at the expense of a full exposure to judicial decision-making. No single task or narrow set of tasks should become the exclusive experience for the judicial extern and should not be assigned at the expense of the student's opportunity to observe and discuss the judge's daily decision-making. A judge may broaden and enrich a student's experience by occasionally requiring the student to observe or work with another judge.
