Requirements

Second- and third-year law students are eligible to participate in the Washington, DC, Externship Semester if they have a minimum GPA of 2.3 and receive approval for the externship position from Professor Nancy Hunt, Director of the Washington, DC, Externship Semester.

Externship parameters require that students engage in legal work, that students be supervised by an attorney, and that positions be unpaid (certain stipends are permitted). Students may not complete externships in for-profit law firms. Students completing externships in DC must enroll in and are expected to complete work equivalent to 10 credit hours during the semester (525 total working hours). Students may enroll in fewer than 10 credits only with permission from the Director of the DC Externship Semester.

Pursuant to ABA rules, every 52.5 hours of completed earns one unit of course credit.  Hours are not accrued during travel time, lunch, breaks, or holidays, or while working from an unsupervised location including home. Credit can be granted only in 52.5-hour increments; in other words, 104 hours of fieldwork earns only one unit of credit. Students completing full-time externships in DC may earn no more than 10 hours of externship credit for the semester. No more than 18 non-classroom units (externships, journals, or competitions) may be counted toward the JD degree.

Externships are graded High Pass/Pass/Credit/Fail, based on students' performance in their externships, in the Workshop, and in the periodic journals, as well as the completion of all required timesheets, forms, and evaluations.