Externship Program

The Externship Program at St. John's School of Law places students with a variety of pre-approved employers where they work directly with an assigned mentor-attorney on real legal matters. Externship placements provide students with actual litigation and transactional experience and, in some cases, students are exposed to case management and policy issues. All placements give the students a real life practical experience and prepare students for the practice of law in specific areas. Students choose placements based upon their interest in a substantive area of law or their desire to learn or sharpen particular lawyering skills.

Students work in placements that span across the legal spectrum from civil and criminal to business, transactional, administrative and judicial options and include placements in public interest organizations, governmental agencies, private law firms, judicial chambers and corporate legal offices. Recent placements include:

  • SONY Music
  • National Football League
  • Viacom (MTV and BET)
  • Merrill Lynch
  • Burberry Limited
  • Kenneth Cole Productions
  • United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
  • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
  • Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
  • Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
  • Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
  • NYC Department of Consumer Affairs
  • United States Post Service – Law Department
  • Shearman & Sterling
  • Bernstein, Litowitz, Berger & Grossman
  • Napoli, Bern & Ripka
  • Mental Hygiene Legal Services
  • New York City Law Department
  • The Legal Aid Society (civil, criminal and juvenile rights)
  • Brooklyn Defenders Services
  • Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Richmond County District Attorney’s Offices
  • United States Attorney’s Office (Eastern and Southern District)
  • Judicial Chambers (Federal, State, Surrogate’s, County and City courts)

Students augment the hands-on experience they gain from their externship placement by taking a concurrent seminar. With the first externship placement, students take a practical externship seminar that focuses on learning everyday lawyering skills needed in any legal setting, such as client counseling, negotiations and interviewing techniques, fact and source investigation and ethics in the workplace. When students enroll in subsequent externships, they take an advanced seminar that further hones their lawyering skills focusing on various additional practical topics.

Participants receive a total of 4 credits (2 pass/fail for the placement and 2 letter graded seminar credits) for the first externship and 3 credits (2 pass/fail for the placement and 1 letter graded credit for the seminar) for a summer or subsequent externship.

To learn more about the Externship Program at St. John's University School of Law, please contact us.