Externship Program

The Externship Program at St. John's Law places students in externships with a variety of pre-approved employers, where they work directly with an assigned mentor attorney on real legal matters. Placements span the legal spectrumfrom civil and criminal to business, transactional, administrative and judicial optionsand include work in public interest organizations, governmental agencies, private law firms, judicial chambers, and corporate legal offices.

Over the course of their semester-long or summer placement, students gain litigation and/or transactional experience and, in some cases, are exposed to case management and policy issues. All placements give students an unrivaled opportunity to learn the law hands on and prepare for practice in specific areas. They can choose placements based on their interest in a substantive area of law or their desire to learn or sharpen particular lawyering skills.

To augment their hands-on experience, students take a concurrent seminar class at St. John's Law that reinforces the skills they are building in the field and that offers opportunities for them to reflect on, and contextualize, their externship experience.

The accordion sections below share more information about applying for an externship and taking the externship seminar. There is also a list of recent externship placements. If you have any questions, please contact:

Jeanne Ardan
Associate Dean for Career Development and Externships
[email protected]
718-990-6767

How To

An externship is an unpaid internship for which a student receives course credit where the student is supervised by a licensed attorney.  In addition to gaining valuable work experience at a placement, you will also take a contemporaneous seminar that will help develop your lawyering skills.  During the summer, externships are three credits (two pass/fail credits for the placement and one graded credit for the seminar) and require 168 hours at the placement.  During the fall and spring, externships are four credits (two pass/fail credits for the placement and two credits for the seminar) and require 140 hours at the placement.  The seminar meets once per week.  For students who have completed the regular externship, an advanced seminar is available.

Step 1:  Apply

Pre-approved externship placements are listed on Symplicity under Career Opportunities.  The deadline for most Summer placements is February; for the Fall, it is June; and for the Spring it is October.  However, deadlines vary by employer.  Some placements require only a resume, while others ask for a cover letter and other documents.  Consult with your Career Development Office Counselor for advice on externships.  Some placements are more competitive than others, and you should not apply for an externship that does not match up with your long-term career goals.  Check Symplicity frequently for new externship placements.

You can also apply for internships on your own and, if you receive an offer, request that the placement be approved for course credit. Not all internships will qualify. The placement must provide the student with a substantial lawyering experience. Jobs in which you receive compensation are not eligible for course credit. Also, you can extern at a placement only once (with limited exceptions).

Step 2:  Interview with Placements

Externship placements will contact you directly to schedule interviews. Be prepared to explain to your interviewer why you wish to intern at that particular placement. Conducting a mock interview with your Career Development Office counselor is strongly recommended.

Step 3:  Accept an Offer

Most placements will give you some time to think about whether you want to accept an offer. However, for federal judicial internships and externships: “to apply is to accept.” If you receive an offer to extern for a judge, you must accept the offer immediately.

Step 4:  Register & Notify the Externship Office

The final step is to register for the Externship Seminar. To register, you must have secured a placement or be in the process of securing a placement. Registration for the Externship Seminar is done online during the class registration period. Once registered, complete the Externship Placement Registration Form (available on the Online Student Center).  Your Placement Registration Form will contain the name of the employer, the semester for which you are applying (fall, spring or summer) and the name of and contact information for your mentor attorney. 

In order to participate in the Externship Program, students must have a confirmed placement TWO WEEKS prior to the start of the semester in which the student wants to participate.  Students must return the Externship Placement Registration form to [email protected] by that date.  Students who do not report their externship placement by the due date will be dropped from the externship seminar.  This timing will allow for enrollment and waitlist management as well as the time needed to approve new proposed externship partners.

This description applies for the General Externship Seminar, the Summer Externship Seminar, and the Advanced Externship Seminar.

The Externship Seminar provides students who are participating in an externship with additional information about and training in the following skills:

  • Interviewing and counseling
  • Fact investigation and evaluation
  • Drafting Legal Correspondence
  • Writing and Presenting a practice-oriented bar journal paper
  • Oral presentation
  • Negotiations
  • Persuasive Speaking/Argument

The focus is to assist students in developing basic lawyering skills beneficial to every attorney upon completing law school. The course will help students further understand the attorney-client relationship, the attorney’s role, ethics, confidentiality, professionalism and the workplace environment.

The general seminar meets for 2 hours each week for 13 weeks (7 weeks in the summer). The Advanced Seminar meets every other week. The first 30 minutes of class is dedicated to reflection where students will share their experiences in their externship placements.  The remaining time is dedicated to a discussion of skills and additional training through exercises and feedback.

In the General and Advanced Seminars, students are required to complete a paper that is either scholarly or of the type that would appear in a practice-oriented bar-type journal and which cannot duplicate work the student has produced at the placement.  Students must also orally present their paper to the class.  During the semester, students will complete practice writing assignments which include, among other things, drafting legal documents.  Students will also participate in in-class exercises involving topics such as interviewing, counseling, and fact-investigation.

Externship Seminar – Fall/Spring (2 Credits)

In order to register for the Externship Seminar during the fall or spring semesters, students must NOT have previously taken the Externship Seminar in the Fall or Spring semesters. Students whose only other externship has been in the summer should register for this course if they wish to take an externship in the fall or spring. To register for this seminar, you must have secured a placement OR be in the process of securing a placement. Externship placement opportunities are available on Symplicity or students may seek approval from the Career Development/Externship Office for a placement they have found independently. Students can review the Externship guidelines by reviewing the Externship Program Handbook, available on Symplicity and in the Career Development Office.

Registration for the Externship Seminar will be done online. Wait lists will be available for classes that are overbooked.  Once registered, submit your Externship Placement Registration Form to the Career Development Office or via email at [email protected] as soon as you have secured your placement. YOU MUST SUBMIT THE FORM TO THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT/EXTERNSHIP OFFICE TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE FIRST CLASS in order to receive the placement credits. The form will indicate the name of the employer, the semester for which you are applying, and the name of and contact information for your mentor attorney or the contact person at the organization.

Externship Seminar - Advanced (1 Credit)

In order to register for the Advanced Externship Seminar, you MUST have already taken the Externship Seminar either in Fall or Spring semester. This seminar may also be available for students interested in an Externship Placement in the summer who have already taken the Summer Externship Placement Seminar. In order to register for the Advanced Externship Seminar, you must have secured a placement or be in the process of securing a placement. Placement opportunities are available on Symplicity or students may seek approval from the Career Development/Externship Office for a placement they have found independently.  

Registration for the Advanced Externship Seminar will be done online. Wait lists will be available for classes that are overbooked. Once registered, submit your Externship Placement Registration Form to the Career Development Office or via email at [email protected] as soon as you have secured your placement. YOU MUST SUBMIT THE FORM TO THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT/EXTERNSHIP OFFICE TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE FIRST CLASS in order to receive the placement credits. The form will indicate the name of the employer, the semester for which you are applying, and the name of and contact information for your mentor attorney or the contact person at the organization.

Summer Externship Seminar (1 Credit)

In order to register for the Summer Externship Seminar, students should be taking an Externship Placement for the first time during the summer. To register for this seminar, you must have secured a placement OR be in the process of securing a placement. Externship placement opportunities are available on Symplicity or students may seek approval from the Career Development/Externship Office for a placement they have found independently. Students can review the Externship guidelines by reviewing the Externship Program Handbook, available on Symplicity and in the Career Development Office.

Registration for the Summer Externship Seminar will be done online. Wait lists will be available for classes that are overbooked. Once registered, submit your Externship Placement Registration Form to the Career Development Office or via email at [email protected] as soon as you have secured your placement. YOU MUST SUBMIT THE FORM TO THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT/EXTERNSHIP OFFICE TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE FIRST CLASS in order to receive the placement credits. The form will indicate the name of the employer, the semester for which you are applying, and the name of and contact information for your mentor attorney or the contact person at the organization.

In addition to myriad placements with private law firms, examples of sites where students have recently interned include the following:

Private

  • BOC International (USA) Holdings, Inc.
  • Commonwealth Bank of Australia
  • Deutsche Bank
  • DLA Piper
  • Estee Lauder
  • Ladder Capital Finance LLP
  • Roc Nation
  • Shearman & Sterling
  • Sony
  • Willkie Farr & Gallagher
  • Zeta Global

Government

  • District Attorney’s Offices (Brooklyn, Nassau, New York, Queens, Richmond, Westchester)
  • Environmental Protection Agency
  • Federal Trade Commission
  • National Labor Relations Board
  • Nassau County Attorney's Office
  • New York City Law Department
  • New York Police Department
  • New York State Attorney General’s Office
  • New York State Division Of Human Rights
  • United Nations Development Programme
  • United Nations Joint SDG Fund
  • United States Department of Justice
  • United States Securities Exchange Commission

Judicial

  • United States Attorney’s Office (EDNY and SDNY)
  • New York State Office of Court Administration
  • New York State Supreme Court (Bronx, Nassau, New York, Queens, Suffolk)
  • New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division (Second Department)
  • Queens County Surrogate’s Court
  • United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York
  • United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
  • United States Court of International Trade
  • United States District Court, Eastern District of New York
  • United States District Court, Southern District of New York

Public Interest

  • Brooklyn Defender Services
  • Catholic Charities
  • Directors Guild of America
  • Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
  • Girl Scouts of the USA
  • Legal Aid Society
  • MTA
  • Queens Legal Services