Since its inception, Appalachian School of Law has distinguished itself from other law schools by providing our students with practical legal experience well before graduation. ASL’s externship program is a central part of the school’s commitment to equipping students with practical lawyering skills. All components of the externship program are designed to provide ASL students access to valuable, hands-on experience and networking opportunities that will aid in their future law careers. During the externship experience, students engage in activities ranging from observing court proceedings and conducting research to interviewing clients and assisting with trial strategy.
First Year Summer Externship Program
ASL students are required to complete an externship during the summer following their 1L year. Three hours of academic credit are awarded for successful completion of this requirement, which includes a classroom component during the spring semester, followed by at least 200 hours working under the supervision of an experienced attorney during the summer. This experience allows our students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to real-world situations in public interest or pro bono legal environments. The externship placements have the added advantage of fulfilling bar admission requirements such as the State of New York’s prerequisite that those seeking admission to the bar complete 50 hours of pro bono work before the bar examination. Students have the option of securing their own externship site, or selecting a site from ASL’s large database of externship opportunities. ASL’s database includes more than 500 approved site partners from across the country.
Second Year Summer Externship Program
Beginning in the summer of 2013, ASL expanded its traditional externship program to include competitive internship placements for our most distinguished students. Through this component of the externship program, students compete for placement at sites that focus their practices in the areas of (1) natural resources, energy, and environmental law, (2) the judiciary and (3) administrative law. Students who are selected for these internships may receive a stipend to offset travel and living expenses.
Third Year Live Client Clinics
ASL also created live client clinics for third year law students seeking to further enhance their experiential learning opportunities. Students enrolled in this track of the externship program must enroll in a corresponding seminar or practicum. The corresponding seminar or practicum is taught by ASL’s faculty in partnership with an attorney at the clinic who instructs the student in the relevant area of the law
FAQ
At the Appalachian School of Law (ASL), one of our primary goals is to give our students an exceptional education that prepares them to graduate law school with the advantage that only experience can bring. That is why, in addition to surrounding students with a full-time, tenured-track faculty who collectively practiced in various areas of the law for more than 300 years, we have designed a summer externship program that places our students immediately after their first-year of school in courthouses, law offices and boardrooms around the country and abroad for 200 hours of personalized, hands on, intense legal training.
At ASL, we feel it is crucial for law students to be exposed to the sort of practical legal education an externship can provide. That is why we work very hard to insure that each student is placed in an externship after their first year of law school that corresponds to the student’s interests or opens doors to other future endeavors.
Although students’ experiences differ based on various factors, most students are able to do obtain an intimate glimpse of an attorney’s daily routine representing private clients and/or public interests. Irrespective of the actual site where a student may be placed, the goals of the Externship Program are:
1. To provide exposure to the actual workings of the legal system under the guidance of an experienced attorney in the public service.
2. To provide at least one substantial research and writing opportunity in an actual case setting.
3. To introduce students to the ethical concerns and issues of professionalism that may arise in actual case settings, under the guidance of an experienced attorney in the public service.
4. To provide opportunities for enhancing professional communication skills.
Future employers can rest assured that ASL graduates are knowledgeable about more than what the textbook “say.” All of our first-year students must complete an externship the summer after their first-year of school.
The next opportunity students have to participate in the externship program is during the students’ second-year of law school. The second-year internship program allows competitive placement of 20-30 second year law students in “premier” sites that specifically focus in the areas of natural resources and/or environmental law, the judiciary and administrative law. The sites must still focus on public interest or pro bono matters. This component of the program has resulted in a course that is similar to the traditional, first-year externship program in terms of the experiential learning format.
Third-year students may also register for seminars or practica and take one live client clinic per semester. The live clinic prong of the expanded externship program is essentially a joint venture between the law school and outside law offices, corporations, legal aid sites, natural resources sites, mediation sites, and the judiciary (collectively the “Live Clinics”). The ultimate goal is to create a diverse list of Live Client Clinics, particularly with
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