Look below for details!!
Welcome, Judicial Externs and future judicial externs. This web space contains a
variety of useful materials.
Program Overview: The
externship program comprises several components. Evidence (or in
some circumstances Administrative Law) is the pre-requisite. Everyone who
externs must participate in the orientation and supervision (for which a
unit of credit is awarded) as well as take a 2 or 3 unit class relevant to
the externship that has been designated as a pre- or co-requisite course. The clinical
component (3-9 units in any single semester) is your externship hours.
Classroom component: We require a one-unit component that
consists of a two-day orientation prior to your externship (generally
scheduled the two full days before the semester's classes begin),
plus ongoing faculty supervision of your externship experience (for which you are required to keep a
journal and to have several meetings). For the other two or three units of
the classroom component, you may choose from a wide variety of courses
relevant to various externships -- each student will have his or her
individual choice. For the list of courses
currently acceptable to fill the requirement, see the list on the Requirements page.
This course is in addition to the universal pre-requisite, Evidence
(which in some circumstances can be Administrative Law).
If you wish to see the reading material for the
orientation, the portions of it that are in the public domain are posted as Course Reading.
Most of the forms and information for current externs, including the
all-important "Policies and Requirements," are available under Forms and Info.
Clinical component: You may earn 9 units of
credit by working essentially full-time for the semester in the judge's
chambers. The "full-time" requirement is a minimum of 35
working hours per week for a minimum of 12 weeks. A number of judges
require their externs to make a commitment of 13, 14, or 15 weeks.
Part-time externs must work a minimum of 45 hours for each unit of credit
earned.
Where to Extern: Most externs work right here in
the Civic Center -- just minutes from Hastings. Many federal
district judges and magistrates and superior court judges actively seek
externs; a number of judges of the California Court of Appeal, California
Supreme Court, and 9th Circuit take on externs. Specialty courts
(bankruptcy, family law, probate) and selected administrative agency
tribunals (NLRB, Immigration Court) also seek externs. Steve Kaufman,
Clinical Programs Manager, can provide details.
Students also work at commuting distance from Hastings
in the superior courts of nearby counties and at federal court sites in
Oakland and San Jose. And students also go outside the Bay Area,
either to reunite with family "left behind" when they came to
law school or to try out other communities. (A full-time externship
can earn you up to 10 units (9 fieldwork, 1 classroom); that externship
will satisfy the semester-in-residence requirement. Most students
need at least a few additional units during an "away" externship
semester. Some register for a class at a nearby law school, at the
cost of additional tuition; some do a two-unit independent study with a
Hastings professor to boost their unit total for that semester.) You
do not need permission to extern anywhere you wish in California.
While most commonly students go to Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego,
and Sacramento, you may explore other areas if you wish.
Students have received permission to extern in numerous
other places. The faculty supervisor has to have reason to believe a
member of the faculty could make a site visit during the externship
semester to approve any other locale. Because of her own regular
travel, Prof. Cohen will approve an externship in New York City or
Washington, DC, for any semester. Hastings students have externed at
United Nations Tribunals; for information about those opportunities, speak
with Professor Naomi Roht-Arriaza.
When to Extern: It is most common for students to
extern during their third year. However, 4th semester externships
prove satisfactory for many students. Nevertheless, chambers
sometimes give more challenging work to 3rd year than 2nd year externs
(for logical reasons); sometimes students find the externship during 2nd
year to be a daunting experience if it is their first significant legal
(or other) job. Externships are more popular with 3rd year students
during the spring than the fall (especially because many students have
fall on-campus responsibilities like journal editorships that they feel
would conflict with an externship). As a consequence it is easier
to get the externship of your choice in the fall than the spring (as
there are fewer applicants). Especially if you have a particular
court and/or particular judges with whom you would like to work, you
should consider applying in the fall; you have a second chance applying in
the spring.
Making Application: If you want to extern, you
should first consider where, and with which judges. Do some
research, and make yourself some lists. Follow the Hastings
Weekly -- Steve Kaufman, Clinical Programs Manager, will suggest when
it is time to apply for the subsequent semester. His office contains
volumes of questionnaires filled out by past externs; that information
should be consulted to learn about the different chambers and their
expectations. When you apply for externships, you will often get
calls to come for interviews very quickly -- and often externships are
offered "on the spot." Because of the rapid feedback in
this process, at least early in the "season" you should probably
apply in "waves," rather than applying to all chambers at once.
Why Should You Extern? It is most important
to consider why you
should do an externship. For that, follow the links below.
Further down is discussion of courses you might wish to consider before
doing an externship.
In their own words ... recent Hastings externs comment
about their externships.
What Courses Should I Take Prior to an
Externship?
The only course required by the Academic
Regulations is Evidence. A student externing in an approved administrative
court may substitute Administrative Law for Evidence. However, a recent
group of externs, asked what courses were useful prior to the
externship, named Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, and California
Civil Procedure as frequently as they named Evidence. Also receiving a
significant number of mentions were Federal Courts, Constitutional Law,
and Trial or Appellate Advocacy.
Obviously the value of any particular course is
dependent upon the site of the externship – in state or federal court,
trial or appellate court. Externs seeking positions in specialty courts
will find it valuable to have taken the relevant course (e.g., Family Law,
Wills and Trusts, Bankruptcy), although students have been successful as
externs in such courts without having taken these courses in advance.
