Externships

At the externship, attorney supervisors mentor students in performing their legal work. Professor Bauman stays closely connected to the supervisors to ensure that students are having a high-quality educational experience. All students must meet one-on-one with Professor Bauman for approval to be in the externship class.

The Externship Program, like all law school classes must comply with ABA Standards; in particular, ABA Standard 304(d) governs externship classes.

Like clinics, externships allow you to build your portfolio with practical, guided experience, and employers recognize their value. The externship program provides students with meaningful opportunities for these learning outcomes:

• An intentional, strategic and reflective approach to learning from experience;
• The ability to explore career interests and paths and build professional networks;
• Hone legal and professional management skills;
• Explore “what it means to be a lawyer” – their professional identities;
• Reflect and build on previous externships, clinics, and work prior to law school; and
• Become keen observers of the workplace with the ability to understand and critique the legal profession

Qualifying placements include judicial chambers, government, public sector, and corporate counsel offices.  At this time, we allow local, state, national and international placements (international placements must be full-time in-person). All placements must be pre-approved by Professor Bauman before the application deadline.

Students are responsible for identifying, applying for and obtaining an externship. One valuable resource for finding opportunities is the Career Services Office (the externship program is not part of that office), which lists positions in Symplicity and has many other resources. https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/careers/career-services-for-students/ There is no separate database for externships.

Students may receive academic credit and compensation if – and only if – the placement organization requires it compensate students. The placement itself must first be approved as a placement.

Currently, students may extern part-time (4-9 units) or full-time (12 units) in a wide variety of in-person, hybrid, and remote placements (no full-time remote placements will be approved).

Students must work 42.5 hours at the placement for each unit. The law school has a 20 unit cap on courses that are not “regularly scheduled” (see https://community.lawschool.cornell.edu/student-life/student-handbook/ That cap includes externships.