Spring/Summer 2023 Legal Externship Informational Meeting

ACCESS2PRACTICE

SPRING 2023

LEGAL EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Why Extern?

Chicago-Kent has long recognized that classes and textbooks alone are not sufficient to complete the education of our students and their transformation into lawyers. Students also need practical experience in the real world to acquire legal skills not accessible in the traditional classroom and to gain insight into the strategic and ethical dimensions of the legal profession.

Some students gain experience when they are hired as part-time clerks.  But most students don’t have access to paid or volunteer positions in a legal setting of their choice and/or one that teaches them the skills they want to acquire. 

LEP presents a unique and important opportunity to gain exposure to an area of law you are interested in and helps you significantly broaden your practical employment opportunities.

What is LEP?

Access2Practice (A2P) Legal Externship is a 4-credit-hour Pass/Fail program which enables Kent 2Ls and 3Ls to gain supervision/mentoring in a wide variety of legal areas – both civil and criminal. 

LEP externships are offered in the Fall and Spring semesters and in the Summer session and consist of two separate components: fieldwork and class.

Externs must work 16 hours a week during the Fall/Spring semesters for a minimum total of 224 hours.

In addition, externs attend a series of classes that meet on designated Wednesdays from 4:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m.  Classes focus on different legal areas and the often complex realities at the core of law practice.

Where Can Students Extern?

You select and obtain your own externship.  This program does not assign you to a particular placement. To gain access to the many available externship placement possibilities, consult Symplicity/12twenty. 

Students interested in civil law may extern in a wide variety of places.  For example, some have externed at the City of Chicago Corporation Counsel’s Office, Office of the Illinois Attorney General, Illinois Commerce Commission, Immigration Court of the U.S. Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service, and U.S. and Illinois Environmental Protection Agencies. 

Students interested in criminal law may extern at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Office of the Federal Defender, and at the offices of the State’s Attorney and Public Defender in Cook County as well as the surrounding counties. 

In addition, there are a small number of private law firms and in-house corporate legal departments which have been formally screened and approved for Spring 2023 LEP placements.  These externship opportunities will also be posted on Symplicity/12twenty. 

Informational Meeting on Spring 2023 Access2Practice LEP

On Tuesday, October 18, 2022, at noon (12p.m.) via Zoom, Prof. Gross will conduct an informational meeting about legal externships.  For more information on this information meeting and the Zoom link, please contact sblaz@kentlaw.iit.edu.                      

How to Apply:          

The Information and Application packets for the Spring 2023 LEP will be made available online in 12Twenty and on the Externship web page in the near future.

After you accept an offer to extern for credit, you must submit the packet and also schedule an interview with Professor Gross. No application will be approved for registration if you have not had a prior interview with Professor Gross. Additionally, if the placement is not pre-approved / pre-screened, Professor Gross will need to ensure the placement agrees to comply with externship requirements of the ABA and law school.

Applications to register for A2P Legal Externship Spring 2023 must be submitted to Professor Gross (vgross@kentlaw.iit.edu; cc sblaz@kentlaw.iit.edu) no later than Tuesday, January 3, 2023 to allow sufficient time for final school approval and registration.

 If you would like more information, please check the Externship web page.