Paid Corporate Externships

Externships are part of a student’s academic curriculum and must be structured such that students are learning new skills and competencies.  To qualify for academic credit and as experiential education, field placements must meet specific requirements under ABA Standards 302, 303, 304 and 305.  Under these Standards, to receive credit, students must be engaged in the performance of specific professional skills, including a “substantial lawyering experience,” and must receive “opportunities for performance, feedback and self-evaluation.”  In addition, the law school must maintain “a sufficient control of the student experience to ensure that the requirements of the Standards are met.

In August 2016, the American Bar Association issued new Standards surrounding field placements and externships.  Law schools are now permitted, but not required, to allow students receive both pay and credit simultaneously.  In 2020, AUWCL is implementing a pilot program through which students in corporate placements (does not include law firms or other placements) may receive academic credit for paid externships if the placements meets the requirements below.  After completion of this pilot (including an assessment of student experiences), AUWCL will determine whether or how to move forward with paid externships.

Employers may have very different expectations of paid employees than they do of unpaid externs.  Even the most conscientious employer may not be able to separate them out. Some examples of these differences include:

If a paid externship does not meet the conditions listed above, it may be very difficult for students to advocate for themselves, as they will risk losing their compensation.  Therefore, for this pilot program, we are creating specific guidelines to safeguard the academic integrity of the externships.

Requirements for Paid Externships

Generally, students may not extern and receive financial compensation for their work, except stipends for out-of-pocket expenses or grants/scholarships from a third party unrelated to the field placement.

Under the new pilot program, students externing at a for-profit, corporate placement, participating in the AUWCL Corporate Counsel Externship Program, may receive academic credit and financial compensation if they meet the following requirements.

1. Standard Externship Program Requirements:  Both the student and the attorney supervisor must agree to meet all of the standard Externship Program requirements described in current employer agreement (see attached) and the student agreement (see attached).
2. Paid externships apply only to corporate placements: Students may not be paid for any non-corporate placements (government, not-for-profit, courts) and are not permitted to extern for law firms (unless they are exclusively engaged in pro bono work), whether paid or unpaid.
3. Application Form: The student and the field placement must execute a Corporate Counsel Paid Externship Application Form.  Students will provide their educational goals and objectives for the externship.  The employer will indicate that the primary purpose of the placement is the student’s education, not the company’s needs, and will indicate how the opportunities the student will have at the placement will meet the student’s educational objectives. 
4. Externing for Current Employer:   Students may not extern for companies at which they are already employed unless the employer can demonstrate the increased educational value of the experience and how the work will be substantially different from the work in which the student is already engaged as an employee. (This explanation is included as part of Application Form). Students may not earn credit for paid work with a current employer for more than one semester. 
5. Tracking Hours: Students must keep specific track of their time – describing their work on an hourly basis and describing the supervision and feedback they are receiving from attorneys.  A tracking form will be provided.
   • Tracking requirements:  Students must note on the tracking form any assignments that may not meet the “substantive legal work” requirement.   Any work that does not meet Externship Program requirements will not count towards fulfilling field placement or experiential skills hours. Such assignments would include administrative/clerical work, event planning, database management (entering or editing information without legal research), translation services, and repetitive tasks (tasks in which very few skills are learned after the initial assignments have been completed).
   • Program Requirements:  No more than 10% of the extern’s weekly duties may involve assignments that do not include a legal component or involve substantive legal work.
   •  Faculty Involvement: The professor can discuss such assignments with the student to determine whether there is a legal component to the work and if necessary, the student and/or professor may contact the employer to ensure the student is meeting Program requirements
   • Non- compliance: Failure to include assignments which may not meet Program requirements regarding substantive legal work and attorney supervision on the tracking sheet will be considered a violation of the Honor Code.
6. Seminar: Students must enroll in the Corporate Counsel Seminar (LAW-769) taught online for 2 credits and graded A-F, and corresponding Corporate Counsel Fieldwork credits (LAW-899).  The seminar and the field placement are contemporaneous – 13 weeks during fall and spring/9 weeks during summer semester).
7. Research Databases: Paid externs may have restrictions on their use of research databases such as Lexis, Bloomberg and Westlaw.  Paid externs will have to gain access to these programs from their supervisors/offices.
8. Termination:  In the event the student is terminated from employment prior to competing his or her field placement hours, the student is responsible for locating and securing a substitute placement which may or may not provide compensation to the student.
9. Payment Issues:  Externship placements are under no obligation to pay students for their time.  Payment is solely a function of the externship placement entity, and the law school will not become involved in any negotiations or disputes regarding payment for externships.

If students in externships find that they are not meeting the Externship Program requirements described in the Field Placement Agreement and/or the Paid Externship Application Form, they must inform their professor immediately.   If the attorney supervisor will not make efforts to ameliorate the situation, the supervisor will be notified that the field placement is not in compliance with the Externship Program and that the student’s credits are in jeopardy.  If the situation is not resolved, the student will be given permission to find another placement.  Students may not remain in a seminar without participating in a field placement that meets the Externship Program requirements.

If a student or supervisor has any questions or concerns about paid externships, they should send an email to externships@wcl.american.edu.