Information for Field Supervisors
Why have an extern?
See the benefits that come with helping a student learn the ins and outs of the legal world.
Why have an extern?
See the benefits that come with helping a student learn the ins and outs of the legal world.
Working with a Student Extern
Experienced attorneys or judges who participate in our Externship Course assume principal responsibility for each student in an externship field office and serve as the contact person for the School of Law's externship professor. Field supervisors are expected to regularly meet with students to provide them with general supervision, evaluate performance and mentor the student extern. Students are expected to work in their externship primarily at the field supervisor's office site.
What You Need to Know
A Field Supervisor must be:
An employee of the sponsoring organization or someone who provides legal services on behalf of the sponsoring organization; a licensed attorney who is in good standing with a minimum of three years legal experience; or a judge or justice currently serving on the bench.
A Field Supervisor should expect to mentor and train their extern by doing the following:
- Engage the extern in, and directly supervise, multiple opportunities for performance.
- Provide an experience which is reasonably similar to the experience of a lawyer advising or representing a client or engaging in other lawyering tasks in the field office.
- Develop the concepts underlying the lawyering skills being taught in the field office and integrate doctrine, theory, skills, and legal ethics.
- Provide adequate training to the extern and answer questions the extern has about work assignments, lawyering activities that the extern is observing, or the topics being discussed in the student’s externship coursework.
- Provide to the extern regular and specific feedback about their performance.
- Be available on-site when the extern is at the field office to meet regularly with the extern and to provide regular feedback to them aimed at advancing their skills.
A Field Supervisor will also be required to do the following:·
- Verify the extern’s work hours.
- Complete evaluations of the extern’s written work product and overall performance during and upon completion of the externship.
- Meet with the Externship Professor as requested.
Professor Denise Platfoot Lacey,
Professor of Externships
Phone: 937-229-4634
Email: dlacey1