Externships

What qualifies for an externship

A position involving law-related responsibility can be in virtually any law-related setting authorized by the director of the field placement program.

For example, students have held externships with city solicitors, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, legal aid offices, law firms, prosecutors, corporate law departments, state attorneys general, and state and federal judges.

What externs do

Externships cover a range of experiences, including legal research, drafting documents and memoranda, compiling practice-related databases, and, for students with a limited law license, appearing in court.

Among previous students’ externships are:

Courts: Judge Amul Thapar of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Justice Michelle Keller of the Supreme Court of Kentucky, Justice Melody Stewart of the Supreme Court of Ohio and all United States District Court judges in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
Criminal: Federal Public Defender, Boone County (Kentucky) Commonwealth Attorney’s Office and Hamilton County (Ohio) Public Defender’s Office.
Government: Kentucky Cabinet for the Environment, City of Cincinnati law department, City of Covington law department.
Corporate: General Electric, Great American Insurance, Lockheed Martin, Paycor, Marathon Petroleum, Premier Health, Mercy Health and Hosparus Health.
University: Northern Kentucky University Athletic Department
Law firms of all sizes, such as Reminger, Frost Brown Todd, Katz Teller, and Gatherwright Freeman.

Who is eligible

The student must have earned a minimum of 28 law school credits prior to the commencement of any field placement work and must be in good academic standing at the time the field placement is commenced;
The student must have satisfactorily completed both BLS-Research and BLS-Writing;
The student must be accepted at a pre-approved field placement location (pre-approved placements are listed in Chase Connect) or obtain the field placement director’s approval before beginning a field placement that has not been pre-approved; and
The student must complete all registration enrollment forms required by the field placement director. (The list of required forms is contained under the “Required Forms” section of the handbook.)

How to select an externship

Students identify potential externships through consultation with the director of the field placement program, postings on Chase Connect, our career services management system, or after their own initiative.
After identifying an externship, students submit a Field Placement Information Form to Professor Danielle Lewis by email at ravencrafd1@nku.edu.

How course credit hours are earned

Students earn one credit hour for each 50 hours of field work, up to 12 credit hours. Students in a first externship, called Field Placement Clinic, can choose to earn one to three credits; students in a subsequent externship, or Advanced Field Placement Clinic, can earn one to three credits; and students in Semester in Practice, either a first or subsequent externship that requires the greatest time commitment, can earn four to 12 credits. (Students in this externship must allow at least 30 days for Professor Kinsley to conduct a site visit prior to a placement.) All students must enroll in a one-credit, graded Field Placement Seminar. Grading of placement work is high pass/pass/fail. The seminar is awarded a letter grade.

Compensated externship policy

Chase does not prohibit a student from simultaneously earning academic credit for a field placement and being compensated by the placement or other outside funding source. Students may simultaneously earn academic credit in the field placement clinic, advanced field placement clinic, and/or semester in practice courses while also receiving compensation from the work site, subject to the following requirements:

The student must meet in advance with the field placement director prior to enrolling in a field placement course and must disclose the fact that the student intends to receive compensation for the placement;
Prior to the commencement of the field placement, the field placement director will communicate with the field placement supervisor regarding the nature of the field placement, the student’s educational goals and objectives, and the requirement that the placement exist primarily for the student’s education and not the supervisor’s organizational needs;
The student and the field placement supervisor must execute a written work contract indicating that the primary purpose of the placement is the student’s education and indicating the skills and substantive performance opportunities the student will obtain at the placement;
The student may not receive academic credit for work that is non-legal in nature or that is not attorney-level work within the field placement organization (i.e. copying files with no educational purpose, making coffee). In other words, if the student is asked to undertake a non-legal activity for compensation, the student may be paid for the activity but may not report the work on his or her weekly timesheet for the field placement program.; and
In the event the student is terminated from employment prior to completing his or her field placement hours, the student will locate a substitute placement, which may or may not provide compensation to the student.

How to obtain a limited law license

Participation in an externship does not require a limited license to practice law, but one is required to appear in court with supervision of a lawyer. Application information is available here for Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana.