Externship; Federal Judicial Honors

Catalog description

This program is designed specifically for students who will be applying for federal clerkships after graduation from law school. The course prepares students for a post-graduate clerkship by providing an intensive writing experience as well as an introduction to the workings of the various courts in the federal system. There are three components to the Honors Program: a mentored writing assignment that takes place in the fall semester, a judicial externship placement, and a seminar in the spring semester. Students who are selected for the program are assigned to a faculty mentor in September and asked to prepare a writing piece similar to the type they would be required to draft for the judges in the externship portion of the course, using actual court motion papers from past cases. This portion of the program is done in the fall semester according to a schedule the student works out with his or her faculty mentor. Upon successful completion of the faculty-mentored writing project by December, students are placed in externships in the spring semester with individual judges in Second Circuit Court of Appeals (New York City; Stamford, Connecticut) and in the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of New York (White Plains and Foley Square in New York City), the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn Heights), the District of Connecticut (Bridgeport), and the District of New Jersey (Newark). The externship portion of the program provides the students with a tremendous opportunity to apply their writing and research skills in a demanding setting and to experience the work of a federal court firsthand. Students will need to plan their semester schedules to permit their being in chambers at least 12 hours a week. In addition, Honors Program students participate in a weekly seminar in the spring semester, which includes such topics as the role of the student extern…