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Main Internship Programs Postgraduate Professional Development Program Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Washington, D.C. Legal Externship Program Sophomore Exploration Program

The Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Washington, DC Legal Externship Program

The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law Washington D.C. Legal Externship Program enables second and third-year law students from any ABA-accredited law school to live and work in the nation’s capital for a semester. The Program helps students find externship placements, includes special programming and courses designed to help students learn and succeed in their externships, and includes optional guaranteed housing.

I. Overview and Purpose of the Program

The Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Washington, DC Legal Externship Program is designed to help law students such as yourself:

acquire an insider's view of how law and policy is made in the nation's capital,
build experience and connections that will be valued by employers in the D.C. area and elsewhere,
obtain deep and practical expertise in your areas of professional interest,
develop leadership skills that will enable you to be more successful in your career, and
acquire the tools to make a difference on issues you care about.

The Program is open to applications from students at ABA-accredited law schools across the United States. Participating students from other law schools will apply to be visiting students at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and, if accepted, will receive from the College of Law the credits they earn during the semester in Washington, D.C. Tuition and fees for the semester will be our standard in-state and out-of-state rates as applicable (The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law estimates that Spring 2010 semester tuition and fees for full-time students who are not Arizona residents will be $16,310).

II. Externship and Externship Seminar

The 9 credit Legal Externship has two main components: 1) the 36 hours per week of work done in the externship placement and 2) the companion Externship Seminar. Numerous exciting placement sites have already expressed enthusiasm for the Program, including the following and many more:

State Department Legal Adviser’s Office
Department of Justice (including the Civil Rights, Tribal Justice, and Environmental Enforcement divisions)
Defense, Energy and Education Departments -- General Counsel’s Offices
Embassy of Canada Congressional and Legal Affairs Office
American Diabetes Association, Vice President for Legal Affairs
White House Council on Environmental Quality, General Counsel's Office
Various members of the U.S. House of Representatives & Senate
House Committee on Foreign Affairs
American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative
U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia
U.S. Federal Trade Commission
International Municipal Lawyers Association
Interpol, Office of the General Counsel

The weekly Externship Seminar is designed to enhance students’ externship experience through reflective learning. The first hour of the Externship Seminar will be a "round-table" discussion during which students will discuss their individual externship experiences. The goal of these discussions is to allow students to learn about the different aspects of lawyering from the range of externship sites in which the students are placed. Generally, the second hour of the seminar will include a guest speaker who will assist the students in exploring the variety of career opportunities in Washington, D.C. specifically, and in the law in general.

III. Academic Courses

All students in the Program must enroll for a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 15 credit hours, including the nine credit hours which ASU grants for the externship itself. We are offering the following two academic courses during the Spring 2010 semester (and plan to offer similar courses in Fall 2010 and thereafter): Legislative Advocacy and the Law and Advanced Problems in Executive Branch Regulatory Policy and Law.

IV. Application Deadlines

The application deadlines for the Fall 2010 semester are March 1, 2010 for early consideration and April 15, 2010 for regular consideration. Students interested in externship placements requiring security clearance must submit their application by the early consideration deadline. These placements include the Department of State, Department of Justice, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and several others.

More information can be found on the program’s website . A set of FAQs for applicants is here . If you are on Facebook, you can receive program updates and reminders by signing up by clicking here.