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PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Interns participate in a weekly seminar with other interns and a supervising faculty member. The seminar gives students an opportunity to share experiences and hear about a wide range of practice. It also provides a forum for discussing issues of concern to new lawyers, ranging from the most practical questions regarding professional etiquette, to the more theoretical considerations of ethics and morality. Students find these seminars to be an important source of support for making the transition from student to lawyer.
For students who are doing their internships outside of San Diego, the weekly seminar or classroom component consists of a tutorial between the intern and the supervising faculty member. A faculty member conducts this tutorial through a combination of correspondence and telephone calls, as well as a site visit. If a student is planning to intern outside of San Diego, they should arrange to attend the pre-bar course the seminar before or after their internship.
PROGRAM GOALS
- Develop the students' abilities to learn from experience and become thoughtful problem solvers
- Promote students' sensitivity to and awareness of professional responsibility and ethical issues
- Give students insights into how the legal system works
- Train students in lawyering skills
- Instill values of professionalism
- Develop students' interpersonal skills
The chart differentiates the job of a law clerk versus the experience of an intern:
| |
Law Clerk |
Intern |
| Relationship with attorney |
Employer/employee |
Mentor/student |
| Purpose |
Produce |
Learn |
| Tasks and work |
Production |
Deliberate |
| Expectations |
Efficiency and speed |
Understanding and learning |
| Exposure |
Work assigned |
Opportunity to engage in a variety of lawyering activities |
| Feedback |
Not primary focus |
Work reviewed and redone until correct |
| Compensation |
Money & experience |
Experience with supervision and academic credit |
ACADEMIC CREDIT
Students intern for one trimester for 14 weeks and spend between 20 and 40 hours per week at their placement, depending upon the number of units they are earning. Interns receive academic credit (pass/fail) rather than remuneration for their work. Students may do internships locally, or out-of-town if it is a type of placement not available locally. They may earn between 1 and 10 pass/fail credits for their internship, each unit of credit representing 4 hours of internship per week. The minimum number of hours for an internship is 20 per week. In addition to their pass/fail credits, students obtain one additional graded unit of credit for the required Internship Seminar, or through the classroom component, which is a tutorial, composed of correspondence with an assigned faculty supervisor and weekly contact for an out-of-town internship. Thus, a student doing a 40 hour internship, either locally or out-of-town, would receive a total of 11 units of credit, 10 pass/fail and 1 graded. Students cannot exceed 16 units of credit while interning.
| POSSIBLE UNITS |
| UNITS |
HOURS PER WEEK |
HOURS FOR TRIMESTER |
| 5 |
20 |
280 |
| 6 |
24 |
336 |
| 7 |
28 |
392 |
| 8 |
32 |
448 |
| 9 |
36 |
504 |
| 10 |
40 |
560 |
The above does NOT count the 1 unit classroom component.
REQUIREMENTS
An important goal of the Internship Program is the development of students' abilities to seriously reflect upon the work of the lawyer. This goal is achieved through maintaining a reflective daily journal during the course of the internship, meeting with the Internship faculty, and attending the Internship Seminar.
In addition, the following restrictions apply:
1. Students must be in their last or next to last trimester of law school at the time the internship begins.
2. Students are required to have a minimum of 50 hours of legal experience (paid, pro bono, or other volunteer) acquired since entering law school.
3. Professional Responsibility is a prerequisite.
4. Students may participate in this program one trimester only.
5. Students planning to intern outside of San Diego must arrange to attend the CWSL’s Bar Review Course the trimester before or after their internship. See Dean Scheininger in the Academic Achievement Office for details.
6. Students cannot be on, or in danger of going on, academic probation (Academic Policy 7.33). Students with a current GPA below 76 must submit their transcript with their internship application form. When a student's GPA has fallen below 74 for one trimester: if it was the trimester prior to their applying for an internship, the student may not do an internship. (See Faculty for further clarification) If at least one trimester of grades has intervened between the below 74 and the application, the student may petition the Internship faculty stating why the student is not academically at risk. Students with a current GPA below 75 may not do an internship unless the student will not be enrolled in school during the trimester just prior to their internship trimester.
7. Some internships have specific class ranking, prerequisite courses or other requirements, as detailed in the internship notebooks. Please read these requirements carefully when looking through the notebooks. The District Attorney (all departments) City Attorney Criminal Division and the Public Defender's Office all have Trial Practice Co- or Pre-requisites.
8. Students may not under any circumstances intern with relatives, friends, friends of relatives. Nor where they have been employed, know they will be employed or where they are a client.
9. Students cannot take more than 16 units of credit while interning.
Please click here to look at the Internship Calendar.
Forms
Supervising Attorney Application
Supervising Attorney Handbook
Memorandum of Agreement
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