“Students benefit from externships by seeing the law in motion, as they learn to piece together the substantive legal knowledge they gain in the classroom in solving a real-world legal problems. Students also learn what it means to be a practicing member of the profession and what the daily work of lawyers is like.”
– Professor Jennifer Kinsley, associate dean for professional development and director of field placement program
What Qualifies for an Externship
A position involving law-related responsibility can be in virtually any law-related setting authorized by Professor Jennifer Kinsley, director, 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.)