Externship FAQs
Disclaimer: You are still responsible for reviewing our Student Externship Guide for a comprehensive listing of our rules and procedures which is hyperlinked on our homepage under “Key Documents.” This is a typical incomplete FAQ list provided for your convenience.
Externships Frequently Asked Questions
One. You are permitted to take one externship each semester of your 2L and 3L years.
No. Absent extenuating circumstances such as significant hardship, students are not permitted to withdraw from an externship.
Contact your externship companion course faculty member first to discuss the situation. Thereafter, reach out to the Externship Program to arrange a meeting with the director if you are concerned about your ability to continue in an externship.
Note that class conflicts are insufficient grounds from withdrawal from the program. Likewise, securing a paid position outside of the Externship Program is an insufficient reason for withdrawal from the program. The guiding consideration is that Emory Law has invested significant capital in building relationships for you and future externs. Safeguarding these relationships is important. Thus, open lines of communication with your faculty member and the program director are important to be sure issues are addressed as early and quickly as feasible.
No. Students may not take the same course twice as per ABA rules.Generally, after the assigned companion course, the next course is an advanced course or a directed research option. Contact us for details.
No. Students must take the companion course associated with their externship. The Externship office maintains an evergreen full listing of appropriate matching courses
No. Students receive S/U grades for externships.
No. The Externship Program Coordinator (i.e., not the Law Registrar) is personally responsible for enrolling students into externship courses in OPUS. Students are unable to self-enroll. The Externship PC may enroll you in courses anytime up to 11:59 p.m. on the final day of add/drop each semester.
2Ls complete 3 credit hours for a total of 150 hours (including both fieldwork and coursework).
3Ls complete 3-6 credit hours for a total of 300 work term hours.
2Ls must take exactly 3 credit hours.
3Ls may take 3-6 credit hours but must be sure to communicate with their intended site supervisor to confirm the work hour expectations will be sufficient with the selected number of credits.
Each credit hour is equivalent to 50 work-term hours.
It depends. The Externship Program Coordinator is able to change all fieldwork hours up until 11:59 p.m. of the last day of add/drop without issue. Thereafter, a special petition would need to be made by the Externship PC to the Law Registrar. Direct all questions of this nature to lawexternships@emory.edu.
It depends. LAW870I: Externship Advanced is reserved for students who have completed the appropriate companion course. Companion courses are designed for students who are in an externship in that substantive legal practice area. The advanced course is designed, inter alia, to take a step back and understand the purpose and power that experiential learning serves in legal education.
Exception: You have an irreconcilable time conflict with the assigned companion course and have already taken a companion course. You are a graduating 3L who has already had at least one companion course and thus may request to be enrolled in the advanced externship course prior to graduating.
Yes, but only if the extern demonstrates that the work will be substantially different from previous work completed.
Yes, but only if the site supervisor, externship director, and associated clinic director provide express approval.
You may do the initial groundwork of connecting with the site. However, you do not have an externship and will not be enrolled in externship coursework unless and until the Externship Program director completes the ABA required interview and determines that the site is an appropriate placement. The site must then complete the appropriate onboarding paperwork. Contact the Externship Program for more details.
It depends. First, only overage hours (i.e., hours above and beyond those required to satisfy your enrolled credit hours). Second, the site must appropriately satisfy the Pro Bono Program’s requirements. For example, corporate sites typically will not be approved unless the work conducted meets the expectations of pro bono work.
Yes. Record your hours in Symplicity. You may count 28 (i.e., 14 in class hours and 14 class prep hours) towards your work term hour requirements. However, be sure to speak with your site supervisor as your supervisor may expect that you complete the full 150 hours at the site. Contact the Externship Program for more details.
Not typically, but there are exceptions. Students should not take an externship assuming they will be hired upon graduation. Rather, the externship will open many other doors for you as you build your core network, gain practical experience, and sharpen your post-graduation vision.