Information for Placement Providers

Thank you for your interest in partnering with Fordham Law students as they begin the transition from the classroom to the practice of law.

Fordham Law students may earn academic credit by participating in legal work under the supervision of practicing attorneys in government agencies, judges’ chambers, non-profit organizations, and select for-profit placements focusing on Intellectual Property and Information Law, including media, entertainment, and fashion companies. These experiential opportunities are intended to build upon what students have already learned in their doctrinal courses and to promote their professional development, by assisting them in integrating legal theory with skills and professional values. Placements that have not yet been approved must complete an Application for Approval. All government and judicial placements are considered pre-approved.

Externship field placements play an integral part in helping Fordham Law students achieve the following goals of the Externship Program:

Training Students in Lawyering

Placements should offer opportunities for students to gain an understanding of some of the basic competencies required for legal practice and to begin developing those competencies. Skill areas include: client and witness interviewing; client counseling; negotiation; oral advocacy; fact investigation; legal research and writing; case planning; and drafting legal documents. Placements also frequently offer exposure to such skills as time management and law office operations.

Development of Professional Identity

Placements should offer a forum from which students will consider their professional role and the responsibilities that accompany that role. This includes analysis not only of relevant ethical rules and compliance with them, but also identification of professional values that extend beyond the codified rules.

Growth of Students' Self-Evaluative Skills

Placements should provide opportunities for active learning through experience, feedback, and reflection. Placements should, therefore, stimulate development of self-evaluative skills and the ability to learn from experience.

Analysis of Legal Systems and Institutions

Placements should offer students opportunities to analyze and assess various legal institutions and systems – including not only the organizations within which students perform their fieldwork but other legal institutions, as well.

Fordham Law students secure their own externship placements based on their unique skills and interests. Our Career Planning Center can assist you in creating an externship posting with our Online Job Bank. Many students begin planning for their upcoming semesters months in advance, so we encourage you to search for applicants early. For the fall semester, students will begin planning as early as April; for the summer, as early as February, and for the spring, as early as October.

To obtain externship credit, students must work ten hours a week for thirteen weeks during the fall or spring semesters and twenty hours a week for eight weeks during the summer session.

Information Regarding Externships and Compensation

Externship students are permitted to receive funding in the form of fellowships, grants, and scholarships, as long as the funds are received from a third party source and not directly from the placement organization.
Externship students are permitted to receive reimbursement for their reasonable out-of pocket expenses related to their fieldwork. Reimbursement is permitted for the following expenses:
1. During all semesters: local transportation costs (e.g., subway, parking); and
2. During the summer only: the cost of transportation to and from the field placement if it is at a distance from NYC (an “out of town” placement) and for housing and food costs only to the extent they are greater than what they would have been at the student’s home location.
Eternship students may not receive any other remuneration from a field placement, including wages or salaries.

Contact the Externship Program

Ron Lazebnik
Clinical Associate Professor
Director, J.D. Externship Program
150 West 62nd Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10023

Tel: 212-636-6934

Fax: 212-636-6923

Email: [email protected]