Legal Extern 2025

Course Description:

Integrates a weekly corporate counsel class with hands-on experience in corporate legal departments. Provides a broad yet comprehensive overview of substantive areas encountered in an in-house legal department and the ethical responsibilities of in-house counsel,as well as professional skills such as working with outside counsel, managing conflicts, drafting contracts, and conducting internal investigations. Chief legal officers, general counsels, and senior managing attorneys guest lecture in certain classes. In addition to the class component, students are assigned to corporate legal departments where they work approximately 10 hours per week, for a minimum of 120 hours for the term. Student activities vary depending on the corporation but may include attending meetings, observing negotiations, conducting legal research, working on special projects, and otherwise gaining an understanding of how law is practiced within a business setting. The externship component is pass/fail, and the class component is graded; students must pass both to receive credit (total of 4 credit hours for this class plus 2 credit hours for the externship, which is a separate registration). Students may not enroll in this program and another externship or clinical program during the same term.