Pathways to Practice Externship Program

Pathways to Practice allows students to:

• Gain hands-on legal experience before graduation.
• Earn academic credit while working in a legal setting.
• Explore different areas of legal practice.
• Build professional relationships with attorneys and judges.
• Strengthen practical lawyering skills.
• Develop professional identity and ethical decision-making.
• Become more competitive for post-graduate employment.

Students may complete externships with a variety of legal employers, including:

• Law firms
• Judicial chambers (state and federal)
• Government agencies
• Prosecutors' and public defenders' offices
• Corporate legal departments
• Legal aid organizations
• Nonprofit organizations
• Other approved legal employers

Each student is supervised by a licensed attorney who provides mentoring, assigns substantive legal work, and offers ongoing feedback throughout the semester.

Throughout the semester, students develop essential lawyering competencies, including:

• Legal research and writing
• Legal analysis and problem solving
• Client interviewing and counseling
• Professional communication
• Negotiation
• Litigation and advocacy
• Drafting legal documents
• Professional responsibility and ethics
• Cultural competency and client-centered representation
• Professional identity development

Fieldwork is complemented by a required weekly seminar led by the Pathways faculty member.

The class helps students connect their experiences in practice to the law through:

• Guided classroom discussions
• Reflective writing
• Simulations and skills exercises
• Professional development activities
• Ethical decision-making
• Individual feedback and coaching
• Legal writing assignments

Together, the field placement and seminar provide a comprehensive experiential learning experience.

To qualify as an approved Pathways placement:

• Students must perform substantive legal work that promotes professional learning.
• Students must be supervised by a licensed attorney.
• Placements may be paid or unpaid.
• Supervising attorneys must permit students to attend the required weekly seminar.
• Fully remote placements are approved only in limited circumstances and require prior approval.

Students earn a letter grade upon successful completion of:

• Required field placement hours
• Weekly seminar attendance
• Course assignments

Pathways to Practice II is available only to students who have successfully completed Pathways to Practice I.

Students complete all Pathways I requirements listed above plus one of the following:

Option 1:

• A publishable-quality legal research paper (minimum 10 pages) related to the externship.

Option 2:

• A substantial legal work product (minimum 10 pages), such as:
  • Legal memorandum
  • Appellate brief
  • Trial brief
  • Other approved legal writing that demonstrates in-depth legal analysis

Students must also submit a short reflection explaining the purpose of the work product and their legal research process.

In addition to completing fieldwork (externship work), students must attend the weekly seminar and complete all course assignments.

Students may earn:

• 2–4 credit hours during the fall and spring semesters
• 2–5 credit hours during the summer dual-semester

Each credit hour requires 40 hours of supervised fieldwork.

*Based on a 14-week semester.

Additional Information:

• Students schedule externship hours directly with their supervising attorney.
• Hours must be completed during the semester in conjunction with the seminar.
• Research and writing assignments may occasionally be completed remotely with supervisor approval.
• ABA standards permit students to receive compensation while earning academic credit for an externship.

• Students must first obtain an externship placement with an approved legal employer.
• Need help finding a placement? Career Services and the Externship Office are available to assist.

Work with your supervising attorney to complete the required paperwork, including:

• Pathways to Practice Memorandum of Understanding
• Student Practice Certification forms (when applicable)
  • Law Student Certification - Completed by the law student
  • Supervising Attorney Statement Form - Completed by the supervising attorney

Complete the online Pathways to Practice Application and upload all required documents.

Please note:

• Email submissions are not accepted.
• Paper copies will not be accepted.

Pathways to Practice Application

The Pathways professor will review your application and placement to ensure it complies with ABA standards.

Once approved:

• You and your supervising attorney will receive a confirmation email.
• The Pathways professor will submit your enrollment to the Law School Registrar.
• Students cannot self-register for Pathways in Banner.

Pathways to Practice Application

Some externship placements require North Carolina Student Practice Certification (formerly the 3L Practice Rule).

Students requiring certification will submit all required documentation as part of the Pathways to Practice Application. A separate certification request is not required.

Internships are generally defined as work through which students gain experience in a given field.

An “externship” or “field placement” is similar to an internship, but externs receive academic credit for their field work along with participation in the externship class where the externship professor and externship supervising attorney guide and facilitate the students’ exploration of their externship experience through directed supervision, and class instruction.

In order for students to receive academic credit through an externship, they must take part in the externship class, Pathways to Practice.

Yes, students can convert an internship into an externship if they apply and are accepted into the Pathways to Practice class for the same semester as the field placement.

Applications for Pathways to Practice typically open two months before the semester begins.

Both the student and their supervising attorney must sign a Pathways to Practice Memorandum of Understanding (required) and upload it to the online application. Students cannot apply after the semester starts.

Priority is given to public-interest or unpaid externships.

Yes, students (including evening students) can start externships in the summer following their 1L year.

Yes, ABA rules do not prevent law students from receiving compensation during an externship in which they earn academic credit.

However, priority for Pathways to Practice placement is given to public-interest or unpaid externships.

It depends. Fully remote externships are allowed only under certain conditions, such as if the supervising attorney is not working onsite and all of the work of the field placement (staff meetings, client meetings, etc.) is taking place remotely.

The following exceptions are the only permitted remote placements:

1. Select organizations in practice areas for which remote work has become standard practice and onsite opportunities are not available (international, tech, engineering, etc.)
2. Evening student program placements

Attorney supervisors must agree to integrate remote students into the work of the office on a regular basis and must meet with remote students at least once per week via video conference.

 It is not acceptable for students to extern remotely just because their placement is outside the Raleigh/Durham area.

Under ABA Standards, externs should engage in the work of a "junior attorney," which includes both opportunities to engage in and to observe others performing legal work. The kind of work each student performs and observes depends on the individual placement, and therefore, there is no bright-line rule for what "substantive legal work" entails.

Typical activities include the following: conducting legal or factual research; conducting client or witness interviews; drafting memoranda and other legal documents; reviewing and preparing transactional documents; attending a negotiation, business meeting, or court hearing; observing attorneys performing lawyering activities; or discussing an experience with a supervising attorney, judge, or colleague.

Yes, but the Externship Office will ensure students are not performing administrative, repetitive, or non-substantive tasks regularly.

Tasks that are not considered substantive legal work include database updates, fundraising, lobbying, event planning, repetitive research, and non-legal research.

In legislative offices, students working for individual representatives may be involved in low-level constituent work, which is not allowed. The supervising attorney must outline the specific legal work the student will perform.

In litigation placements, the supervising attorney must be licensed in the state where the externship occurs.

For non-litigation areas such as policy or compliance, licensed attorneys may serve as supervisors without being licensed in the same state with approval from the Externship Office.

Day-to-day tasks can be supervised by non-attorneys, but an attorney must oversee and review the student’s work and provide feedback.

Non-attorneys cannot serve as sole supervisors. The attorney must be employed by the field placement; board members or volunteers who are not employees cannot act as supervisors.