Requirements
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Eligibility and Prerequisites Unless otherwise stated, second-, third-, and fourth-year students in good academic standing (having completed thirty credits as a part-time student or two semesters as a full-time student) are eligible to practice law under the Student Practice Order and may apply for any of the programs. Preference will usually be given to students entering their final year of law school (third-year full-time and fourth-year part-time students). Please read course descriptions carefully and make sure that you have satisfied any necessary course prerequisites or requested a waiver on your application. All participants in John Jay Legal Services client representation clinics and externship programs must avoid conflicts of interest based on past or concurrent employment (or volunteer work) situations. If you have questions about a potential conflict, please consult Professor Germaine. Please assume that you will need an average of 4 hours /credit of time per week, in addition to the two-hour seminar, for Clinic work. Some weeks it will be much less, and others, much more; the key is to carve out significant blocks of time during the week that you can devote to clinic work. One important point: a lawyer's obligations, like a doctor's, do not disappear on weekends and over holidays. Students in client representation clinics and externships must be prepared to continue handling their responsibilities throughout exam and break periods. The faculty will help you develop the knack of adroit scheduling, and cooperation with colleagues can minimize these conflicts, but it still may happen that a court appearance will cause you to miss a class or that a crucial meeting with an adversary will occur during a break. |
For a semester I had a judicial clerkship with a federal judge. I researched issues, wrote bench memoranda on contracts and torts, and sat in on criminal cases. It enhanced my writing and editing skills. As part of a judicial clerkship mentoring program, I wrote a decision, based on the facts of a real case, that served as my resume. It led to a two-year clerkship with a federal magistrate in Connecticut. |
