Identifying an Externship Placement
Catholic Law students searching for externship opportunities are also invited to consult 12twenty or careers.law.edu, a job database regularly updated by the Office of Career and Professional Development. To obtain a 12twenty username and password, students should email the request, their name, and class/graduation year to jobs@law.edu.
The Office of Career and Professional Development (OCPD) also offers a variety of resources to students searching for externship placements. Students are invited to schedule a meeting with an OCPD counselor and to consult the OCPD library of materials for conducting a successful job search, located both in the OCPD office suite and electronically on 12twenty.
Before the semester begins:
1.Tentatively find a fieldwork placement.
2. To begin the process of seeking academic credit, please complete an application in 12twenty by taking the following steps:
- Log in to 12twenty and select the "Experiential Learning" tab.
- Select "Add Experience" in the top right corner.
- Select "Externship" from the "Experiential Learning Type" and complete the application.
3. After your application is approved, obtain the Site Supervisor, Faculty Supervisor and Extern Agreement from the "Documents" section of your externship experience within 12twenty. You and your site supervisor will need to review and sign this agreement within the first week of classes.
Enrollment in Externship Courses
Students completing their first externship for academic credit:
- Enroll in a Becoming a Lawyer (BAL) or Becoming a Public Policy Lawyer (BPPL - fall only),
- Enroll in the Legal Externship course (for 2 or 3 credits) to receive credit for your fieldwork.
Students completing a second or subsequent externship for academic credit:
- Enroll only in the Legal Externship course for 2 or 3 credits. You will participate in the Supervised Fieldwork program (non-credit based) and will be contacted by your faculty instructor with more information about course requirements at the beginning of the semester.
Requirements to Earn Academic Credit for Fieldwork Hours
To successfully complete the Legal Externship course and receive academic credit for their externship fieldwork hours, all externship program students must do the following:
(1) Complete the minimum number of fieldwork hours required for the number of credits selected.
- Students who enroll in the Legal Externship course during the fall or spring semester for 2 credits must complete 100 hours of fieldwork throughout the semester, or an average of 7.25 or more hours per week for 14 weeks.
- Students who enroll in the Legal Externship course during the fall or spring semester for 3 credits must complete 150 hours of fieldwork throughout the semester, or an average of 10.75 or more hours per week for 14 weeks.
- Students who enroll in the Legal Externship course during the summer semester for 2 credits must complete 100 hours of fieldwork throughout the semester, or an average of 12.5 or more hours per week for 8 weeks.
- Students who enroll in the Legal Externship course during the summer semester for 3 credits must complete 150 hours of fieldwork throughout the semester, or an average of 18.75 or more hours per week for 8 weeks.
(2) Provide timely, detailed documentation of your fieldwork hours using the Hours Log feature in 12twenty.
- At the beginning of the semester, students will receive written and video instructions on completing time logs in 12twenty. Students will use their time logs to document their hours and describe their work, which are the data that Catholic Law uses to award credit for field placement work.
- We encourage students to update their time logs in 12twenty in real time (i.e., daily). Externship faculty will review students' hours every two weeks (or every week in the summer). Students who do not complete their timesheets by the biweekly deadlines throughout the semester (or weekly deadlines during the summer) run the risk of not receiving credit for their placements.
- Students will receive reminder emails in advance of deadlines.
*Time logs are due every two weeks during fall and spring semesters; time logs are due every week during summer semesters.
(3) Complete evaluations of the placement.
- At the mid-point and end of the semester, students must submit written evaluations of their placements using a Google Form, which will be emailed to them by the Office of Academic Affairs.
(4) Ensure that your supervisor submits evaluations of your work.
- Finally, we must receive written evaluations of students’ work from their fieldwork supervisors. The Office of Academic Affairs will email electronic evaluation forms to supervisors for this purpose near the mid-point and end of the semester. Students should confirm with their supervisors that they received the form and will submit it prior to the mid-point and end of semester deadlines. Supervisors typically discuss their feedback with students during both of these times.