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 a program questionnaire.  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:

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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. 

Externships and Compensations

  1. Externship students are permitted to receive fellowships, grants, and scholarships, as long as the funds are received from a third-party source and not directly from the placement organization.
  2. Externship students can receive reimbursement for their reasonable out-of-pocket expenses related to 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.
  3. Externship students may not receive other remuneration from a field placement, including wages or salaries.