Students Gain Valuable Legal Experience Through Summer Externships

Summer is prime time to swap the classroom for an office and continue learning a new aspect of the legal profession. As many as 220 MSU Law students use the summer hiatus from classes to explore career interests and gain practical job experience at externships across the nation and the world.

Students can put their classroom learning to work developing practical skills while gaining necessary on-the-job experience the legal profession demands. Opportunities range from international externships in other countries and to jobs down the street in Michigan’s capital city and state government complex.

MSU Law 3L student Daniel Elliot is spending his summer down under in Adelaide, Australia, for Kain C+C exploring business improvement and taking on assignments to implement legal lean concepts at the international firm.

David Rader, also a 3L, is spending this summer in Washington, D.C., working as a summer associate for the RAND Corporation doing international policy research.
“Policy is where the law is written,” he explained. “It’s the genesis for laws and the basis for all the advice lawyers give their clients.”

Opportunities abound closer to home for many MSU Law students. Kelsey Brunette spent the summer of 2014 after her first year of law school as an intern at Michigan Millers Insurance Company, a research assistant for the MSU College of Law Library, and as a teaching assistant to Professor Brian Kaser’s Law Practice Management course. She also enrolled in a summer course, Professional Responsibility.

While each experience deepened her legal acumen, she also mastered critical time management skills. “I learned to log and evaluate my time,” Kelsey said. “I really had to pay attention as to whether an assignment was taking too long.”

The academic credit component to externships allows students to earn up to nine credits toward their degree. In any given semester, students may earn credits for their externship experience at a specific site by creating a learning plan to map their objectives and goals, submitting bi-weekly reflective writing assignments, and writing a final paper.

MSU Law’s DC Semester program is another popular choice for students looking to gain experience working for a federal agency about 24 hours a week and taking courses while living in the national capital city.

“Having practical experience and working directly with clients in a supervised setting gives students a much needed complement to their classroom learning,” said Professor Hannah Brenner, director of the externship program. “I encourage all students to take advantage of hands-on learning opportunities because it will give them additional insight into the legal profession and their potential career opportunities.”