Frequently Asked Questions

Clinics, practicums, and externships are for-credit experiential programs that integrate theory with hands-on legal training. In all of these programs, students perform the work of professional attorneys, working on real cases and legal projects.

The experiences offered by both clinics and practicums are very similar and equally valuable, in that they offer students an opportunity to gain practical lawyering skills and to work on cases and projects that have a real-world impact on the community. In a clinic, students are supervised by full-time BU Law faculty in casework or projects. Students in a practicum are supervised by part-time BU Law faculty who are experienced Boston-area attorneys. Practicums generally offer fewer credits (1-3 credits per semester) than clinics and require a lower time commitment.

In an externship, students are placed at an organization in the greater Boston area (or outside of Boston, for a Semester-in-Practice) and supervised by an experienced practitioner at the host organization.

All of these experiences include a seminar component that is taught by one or more supervising faculty members. In the case of a part-time externship or Semester-in-Practice, the faculty member also acts as a liaison to the supervising attorney at the host organization.

Absolutely not. We encourage you to participate in a clinic, practicum, or externship regardless of whether or not you are set on a particular practice area. All of these programs are a great way to explore a type of law to see how you like it. In addition, the skills you gain in any program are transferable to many other areas of practice and prepare you to transition to a legal career post-graduation.

Yes, you may participate in more than one program while you are BU Law. However, you may participate in only one program at a time, unless you have received written permission from the Clinical & Experiential Programs Office to participate in multiple. In addition, you are allowed to apply a maximum of 17 non-GPA credits to your degree requirements during your time at BU Law. All clinic and practicum credits are graded, so you do not use non-GPA credits for either the fieldwork or the coursework components of clinics or practicums. However, non-GPA credits are awarded for the fieldwork portion of externships. Students who wish to exceed the 17 non-GPA credit limit may petition the Academic Standards Committee for approval. Students should also check the rules of the state(s) where they intend to be admitted for practice. New York, for example, has a minimum number of credits students must apply to classroom study, which excludes externship field placement credits.

2L and 3L students may participate in clinics, practicums, and part-time externships. 2L students are not eligible to participate in the Semester-in-Practice Program until their spring semester. What year you take a clinic, practicum, or externship depends mainly on your own workload. Many clinics also have pre-requisites or co-requisites that should be taken into account. Please feel free to make an appointment with us to talk about whether doing a clinic or externship (or perhaps both) makes the most sense for you.

Yes, many students do journals along with a clinic, practicum, or externship. Keep in mind that clinics and externships are time consuming, as are journals. We do not discourage it, but we do caution you to be realistic about your obligations and about planning your workload for your 2L and 3L years.

Yes. The classroom components of a few clinics satisfy the Professional Responsibility requirement, namely Civil Litigation and Justice Program: Pretrial Advocacy/Professional Responsibility (JD 973) (taken in the fall for the Individual Rights Litigation Clinic and the Employment Rights Clinic), Civil Litigation and Justice Program: A2J Skills & Professional Responsibility (JD 963) (taken in the fall for the Access to Justice Clinic), and Criminal Trial Practice/Professional Responsibility (JD 923) (open to all 3Ls and 2Ls participating in the Criminal Law Clinical Program either semester). In addition, the externship seminar Learning From Practice Externship: Seminar (JD 771), which you may take while doing most types of externships placements, satisfies the Professional Responsibility requirement.

All clinics, practicums, and externships (both the fieldwork and classroom components) count toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. However, students may not use the same classroom seminar to satisfy both the Professional Responsibility and the Experiential Learning requirement. (In any case, the fieldwork component counts toward the Experiential Learning Requirement.)

The Clinical & Experiential Programs also offer a number of simulation courses that may be used to satisfy the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement, such as Alternative Dispute Resolution, Effective & Ethical Depositions, and Client Counseling. Please see our section on Simulations for more information.

Please see our page on How to Apply for more information regarding the application process.

The number of credits awarded vary from program to program, from 1 credit for a single semester to 19 credits over two semesters. Most clinics award 6 credits per semester (3 for fieldwork and 3 for coursework), and most practicums offer 1-3 credits. Please explore our Clinics and Practicums to learn more about specific credits and workloads. Students in clinics can expect to spend an average of approximately 12 to 16 hours each week performing fieldwork, though workloads will vary week to week depending on how active a student’s cases are. You may also consult BU Law’s Credit Hour Policy for more information.

BU Law’s clinics and practicums cover a wide range of practice areas, from litigation to transactional work to compliance to policy work, and each one offers unique opportunities for legal experience.

Yes, many of them do. BU Law students have appeared in federal and state courts on a variety of civil and criminal matters. Students appearing in court must be certified to appear in proceedings under Supreme Judicial Court Rule 3:03. Not all of our clinical programs offer opportunities to appear in court. If you’d like to get a better sense of which programs offer the most courtroom opportunities, please explore our Clinics and Practicums or speak with some of our clinical faculty.

Yes, several of them do. Please review BU Law’s Concentrations for more information on which clinics and practicums count toward a concentration.

All types! Whether you are working for a judge, at a non-profit corporation, in a government agency, at a private corporation, or at a law firm, you can do an externship there, as long as the work provides you with the substantial lawyering and educational experience necessary for academic credit under the ABA rules (placements at large law firms are only allowed under certain circumstances and require prior approval from the Externship Director). All externship placements must receive approval through the Externship Program, though many placements are already pre-approved. See a list of recent past placements here.

There are a number of ways to find an externship placement. Many opportunities are posted on CareerHub. Students may also secure a placement from other job posting resources or through their own direct outreach.

Students receive anywhere between 3 and 9 academic credits per semester for their fieldwork, depending on how many hours per week a student spends working at a placement. Each 50 hours worked is equal to 1 credit. Most students work 200-250 hours over the semester (16-20 hours per week) and receive 4-5 credits. In addition to their fieldwork, students also receive 1-3 credits for participating in a related seminar.

Perhaps, but only with the permission of the Externship Director. Continuing placements are discouraged; we feel that students receive a richer educational experience when they expose themselves to a variety of opportunities.

Yes. Students may receive credit for doing an externship at a law firm. Students may also receive credit for doing an externship at a large law firm (placements at large law firms are only allowed under certain circumstances and require prior approval from the Externship Director).

The Semester-in-Practice Program is a full-time, 1-semester externship program in which students work at placements either locally or anywhere outside of Boston. In addition to working full-time at the field placement, as of the 2019-2020 academic year, students will also take a corresponding seminar (online or on campus, depending on the placement location). Students who are spending a semester with an international human rights organization in the spring semester will take a corresponding seminar that focuses on issues that are unique to that type of practice.

The Semester-in-Practice Program is designed for students with well-defined career and academic goals. 2Ls in their spring semester and all 3Ls are eligible to participate.

The placement can be at a government, judicial, or public interest organization, in the legal department of a corporation, or at a law firm (placements at large law firms are only allowed under certain circumstances and require prior approval from the Externship Director). While working at the placement, students are required to be supervised by an attorney who can give the student meaningful work and solid feedback on assignments.

Some full-time placements are available on CareerHub. Typically, students secure placements through other means, such as outside job postings or direct outreach. Kate Devlin Joyce, the Director of the Externship Program, is a great resource for ideas on finding placements.

Students receive 10 ungraded credits for their fieldwork and 2 graded credits for the seminar.

No. In addition to working full-time (and commuting!), you will be doing coursework for the corresponding seminar. So before you commit to a Semester-in-Practice, make sure you have come up with a plan for satisfying all of your graduation requirements during your semesters on campus.

Participating students are responsible for arranging their own housing. Placements often have resources available to assist externs in finding housing (especially international placements), so you should consider exploring those resources as a starting point.

Please see our page on How to Apply for more information.

The Semester-in-Practice Committee will consider your professional and academic goals and the extent to which the externship placement will support those goals. The Committee will also examine the quality of the externship opportunity, including the degree of supervision you will be receiving. There is no minimum GPA, and the Committee will make a case-by-case determination whether it is appropriate for a student to spend a semester outside of the Law School. There is no limit on the number of students permitted to participate in the Semester-in-Practice Program, so you are not competing against other BU Law students for approval. Keep in mind, however, that many of the placements themselves are very competitive.

This Program enables students to be admitted to practice in New York earlier than they otherwise would be if they graduated in May of their 3L year and took the bar in late July. Students take the February New York bar exam and spend the rest of the spring semester of their 3L year working full-time and earning academic credit. They are admitted to the bar as soon as practicable after graduation (typically late June).

The Program is open to students who wish to be admitted for practice in New York, who are in the spring of their 3L year and who have otherwise satisfied all of BU Law’s (and New York’s) graduation requirements. It is important to note that all 12 credits of the Program count toward BU Law’s limit of 17 non-GPA credits.

The types of placements for this Program are more limited than placements for externships. Students must perform pro bono legal services to people who are otherwise unable to pay for legal representation, primarily at non-profit organizations or government agencies, or at a law school clinic. Please see the definition of “qualifying placement” in the New York Pro Bono Scholars Program Placement Guide for more information. Placements may be anywhere; they are not geographically restricted to New York.

You should first set up an appointment Kate Devlin Joyce of the Externship Program to learn more about the Program. Once you’ve had a preliminary discussion, you’ll secure a placement and then fill out an application, which will be reviewed by a faculty committee.

Please see the BU Law New York Pro Bono Scholars Program page or Kate Devlin Joyce with any questions,