Faculty

An Advocate for BU Law’s Externship Program

Professor Kate Devlin Joyce’s passion for teaching drives her work to enrich and expand experiential learning opportunities.

At the time Devlin Joyce taught in Belize, many pregnant teenagers and young mothers were not given the opportunity to attend high school, with the government-run education system failing to enforce a formal policy and allowing individual schools to expel and reject students due to pregnancy. Because Devlin Joyce’s school chose to educate pregnant and mothering young women, did not charge tuition, and did not require an entrance exam, it was denied official accreditation. Determined to challenge this inequity, Devlin Joyce worked with the school administration to draft a proposal and sit in on official meetings to petition the government to accredit the school. Through this experience, she discovered the power of legal advocacy, a realization that ultimately led her to pursue a law degree at Boston College Law School.

Devlin Joyce began her legal career as an Equal Justice Works Fellow, representing immigration and asylum clients in VAWA, U and T visa, and family cases. She later practiced as an immigration attorney at Victim Rights Law Center, where she not only represented survivors but also served as a mentor to the organization’s student interns.

Recognizing her innate calling to education and an interest in providing students the opportunity to develop their professional competencies, Devlin Joyce returned to Boston College Law School as an administrator of the public interest programs. While at BC, she developed the Spring Break in Boston program, which connected students with Massachusetts organizations for local service trips, and the Public Interest Designation Program, a recognition given to students at Commencement for their commitment to public interest work during law school. After some time in her administrator role, though, she noticed that the 1L students in the programs weren’t adequately equipped with necessary interviewing and counseling experience, so she introduced an experiential skills course to better prepare them. “Teaching that class made me realize how much I wanted to be back in the classroom and working with students,” says Devlin Joyce, who was soon promoted to BC Law’s director of externships and adjunct lecturer.

In 2018, she joined Boston University School of Law as a lecturer, clinical instructor, and director of its growing externship program. Since then, Devlin Joyce has worked with, advised, and taught hundreds of externship students, helping them to find work placements, offering guidance and advice, and fostering alumni connections. “BU has phenomenal proximity to so many placements and such fantastic students,” says Devlin Joyce. “The law school is so student focused; this opportunity was a great synergy of my interests.” This past fall, Devlin Joyce was promoted to clinical associate professor of law. As part of her role, Devlin Joyce designs and teaches externship seminars that help students draw connections between their doctrinal courses and the practical legal experiences they had during their work placements.

“Oftentimes, you see students make these connections with what they learn in the classroom. They come in and say, ‘I used x, y and z,’ and I always tell them, ‘Go tell your doctrinal faculty member this… let them know how you’re putting it to use!’”

Professor Devlin Joyce teaches a Semester-in-Practice seminar, the classroom component of the externship program in which 2L and 3L students spend half the year working in a full-time field placement. She views these externships as an opportunity for students to not only try different practice areas while still in school, but to learn from real world experiences. “In an externship, students learn so much––they’re growing,” she says. “We want them to make the mistakes here and figure out how to do it correctly… so that they are ready to hit the ground running when they graduate, with the skills and experience to be productive and add value to the culture of wherever they’re going.”

Professor Devlin Joyce says that with her promotion from lecturer to clinical associate professor, BU Law is emphasizing its dedication to providing these opportunities for students and recognizing the importance of externship pedagogy. “I really appreciate that Dean Onwuachi-Willig, the law school, and the rest of the faculty recognize that externships should be elevated to the same level as clinical and simulation classes.”

“Kate Devlin Joyce has been a national leader in the externship community, and under her leadership as the director, our externship positions have dramatically expanded, allowing students to have more opportunities to connect theory to practice in placements locally, nationally, and internationally,” says Julie Dahlstrom, associate dean for experiential education and clinical associate professor of law.

Devlin Joyce also co-chairs the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) Externship Committee and sits on the Association of American Law School Section on Clinical Legal Education Externship Committee. As part of her CLEA committee work, Devlin Joyce researched and published a report on the growing percentage of law schools that allow paid externships, emphasizing the value of these programs in rounding out a legal education. She says that, as a result of this research, more law schools have a foundation to advocate for the expansion of their own externship programs.

At the heart of it, Professor Devlin Joyce is a teacher, and she wants to see her students not only succeed, but to enjoy themselves while doing so. “Find the joy in law school and follow what you’re interested in,” she advises. “I think sometimes students feel like they have to go into a certain area, but I think there’s something to be said about finding your joy.”

Outside of her legal work, Devlin Joyce is a dedicated mother of three and can often be found at a field or ice rink for her children’s soccer, lacrosse, and hockey games. She and her husband are also actively involved with the Foley Foundation and Hostage US, working as support persons for families of hostages held abroad and for those returned home.