University of Dayton School of Law students become capable, ethical lawyers through training they receive not just on campus, but around Dayton, around Ohio, and now all over the United States. In an effort to provide more real-world experience the School of Law recently implemented a new curriculum requiring all of its students to complete an unpaid externship prior to graduation.
For the summer of 2007, approximately 90 UDSL students will work in geographical and legal areas as diverse as the District Court of the United States in the Virgin Islands and the Alaska Public Defenders Agency in Ketchikan, Alaska.
"These externships will be legal apprenticeships for our students; they will learn by doing and seeing it themselves," said Externship Supervisor Monique B. Lampke, who practiced litigation for almost ten years in both the public and private sector before joining the UDSL faculty in 2007.
Right now, second-year law student Tom Culpepper is completing his externship with the Middletown Municipal Court, which sees, on average, 400 cases a week. On his first day of observation in the courtroom, he reported being exposed to racial tensions, complexities of socio-economics, mental illness, and family problems. “When you’re a litigator, 85% of your job is dealing with people. That’s something you don’t get much of in class. This experience prepares you to be a lawyer,” he said. “I can’t imagine being bored doing this.”
To meet the 192-hour externship requirement during the fall or spring semesters most students will work about 15 hours a week for 13 weeks in various courts, law firms, corporations, or governmental agencies under the supervision of an attorney who has been licensed for at least three years, or with a judge or justice currently sitting on the bench. During the summer there is more flexibility and some students may choose to work a traditional 15-hour week for 13 weeks or perhaps work 30 hours a week for seven weeks.
Another second-year student, Jacklyn Knuckles, is currently externing with a District Court Judge. Every day she meets with the judge and discusses the cases on that day’s docket. In her first week she was asked to draft her opinion on a case and was able to choose a motion to work on, based on her legal areas of interest. “This experience is helping me to develop my writing and research skills,” she said. “Exposure to the court system is valuable; having knowledge about the process will be important no matter what type of law I decide to practice.”
"The externship program allows UDSL's law students to observe the practical application of the legal theories they are learning in law school. As a result, UDSL's graduates have a raised competency level which will put them ahead of other new lawyers upon their admission to practice law.” explained Externship Supervisor Denise Platfoot Lacey, who also joined the UDSL faculty in 2007. Her previous practice concentrated in attorney disciplinary prosecutions; she most recently directed the Ohio Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism.
The School of Law is interested in matching students with attorneys who are willing to provide meaningful and practical assignments, to regularly meet with the student, and evaluate his or her performance at the end of the externship. If you are interested in working with a law student on an externship basis, please contact Externship Supervisor Monique Lampke at (937) 229-4660 or monique.lampke@notes.udayton.edu; or Externship Supervisor Denise Platfoot Lacey at (937) 229-4634 or Denise.Lacey@udayton.edu.