Friday, 3:30 – 5:00 pm
FIELD (PLACEMENT) OF DREAMS: IF YOU BUILD IT, WILL THEY COME?, Room LB 208
Carolyn Young Larmore, Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law
Malissa Barnwell-Scott, USC Gould School of Law
Externship directors work to build programs that provide a wide variety of legal experiences, cultivating existing relationships and reaching out to new placements. As legal educators, we aim to help our students find the best externship fit – both educationally and as related to student career goals. What happens when we pitch an externship opportunity to our students only to strike out trying to fill it? This session discusses the challenges that arise when we cannot send students to all the field placements that want externs. We will assess how students select field placements and the sometimes conflicting goals of meeting student needs while satisfying field placements. We will discuss solutions that have worked for us, including student surveys, innovative publicity, involvement of faculty and administration, and cross-law school collaboration.