What the Heck is an Externship?
So, you are considering doing an externship. First off—do it. You won’t regret it (but if you do regret it, I exempt myself from any and all liability for emotional or physical damages).
Before you commit 3 to 9 precious credits towards an externship, you may be asking yourself the following questions:
Are externships the same thing as internships?
The Faculty of Law’s website states that externships are a type of clinical legal education that allows students to be placed in “legal clinics to do hands-on work under the careful supervision of experienced lawyers.”
How does this differ from an internship? Externships are unpaid, for credit, and are done part-time alongside other coursework.
Externships allow you to work closely with lawyers employed in a variety of capacities— from governmental positions to roles at legal aid clinics to Bay Street lawyers. Externships typically focus on social justice initiatives, which the Faculty defines as including good government practices and access to justice.
Is applying for an externship anything like the 2L recruit?
Short answer: no. However, the application process varies drastically between externships. You can find out the specific application requirements for each externship on its respective course description page. Many, but not all, externships are restricted to students going into third year. Most externships require a current CV and statement of interest, typically sent by email to Sara Faherty on the day that pre-allocation course selection is due on Cognomos. However, waiting until the last minute to apply to some externships may not be a good idea. For example, the Barbra Schlifer Clinic accepts students on a rolling basis, and interested students are encouraged to apply early.
When writing an interest statement, it is helpful to share examples that illustrate your interest in the areas of law explored in the externship, whether those are courses you have taken, a moot, previous work experience (including non-legal work experience), or anything else that may be relevant. Externships may also require a separate list of relevant courses. A few externships also require an interview.
If you are completely burnt out from writing cover letters and interviewing, some opportunities do not require an application. These include the Crown Litigation and Legislative Assembly Statutory Interpretation externships. For these positions, your fate is completely in the hands of the all-powerful Cognomos. You may want to rank these kinds of externships highly on Cognomos as they can be very popular courses. For externships that require an application, you will be added to the course once you are accepted, so there is no need to rank it highly on Cognomos.
Will it be a lot of work?
The workload varies dramatically based on the placement you end up in, and even on the individual project within that placement. Many externships will state the estimated number of hours you will work on the course description.
According to the Faculty of Law, “[a]n externship that offers two credits should involve six to eight hours of work a week; a three-credit externship should involve nine to twelve hours of work a week; and a four-credit hour externship should involve twelve to sixteen hours of work a week.” While the hours may fluctuate over the term, the Faculty limits the number of hours a student can work in the externship to not exceed 1.5 times the maximum hours of work estimated for that placement’s credit weight.
Will I have to wake up at 7am to go to the Externship Seminar?
Well, that depends on how long your commute is. Every externship must be accompanied by an externship seminar that is typically scheduled at 8:30 am. Cruel, I know. If you do multiple externships, you will have to take this class multiple times. Downtown Legal Services and Innovation and Entrepreneurship placements have their own separate seminars.
After talking to students about their externship experience, the seminar is typically not a highlight. You must take the seminar in the term in which you are completing the externship, and in the first semester for full-year placements. However, there are only six mandatory classes, and you get one ungraded credit for completing the seminar, so I guess it is worth a 7am wake-up call.
Wow! Externships sound great. Where can I hear more about people’s experiences in individual externships?
Right here! In addition to my own experience, I spoke to a few students to get a brief explanation on a few externships:
Avital Sternin (3L), City of Toronto: Municipal Government Lawyering
Are you looking to get your nose out of the books and explore this great city? This externship may be for you! The City of Toronto externship balances weekly readings, discussions, and research memos with a unique “experiential component” which Sternin describes as field trips. “This year, people visited a fire station, police station, attended a city council meeting, toured the new courthouse, and will get a tour of the Gardiner expansion project,” she says, adding, “And yes, I did get to turn on the lights of the big fire truck.”
Henry Mann (3L), Appellate Criminal Litigation Externship
This externship heavily focuses on research and writing, while providing opportunities to observe court proceedings. Mann chose his externship to complement his coursework and extracurricular experiences in the areas of criminal law and litigation. “It has been both a refreshing and interesting change of pace for me, and this externship has been a highlight of my time in law school,” Mann says.
Samir Reynolds (4L JD/MPP), Media Law, Investigative Journalism Bureau/Toronto Star
While Mann chose his externship to complement his coursework, Reynolds chose an externship in a niche area of law that would otherwise be difficult to gain exposure to in law school. “It [the Media Law Externship] seemed like a cool opportunity to get into the area, especially because it’s not a huge field in practice,” says Reynolds.
This opportunity provided Reynolds with a good balance of lectures on different media law topics (i.e. defamation, anti-SLAPP, privacy and access to information, court openness) and practical work. “The work is whatever the Star needs—defamation review of articles, getting access to documents and records, drafting pleadings and arguments, research and memo-writing, or whatever they happen to need that week!” he says.
Sarah Grech (3L), Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC)
Finally, the externship that inspired this entire article. The SGC is a global public-private partnership that is dedicated to open science. This year, four students were placed at the SGC, and we completed a variety of tasks from contract drafting, to research into tax and charity law, to extensive patent searching for a freedom to operate analysis. This opportunity allowed me to gain practical intellectual property experience and combine my background in science with legal principles.
Whatever your interest area, there is bound to be an externship for you!