Externship Demographics Redux

Abstract:     
Professors Ogilvy (Catholic University) and Seibel (California Western) report on the results of a national survey of externship programs at American Law Schools and compare many of the data points to previous surveys of externship programs to chart the growth of legal externships in 1) number of schools with externship programs as part of their curriculum, 2) number of discrete courses within programs, and 3) the increasing sophistication and complexity of the pedagogy associated with legal externships. Some of the data discussed include the average number of credits allowed for participation in externships, the average number of hours of fieldwork required for each credit, the percentage of courses with a contemporaneous classroom component or seminar, the typical length of class sessions, the nature and percentage of time devoted to discrete topics in the classroom components, the type and percentage of time devoted to specific methods of instruction in the classroom component, the type of materials used, the use of reflective journals, grading practices, faculty status of externship course teachers, administrative support for externship programs, and methods of evaluation of externship placements. The article also briefly traces the history of externship pedagogy from the earliest legal apprenticeships to the present. A glossary of terms and a bibliography is included.

Keywords: Externships, data, survey, pedagogy, curriculum

Working Paper Series