Summer Decisions

By Jason Finkelstein
 
While many law students spend the summers after their first and second years trying to catch on at a firm, two distinguished visitors to USC Law provided students with an exciting alternative.

Justices Laurence Rubin and Laurie Zelon introduced USC Law students to the California Court of Appeal Summer Judicial Externship Program at a January 19 workshop presented by the Office of Public Service.

The program is unique, the judges said, because it features both a work-related component and a centralized educational seminar program for its participants.

“We want to make sure the externs get a lot of benefit out of participating in the program,” Zelon said.

The work-related component of the program is a traditional externship with a judge. Almost all of the judges at the Second District Court of Appeal take on one or two externs from late May or early June until early August.

Externs, who are selected by each individual judge, have daily interactions with the judge. Each extern will likely get the opportunity to draft an opinion over the course of the summer, and many will assist in writing two or more such opinions.

“All of the justices try, and most succeed, at working with the externs one-on-one,” Rubin said.

Externs work a regular schedule and are also assisted by their judge’s staff of three research attorneys, who in turn mentor externs and show them what it is like to be an attorney on a day to day basis.

“I think everybody comes out of [the program] feeling like they’ve had a good experience and benefited both personally and professionally,” Zelon said.

Additionally, all of the court’s externs are brought together each week for seminars, which are led by different judges, research attorneys and other appellate practitioners.

The seminars deal with a variety of legal issues, including how judges approach the decision making process, legal research and opinion drafting, oral argument and collaborating to produce a final decision.

“We basically take you from the start of a case all the way through to the end of that case,” Rubin said. “We try to do a real hands-on approach to every stage of the process.”

Externs also visit a number of different courts to observe proceedings firsthand, including the Supreme Court, where they participate in post-argument discussions with members of the Court.

To apply for the program, interested students should send a cover letter, a resume, a writing sample (such as a paper from a legal research or writing class), and a law school transcript (if available) to patty.garcia@jud.ca.gov. Applications must be received by February 15.

Since the program has been accepting resumes since December, students are encouraged to apply as soon as possible, as individual judges have already started to select their externs.