Externships and Pro Bono Scholars (PBS) Program

An externship combines a qualifying field placement with a required seminar component. Each is integral to the externship. At the field placement, students have an attorney supervisor who oversees and mentor students in performing their legal work. Professor Bauman teaches the seminar, which is conducted mostly asynchronously. Professor Bauman, the field supervisor, and the student are partners in the student’s education. Professor Bauman stays closely connected to the supervisors to ensure that students are having a high-quality educational experience.

The Externship Program, like all law school classes must comply with ABA Standards; in particular, ABA Standard 304(d) governs externship classes.

Like clinics, externships allow you to build your portfolio with practical, guided experience, and employers recognize their value. The externship program provides students with meaningful opportunities for these learning outcomes:

• An intentional, strategic and reflective approach to learning from experience;
• The ability to explore career interests and paths and build professional networks;
• Hone legal and professional management skills;
• Explore “what it means to be a lawyer”;
• Reflect and build on previous externships, clinics, and work prior to law school; and
• Become keen observers of the workplace with the ability to understand and critique the legal profession

Qualifying placements include judicial chambers, government, public sector, and corporate counsel offices. Private law firms and other for-profit entities are not eligible for externship credit. Students may extern in local, state, national and international placements. If you wish to extern internationally, you must be full-time and in-person. All placements must be pre-approved by Professor Bauman before the application deadline. Fully remote options are allowed but receive extra scrutiny to ensure they will provide a high-quality educational experience.

Students are responsible for identifying, applying for and obtaining a placement. One valuable resource for finding opportunities is the Career Services Office, which lists positions in Symplicity and has many other resources. (https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/careers/career-services-for-students/). There is no separate database for externships. Professor Bauman is more than happy to assist prospective externs in identifying potential placements.

Students may receive academic credit and compensation if – and only if – the placement organization requires it compensate students. The placement itself must first be approved as a placement.

Students may extern part-time (4-9 units) or full-time (12 units) in a wide variety of in-person, hybrid, and remote placements. Only part-time remote placements qualify for externship credit.

Students must work 42.5 hours at the placement for each unit. Hours spent in the asynchronous seminar count toward the total (that number will be noted in the syllabus each semester). The law school has a 20 unit cap on courses that are not “regularly scheduled” (see: https://community.lawschool.cornell.edu/student-life/student-handbook/). That cap includes externships.

PBS is a New York State court initiative that allows students in their third year to complete their coursework in the fall of their third year and sit for the February bar exam. (https://ww2.nycourts.gov/attorneys/probonoscholars/index.shtml).

Immediately after the February bar, March-May, students extern in an intensive placement that provides direct services for indigent clients. The PBS website lists qualifying placements, but it is possible to approve placements not on that list. Students must complete 520 hours combining their field work with the required seminar that Professor Bauman teaches. Students must have a minimum 3.3 cumulative GPA. The application process for the 2028 cohort is expected to open in January 2027. Any student interested in the PBS option should emphasize bar relevant classes in their third and fourth semester. Please reach out to Professor Bauman with any questions.