Ex. The Knight First Amendment Institute

The externship centers on the Knight Institute's strategic litigation efforts to define and defend First Amendment freedoms in the digital age. Students will work with Knight Institute attorneys to develop cutting-edge First Amendment challenges while examining and evaluating the role of the First Amendment in new digital societies. The externship consists of two components: a field placement component with a 15-hour weekly remote work commitment, and a seminar component requiring participation in the Institute's weekly litigation meeting and a 1-hour weekly seminar class, both conducted via Zoom.

The field placement component requires that students participate fully in their work for the Knight Institute during their 15-hour/week commitment. Students will work on cases in development, cases in active litigation, and/or longer-term research in anticipation of future litigation. Students will participate in team meetings; conduct legal research and draft legal memoranda; review government records and policies; and/or draft blog posts or other public communications. Students will be evaluated on their effort, professionalism, willingness to learn, and quality of written and other work.

The seminar component requirements include: (1) class attendance and contribution to seminar discussions (30%); (2) two substantive research memoranda, or a series or memoranda collectively requiring roughly the same amount of research and writing (60%); and (3) externship field placement self-evaluation (10%).