Ex. Fed Prosecution: U.S. Attorney's Office District of NJ - Fieldwork

The colloquium will be divided into two parts. The first part of the externship will be real, substantive work on active investigations within the USAO-DNJ. Each extern will be assigned to one large and complex investigation or a case getting ready for trial. The extern will work extremely closely with the AUSAs who are assigned to that investigation. In short, the externs will expected to be full members of the prosecution team for that investigation. The extern will work closely with the AUSAs, and will be expected to do real, substantive work – the same type of work that an AUSA does. The extern will be provided with all of the relevant background materials (prosecution memo, charging document, order of proof, etc.) and will meet with the entire prosecution team (AUSAs, federal law enforcement agents, paralegals, and supervisor) to get up to speed on the investigation. Among other things, the externs will be expected to: draft process (search warrant affidavits, pen registers, complaints); review evidence; create buckets of hot documents; create orders of proof; draft direct examinations; prepare materials for cross examinations; and prepare for “show and tells,” among other things. This externship will not be “let’s play prosecutor” with made-up exercises. We expect the externs to actually add value, and to participate fully in the investigation to which they are assigned. In other words, this will be, fundamentally, an experiential learning program with real cases, in real time. The second part of the colloquium will be a structured discussion of one of a number of central topics in federal criminal prosecutions. The central goal of this segment will be to provide the externs with a practical, nuts-and-bolts view of federal criminal practice at a United States Attorney’s Office. Each week’s lesson plan will cover one aspect of federal criminal practice, and will be tied to the substantive work that the externs are doing. We will not be lecturing at the externs, but rather will be using the real-world experience that they are gaining in their substantive assignments to work through various parts of the federal criminal process with the externs. The colloquium will be an opportunity for the externs to continue their experiential-based learning. The externs will be assigned to cases and investigations that are at different stages: some will be on charged cases, some will be on uncharged investigations. At each meeting of the colloquium, the Extern Coordinators will ask the externs whose investigations are at the stages covered by that meeting to describe how their experiences match up with the subject of that week’s colloquium.