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 work commitment (on-site or remote), and a seminar component requiring participation in the Institute's weekly litigation meeting and a 1-hour weekly seminar class.

The field placement component requires that students participate fully in their work for the Knight Institute during their 15-hour/week commitment. Students will set a weekly schedule for their field placement hours between 9:30am and 5:30pm on Monday through Friday, at times convenient for their schedules. 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; and review government records and policies. 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, including short written response papers most weeks (30%); (2) two substantive research memoranda, or a series of memoranda or other written work product collectively requiring roughly the same amount of research and writing (60%); and (3) externship field placement self-evaluations (10%).