Semester in D.C.: Employers

The Semester in DC Program provides students the opportunity to gain legal experience in the real-world settings where the law is made, applied, and practiced.  By employing one of our student externs, you give them this chance – and gain the advantages of a structured, full-time, intensely supervised externship program that draws some of our most ambitious and focused students.

Advantages of the Semester in DC program

• Full-time law student interns during the school year.  Rather than being limited to only a few hours of work a week, as they would be in a traditional externship program, our students are able to work full-time.
• Highly motivated law students who are committed to ultimately working in Washington.  The law students who participate in our program have worked hard to set aside an entire semester to come to DC.  They are conscious of the unique opportunity an externship in your office provides them and are prepared to make the most of that opportunity. 
• Hands-on supervision & training from a full-time faculty member in D.C.  In our D.C. Seminar, students meet weekly with Prof. Elena Baylis, the director of the program, and get regular feedback on their externship experiences and performance.

Program Requirements

In order to qualify for the program, externships must meet the following requirements:

1. Employers must be either non-profit organizations or government offices;
2. Students must work a minimum of 520 hours during the semester (35-40 hours a week for 13-15 weeks);
3. Students must do primarily law-related work;
4. Students must be supervised by an attorney;
5. Students must be unpaid; and
6. Students must work in the office (no telecommuting).

How can employers participate?

Students are responsible for finding their own externships.  There are two ways that you can make contact with students who may be interested in working for your organization:

1. Submit an externship announcement.  We circulate new externship announcements to students via email and maintain a list of available externships for our students on the law school’s extranet.  You can submit information either by filling out our Externship Announcement Form or by sending an email to Prof. Elena Baylis at pittindc@pitt.edu.  You may be contacted to confirm the information provided and/or to obtain additional details.
2. Review our student resume databank.  New resumes from students interested in working during the fall semester of 2012 are now available!  Download them via the link in the right column of the screen.  After downloading the student resume databank document, you can contact students directly to interview them for externship positions.  Student resumes are organized according to the semester they are available to work in DC.  For privacy reasons, we have asked students to remove all contact information except their email addresses from their resumes before posting them.

Thank you for your interest in our Semester in DC students!  If you have any questions about the program, please contact the program director, Professor Elena Baylis, at pittindc@pitt.edu.