Field Placements
Field placements, also known as externships, offer an exciting opportunity to augment law school classroom study with real-world work experience. In a field placement, a student works as a volunteer extern for an approved host placement organization. The student extern also completes coursework with LSU Law Center faculty that is designed to complement the work they are doing for their host placement. The student extern receives course credit for this combination of coursework and fieldwork. Field placements are available in all semesters, including the summer semester.
The LSU Law Center’s faculty permits students to participate in field placements with three general types of host organizations:
- Local, administrative, state, and federal judges,
- Attorneys working for local, state, and federal government agencies, and/or
- Attorneys performing legal services with a public interest non-profit organization.
Participation in a field placement is by application only. Students must apply for a field placement in the semester preceding the one in which they wish to participate in a placement, via the common application for clinics and field placements.
Participation in a field placement requires that a student successfully complete that placement’s “onboarding” requirements, which generally include a background check and a drug screening. Failure to successfully complete onboarding/screening for a field placement may disqualify a student from participation in future field placements and clinics – if you have questions or concerns about the onboarding process, please contact Prof. Pittman well in advance of the application period.
