Externships and Judicial Clerkships

Externships and Judicial Clerkships provide law students with unique legal and public service experience as they work in a variety of government and non-profit organizations, and get credit for doing so. By working at the externship host offices, students learn how to work with a client and address the client's specific needs and goals – something that's difficult to teach in a classroom. Students also get a sense of how the legal and public policy systems work, and are exposed to many types of interesting and exciting jobs that perhaps they never knew existed.

Our students help judges, attorneys, and legislators with pressing legal questions that arise in ongoing cases, in the development of public policy or legislation, and in response to citizen inquiries or problems. Students may, for example, attend court, draft an opinion for a judge, or write legislation for a member of Congress.

New semester-long opportunities continue to be added to a list of options that includes dozens of possible judicial clerkships, legislative externships, and other non-profit and government work. Most are in Western New York, but the option to arrange summer externships means students have worked in Rochester, Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago, Seattle, and overseas.

A sampling of just some of our past and present placement opportunities are listed below. For a current listing and description of externship and clerkship opportunities, as well as registration information, click on the "Externship and Judicial Clerkship Information" link for the current semester on the Registration Information page. For further information on the operation of the externship and clerkship programs, please click on this link for the Fact Sheet.

Sampling of Past and Present Placements

Academic Institutions Externships

SUNY University Counsel's Office, Higher Education and Health Law

Buffalo Board of Education, Office of Legal Counsel

Environmental Law Externships

NYS Attorney General's Office Environmental Protection Bureau

NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Regional Counsel's Office

Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper

Government Externships

City of Buffalo Law Department

City of Buffalo School District

Erie County Attorney, Employment Law

Eric County Medical Center, Labor Law and Employment Law

Internal Revenue Service, Office of Chief Counsel

Labor Law Externship, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

Living Wage Commission – City of Buffalo

NYS Attorney General's Office

Town of Wheatfield Town Attorney

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Customs & Border Protection

U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement

Judicial Clerkships

Available only to third-year students, multiple placement options in federal, state, county, and city courts.

Labor Law and Employment Law Externships

Labor Law Externship, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

Erie County Attorney, Employment Law

Eric County Medical Center, Labor Law and Employment Law

Living Wage Commission – City of Buffalo

Legal Services Externships

Domestic Violence Advocacy

Empire Justice Center (Rochester)

Law Guardian Externship

Legal Services for the Elderly

Volunteer Lawyers Project

Legislative Externships

Externship opportunities in the offices of the Erie County Legislature, the NYS Senate and Assembly, and the U.S. Congress.

Administration

The Externship and Judicial Clerkship Program is directed by Professor Lise Gelernter and administered by Donna McClellan Crimens. Please contact them with any questions after reading the Externship Information document found at the Registration Information page. All communication with a placement office must go through the Law School organizers and/or relevant member of faculty.

If you have suggestions for placements or would like to host an externship, please the following:

Contacts