This blog post is part of our ongoing guest Blog Series: “Opportunity Knocks.” For a full schedule, please see: http://law.scu.edu/lcs-blog/upcoming-blog-series-opportunity-knocks/
As a law student, you likely have mastered the art of outlining, know how to brief a case quickly, and can handle being on-call with grace and ease.
Although these skills are important for being a law student, you are going to school in order to become a lawyer. The phase of “law student” is temporary, and there is no better time than the present to begin building your skill set and obtaining experience in order to become an accomplished attorney.
During your time in law school, it is essential that you obtain practical experience in your field of interest. One of the best ways to sharpen your legal skill set is to apply for a judicial externship. Regardless of whether you intend to practice as a corporate attorney, high profile litigator, district attorney, or a public defender, a judicial externship gives you a “court side” seat to the art of lawyering.
As a judicial extern, you have the chance to read and analyze motions, depositions, and other legal documents on a regular basis. Exposure to high-level legal writing is an essential element in the development of quality legal writing skills. Additionally, as an extern you are truly a part of the judge’s team, and will assist the judge and his clerks craft orders in responses to the motions filed with the court. Your time spent as a judicial extern is a wise investment in your writing, blue booking, and research skills.
Planning your judicial externship around the judge’s hearing schedule will give you a chance to observe live oral arguments at motion hearings, opening and closing arguments, and cross examinations at trial. Imagine taking everything you have learned from your case book about evidentiary objections and civil procedure, and seeing it play out right in front of you in the court room! Observing is one of the best ways to learn, and as a judicial extern you will begin to pick up on what effective and outstanding lawyering looks like. The lessons you will learn during your judicial externship will follow you into your career as an attorney, and give you a strong foundation upon which to build your client advocacy skills.
No matter what stage of your legal education you are in, it is never too late to consider a judicial externship. To make yourself a competitive candidate for a judicial externship position be sure to (1) fine tune your resume (2) polish your writing samples (3) and be ready to explain why you want to work for a particular judge. Lastly, be able to assess your schedule and apply to be a judicial extern during a semester where you can be in chambers for several hour blocks at a time. You will get the most out of your experience this way.
Serving as a judicial extern is one of the most important investments you can make in your future as an attorney, and now is the time to seize that opportunity.
Gabriella E. Ziccarelli
Gabriella E. Ziccarelli is an incoming patent litigation associate in the Intellectual Property Group at Dickstein Shapiro LLP in Silicon Valley. She has worked for several high-tech companies in the valley, and served as a volunteer law clerk for the Honorable Judge Paul S. Grewal.
She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona, and her J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law. While attending Santa Clara, she sat on the board of numerous intellectual property organizations, which included serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the nationally ranked Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal for Volume 29. She is available for questions at ZiccarelliG@dicksteinshapiro.com.