Law Student Opportunities

Three types of internships are available to law students in the summer and during the academic year. Summer clerkships are fulltime for a minimum of 10 weeks; academic-year clerkships require at least 16 hours per week.

All law students are eligible to be considered for internships as trial division assistants or appellate clerks.

Trial Division Assistants. Trial division assistants are placed in the criminal, juvenile and parental rights trial divisions. Each assistant is assigned to a particular attorney for the duration of the internships. Each assistant is assigned a wide variety of tasks incident to the preparation, trial and disposition of that attorney’s cases. Tasks include preparation of discovery, legal research and writing, participating in client and witness interviews, identifying topics for case investigation, participating in investigations, analyzing witness statements, assisting in preparing questions for direct- and cross-examination, and preparing trial notebooks. Trial division assistants accompany the attorneys to whom they are assigned to court on a daily basis. If the assigned attorney is on trial, the assistant sits at counsel table and attends all bench and chambers discussions.

Appellate Clerks. A limited number of students, who have demonstrated strong research and writing skills, are placed as appellate clerks. Students work on a range of projects, from short, discrete research assignments to lengthy writing assignments. Writing skills are stressed equally with research skills, and students who have the persistence, skill and patience are encouraged to continue to work on writing projects until the piece is ready to be filed in court in the student’s words. Virtually all students complete at least one significant piece of legal writing appropriate as a writing sample during the clerkship. Students are assigned to a particular appeals attorney for each project and both research and writing are supervised closely; an effort is made to expose students to a variety of research and writing styles. Students also are given opportunities to practice identifying appellate issues. Some opportunity for appellate oral advocacy before the RI Supreme Court may be available.

Courtroom Advocates. Senior students are eligible for placement as courtroom advocates (student practitioners) in the misdemeanor, juvenile or parental rights units. “Senior students” are those either currently in their last year of law school, for academic internships, or those who will be entering their last year following a summer internship. To be eligible, a student must have completed evidence, advanced criminal procedure and/or a trial advocacy course. Each courtroom advocate is assigned to a particular attorney who supervises the student’s handling of a limited portion of that attorney’s caseload. In the misdemeanor unit, student advocates represent indigents from referral through disposition. In the juvenile unit, student advocates represent juveniles charged with wayward offenses from referral through disposition, or juveniles charged with delinquency at arraignment, in probable cause hearings, in certain pretrial motions and at placement reviews. Student advocates in the parental rights unit represent indigent parents in pre-adjudication hearings and post-adjudication placement reviews.

Applications are accepted at any time for academic-year internships. Applications are accepted after October 1 for summer clerkships and most offers are extended by the end of March (provision is made for students still awaiting stipend decisions from schools or outside agencies). Resumes are accepted through mid-May, but openings available after March 30 are very limited.

Interviews in the Boston area are conducted through the New England Consortium of Law Schools. Candidates not selected for interviews at that time are welcome to be interviewed in Providence. Resumes, accompanied by a cover letter and writing sample, should be sent to Michael A. DiLauro, Director of Training. Interviews are required for all clerkship candidates; arrangements may be made for telephone interviews for candidates living and attending school outside the Northeast.

Note:
Law clerks in Rhode Island state government may be eligible for limited stipends from the Rhode Island State Government Internship Program. Those stipends are awarded independently from the Public Defender’s placement decisions (an offer of placement by the Public Defender does not guarantee a stipend, nor does an award of a stipend guarantee an offer of placement). Interested students should write to the Internship Office, Room 8AA, State House, Providence, Rhode Island 02908. Some stipends are also available from the Rhode Island Higher Education Authority. The Rhode Island Public Defender itself is not a source for any stipend or any matches of grants.