Externships - Student Eligibility

Before a student can participate in the Externship Program, the student must:

1. For an externship
   a. during the fall or spring semester of 3L year, have successfully completed sixty (60) credit hours; or
   b. during the summer semester after 2L year, have successfully completed forty-five (45) credit hours
   
2. Have a GPA of 2.00 or better after 45 (for summer) or 60 (for fall or spring) credit hours have been recorded;
   
3. Be in good standing and enrolled in a minimum of 8 credit hours (excluding students enrolled in summer session, in their final semester, or with the Dean’s permission to enroll in fewer than 8 hours); and
   
4. Have no record of Honor Code violations or alleged Honor Code violations under investigation.
   
5. Note: Students may not participate in the same type of externship more than once. For example, if a student previously completed a criminal externship and seeks to do another externship, they may only enroll in a civil externship.
   

Guidelines for Externs to Avoid Conflicts of Interest (COI)
The work you do as a legal intern, extern, paralegal, or law clerk may impact what matters you may eventually handle as an attorney. Your exposure to client matters and confidential information could raise COI questions for you and others with whom you work after you are licensed.

Amendments to The Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct clarify how to analyze and handle potential conflicts stemming from exposure prior to becoming an attorney. Here is a link for the amendments.

You may be asked by your employer to provide a list of matters you worked on before being licensed as a lawyer. This list will enable the employer to determine if you need to be screened from participation in any matters. While in law school at TMSL, you should keep track of the following information for matters on which you work as a clerk, intern, extern, or paralegal: the name of the client and a short description of the matter on which you worked (or on which you acquired confidential information). You should not rely on your employer or supervisor to prepare or provide this list for you.

Before you leave your position, it would be helpful for you to share your list with the attorney who has supervised your work. Here is a link for a conflicts spreadsheet that you can use to record your work as a nonlawyer.

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