LAWS 730 - Legislative Externship

Credits: 2

Students will work under the supervision of a lawyer-legislator for 8-15 hours per week to evaluate whether proposed legislation might violate constitutional requirements or create unintended ambiguities or conflicts in the law. Students will be assigned actual bills to evaluate, will research any potential legal issues raised by the legislation, and prepare a written report on each bill assigned, setting forth the results of the research. Work will be assigned on a bi-partisan basis, and students will be asked, in appropriate circumstances, to draft alternative language that would eliminate an identified problem, while still achieving the purpose of the proposed legislation. The student's work-product will be submitted to the supervising lawyer-legislator. In addition to work supervised by a lawyer-legislator at the State House, students will meet as a class regularly through the semester with their professor for directed reflection upon their field experiences.

Corequisites: Problems in Professional Responsibility

Prerequisites: Problems in Professional Responsibility is pre or co-requisite. Also note that Professional Responsibility is a prerequisite.

Note: GRADUATION REQUIREMENT:
Experiential Course Requirement, must earn a grade of C or better

Basis of Grade: Written assignments and evaluation by fieldwork supervisor

Form of Grade: Letter

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