Company Information

The vast majority of companies involved in our program participate every year. When we reflect on why this is so, we have concluded that in-house lawyers relish the opportunity to teach, mentor and encourage students in the program. They, as well as their employers, feel as if they are giving back by helping train law students. Inside counsel tell us all the time that they like the positive energy students bring to their companies. It's fun to have an inquisitive law student in the department, and training them helps keep inside counsel "fresh." Other attorneys like having contact with SMU Dedman Law, and remembering their own experiences as law students.

Michael Raoufpour, an extern at Ericsson, said that everyone he met at the company "seemed genuinely interested in offering me the best experience possible." Michael had no intellectual property experience before his externship, but said that his supervisors were very helpful in breaking issues down for him and helping him understand the underlying problems he researched. Most of the placements take their externs to lunch, and this is where I find that corporate counsel share "pearls of wisdom" with students‐such as what they wish they'd known when they were law students.

Lunches also give students a chance to ask questions and get to know the attorneys better. Keshia Barnes, who externed with the restaurant chain Le Duff America, said that her "favorite part of the externship program was being able to ask my field supervisor any question I may have had about the practice of law and her providing honest answers."

Field Supervisor Information

100+ Corporations

 in the Corporate Counsel Externship Program

Courtney Clay, our extern at AT&T, was able to have lunch with the company's general counsel, David McAtee. Her field supervisors set it up, and Courtney described the department's leader as "friendly and easy to talk to, as well as approachable and knowledgeable." Courtney said the fact that her supervisors did this made her "feel special, like they were really taking an interest in the time I was spending at the company."

The Corporate Counsel Externship Program is offered once per academic year in the fall semester. Each participating corporation selects an attorney in its legal department to serve as its extern’s field supervisor. Field supervisors oversee and train externs as well as provide feedback on their work product and professional skills. The program requires minimal administrative time.

Externship placements begin the week of August 29, 2022, and continue for 12 weeks, through November 22, 2022. Externs must complete a minimum of 120 hours by the last day of classes. 

Field Supervisors evaluate students in the middle and at the end of the placements based on their legal skills, professionalism, quality of work, responsiveness to the “client” and ability to work with the corporate legal team.

The externship component of the program is graded on a pass/fail basis, and the class component is graded. Students may not be compensated for work done at their placements; they receive four hours academic credit for successfully completing the course and their externship placements.

If your company is interested in hosting an extern through the program in Fall 2022, please complete this interest form. We will begin placing students in March 2022:

Interest Form