Field Placements
Advanced students are ready and often eager for practical experiences under supervision, that can provide a link between the classroom and the legal profession.
Under a variety of third-year practice statutes and rules, third-year students can gain actual courtroom experience while under the supervision of practicing attorneys. In addition, as the Southeast's leading city and the state capital of Georgia, Atlanta is the headquarters for numerous government agencies and corporations. Field placements for second- and third-year students are available with a wide variety of federal agencies, with public interest organizations, corporations and judges. Third-year students may also take litigation placements.
All field placements emphasize practical skills and expose students to various aspects of the practice of law. Students are limited to one placement per semester. They may interview clients, negotiate agreements, present cases, conduct legal research, make court appearances and generally participate in the work of the particular office. Through these field experiences, students can begin to sense their own opportunities and responsibilities within the legal profession.
All field placements or internships operate under the supervision of the Administrative Professor for Field Placement and the Skills Training and Field Placement Committee of the faculty. They are limited to pre-selected students. All field placements require a minimum of 120 hours of work per semester for three hours of credit. The number of field placements varies from year to year. New placements may be added and others suspended. Listed below are some examples of those placements that are currently offered.
870A. Field Placement: Public Interest
3 Hours. Public Interest field placements are placements with nonprofit (nongovernment) organizations that perform legal work in the public interest. They include legal services organizations, public interest law firms and other similar organizations.
870B. Field Placement: Public Interest Litigation
3 Hours. Public Interest Litigation field placements are a subset of public interest field placements in which students have either trial or appellate litigation opportunities. They include public defender’s offices and other public interest placements where the legal work is exclusively litigation. (Although placements that do appellate work are classified as “litigation,” appellate field placement students typically do not argue in court, and need not be certified under the third-year practice rules.)
870C. Field Placement: Government
3 Hours. Government field placements are placements with federal, state or local government agencies. These include the Georgia Attorney General’s office, as well as numerous federal agencies with regional offices in Atlanta.
870D. Field Placement: Government Litigation
870D. Field Placement: Government Litigation. Government Litigation field placements are a subset of government field placements in which students have either trial or appellate litigation opportunities. They include local prosecutors’ offices and other government agency placements where the legal work is exclusively litigation. (Although placements that do appellate work are classified as “litigation,” appellate field placement students typically do not argue in court,and need not be certified under the third-year practice rules.)
870E. Field Placement: Judicial
3 Hours. In judicial field placements, students are placed in the chambers of judges at the county, state or federal level, both trial and appellate, where they assist a judge in reviewing cases and researching and writing opinions, supervised by one or more law clerks and/or the judge.
870 F. Field Placement: Business and Industry
3 Hours. Students in business and industry placements are placed with in-house legal departments of a wide variety of for-profit companies located in the metro-Atlanta area. These include companies in the telecommunications, consumer goods, technology, energy and media sectors.
870G. Field Placement: Special
3 Hours. Special field placements may occasionally be authorized by the Faculty Skills and Experiential Learning Committee to take advantage of a unique placement opportunity.