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Abstract

Externships provide impactful experiential education opportunities that enable law students to acquire the skills, networks, and self-awareness they need to launch their legal careers. Since 2016, the American Bar Association (“ABA”) has allowed students to receive compensation in addition to credit in field placement courses. Despite the increasing popularity of paid externships, questions linger about whether law schools can maintain high quality learning experiences when students are on the placement’s payroll. In the first empirical examination of its kind, this Article analyzes a carefully curated four-year dataset detailing externship program enrollment, evaluation, and student demographic data from one school, The University of Baltimore School of Law (“UBalt Law”), which currently has among the highest percentage of paid legal externs in the country. This Article assesses the central controversy surrounding paid externships: whether a law school can maintain educational quality and increase equity when the  overwhelming majority of externs receive pay. UBalt Law’s experience demonstrates that externships with a clearly delineated curricular structure and significant law school oversight can maintain high field placement standards and unlock opportunities for more students. When analyzed empirically, students who were paid directly by their placements received more diverse and higher quality learning opportunities than their unpaid peers at statistically significant rates. Directly paid students also received long-term employment offers in two types of placements—law firms, and state prosecution and public defender offices. UBalt Law’s experience demonstrates the potential educational and professional development benefits of a large-scale shift to paid externships, where students are compensated for their work and law schools commit to devoting the time and resources necessary to ensure high quality field placement experiences.

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