Download "externs" in American Samoa

Lava Lava Law: Law student "externs" in American Samoa
By Kyna Taylor - 19 Mar 2008
By KYNA TAYLOR
Flip flops and a lava lava, and on Fridays, a flowered shirt, were just one part of the job
that John C. Boyle III enjoyed during his two-month stay in American Samoa.
Getting off work and driving to the beach to play in the sand and waves with the sea
turtles was another pleasant memory for him, but it wasn't the best part, he said.
The combined effect of getting all kinds of practical legal experience on a beautiful
tropical island was his favorite.
"While working on the drug trial we got to see the guy get convicted," Boyle said, who
is a second-year law student said. "I got to see some of the fruits of what I'd been
working on."
While on an externship sponsored by the J. Reuben Clark Law School in American
Samoa, Boyle put into practice many of the things that he had been learning in the
classroom and see them come to fruition in the real world.
The motions that Boyle wrote were actually turned into the judge, not just practice. The
witnesses he helped prepare really were going to trial. During the trials he was able to
go into the judge's chambers and observe the interaction between the defense and the
prosecution.
These and other opportunities that this student was able to experience are not unique
among BYU law students. The Law school's externship program has been operating for
16 years helping place students in various positions in private practice, government
departments and courts. Externships are available to students after their first year of law
school. There is no pre-law undergraduate program and so externship programs provide
students with the possibility to see the many options that a law degree provides just like
an internship does for undergraduate programs.
The J. Reuben Clark Law School has the highest externship participation rate in the
country, according to a study by Stephens L Richards law professor, Jim Backman.
"Experimental learning is one of the best ways we learn, it is very motivating and
confidence building," Backman said. "Students in externships are given good
assignments; they do a lot of research, a lot of writing and get a lot of practice in their
externship placement specialty."
A student participating in an externship can do many things that they wouldn't be able
to do in a paid internship because they can ask to do things that interest the, according
to Backman. Students have the option of following an attorney into court or working on