Experiencing the Real World

New program to offer law students additional appellate opportunities



The new externship program in the NCJRL will add to existing programs providing students with real-world legal experience. Pictured above are some of the students who participated in the Criminal Appeals Program discussing their case with Professor Philip Broadhead (right).

Third-year students at the School of Law will be able to gain actual legal experience through a new course being offered through the National Center for Justice and the Rule of Law.

The Mississippi Supreme Court recently approved the course, which will allow students to be appointed as interns within the state appellate system. The Appellate Judicial Externship Program will offer students a chance to participate in a for-credit judicial internship program, working within the judge’s chambers and the departments of the courts on cases pending on appeal.

“This latest addition to the center’s programs supplement these established programs by providing an opportunity for students to observe and participate in the actual appellate process in the state of Mississippi,” said Hans P. Sinha, clinical professor and director of the Prosecution Externship Program and faculty supervisor for the new Appellate Judicial Externship Program.

The NCJRL requested that the Mississippi Supreme Court study and approve students being placed within the court system to provide a new opportunity for “learning by doing,” which is the basis for all law school clinical programs. The new program will allow student interns to work full time in the state appeals court in Jackson, receiving 12 hours credit toward graduation.

The new program will add to real-world opportunities already offered by NCJRL through the Criminal Appeals Program, which gives students the opportunity to submit appellate briefs and argue appellate cases before the state Court of Appeals.

“Most law students go into law school not understanding what they want to do in their careers,” said Phil Broadhead, clinical professor and director of the Criminal Appeals Program. “Programs like the Prosecution Externship Program and the Criminal Appeals Program specialize in training the students in criminal law. Once exposed to this area of practice, many students have been placed in district attorney’s or public defender’s offices after graduation. Hopefully this new program will give the students even more choices by seeking appointments to clerkships in appellate courts after they complete law school.”

Since its establishment, the Criminal Appeals Program has accepted, researched and submitted appeals for 33 cases. Of those cases, nine were accepted for oral argument before the Court of Appeals of Mississippi, and this October a pair of Broadhead’s students argued another case, marking the 10th trip before the court.

“Part of the rationale in exposing these third-year law students to real-world experiential learning is that simulations and mock courts are just that. However, working on cases pending in the Criminal Appeals Clinic and the new Appellate Judicial Externship Program, they know that what they are working on will affect a person’s life, liberty and property,” Broadhead said. “It’s one of those experiences in which the students come out with a completely different attitude about the law.”

—Mary Stanton

The Appellate Judicial Externship Program is examining applications from law students and expects to place the first intern with the Court of Appeals of Mississippi in the spring of 2008. The NCJRL hopes to expand the new program in coming years to place several students in both of the state appeals courts each semester.