In today’s world, many externships continue to operate on a remote or hybrid basis. To ensure successful remote and hybrid externships, it is important to set the stage and engage. This requires meaningful onboarding, thoughtful assignments and observation opportunities, and regular communication with the student throughout the externship.
Onboarding. Clear communication is key to successful onboarding, and the law school likely has designed an onboarding assignment to be completed by the extern and the supervising attorney to facilitate this process. Onboarding should include an open discussion of the goals and expectations for the externship and plans for when and how communication between the extern and the site should occur. This is a good time to establish a schedule for regular structured check-ins with the student to allow for questions and status updates on ongoing assignments.
Assignments and Observation. Any successful externship requires a variety of assignments provided thoughtfully to the student. Having both quick-turnaround assignments and long-term projects allows externs to maximize their time and balance observation opportunities, such as remote hearings and virtual meetings. The assigning attorney should be clear in communicating how and when the student can ask questions and provide examples or templates of relevant work done in the past.
Regular Communication. It is important that a site supervisor engage with the student regularly. These communications can include scheduled and structured check-ins as well as meaningful feedback on assignments. Hosting an extern, even if remote or hybrid, should be the opposite of what we often look for in weeknight dinner recipes--set it and forget it. Instead, set the stage and engage. The student and the supervising attorney will reap the benefits of a robust semester working together.