Rising 2L and 3L students may arrange summer field placements for academic credit with government agencies, non-profit organizations, and in judicial chambers. Students perform field work and participate in an online faculty-guided course. 

While the law school has many pre-approved summer field placements, students may also request approval to earn academic credit for work performed through volunteer internships with government agencies, non-profit organizations, and in judicial chambers outside Iowa.  Students are encouraged to work with the career counselors in the Career Services Office to find summer internships.  Many internship opportunities are posted on 12Twenty "Jobs", and many law-school pre-approved externships will collect resumes from students through the Spring OCI session on 12Twenty.

Have Questions?

Check out the frequency asked questions about Summer Legal Placements.

FAQs

Seminar Themes

For the upcoming summer term, the Summer Legal Placement program will be organized around two themes— General Section and Criminal Justice Section (regular section only). Students in all Summer Legal Placement sections will respond to guided reflections and participate in periodic online class and individual meetings. In addition, all students must participate in an orientation session scheduled for the end of the Spring semester.

General Section

This section will provide you with an opportunity for individualized learning and exploration of your legal practice interests.  You are encouraged to become a self-directed and active learner in the context of a real-life legal experience. You will do this in a number of ways: setting goals in advance of your externship, submitting periodic reports of your activities, and by engaging in a series of assignments encouraging you to reflect on your experiences and translate those experiences into marketable skills, and academic and career plans.  You will be in a section with students working in a wide variety of externships and the resulting discussion will allow you to compare and contrast the different roles attorneys play in the legal system.

Criminal Justice Section

In addition to developing professional skills and reflection practices, in this section, we will focus on social justice related to the criminal justice system. We will define social justice; we will consider readings relating to privilege and systemic injustices in the criminal justice system. We will examine the work you are doing this summer and how a lawyer's role perpetuates the justice or injustices within the system. We will consider strategies as to how you can effectively cope within the system; and consider strategies as to how lawyers can make a difference in the system. This section is open to all students whose externships touch the criminal justice system, including judicial externs.

Additional Information

Under the Iowa Law Field Placement Policy, students in a Summer Legal Placement must spend a minimum of 150 hours onsite working in their placement over the course of at least six weeks. Students also participate in an online faculty-guided seminar. Students earn 3 credits graded pass/fail. These are experiential credits and can count towards the 6-credit experiential learning requirement for graduation.

The summer online faculty-guided seminar will take place from May 27 – August 8, 2025.

Students can expect to participate in the seminar throughout the term of the session and are strongly encouraged to arrange their externships to last the duration of the session.

Students pay tuition and fees and are usually eligible for financial aid. The Summer tuition and fees information is available here. Summer tuition and fees will be billed on your June U-bill.  Students may apply for summer financial aid in MyUI after they are registered in April.  In addition to financial aid, limited funds are also available through the Summer Grant Program.

Questions about financial aid?  Please contact Iowa Law's Office of Financial Aid (law-financialaid@uiowa.edu).

  • For the summer term, all pre-approved summer field placements are included in the Spring OCI.  Students may also apply directly to volunteer internships with government agencies, non-profit organizations, and in judicial chambers.  In seeking field placements, look for structured legal internships supervised by an attorney, who is willing to interact with the law school.   
  • Once you have secured an internship, contact Professor Tai at june-tai@uiowa.edu to determine whether the placement site needs to complete a Supervisor Application Form.  Professor Tai will also provide you with an online application form. 
  • The deadline to apply for academic credit for the Summer 2025 term is April 22, 2025.