William Mitchell is offering students an opportunity to participate in a Public Defense externship. The participating students will be placed with Public Defender’s Offices in the Metro Area. This is a three credit externship and students will be expected to devote at least one hundred forty-five hours to the externship. Because there will be court appearances required, the students must be available during the day and must be eligible to be certified as student attorneys under the Minnesota Student Practice Rules at the start of the externship. In addition to their onsite placements the students will be required to attend a two hour seminar discussion. The seminar will be taught by Shawn Webb, Assistant Public Defender and adjunct faculty member. If you have questions, please contact Mr. Webb at 763-279-4520, or via email at shawn.webb@pubdef.state.mn.us

During the Fall/Spring semesters the externship will last for 14 weeks and the seminar class will be held every other week. During the Summer session the externship will last for 7 weeks and the seminar class will be held every week.

Because of the logistical issues in securing enough quality placements for all of the students in the Criminal Justice Externship and the Public Defender’s offices’ need to know before the start of the semester how many student attorneys they will have; the last day to drop the Criminal Justice Externship will be 3 weeks before the start of the semester. The exact date will be sent to the registered students in advance as part of the placement packet. Anyone who seeks to drop the class after that point will need to obtain prior approval from the instructor.