The law school could not provide hands-on fieldwork learning opportunities for students without experienced supervisors in the field. Thank you. As a supervisor in the program, we appreciate your understanding and your work to build a meaningful educational experience for each intern with attention to the following points:
- Feedback. We emphasize feedback to the student intern. Continued, constructive feedback given to the intern about a project is extremely beneficial to the student’s growth as a lawyer.
- Answering Questions. The student intern will have questions. We ask that you be willing to field those questions. The student intern will learn a great deal from your approach in responding to questions and from your professionalism.
- Instructions. With projects, we ask that you provide express direction to the intern about the purpose of a writing project, deadlines, formatting and length, as well as information about specialized resources that may prove helpful. Our goal is for the student intern’s work product to meet your expectations.
- Observation Opportunities. Consistent with the placement, we ask that you provide the intern with opportunities to observe client interviews, meetings or proceedings (and, where appropriate, opportunities to participate), which will teach the intern about the process of advising, problem-solving, and decision-making, The intern also will benefit from conversations about ethical issues that could arise in this lawyering work.
- Professional Identity. Internships are an opportunity for students to grow in their professional identity. Professional identity focuses on what it means to be a lawyer and a lawyer's responsibilities to clients and the community. As part of professional identity building, we ask that students consider their values, guiding principles, and ethical obligations. By seeing how practicing attorneys approach their clients, their work, and their service to society, students gain knowledge that helps with their professional identity building.
Please find here the Marquette Law School Supervisor Handbook for the Judicial Internship Program and the Supervised Fieldwork Program, which contains further helpful information on the supervision of interns.