Our Internship Programme

CALS and BCU Law School have been offering students the chance to work in American lawyers’ offices for experience or academic credit for more than 20 years.

Since sending out our first student in 1995, the programme has expanded into the largest international legal internship programme in any British university. The total number of students who have taken part in the programme is now around six hundred.

Our American internship programme offers outstanding opportunities for students to develop the practical lawyering skills such as legal research, legal drafting, interviewing, and trial practice that are difficult to simulate convincingly in the classroom. Our internships have inspired students to produce their best work in their final year studies and has helped them subsequently gain pupillages and training contracts. We believe that it is no coincidence that a substantial proportion of students who have gained First Class Honours in their degrees have also undertaken American internships.

Although our programme initially concentrated on criminal representation in death penalty cases, we now offer placements in innocence projects, judicial clerkships, and some civil litigation offices. CALS hopes to develop future placements in new venues, particularly in the political branches of government as well as its legal branches. These exciting openings offer students the chance to develop self-confidence and interpersonal skills in ways that are essential to obtaining job interviews and winning positions.