1. ABA Standards And Externships
Review of Changes – Spring 2016

2. Overview of Changes New Standard 304(c) on field placements "Faculty"
New pedagogically focused criteria
New documentation: "written understanding"
"Guided reflection"
Gone or revised: site visits; hi/lo credit
"Experiential course": Standard 303
Paid externships

3. Standard 304(c) Regulation of field placements Standard 304:
No longer with competitions, journals, outside classes
Now with clinics and simulations
Standard 304:
Clinics defined in 304(a)
Simulations defined in 304(b)
Field placements in 304(c)
Drafting notes:
Language of 304(a), (b), (c) is parallel
Several parts of former Standard 305 carried over
Stronger focus on criteria related to pedagogy

4. Faculty 304 (c) requires "faculty" to teach the course
Supervision by faculty or site supervisor
Feedback from faculty or site supervisor
Written understanding between faculty, student, site supervisor
Regular contact between faculty and site supervisors
Faculty-guided reflection
Evaluation of students by faculty
"Faculty" includes
Tenure-stream and not
Full-time and part-time
Adjuncts and lecturers

5. Site Supervisors
304(c)(1): under the supervision of a licensed attorney or an individual otherwise qualified to supervise
Standard 305 did not require a licensed attorney
New language requires a determination that, if not a licensed attorney, the site supersivor must be otherwise qualified
Includes JD advantage, compliance, and similar practices

6. Kinds of work 304(c): Language includes
substantial lawyering experience that
is reasonably similar to the experience of a lawyer advising or representing a client OR
engaging in other lawyering tasks
"outside a law clinic"
Language includes
Client advocacy and representation
Other kinds of practices (e.g. judicial, policy, etc.)

7. Pedagogical criteria Criteria parallel to clinics and simulations:
Direct supervision
Opportunities for performance
Feedback
Self-evaluation
Supervision and feedback provided by either
Faculty OR
Site supervisor
Requirements not tightly linked to each other

8. Faculty-guided reflection
304(c)(2)(v): a classroom instructional component, regularly scheduled tutorials, or other means of ongoing, contemporaneous, faculty-guided reflection
Changes from 305:
Required for all field placements, not just high credit ones
"Ongoing": i.e. throughout the semester
"Contemporaneous": i.e. In the same semester
Note: requirements for experiential courses (covered later)

9. Documentation 304(c)(2)(iv): a written understanding
among the student, faculty member, and a person in authority at the field placement
that describes both
(A) the substantial lawyering experience and opportunities for performance, feedback and self-evaluation; and
(B) the respective roles of faculty and any site supervisor
in supervising the student and
in assuring the educational quality of the experience for the student,
including a clearly articulated method of evaluating the student’s academic performance
304(c)(2)(vii): "records to document . . .compliance . . .shall include, but [are] not necessarily limited to, the written understandings"

10. Documentation (cont.) Three way agreements
Faculty
Student
Site supervisor
Site supervisor must have authority to approve staff time spent on student supervision
Two kinds of agreement
Long-term agreement with a site, to which students agree as they start
Semester-specific agreement dealing with specific student's goals

11. Carried over from 305
"method for selecting, training, evaluating and communicating with site supervisors"
"regular contact between the faculty and site supervisors through in-person visits or other methods of communication that will assure the quality of the student educational experience."
"evaluation of each student’s educational achievement by a faculty member"
DELETED: high credit / low credit distinction

12. Experiential Course To count as an experiential course
Must comply with Standard 304(c)
Must comply with Standard 303
Standard 303(a)(III)
a course must be primarily experiential in nature and must:
(i) integrate doctrine, theory, skills, and legal ethics, and engage students in performance of one or more of the professional skills identified in Standard 302;
(ii) develop the concepts underlying the professional skills being taught;
(iii) provide multiple opportunities for performance; and
(iv) provide opportunities for self-evaluation.

13. Credit for Compensated Work
If the ban is repealed, schools will not be required to provide credit for paying work
Will have flexibility to structure different programs
AND will potentially encounter pressure to do so.
Questions and strategies
Relationships with private for profit firms
Public interest fellowships
Maintaining balance between paid and unpaid placements
Consortiums creating collective practices