Externships

The College offers many externship opportunities for students to work under the guidance of practicing attorneys for academic credit.

General requirements. Each externship requires 100 hours of field placement work during the semester for three pass/fail credits. Work should be spread as evenly as possible across weeks beginning with the first week of class and ending during the last week of class.  No student may receive both pay and academic credit for the same work. In addition to your fieldwork, externs are enrolled in an externship course component, approximately the equivalent of a one-credit course. The Kentucky  Innocence Project (KIP) externship must be taken for both Fall and Spring in one academic year, for a total of four credits.

Externships at government agencies and public interest organizations may be repeated with advance permission from the Director of Externships. 

Third-year practice rule. The Commonwealth Attorney's Office requires students to be certified under the Kentucky Supreme Court’s limited student practice rule. For the Department of Public Advocacy (DPA), this certification is optional. The license is required only if the extern chooses to appear in court. You should submit this certification as soon as possible being enrolled in the externship. The application can be found on the College of Law Intranet page under Externships.

Application.  All externships, besides judicial, require students to apply rather than simply enroll.  At a minimum, a cover letter and resume are required.  Some externships have prepared an additional application form; these can all be found on the College of Law Intranet under Externships. Once all applications are collected the placements will choose their extern(s) and notify the students. Some may require in-person interviews.  Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.  All application materials should be submitted via email in one PDF to externships@uky.edu. 

Approval. We maintain a list of pre-approved field placements.  You may also propose your own!  If you do not see a location that works for your goals on the list. please contact Professor Hughes to discuss proposing a new externship site! 

See below for a summary of pre-approved placements for Spring 2026.