Paralegal Internship Objectives

Inver Hills Community College - Paralegal Internship Program is designed to provide the pre-service paralegal student with on-the-job experience in the paralegal area. It is our goal to help our students find an opportunity to apply what the student has learned in the classroom to today’s working world.

Although the internship must be flexible in order to meet the needs of the student intern and the special procedures of the supervising lawyer, below are the broad objectives of our internship.

Overview

The student participates in 180 hours of nonpaying, or in some cases paying, work experience in a supervised legal environment for which the student receives four (4) credits. The student submits a cover letter and resume to the potential internship supervisor, and waits to be called for an interview. The work schedule is arranged between the supervisor and the student. At the completion of the internship, the supervisor evaluates the student and determines what grade the student earned based on his or her performance at the office. The final grade for the internship will be given by the Paralegal Program Director once the student completes the oral presentation and submits all required documents

The internship should be devised and administered so as to provide the intern with seven broad opportunities:

Familiarity with law office procedures, including:
- Filing and indexing system
- Organization of contents of a client's file
- Come ups, retrievals, docket controls
- Time records
- Trust account procedures
- Billing practices
Legal research on one or more matters that the lawyer is currently handling and legal writing in the form of a memorandum or short brief as a result of the research.
Letter writing
Document drafting
Client contact, for example:
- Being with the lawyer during an interview
- Conducting a portion of the interview in the lawyer's presence
- Conducting an entire interview in the lawyer's presence
  This area might also include contact with and interviews of persons other than clients.
Familiarity with the functions and procedures of one or more courts, agencies or other organizations with which the supervising lawyer regularly deals. This might involve filing or recording papers, obtaining information from court or agency files, dealing with clerks of court, attending court hearings, and the like.
The emphasis should be on giving the intern an opportunity to become familiar with the institution by actually using its facilities and procedures.
To see at least one legal transaction from start to finish; for example, to participate in a real estate sale from the initial interview through the post closing procedures.
If the internship will expire before the matter is completed, it is recommended that the lawyer explain to the intern the steps or procedures which will follow or allow the student to stay on to see the conclusion.

It is understood that each legal internship site may have different opportunities for the student intern. Therefore, the Paralegal Program Director would like to confirm with the internship supervisor how the above opportunities will be met.

Internship Requirements

For more information, contact the Paralegal Program Director.